Kendra Adachi (0:00)

This episode is sponsored by Quints. When I give gifts, I want them to feel thoughtful. Something the person will actually use and love, not just toss in a drawer. That's why I have been turning to quints this season. They have these beautiful Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like the kind of thing you would splurge on. Structured, soft, and somehow only $50. I've been wearing these sweaters constantly for several years and they hold up like no weird pilling and it still feels luxurious after multiple wears. Quince has all the elevated staples silk tops for when you want to feel fancy denim that actually fits and their Italian wool coats are just chef's kiss, tailored, warm and not bulky. And it's not just clothes. I grabbed a couple of their travel cubes for some upcoming trips. Their home and lifestyle stuff feels just as thoughtful as their clothing. Find gifts so good you'll want to keep them with quints. Go to quince.com genius for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c e.com Genius quints.com Genius this episode is sponsored by Square. Square is the toolkit built to help you run your business, keep up with demand, and actually grow through the busiest time of year. There's a little shop downtown that sells the coziest candles and handmade gifts, and I always notice how smooth everything is when I check out Fast Payment, Digital receipt. And every time I think, yep, they're using Square. It's one of the small details that just makes everything feel more thoughtful and efficient. Square gives businesses what they need to stay ahead of the holiday rush. Payments, inventory, staffing, even online sales. All from one system. And the tools are smart. You can see what's selling when you're busiest and what to prep for next. The holiday rush is coming. Square helps you run faster, sell smarter, and stay in control even when things get busy. And why wait? Right now you can get up to $200 off square hardware at square square.com go lazygenius that's s q U-A-R-E.com g-o/lazygenius run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Hi there, you're listening to the Lazy Genius podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi. This podcast is not about hacking the system to find more time or hacking your energy to get more done. Hustling to be the best or to make the most out of every opportunity is exciting, exhausting and unsustainable. So here we do things differently on this show we value contentment, compassion and living in our season. We favor small steps over big systems. Here we are, lazy geniuses, being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And I'm so glad you're here. Today we are releasing an extra episode for you as you enjoy your winter holidays. This is an episode from a while back that I think will be a great addition to your podcast listening queue. In this quieter week, probably it's episode 345, how to approach Holiday Downtime. This is the time when we move from the scurry of holiday preparations and schedules to just like suddenly being home with little to no agenda. And that can honestly be kind of hard. So this bonus episode might be just for you. I hope you enjoy listening while you slow down at home and we will see you back here on Monday for a brand new episode. We'll be Happy Holidays and thanks for listening. Hey 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 is episode 345, how to approach Holiday Downtime. This episode is releasing on Monday, December 18, and for some of you listening, you're close to entering a longer break from your regular life. You know, the winter holidays are upon us. Christmas is one week away, New Year's is two weeks away, and there's just like a lot of activity, but also a lot of downtime. Sometimes more than we realize. So today we're going to talk about how to approach it. Now, before we jump in, I do want to acknowledge those of you who have jobs or responsibilities that do not offer the same kind of holiday downtime that I'm talking about. You might get one or two days off over the next couple of weeks and that's it. All of these people, including me, right now, talking about their long holiday breaks and that week between Christmas and New Year's when nothing is happening. It might make you feel a little down. You might feel frustrated at the assumption that everyone has that time off. Or maybe you have work off, but not life off. You know, you might have some kind of responsibility or obligation that does not leave you much space for this holiday downtime. Poor problem. And I just want to say that I see you in that. I want to acknowledge how challenging this time of year is for you for reasons that people don't often speak about. So maybe this episode is not for you and you can skip to the next thing. But I do want to say that I see those of you who are still working for the rest of the month now, for those of you who are not working as much and you have some time off or you have kids home for the next couple of weeks, you know, I want to talk to you today. While I don't know what your holiday calendar looks like, chances are this next week before Christmas is nuts. You know, this is the week that you're seeing family, you're traveling, you're going to Christmas performances or finishing up shopping and wrapping gifts. There's, like, a lot of buzz this week. You know, there's a lot going on. Then once we get to next week to that week between Christmas and New Year's, it's a different vibe. Some of you might follow the liturgical calendar where there are actually like, really 12 days of Christmas and the first day starts on Christmas, you know, so your celebrations might land on different dates, but perhaps the rhythms are similar. Either way, no matter what, it looks like, a lot of you listening are about to enter some sort of short season where time is unusual. Some of it is packed, some of it is wildly empty. And depending on the day or the person, sometimes one or both can. Is not ideal, right? Too busy, too empty. So let's talk about how you can approach holiday downtime. Now as a group, I'm pretty confident all of y' all listening tend to have some tricky feelings around free time. You might