The Lazy Genius Podcast - #64: The Lazy Genius Summer Strategy: Routine

Episode Date: May 21, 2018

Sure, summer needs a routine but not quite the kind you might think. I'm not pulling a fast one; I really mean a different kind of routine. Listen in to get some new ideas. Companion Episodes: The Lazy Genius Morning Routine The Lazy Genius Evening Routine The Lazy Genius Fall Rhythm Download a transcript for this episode! Check out Hope*Writers! The membership window closes this week! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, this is the lazy genius podcast. I am Kendra, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. This is part three of our summer strategy series. In part one, we talked about creating a summer anchor, that single thing that if it happens, we'll make our summer feel like it mattered, a project, a mindset, a trip, a relationship, there are lots of options there. And then last week, we talked about all the different kinds of time we'll encounter over the summer in ways to, creatively think about them. Today we're going to take what we learned in both of those episodes and create an actual summer routine, or at least the skeleton of one. We can't create a perfect one

because everybody's life is so incredibly different, but we are going to do our hardest, right? Before we get going, though, I want to take a quick second to talk to any of you who want to be a writer. Have you heard of Hope Writers? I hope so. But if not, I would love to tell you about it. Hope Writers is an online community for writers who have access to an amazing, amazing library of content about how to write a book proposal and how to get an agent and how to balance your writing life and your regular life without losing your mind. In fact, the first line in the Hope Writers Manifesto says, we write meaningful words without sacrificing a meaningful life. I'm all about that. I am a hope writer and I have learned so much stuff I cannot even tell you.

I mentioned in an episode a couple weeks ago that this summer, I'm working on a book proposal, and 100% of what I have learned about that process has come from hope writers. So if you are interested in making writing your profession on any level, consider becoming a hope writer. It is the brainchild of my dearest Emily P. Freeman, who if you don't know her, you need to know her. She has the next right thing podcast, which is the best thing for your soul ever. She is also a brilliant writer and a brilliant teacher at writing. And Hope Writers, she is one of the founders of Hope Writers. So you are in good hands.

Enrollment, the reason I'm telling you about it is enrollment for that community. It opens today and then it closes on Friday. So it's a really quick window. There are some bonuses for signing up on the first day, which is today. So if you're interested in checking it out, you can click the link in the show notes right there in your podcast app. Or you can go to the lazy geniuscollective.com slash hope writer. I am a proud member and affiliate of this program, and I think it is essential for anyone who wants to write meaningful words to share. So again, click the link in the show notes or go to the lazy

genius collective.com slash hope writers to learn more. Okay, let's jump into summer routine. Step one. I love steps. Step one. Start with a list. You can even go grab a piece of paper right now. Pause the episode and make your list. Okay, so what do you put on this list? Stuff you want to do and stuff you don't. Remember, we are lazy geniuses. What matters determines how lazy we get to be. So decide what matters for your summer. Does planting a garden really matter? Do it or skip it. Does taking a trip really matter? Do it or skip it. Does getting the garage cleaned out really matter? Do it or skip it. You get the idea. We did a similar thing during our holiday series where we went through all the things that

happened during the holiday season and decide what few things we really want to do. The reason the summer carries that tension of relaxation and productivity is because we're holding too many things. We want to be productive in too many areas and relax in 40 different ways. You don't have to do everything. And if you try, you'll just be tired. at the end of yet another summer. Let's not do that again this year, right?

So make a list of what matters and what doesn't. Not just what matters, but also what doesn't. Do it as a family if you want. Or you can casually ask your people what really matters to them and add it to your secret list. You might already know what everybody's summer anchor is, that thing that they really want to have happen, but add a few more things as you build your routine.

And you can ask specific questions about certain things, so you know what your kids actually don't care about. Maybe you think that they want to go to the pool every day and you're scrambling to afford a membership when going once every couple of weeks as a guest is perfectly fine with them. Don't assume what matters to your people and even to you.

So make a list. Get it down on paper. Step two. Make a calendar. Don't you just love how nerdy and listy this is? Summer begins and here's what happens. We have this huge stretch in front of us and it feels glorious, but it also feels kind of terrible, depending on your situation. But it happens every time. We get to the end of the summer and we feel like it flew by.

And then we panic because we don't have anything to show for it. A calendar will really help. And I'm talking about like a visible one that's hanging up somewhere in your house for everybody to see. This is huge if you have kids, by the way. It doesn't have to be expensive or even pretty. It's only up for a couple of months. But of course, you can make it pretty if you want. If you're home with kids, get a piece of poster board the next time you're at Target and write in boxes from the last day of school to the first day of school.

