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- [00:00]
Kendra Adachi
This episode is sponsored by Merit Beauty. My most recent decide once has been using Merit Beauty full stop. I don't want to wake up every morning and renegotiate my entire face. I want a few products that live in the same bag, know their jobs, and help me look awake enough to enter the world. Merit is a minimalist beauty brand that makes elevated makeup and skincare designed to help you look put together in minutes. The minimalist is a staple for me. It's not quite a foundation, not quite a concealer, but it replaces both. I swipe it on where I want a little coverage, blend it in with a brush and move on. I also love Clean Lash because it makes my lashes look longer and awake, but not like I'm going to a wedding at 8:30 in the morning. And on days when I don't feel like wearing makeup, Great Skin Serum gives my skin that fresh, hydrated look without adding a bunch of steps. Right now, Merit Beauty is offering our listeners their signature makeup bag with your first order@meritbeauty.com that's M E R I T beauty.com to get your free signature makeup bag with your first order. Meritbeauty.com
- [01:01]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
this episode is sponsored by Feeding America. Every act of change begins with a neighbor, with someone saying, we take care of each other. Here in food banks and food pantries, neighbors pack fresh food and dignity into every box, moving food from farms to families through Feeding America's nationwide network. So when that box reaches a home, it carries more than food. It carries a promise that together we can end hunger. Feeding America led by neighbors Give now to end hunger@feedingamerica.org
- [01:35]
Kendra Adachi
hi there. You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi. This podcast isn't 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 exhausting and unsustainable. So. 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 am so glad that you are here. Today is episode 466, how to declutter your week. Is anyone else feeling it? Feeling the busyness of life? The weight of your schedule? The to do list that never ends? This time of year is the start of what the Internet lovingly calls Maysember. It's December and May when everything is happening and the time management energy is a lot. I personally feel the crunch of it all. So it seems like a great time to talk about decluttering your week. Not your life, not your entire schedule. Not everything. Just one week. One week. You can do this one week at a time or just this week for a breather and then stop. Regardless, the short process I'm going to teach you is helpful anytime you want to use it. After that, in this week's A Little Extra something, I'm going to share an update on my album project. I am wanting to listen to 300 albums in 2026, but really the goal is less about the number and more about intentionally listening to new music and focus full album form. I haven't shared anything about that in a couple of months, at least here on the podcast. So I will give you a little update on how that's going, how many I've listened to, and what my favorites are so far. As always, we will celebrate the Lazy Genius of the Week who has a great idea for meal planning, something we always need, and we'll close with a mini pep talk for when you can't catch a break. This episode will be a practical response to that. But man, we might also need a pep talk too. I know I do. Now, before we get into all that, it is the end of April, which means we're coming up on a great time to grab your summer playbook so you can declutter your whole season like a lazy genius. If you're unfamiliar with our playbooks, they are the lazy genius way to plan. You can keep your planner, you keep your Google calendar, whatever you love to use, but the piece that's often missing in planning is a seasonal eye and compassion. This episode is going to teach you how to declutter your week, but the Playbooks help you do that practically for an entire season. Again and again. The Summer Playbook is the cutest tomato red notebook that has space to plan June, July, and August. I'll mention some of the specific pages during the episode just because it's the tool that I personally use to declutter my weeks and seasons. If you recently had like a little reactionary crisis with your children about something like summer screen time or moving their bodies, or you have started to feel the desire to control this upcoming new summer season with like chore charts and big black trash bag energy, you might want a summer playbook. I mean, I don't experience any of those things. I don't experience any of that pull. I didn't do that three days ago with a crazed look in my eyes, telling my children that summer was going to be different. Of course I didn't. I didn't do that at all. Sometimes we just need a small tool to help us with small problems in a small season. Rather than attacking our time and schedules and even our children with the broadest strokes and the biggest changes, we just need to stick with what's doable and small. And that's why the playbooks only cover three months at a time. So now is a great time to explore the Summer Playbook and order yours so you can have it before June begins. It'll help you start naming what you hope for this season and prioritize what matters so you actually do it. So you can find info for those@thelazygeniuscollective.com playbooks and two quick fun things About Buying a Playbook so first you're supporting our small business, which is amazing, but you're also supporting our partners in printing and fulfillment. Otter Pine Otter Pine is a small business out of Asheville, North Carolina that is woman owned, excellent in every way and just the best people to work with. Any customer service issues are handled by Seyah, the owner of Otter Pine and her team and they are just fabulous people. Truly we love working with them. So thank you for supporting both of our businesses. The second fun thing about buying a playbook is that we are donating 10% of all playbook sales, not just the summer ones. Anything that you get from now until the end of May to another nonprofit. We did this three months ago during the spring playbook season where we donated 10% of our sales to World Central Kitchen. During the Summer Playbook season, we're donating 10% of our sales to the Hawaiian Council. I'm sure you've seen the news. With the devastating flooding in Hawaii and so many people have been displaced from their homes, businesses are devastated. The needs are just so high. The Hawaiian Council is a nonprofit that seeks to enhance the cultural, economic, political and community development for native local Hawaiians. They focus on low income communities and underserved groups. Groups that will be at the biggest disadvantage during this flood recovery. I love that we can all help this organization and the people of Hawaii to come back from these devastating floods. So thank you for your support of our business and know that you're also helping support the people of Hawaii during this hard time. All right, let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors which makes this show free for you to listen to. But before we do, here is your quick reminder about the podcast recap email that we send out out every other Friday. It is called Latest Lazy Listens and it summarizes the episodes, shares the Lazy Genius of the week, as well as other segments we have on the show, and it has a little extra note from me to help encourage you through the weekend. If you'd like to get that recap, head to the lazygeniuscollective.com listens this episode is sponsored by Squarespace. The Lazy Genius Collective has been on Squarespace since the very beginning of the show, which is kind of wild to think about, but it's also exactly what I want from a website platform. I don't want to think about it all the time. I want it to be easy to update, easy for listeners to use, and nice to look at without me needing to become a website person. That's what Squarespace does so well. It gives you everything you need to claim your domain, build a professional website, share what you make, grow your brand, and get paid all in one place. Their design tools make it easy to have a site that actually feels like you, with beautiful templates, drag and drop editing and styling options that don't require you to start from scratch. For us, Squarespace is the home base. It's where everything can live without depending on an algorithm or whatever social media is doing that day. Check out squarespace.com lazygenius for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code LAZYGENIUS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com lazygenius code lazygenius this episode
- [08:34]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
is sponsored by the Flexive Gold Journal. If you're a mom, you probably don't need help remembering the hard parts of your day. It's the small good moments that tend to slip through. The Flexive Gold Journal was made with that in mind. It's a one line a day journal
- [08:46]
Kendra Adachi
you keep for three years.
