We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - Introducing: The Lazy Genius with Kendra Adachi

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Part systems expert, part permission giver, Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius, is here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. 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

Hi, Pod Squad. We are bringing you something a little different today. We are here today to talk about a person in a podcast I think you're going to love, Kendra Adachi and her podcast, The Lazy Genius. Kendra is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and an expert on compassionate time management. As Kendra likes to say on her podcast, she's not here to tell you what to do. She's here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the

things that don't. Huh. I like that. And you get to decide. We want you to know more about Kendra and her incredible work, so stick around right now for more from Kendra herself from her amazing podcast, The Lazy Genius. Hi there. You're listening to The Lazy Genius podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and

lazy about the things that don't. Today's episode 381, the real reason planning is hard. It's not what you think. And I'm really excited to bring you into the light of the productivity industrial complex that we are all under. I do promise it's more exciting than that just sounded. The best way for me to explain the real reason planning is hard is using words that I already wrote that were edited many times over and are currently being printed into my new book

The Plan. Manage your Time Like a Lazy Genius. We are into compassionate time management around here, but it's not just pep talks and high fives. We love those things too. We are practical and kind, but we're also educated. We are trying to understand why we struggle with time management, why we own so many planners,

why we never feel like we're doing enough. And even if we finally have let that go, we still struggle against the tide of everyone else making us feel bad for our choices. Basically, the problem is not you. And today I'm gonna show you why by reading you the first chapter in my new book out October 8th called The Plan.

Here it is. I grew up going to the mall. If you're of an age where you're not sure what a mall is, now is a good time to tell you that I am in perimenopause. I've never downloaded TikTok and I didn't have a cell phone until I was 17. Not because my parents were strict, but because people didn't have them yet.

Consider yourself generationally warned. Back to the mall. I loved spending time there as a kid. The mall is where I got my ears pierced, where I awkwardly hung out with a boy I liked, where I ate a truckload of Cinnabons, where I learned to confidently walk past Victoria's secret without looking or breaking stride. Say you grew up in purity culture without saying you

grew up in purity culture. But my favorite thing about the mall was the you are here map. Holy moly. I still love that thing. Not only do you have the stores organized by category on a giant screen, but you also have a beautiful red dot that tells you exactly where you are. Say you're in Enneagram One without saying you're in Enneagram One. You can see everything and you can see yourself. Chances are you would like that for your life too. Wouldn't it be amazing to see everything at a glance so you can quickly chart a route to an imagined future where life is beautiful and under control? That's probably why you keep buying planners. A planner is the closest thing we have to a you are here map to that bird's-eye view. You want your day, week,

month, quarter, year, to-do lists, tracking bubbles, words of gratitude, meal plans, and five-year goals all available at a glance. You get your next new planner and you spend hours setting it up, answering questions about what you want to accomplish and what habits you want to begin, and maybe even trying your hand at a doodle or two. Once you're done, you let out a deep, gratified sigh.

There it is. There's everything at once. Life is going to be better now. But then, much to your chagrin, life happens again and you can't keep up with your plan. You manage what you can for as long as you can, biding your time until the next opportunity to reset and see everything at once. The beginning of summer, the school year, January, and you repeat. I bet you've been repeating for a long time, yet you're still drowning. Why?

Everything at once is the problem, not the solution. Everything at once is why you push your palms against your eyeballs multiple times a day. Everything at once is why you push your palms against your eyeballs multiple times a day. Everything at once is why you doom scroll in the bathroom hoping no one notices you're gone. They will. Everything at once is why you listen to an audiobook while cooking dinner, while helping somebody with their homework, while wearing microfiber socks because somebody on the internet said it was like sweeping. Everything at once is not how we're meant to live. Before you lose hope,

let me be the Robin Williams to your Matt Damon and tell you that it's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. You are not the reason you're drowning. You are not the reason everything at once doesn't work. You are not the reason time management principles aren't sticking. The reason is far beyond you. To hear more from Kendra on compassionate time management, find the Lazy Genius podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.