#391 - 7 Things You Shouldn’t Expect Your Planner to Do

Summary

The Lazy Genius Podcast - Episode #391: "7 Things You Shouldn’t Expect Your Planner to Do"

Release Date: November 11, 2024

---

Introduction

In Episode #391 of The Lazy Genius Podcast, host Kendra Adachi delves into the realistic expectations one should have when using a planner. Titled "7 Things You Shouldn’t Expect Your Planner to Do," Kendra, accompanied by co-host Jenna Fisher, explores the limitations of planners and introduces an innovative tool designed to enhance planning without the pressure of perfection.

---

1. Understanding Your Planner's Limitations

Timestamp: [02:04]

Kendra sets the stage by sharing the chaotic feeling that often accompanies the transition into the busy holiday season. She discusses how the influx of planner advertisements can create unrealistic expectations. The key takeaway is the importance of recognizing that planners are tools, not magic solutions.

"Your planner is not magic. It cannot solve your problems in the way you've been told it can." – Kendra Adachi

---

2. The Seven Expectations to Release

Kendra unpacks seven common misconceptions about what planners can achieve:

1. Season of Life Awareness Timestamp: [04:30]

   Planners typically don't adapt to the user's current life phase. Kendra emphasizes the necessity of personalizing planners to reflect one's unique circumstances.

   "We have to be intentional about naming where we are what's going on for real, what we have margin for, and what needs to be let go." – Kendra Adachi

2. Automatic Prioritization Timestamp: [06:15]

   Planners often default to themes of optimization and greatness, neglecting individual priorities and contentment. Kendra encourages users to adjust their planners to align with personal values rather than industry norms.

   "Don't expect your planner to automatically prioritize what matters to you." – Jenna Fisher

3. Comprehensive Overviews Timestamp: [07:21]

   While some planners offer monthly, weekly, and daily views, Kendra warns that trying to see everything at once can lead to a sense of control and perfectionism that may be more harmful than helpful.

   "Stop expecting your planner to show you everything at once." – Kendra Adachi

4. Stress and Busyness Elimination Timestamp: [09:50]

   Planners cannot eradicate life's inherent chaos. Instead, they can help manage and slightly reduce stress by providing structure.

   "Life will never be completely free of stress and busyness." – Jenna Fisher

5. Space for Obstacles and Pivots Timestamp: [14:17]

   Traditional planners focus heavily on preparation but often lack flexibility for life's unexpected changes. Kendra introduces the concept of balancing preparation with the ability to adjust and pivot as needed.

   "Pivoting is part of the deal. Changing your mind is part of the deal." – Kendra Adachi

6. Connection with Others Timestamp: [16:45]

   Planners typically emphasize time management over relationship-building. Kendra highlights the importance of integrating meaningful connections into one's schedule rather than treating them as tasks.

   "Relationships are sometimes stuck into the cracks. They are not integrated into our lives." – Käendra Adachi

7. Reminder to Check Planner Timestamp: [18:58]

   Users often expect planners to serve as constant reminders to stay on track. Kendra suggests reducing reliance on planners for discipline, advocating for a more compassionate and flexible approach.

   "Don't expect your planner to remind you to look at it." – Jenna Fisher

---

Introducing the Lazy Genius Playbooks

Timestamp: [20:00]

Moving beyond traditional planners, Kendra unveils the Playbooks—a series of small, thematic notebooks designed to complement existing planners. Unlike planners that aim for universal applicability, Playbooks focus on enhancing the user's planning process by aligning with their current life season.

Key Features:

• Season-Specific Design: Four Playbooks for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, each addressing the unique needs of its season.
• Intentional Planning: Includes prompts and questions that encourage users to define their priorities and adjust plans as needed.
• Flexible Integration: Compact enough to fit within existing planners, allowing seamless incorporation into daily routines.

"The Playbooks are small, thin, highly satisfying notebooks that help you see your season, name what matters, and prepare, adjust, and notice in an intentional way." – Kendra Adachi

---

Lazy Genius of the Week: Bethany Weathersby

Timestamp: [23:00]

Kendra celebrates Bethany Weathersby, who successfully integrated a simple yet effective strategy to manage post-church family dinners. By preparing dessert in advance, Bethany transformed hectic evenings into peaceful family gatherings, exemplifying the essence of what matters most.