remember episode 320, how to feel good about Free time. We often don't feel good about free time, especially time that is free to just us, right? When we are alone as individuals and we have the opportunity to essentially do whatever we want, we can feel all kinds of feelings about it. Now, if that's you, check out that episode. But for many of you, holiday downtime is different. It's different. It's not really free time per se, and it's definitely not just for you. Free time feels like time that is a break in the action. You know, it's like a relief amidst the regularity of responsibility. But during the end of December, we actually have downtime. We have longer stretches where there's, you know, there's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go. And sometimes that's amazing. Other times it's challenging. So this episode is focusing more on holiday downtime, on those longer stretches where we have breaks and we have other people around. Probably. Now, the first thing I want to acknowledge is the purpose. Okay, what is the purpose of your time? The next week or two. Again, the week before Christmas. It might have a different purpose than the week after. But what is the purpose? Is it to rest? To play? To be with friends and family as much as possible? To get a handle on a project that doesn't get your attention during regular life? Going back to the idea of rest, now might be a good time to revisit episode 258, the seven cards kinds of rest. Sometimes we use the word rest as a blanket description for anything that isn't responsible, basically. But there are different kinds of rest. Do you need to relax? Do you need to reset? Recharge? Do you need a break? Do you need to rest before, during or after something that's busy for this time of year? You know, the after probably rings true. So as you think about the purpose of your holiday downtime, consider what matters most. What's the purpose of this time? You might want to answer that question for yourself individually, and then maybe as a family too, if you live with other people. The second thing I want you to consider is your perspective. How do you view holiday downtime? What do you imagine? If I was just me and I had no other obligations or for people to tend to or anyone's feelings to consider, I would spend the week between Christmas and New Year's in the coziest clothes, reading, eating and napping, and maybe watching movies in whatever order suited me. And then I would hang out with people at night. Like, it would be so cozy in my house. I would have, you know, gentle music playing, the fireplace show would be on tv, the sweatpants would be plentiful. But I don't live a life where I don't have obligations or people to tend to or feelings to consider. I have a husband and three kids this Christmas. I have a mom who's moving houses. There are meals to plan still, I gotta make food. I have extroverted children in my house who hate movies and stillness and reading. Everyone in my house still gets up early even. It's very sad. But if I don't consider my perspective, if I only sit with this imagined idea of my holiday downtime, when I want to get cozy on the couch and then a kid wants to play or whines because there are no friends to hang out with or doesn't respect the fact that I'm trying to read here, you know, I can get frustrated and even resentful. The reality of my situation is messing with my perspective. But really, my perspective was a little, shall we say, idealized in the first place. Or maybe you're on the other side of that scenario. Maybe you are imagining that the downtime is magical for everybody and you have expectations within you that everyone is going to feel the same way about the time and even some of the things that you might have planned for that time, but then they don't, they don't feel the same way they that you do. And then it all gets wonky, you know. So think about how you are seeing this upcoming stretch of holiday downtime and see if you can, you know, kindly adjust your perspective a little and therefore your expectations to a place that better embraces everyone. The third thing to consider is a plan. Do you have one for the week after Christmas especially? I bet you have one for this week because things are on the calendar. But now that you've thought about the purpose and your perspective, is there anything that you want to put in its place to help make that holiday downtime valuable for you? It might be putting some feelers out to your kids, friends, adults, you know, the parents and grandparents and guardians and such, and saying like, hey, just who's in town next week? My kid is almost certainly going to want to hang out with people. So holler if you're in town and then I'll. We'll text if we need to. That's kind of using the magic question, right? What can I do now to make my social kids dealing with them easier later? You ask their adults now if anyone is around. That way you don't feel weird doing that whole like day after Christmas text where you feel like you're bothering people because maybe they're traveling or they're with family or you already know who is out of town so your kid doesn't get her hopes up when you do in fact text a friend that's currently in Minnesota and not down the street in North Carolina. What are some things you can plan now? And by plan, I really just mean like loosely, loosely put in place, right? You don't have to set a specific date for kids to hang out in this scenario. You're just gathering information. You're just like, hey, who's in town? Who's in town and maybe wants to play? Just putting out some feelers. You could also plan like a couple of movies that everyone likes to watch. Maybe there's a restaurant your whole crew likes to go to and you can know that at some point during that holiday downtime week, you'll go to that restaurant. You might gather up a puzzle or some games and put those under the tree like we learned from a lazy genius of the week. Now that all the Christmas gifts are gone, just consider some things that you can do now to loosely loosely create a plan for some ways to fill that holiday downtime if you need them. No need to lock anything in. You're basically just making an activity queue.