You know everybody's favorite question? What are we going to do today? Have the calendar up and that's going to answer that question before it's asked. Or you can say, look at the calendar. It's nice to have something written in every box. Now you don't have to do that like right now in May, but have the option, right? Have at least like the week's boxes filled in or something like that. and it's nice to have something written in those boxes for the sake of the kids asking questions. But some days, a box is going to say family day at home. You know, you don't have to be a cruise director. You're just being intentional with your time. So the summer it doesn't end without anything on your list happening. So get your calendar and then take everything from your list that has a date attached to it and pop it on your calendar. summer movie showings, play dates, summer camp dates, town festivals, trips to the beach, anything that has a date.

If you want, you can even write the definite things in one color. And then when we get to the other things in a bit, you can add them in a different color. If you have exacting kids, it might help them to know that just because go to the park is written on the calendar, it might not happen. You know? So like things written in blue or flexible things, something like that. We'll get to those non-dated things in just a second. So you have your list. You have a calendar with your for sure stuff written on it. It's visible. You see it right in front of you on the wall, right? Next step, step three, consider your daily or weekly rhythm. And I'm going to make a case right now for a weekly rhythm compared to a daily one. You ready? Last week we talked about responsibility time and productive time,

right? Regular household chores, laundry, big home projects you want to tackle, and then like grocery shopping and errands and cooking, that kind of thing. A lot of those things can't be done in 20 minutes a day as part of a daily routine. Some things need bigger chunks of time or they take bits of time throughout a single day. This is why I'm a huge fan of the weekly routine in the summer. Not as much in the school year, but in the summer for sure. Whether you have kids or not. We try and create balance each day with productivity and rest, but sometimes that's just not possible. And it's also not necessary to have this exacting balance every single day. Now, I don't mean you shouldn't have time to rest every day. Of course you should. Of course.

But those leisurely days at the park, the day trip to a nearby city, a day lounging at the pool, we don't allow ourselves to fully enjoy those because we have so much we should be doing back home. Right. But I didn't clean anything today or I didn't work toward my summer goal today. Like we put a lot of pressure on the day and then consequently on each and every day. Daily routines are a delight during the school year when there's, already a ton of built-in-structure with the actual school day, plus practices and regular meetings and stuff like that. Summer doesn't offer that, which is why we feel a little crazy when days

meander. But I think summer needs weekly routines, not daily ones. We need some space to breathe each day, to do what makes the most sense for ourselves and our families. And it allows us to embrace the slow pace and long days if we do have them. So what does that mean? What does a weekly routine really look like? Okay. And then how do you put one together for yourself? You might actually have several. Okay. You can create a baseline weekly routine that fits in the average summer week. Weeks with summer camps or vacations. Obviously, those are going to look different. So you might have to tweak a few things week to week, which is okay. That's why summer's great, man. Flexibility. Here is an example of a weekly routine. Monday is house day.

Whether it's just you or you and the kids, you do all the house stuff on Mondays. Laundry, vacuuming, wiping down the bathrooms, whatever you feel like needs to happen every week to make things kind of roll, right? Or maybe you rotate some of those chores every couple of weeks. Monday stays as cleaning day, but one Monday is laundry and bathrooms and the next Monday is laundry and dusting and floors, something like that. The point is you reserve an entire day to get all that stuff done. You don't have to do it again all week. Now, if you have kids, you're rolling your eyes at me right now, and I get it. It is not the easiest sell to kids.

Let's have a cleaning day. But there's value in communicating the expectation that we need to take care of our home, which some of your kids might not see happen when they're at school. You know, they don't really recognize that because you do it when they're at school. And by getting all that stuff done on Monday, you don't have to think about it again until the next Monday, right? minus the occasional daily tidying for sanity purposes, obviously. How do you make it fun? Let's say you are going to do this, whether it's you or you and your cats.

How are you making fun? You play fun music, man, for sure. Again, I will say it again until I'm blue in the face. Justin Bieber is great. I will say too, you guys. Matt Carney has a new album. I wish I do the name of it. The cover is like hot pink.

It's slamming. It is so good and it's safe for kids. It's like it's kind of, you know, it's got like a groove, but it's safe for kids. You don't have to worry about any language or any, you know, weird like innuendo in there. So Matt Carney's new album that is Hot Pink that I don't know the name of. You should listen to that when you're cleaning. But the point is you need to have fun and music is a great way to do that. You could also have a chore checklist.