Bethany's Approach:

• Preparation: Making dessert in the afternoon to alleviate evening stress.
• Intentionality: Fostering family connection and reducing evening chaos.
• Consistency: Maintaining the routine even after her oldest child became an adult, showcasing long-term commitment.

"When you name what matters, like Bethany did with these long days at church, it allows you more freedom, not less, in the choices that you make to support that." – Kendra Adachi

---

Conclusion

In this insightful episode, Kendra Adachi redefines the relationship between individuals and their planners. By shedding unrealistic expectations and introducing the Playbooks, she empowers listeners to approach planning with flexibility, compassion, and intentionality. The message is clear: planners are tools to aid in living a meaningful life, not to enforce perfection.

"Let’s take the pressure off the perfect planner by recognizing it cannot do these broader things that we keep expecting it to do." – Kendra Adachi

Listeners are encouraged to embrace a more balanced approach to planning, focusing on what truly matters and allowing room for life's inherent unpredictability.

---

Notable Quotes

• Kendra Adachi: "Your planner is not magic. It cannot solve your problems in the way you've been told it can." [02:04]
• Jenna Fisher: "Don't expect your planner to automatically prioritize what matters to you." [06:15]
• Kendra Adachi: "Stop expecting your planner to show you everything at once." [07:21]
• Jenna Fisher: "Don't expect your planner to remind you to look at it." [18:58]

---

About The Lazy Genius Podcast

The Lazy Genius Podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi, a systems expert and permission giver, dedicated to helping listeners be "geniuses about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't." Through practical advice and innovative tools like the Playbooks, Kendra empowers individuals to live more intentional and fulfilling lives.

---

Connect with The Lazy Genius Collective

For more information about the Playbooks or to share your own Lazy Genius story, visit thelazygeniuscollective.com/playbooks and join the community in redefining what it means to plan a meaningful life.

Transcript

[Kendra Adachi]

This episode is sponsored by ThirdLove. Think you can't find a bra that is sexy and comfortable? Well, think again. Thanks to ThirdLove, you can have both.

[Jenna Fisher]

Third Love was started to take all.

[Kendra Adachi]

The frustration out of bra shopping. That's why they make solutions for every bra problem, AKA problems. They even have half cups for people who are stuck between two sizes. I love my perfect coverage 24.7Classic bra. By third love. I have several in multiple colors and.

[Jenna Fisher]

I reach for it every day. ThirdLove puts every style through hours of.

[Kendra Adachi]

Wear testing on real women, including themselves before it's given the stamp of approval. Comfort and support are guaranteed with their perfect fit promise and an easy 60 day return policy.

[Jenna Fisher]

Plus you can visit their virtual fitting room to find your perfect fit fast. It's time to get your problems solved. Use code PODCAST15 for $15 off your first [e-mail].

[Kendra Adachi]

This episode is sponsored by Hedley and Bennett. Whether you're a pro chef cooking for 200 or just whipping something up delicious in your weeknight for two, one brand can uplevel your kitchen style and functionality. And it's Hedley and Bennett. I've loved Hedley and Bennett for years.

[Jenna Fisher]

I own two different aprons, one that's.

[Kendra Adachi]

A classic gray and another that's bright yellow. And these aprons are legit. It's like they infuse value and confidence into your cooking just by putting them on.

[Jenna Fisher]

Plus, they last forever.

[Kendra Adachi]

And they just launched a suite of 11 absolutely gorgeous essential kitchen tools, meticulously tested for real world use. Made from platinum grade silicone and stainless steel that's completely BPA and BPS free, these tools are non toxic and heat resistant and I love the color blocking on them. Ready to upgrade your kitchen? Head over to Hedley and Bennett.com and use code podcast15 at checkout for 15% off your order.

[Jenna Fisher]

That's.

[Kendra Adachi]

That's podcast15 for 15% off. Elevate your cooking experience with Hedley and Bennett today.

[Jenna Fisher]

Hi there.

[Kendra Adachi]

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 is episode 391, seven things you shouldn't expect your planner to do. All right, let's huddle up. It's the middle of November now that Halloween is over and we're kind of like into the November swing. The avalanche of holiday stuff, it falls fast. It's like Monica's closet, you know, and friends like packed to the gills and the removal of one thing makes it all tumble to the ground. At least that's how it feels. The anticipatory stress of that logistical tumble is a real thing. The other thing that can sometimes happen this time of year is you start seeing ads for new planners.

[Jenna Fisher]

Most of us want a new one before the year is over so that we can start the new year fresh and ready to go. So, like planner, inner ordering energy is starting to wake up in this hubbub of busyness and the expectation to plan that busyness extremely well. What is one to do well if one is a lazy genius? One remembers our new paradigm that we have learned from the plan. My new book, the Plan. Greatness does not have to be the goal of your life. You can simply live as you are, where you are, if that is what you want. Contentment and integration are worthy goals. But even still, the siren song of the new planner, especially in light of an overwhelming final two months of the year, it screams loud, man. It calls to us. It makes us believe that this planner might be the one. This might be just the thing we've been waiting for. And maybe it is. Maybe your individual perfect planner is waiting just around the corner in the form of a perfectly placed Instagram ad. And I'm like genuinely happy for you. And this new budding relationship planners are a blast. But before you start getting the ads scrolling the sites, browsing the aisles of Barnes and Noble, I want you to feel equipped. I want you to remember that your planner is not magic. It cannot solve your problems in the way you've been told it can. It is simply a tool to help you organize certain aspects of your life. The problem is that we often expect more from it than it has the capacity to give. So today, let's talk about the seven things you should not expect your planner to do. Number one, you should not expect your planner to understand your season of life. Now, to be fair, some planners actively tailor to a specific job or even a larger season of life. There are planners for teachers, entrepreneurs and moms. There are planners that have space for meal planning and events and self care. You can obviously choose like all kinds of layouts. And some might be incredibly beneficial to you even in your season of life. I'm not saying that planners don't work, because they do. They do. But we need to release the expectation that our planner is inherently designed to understand our season of life. We have to bring that to our planner. We have to do that. We have to be intentional about naming where we are what's going on for real, what we have margin for, and what needs to be let go. Then with that information, we can utilize our planner in a more effective way because we are embracing our limits and our priorities with a seasonal lens. It's so important. So you should not expect your planner to understand your season of life. Number two, you shouldn't expect your planner to automatically prioritize what matters most to you. Now, there might be space to help work out some goals and even seasonal priorities, but usually those are just at the front of your planner. They're not offering space to prioritize what matters as your seasons of life or even the seasons of the year change. I also think it's super important to remember that the inherent messaging of the planning industry is that you should master and optimize your time in pursuit of a greater goal. And if that is the main message of the industry, it is going to be implicitly woven into your planner. I've honestly never seen a compassionate planner, except maybe just like a blank notebook. It's the way it's been for a long time, and it's likely the way it will stay too. But that doesn't mean you have to live by those rules. If you have read the plan, you know there's a different option. You know that you can pursue a goal of contentment and integration rather than optimization and greatness. And when your goal is different, your strategies and planning tools are different too. So don't expect your planner to automatically prioritize what matters to you or even set it up with that kind of language, especially since it likely has a completely different rubric of the the kinds of things that should matter in the first place. You can still use the planner, but maybe adjust your expectations of what it's going to do. Number three, you shouldn't expect your planner to show you everything at once. Now this one is a little controversial because for some of you that is actually really helpful if you're a teacher. Those planners that are specifically designed to show you like a month layout, next to a week, next to a day, are lifesavers. And I want you to keep using them like use what works. I'm not saying you shouldn't try and.

[Kendra Adachi]

See everything at once.

[Jenna Fisher]

For certain jobs and certain personalities, perhaps that is what actually matters. But I think for the majority of folks, seeing everything at once is more about control and an idealized life than anything else. If greatness is the goal, we need to keep our individual goals in mind if we want every day to count toward them. If Mastery of our habits and bodies are lauded. We need to see all the tracking of all the things at all times. If the expectation is to create a plan, execute that plan and not deviate from it at all. We need to see all that preparation. We need to see the days and the weeks lined up next to each other so we don't miss a single detail, y'all. Do you see how having a completely different goal changes the function of your planner? Stop expecting your planner to show you everything at once. For most of you, everything at once is the problem. It is not the solution. Everything at once is about control, greatness, and a manufactured, manipulated future. When you release that expectation, even the most organized everything at once planners, they have a completely different vibe to them. So stop expecting your planner to show you everything at once and maybe even release the need to see everything at once in the first place. Be where you are. Start with today. Good is here right now. Number four. You shouldn't expect your planner to remove stress and busyness. Planners are not magic wands. No matter how perfectly suited to your life, you cannot expect them to completely remove stress and busyness. Why? Because life is life, y'all. Life will never be completely free of stress and busyness. And believing that you're one perfect planner away from that level of bliss will have you fruitlessly searching for the perfect planner until you die. So stop expecting your planner to remove stress and busyness. That is a false message from a broken system. Your life is full and sometimes chaotic. Not because you're doing something wrong or because you're not focused enough, or because you don't have the right tools. It's because life is life. And life is often busy and out of our control. But what you can control is how grounded you are in that chaos. You can have a reasonable expectation of trying to make the chaos slightly less chaotic, the busyness slightly less busy. Piece by piece, adjustment by adjustment, day by day. The removal of that is a false promise. With the strategies and the plan and noticing what's happening in and around you, you can start to lower that stress and busyness in a direction that matters. But definitely don't expect that you or your planner will ever fully remove them. You will be waiting for literally ever.