This is for you, if you want to check them off for your kids too. You could have like a piece of construction paper with that day's chores written out where the kids can cross them out or put stickers next to the thing when it's done. Kids like checking stuff off just as much as we do. And when you make your chore list, put things on there that don't really matter, but they keep the kids busy, right? Most of the time, the cleaning won't take longer than a couple of hours other than keeping up with the laundry throughout the day. When that's happening, kids can play with whatever until the dryer goes off and then everybody helps sort and fold and put away, right? Have low expectations here, you guys. It's easy to feel like things take forever

with kids around, but we also, hear me, we also struggle to fill entire days day after day. That's one of the overwhelming things about summer. It's like we have this string of days, of empty days to fill, right? Take forever putting away laundry. It doesn't matter. My boys put away their clothes one tiny pile at a time and it takes literally forever. Sam wants, oh my gosh, Sam once pulled each item of clothing out of the pile and put it away individually. I mean, that is incredibly inefficient. But he did it. And it took a while and it was fine. Right? It was fine. So lower your expectations on time and method. And it might even help you that it takes a while. Again, I know this won't be the most fun day of the week, but it's a good lesson for all of us to learn.

It's good to tend our homes and take care of what we've been given. So bringing everybody into that mindset for one day, it could be easier than forcing chores every day. It could be. Now, if you want to have a daily cleanup time, I think that's awesome. Choose what works for your family. For hours, especially since my daughter still takes a nap and our day is divided around that, it's better to free up other days by sticking all the chores during a single day, at least during the summers. Want to go electric without sacrificing fun? That's the Volkswagen ID4.

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So on Tuesday, make a meal plan, make a grocery list, then go shopping. Like take your list, load up and go shopping. It might take a while. That's okay. You have the whole day to do it, right? then you come home, you put away the groceries together, and then depending on the ages of your kids, you can prep as much of that food together as you can. Now, when you're making your food plan, you can even jot down all the tasks that go with the recipe and everybody picks their jobs. I will link to a post in the show notes about ways that kids can help in the kitchen without driving you crazy. I'm pretty sure that's actually the title. It's possible to have them help out and get a ton of meal prep done on a single day. If you prep a lot of things beforehand, putting dinners together will be so

much easier when you're outlayed at the park or you stay longer at the pool or you end up having a fun time at the library and you don't want to interrupt everybody's reading Zen to leave to get dinner started. You know that feeling. It's the worst. It's like everybody's happy at the same time. I don't want to mess up. This way you don't have to mess it up. Having a single food day doesn't make a lot of since during the year. But in the summer, man, especially, especially when you don't want to have your oven on every day. I mean, come on, it makes so much sense. Get it all done at once and keep dinners easier and your house cooler throughout the week. And if you love farmers markets, plan this day around when your farmer's markets open. Some of you live by farm stands that are

open every day. Others have to wait until Saturday. But if you like the idea of utilizing all the fresh corn and tomatoes and zucchini and okra and oh my goodness from your garden or someone else's garden and you like the idea of having a food day then plan that day around when your farmer's market's over okay so that's two days right you might have a third day for projects or kind of overflow adult stuff errands cleaning out garages painting rooms stuff like that if you have kids and you don't see a full project day without like major whining and backup Do some kind of play date swap of the friend where you each get a couple hours to work on a project uninterrupted. You could do it just once or what's a week or whatever feels right.

It's totally great. Utilize your friends and family who have kids and swap time to get stuff done, which leads me to folks who work part-time in the summer with or without kids. Arranging to get all your adult stuff done in two days lets you have space to get your paid job done. If you don't have kids, go ahead. and do your work on a full day rather than spreading it out and losing the momentum if that is possible for your work. Of course, it depends on your work. And if you do have kids and you need to work part time, getting that adult stuff done, it still makes it easy for you to feel like you can

really get to work on your job without being bogged down by all the household things to do. You know, we're not carrying around the literal laundry list of what needs to be done at home. Y'all, we still have three or four days left in the week. If you front load the week with all the stuff that has to get done, you have so much freedom to do what you want. Spend a day at the pool. Take your kids to the library or the local bookstore for story time and hang out in the cafe where you like share a couple of muffins and get coffee, right? Take a day trip to a children's museum in a nearby town. Or if you're close enough to drive to a beach or the mountains or national park, spend the day doing that. If you have little kids especially, it can be hard to commit to a fun thing that takes half or a whole day because of dinner and errands and chores and all the things.