[Kendra Adachi]

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace has been the online home of the Lazy Genius collective since day one, and for good reason. It's the all in one platform that helps creators, entrepreneurs not just stand out, but thrive online. Recently, we launched a new product in our store, and Squarespace made the whole process so simple. Thanks to their fluid engine, we could set up gorgeous functional pages with ease. I am no tech wizard, but with Squarespace's drag and drop editor I do not have to be. Squarespace also has flexible payment tools which means our customers can use everything from Apple pay to Afterpay. We want it to be easy for you to be a lazy genius and Squarespace makes that happen. Plus their built in analytics are truly great offering information that's truly helpful right there. Clear as day. Head to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to Launch, go to squarespace.com lazygenius to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. This episode is sponsored by IXL Learning. My kids enjoy school, but it's tough when they hit a subject that confuses or frustrates them or they just don't really like. But when that subject has IXL assignments attached to it, they actually have fun with the learning process. IXL Learning is an online learning program for kids. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies. IXL is designed to help them understand and master topics in a fun way with positive feedback. Plus one subscription gets you everything. That's one site for all the kids in your home Pre K to 12th grade. Don't miss out. One in four students in the U S are learning with IXL. IXL is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts in the U S. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now and the LazyGenius listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixlearning.com lazygenius Visit ixlearning.com lazygeniod to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Here's the thing, it's a little gross outside. Sometimes even those of us that are trying to embrace the chilly weather, we need something to break up those long winter nights. Something I love to do on occasion is treat myself, you know, to a little little prezi. But I don't want to spend a fortune on my winter blues. That's where Quint comes in. With Quint, you can treat yourself to everyday luxury at an affordable price. I love my black Quint Mongolian Cashmere sweater which starts at $50. It is the perfect piece for layering this time of year. It is so soft and cozy. I wear mine all the time. Whatever you're looking for. All Quint's items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They're able to do that by partnering directly factories and cutting out the cost of the middleman, passing the savings on to you. Treat yourself this winner without the luxury price tag. Go to Quince.com Genius for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com Genius to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Genius are you feeling overwhelmed with.

[Angela Kenzie]

All the supplements out there? Well, now you can put that worry to ease with the help of Groons Gummies. Groons took the time to understand proper dosing to ensure nutrition is optimized and safe. Gruens isn't a multivitamin, a greens gummy or a probiotic. It's all those things and then some at a fraction of the price. And bonus, it tastes great. There are so many great nutrients in Gruin's Gummies that they don't all fit. Each daily snack pack includes eight gummies with no artificial colors or flavors, making them a tasty fruit snack treat. Groons contain six times the gut health ingredients compared to the leading greens powders, plus 20 vitamins and minerals and 60 whole food ingredients, a huge step up from your generic multivitamin. Backed by over 35,000 research publications, GRUN's gummies have proven to improve skin health, yield thicker hair and nails, and increase healthy gut bacteria. You wanted a supplement you can enjoy. This isn't a chore, it's something you'll look forward to get up to 45% off. Use the code LAZYGENIUS.

[Jenna Fisher]

Number five. You shouldn't expect your planner to leave space for obstacles and pivots. Planners in the industry that supports them is hyper focused on preparation. That's the whole point of a planner, right? It holds your preparation. It holds your plans. But we have a different view of a plan now, don't we? Planning is not just preparation. It is an equal balance among preparation, adjusting, and noticing. All so we can live a life that matters. Remember, that's our plan acronym. Prepare, Live, Adjust, Notice. Pivoting is part of the deal. Changing your mind is part of the deal. Noticing what is and isn't working and altering the preparation is part of the deal. It's not settling. It's not lazy. It's not the exception. This kind of planning should be the foundational approach to planning. But because it's not, it's not the foundational approach in the current industry. Your planner, it will not leave space for obstacles and pivots and it's not fair for you to expect it to keep using your planner in whatever way makes sense for you. But never forget that plans are just intentions. They are not pass fail. Just because the daily order went out of order, just because the items meant for today didn't get checked off, just because you have to do something different tomorrow because of what happened today, it doesn't mean you did it wrong. It means life just did what life does and you are prioritizing, pivoting over planning. It's a better skill to learn anyway. Number six, you shouldn't expect your planner to connect you with other people. I've talked about this on the podcast before, and I learned about this concept from one of my favorite kind of subversive voices in this contented life space, Oliver Berkman. He was the first to explain this concept of time autonomy that I'd ever heard. This idea that we as a culture are taught so relentlessly that our time is ours to control. We should organize it based on whatever our goals are. But what that autonomous approach does is disconnect us from the very people who make life fulfilling. Remember that Harvard longitudinal study about what makes for a good life? The runaway answer runaway answer was relationships and connection. But we have made those just another thing to put on the to do list. They are not integrated into our lives. Relationships are sometimes stuck into the cracks. How many DMS do I get about keeping in touch with other people? Y'all want to know how to make friends? How to see the friends you already have? How to stay connected despite life's busyness? Part of the answer here is to make our time less autonomous. We need to pay attention to the lives that our people are leading and try and align them with ours somehow, even if it occasionally is not an entirely optimized, efficient approach. I say that with major tongue in cheek. Your planner, it will not prioritize connection in relationships. It will not provide space and perspective for you to relearn how to incorporate connection into your life. Your planner simply cannot naturally, logistically capture everything that matters. So don't expect it to, you know, let that be freeing and start to orient your time towards what matters most in your own way. And then finally, number seven, you shouldn't expect your planner to remind you to look at it. This one's kind of funny, like without a lot of follow up. But it has to be said, planners can be tremendously helpful. I love mine. I mean, it's just a plain notebook, by the way. It's not anything but it's the most helpful for me when I can see it right now. Hear me. I'm not saying that like old productivity energy. I'm not shaming you. I'm not even telling you to look at it if you don't need to. A planner nor a plan can be your savior. Staying in control of our time and circumstances. It's a fruitless endeavor, so let it go. You might feel the need to look at your planner because you're still unlearning this goal of greatness and feel like you're not being disciplined or consistent enough because you forget that your planner even has stuff written in it or you don't have one at all. I want you to take that, that energy away. It doesn't belong here now that we have a different goal, right? And with that different energy and more compassionate goal. Think about what place your planner has in your daily attention. Do you need to look at it as often as you think? Are you writing too much down? Too little? Are you expecting your planner to hold the magic formula and you think the problem is that you're just not looking.

[Kendra Adachi]

At it often enough?

[Jenna Fisher]