You automatically feel behind and therefore you don't want to do anything to get you out of that group. And yet that's what summer's all about, right? We do want the adventure and the flexibility by spending less than half your week, maybe even two days. doing what needs doing, you get three, four, five full days to play. That doesn't mean you don't rest or play on those other days, but the focus is different. The intention for the day is different. Okay, so let's hop back to the calendar. If you like the idea of a weekly routine and want to start with a house day and food day,

actually write those in the calendar box. Your family knows that's what's coming. but on other days you have the zoo a chill day at the pool a play day with friends and if it's just you in the summer take that day

antiquing downtown you know visit your college roommate for a long weekend read a book in one sitting are you kidding whatever you choose I do suggest making one of those days a day at home

with no agenda if you're the only one home enjoy being home if you have kids at home it's nice to give him a chance to play and build forts and do whatever kids love to do without having to do 20 minutes of chores and stop and go to Target because you need something for dinner that night, you know? Bissecting the day, it makes it feel a little wonky sometimes, especially in the summer. So be sure to have a long stretch at home with no agenda but fun and rest.

I think the reason that we find the balance between structure and spontaneity tough is we're trying to balance it each day. try to balance it across an entire week instead. And I believe that you will really feel the benefits of that. Okay, now, quick word about a daily routine. Yes, a weekly rhythm around your task is great. But there are also things that you need and your people need to anchor each day. So try and decide what those are before summer begins. For you, it could be a cup of coffee before everyone else wakes up and needs you. Super simple. or maybe it's a cup of coffee on the front porch while you watch your kids play outside before it gets too hot. Maybe it's breakfast together. It's a walk after dinner each night. Tidy your room before you start the day. That could be for you and your kids. There are so many options here, but consider your emotional

and physical pain points. What tiny steps each day can you implement that will help you and your family function best? You need a walk alone every morning. 10 minutes of family yoga. I mean, again, I just keep their things. There's so many ideas. There's so many options. But it is just important to think about that now so that you don't get midway through July

and feel like your storage is depleted. Also, decide your non-negotiables. Kids don't get screen time until they've read for a certain number of minutes. You don't get to open Instagram until you've had your coffee because it makes you space out too soon. You don't go grocery shopping

until you have a plan for dinner for at least a couple of days. Again, you do you, but decide what must happen every day, not ideally, but absolutely happen, and let that inform how you structure your days and your weeks. The main thing here is to have a visible calendar. It will help you see how much of the summer is in front of you and allow you to structure some stuff and spend entire days just having fun. A quick caveat.

If you have kids who would lose. their marbles if they saw the entire summer planned out on a poster board. Keep that calendar to yourself. But have a little dry race board up somewhere with the following questions written out. What's for dinner? And what are we doing today? And then every night, you write the answers to those two questions for the following day on the board. Hamburgers and tots. Going to the zoo with grandpa. Chicken tacos. Housekeeping day. Eating out at such and such a restaurant and library visit in the morning and an afternoon play date with friends from church. Save yourself the trouble of answering the most annoying questions ever by writing them on the board and just be like, look at the

board. And then eventually maybe your kids will not look at the board to answer those two questions. So you could do it day by day if the having the summer out or we or even at a week at a time. Do what makes your your kids brains not explode. Okay. And one one final caveat. If you have teenagers, this is a much harder one. way of handling things. Your kids have friends with cars and they have no plans past tomorrow. You can still have general plans of things on a calendar for you or your family, knowing that those things are flexible. If you had family plans to go hiking but your daughter is invited to spend a night at her friend's house, you drop her off on your way to the park or you save the hike for a

completely different day. The point of a summer routine and calendar is just to have a starting point. If things change, great. They will. They will change without question. But having a place to start will keep your decision fatigue at a minimum and your kids' questions happening at least a little less often. Okay. That's it for today.

I hope that you have found at least one or two ideas to help you think through your summer routine and schedule. You have a couple of weeks to think about some of these ideas and mull over if you think they might work. If the weekly routine intrigues you, try it for one week and just see how it feels. And if it doesn't work, go back to doing a little bit of everything every day. The routine police will not come after you. I want all of you to move through the summer without pressure or guilt for any of the choices

you do or do not make. Remember to pack light in terms of your schedule and your expectations. And remember that the point is to connect. We've got one more week to talk about our summer. strategy. At first I was calling it summer survival and then I realized I don't want to just survive the summer. You know, I want

it to be full and alive and I don't want to be like scraping by each day. So we're not surviving. I don't want to say we're thriving, but we're not surviving. But we've got one more week in this series and there is also a major blog post coming next week that brings all of this stuff together

plus a ton of like tips and ideas for stuff to do with your kids at home, ways to beat the heat, all of that. So that will be up on the blog next week at the lazy genius collective.com. Okay, that's it for today, you guys. Thanks for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter. Lazy about the things that don't.

Bye for now. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.