See what I mean? Don't expect your planner to remind you to look at it, but also don't expect that when you do look at it, all your problems will be solved. Preparation is only part of it and your plan is just an intention. So be compassionate and kind as your circumstances do. What circumstances do so to recap as you start to think about your next planner or what planning even means for you, if you want a planner at all, you shouldn't expect your planner to 1 understand your season of life. 2 automatically prioritize what matters most to you. 3. Show you everything at once. 4. Remove stress and busyness completely. 5. Leave space for obstacles and pivots, 6 connect you with others and 7 remind you to look at it now. In some ways, this list could be freeing, and I hope it is. Let's take the pressure off the perfect planner by recognizing it cannot do these broader things that we keep expecting it to do. But also it would be nice to have something that does understand our season of life, that does prioritize what matters most. That shows you what matters without the pressure of seeing it all at once. That doesn't remove stress and busyness, but it might lessen it a little bit. That does leave space for life's obstacles and pivots. The connection with others and the reminder to look at the thing are frankly still on you. But for the other five, we have something very exciting to share with you for years I have been asked to make a lazy Genius planner and let's cut to the chase. I did not do that. There is no lazy Genius Planner. You know why? Even with lazy genius principles and permissions, there is no singular version of a planner that works for everyone in this community. So instead of making a planner, I wanted to make a tool that would make your planner work better for you. I call them the Playbooks. The Playbooks are these small, thin, highly satisfying notebooks that are designed to help you see your season, name what matters, and prepare, adjust and notice in an intentional way. All so you can live a life that matters to you in the season that you're in. There are currently four Playbooks Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and they are the macro preparation to your daily micro planning that likely already exists in some form with a Planner you already love. Inside the Playbooks you'll find questions, many of which are in the plan that help you see your season and individual months through a lazy genius lens. There is space to triage your stuff with a clearer head and kinder eyes to think about your projects because we know those are too big to go on your to do list to name what's going on, your hope to and have to lists. And then there are weekly pages where you can actually triage your tasks. So then when it's time for you to plan a week or your day, you can already use your planner that is set up for that kind of planning that works well for your life. But you use the Playbooks as a tool to more quickly help you name what needs to get done now and what can wait until later. The Playbooks are a holding pin for what matters most. Again, it's not a planner. This is not for your planner, but it will make your planner work better. Plus it's small enough to tuck inside your planner, which was on purpose so you can keep it close by as your season moves along. You can purchase one season if you'd like just one, or you can get the bundle of all four. The most immediate season in front of us now is winter, which for the Playbooks is December, January, and February. And the first round of Playbook orders, they're going to ship mid November so that you'll receive your Playbooks before December begins. And that way you can like actually have like a little bit of time to explore the winter Playbook and fill it out before that month skips out of sight, you know. And also if it does, if it does skip out of sight, there is still plenty of space for January and February, and there's no rush to fill out anything. All right? There is no rush at all in how you experience the Playbooks. Okay? So you can do the math. But if winter is December, January, February, Spring is March, April, May, Summer is June, July, August, and fall is September, October, November. We intentionally kept November and December in two separate playbooks to help add intention to the opening and closing of certain holidays and seasons. If you knew, y'all, if you knew how long we talked about the division of these seasons. Holy moly. It was so long. But we're like so proud, so proud of how these turned out. The playbooks are so high quality and they will also make you stop expecting too much from your planner. And for that, all the planners in all the world breathe a sigh of relief. All right, you can find more information about the playbooks@the lazygeniescollective.com playbooks and we'll put a link in the show notes as well. Remember, the first shipment will go out mid November, so if you would like to try them out and have them by December, be sure to to order in the next week or so. And I hope you love them. Before we go, let's celebrate the Lazy Genius of the Week. This week, it's Bethany Weathersby. Bethany writes, My family attends our church mid our church's midweek service, which we arrive extra early for and stay quite a while after. That commitment is important to us, but it meant getting home hours after dinner and past the bedtime of our four young kids. Needless to say, everyone was hungry again by the time we pulled into the driveway. The problem was that no matter how well our day had gone, I was done. And I mean done parenting. By that point, I'd spend the drive home trying to think of something I could shove in everyone's mouths that would be quick to prep and quick to eat. Then be grumpy if they took even one second longer than necessarily because it's late.

[Kendra Adachi]

You should be in bed.

[Jenna Fisher]

I should be in bed.

[Kendra Adachi]

Stop talking.

[Jenna Fisher]

Just eat. We can all imagine this, can't we? One day I decided to make dessert in the afternoon in preparation for the post church hunger. It added a little extra time to our evening, but it completely changed the tone. No need to come up with a plan on the fly. No complaints about the food option, just a few extra minutes for the family to gather around the table to eat dessert while we shared hardest and best for the day. It's bliss. I've never looked back, y'all. Later in the email, Bethany said She's been doing this for enough years that her oldest is now an adult and out of the house, and the three remaining kids still do Dessert on Wednesdays that's so tender and precious and matters, y'all. When you name what matters, like Bethany did with these long days at church, it allows you more freedom, not less, in the choices that you make to support that. Dessert on Wednesdays supports what matters to make church happen, but also connecting with each other afterward and keeping the understandable mom rage at bay. What a beautiful example of naming what matters, living in your season, deciding once and doing something now to make something else easier later. I love it so much. So thank you for sharing, Bethany, and congratulations on being the Lazy Genius of the Week. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, an executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kenzie. The Lazy Genius podcast is enthusiastically part of the Office Ladies Network. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. Thanks y'all for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Have fun looking at the playbooks. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week.