- [08:48]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
It takes less than two minutes and all you're doing is writing down one small good moment from your day. And over time that starts to add up. Because as you write today's moment, you can also look back at what you wrote on the same day last year and the year before and get to remember things you would have completely forgotten. It's also beautifully made, vegan leather or linen hardcover, and it's designed to live somewhere you'll actually see it, like your nightstand. Mother's Day is May 10th. If you've been wanting something meaningful, this could be it. Go to 3in30podcast.com Gold and use code LAZY10 at checkout for 10% off. That's the number three in the number 30podcast.com Gold code LAZY10. Mother's Day is May 10th. Order soon so it arrives in time.
- [09:36]
Kendra Adachi
All right, let's figure out how to declutter your week. This decluttering process is five simple steps and it will make even the busiest week easier. Not free of busyness, but easier than it would be if you did not declutter. Now the reason we're doing this now is because this time of year is cuckoo pants busy. At church the other day a friend asked, are you winding down, like, with the school year ending? And I was like, oh man, we have to, I think we have to wind up before we wind down. May means that everything is happening whether you are a teacher, a parent, or even a college student who's finishing up your first year away from home. Life is just really busy. And if you add on any like, end of quarter things for work, summer plans, like for vacations, figuring out where your kids are gonna go to camp, feeling the excitement and also the pressure of just a new season in general, it's a lot on your mind. It's a lot. Plus your schedule might be crazy, which doesn't leave a lot of time to process any of these inputs. Right? Like personally for me, over the span of, I guess three weeks in May, I will attend four school plays, three band concerts, a handful of meetings for like various things I'm involved in that all, of course happen in May. I'm going to run two events and like, still apparently make dinner for my family every night. I mean, okay, like, it's all kind of ridiculous really, but I can't not go to my kids play and the concerts. I can't ghost the event I'm organizing or skip the meeting that I'm running. Those are all things that I need to keep on the schedule. But there are also things that I don't need. And that is why you declutter the week. You need to get rid of what's less important so you can make space for what is most important. Otherwise you're going to keep firing on all cylinders in every area and burn out. I know most of us are used to buckling down, gripping tight, powering through. You know, y' all know me well enough to know that we don't, we don't really do that here, like not at the expense of ourselves. And a way that we prevent that kind of burnout from happening is by Doing things like decluttering the week by spending 15 minutes looking at what's coming and making choices that help keep the most important things at the front and the least important things out of the way. We're only doing this one week at a time, not an entire season at a time. Now, you can certainly look at your season and let what matters in this season impact your decisions this week. In fact, I think that's a great idea, especially if you're already in a rhythm of looking at what matters from season to season. But today, we are not decluttering from now until the end of June. We are decluttering one week at a time. Don't look beyond the next seven days. Especially again, if you're not already in the practice of being a lazy genius about your time sticking with one week. It also makes the decluttering process a little easier. You know, it's simpler to eliminate something that's less important this week than eliminating something that's less important two months from now, right? In busy seasons especially, everything cannot matter. We know this. You know you won't make it if everything matters. But it is easier to accept that when you're only working with seven days at a time. So let's figure out how to name what matters the most in your week, spend your genius energy on it, and then declutter the rest. So here's how this is going to work. I have five steps for you. Take what works, leave the rest behind. But this is a great order to help you declutter your weekly. Step one is look at what you have. Step two is sort. Step three, simplify. Step four, remove. And finally, step five is start with today. So look at what you have. Sort, simplify, remove, and start with today. All right, those are our steps. Let's get into them. So step one is to look at what you have. You need to see all the pieces of your week before you can know what to sort, simplify, or remove. You can't really declutter a space until you know what's in there, right? Same with your time. That's why I really like a brain dump list for step one. It is the to do list equivalent of pulling everything out of the closet. You get to pull it all out in order to assess what you've got. So don't be precious with your brain dump. Just pull it out. Just write everything that you have on your schedule for the week. All that you need to do, all that's on your brain, all that you need to decide. Sometimes even regular things like Meals or exercise should probably go on the list, especially if they're not already like automated for you. So essentially write down everything that is currently undone that you have to find time to do. That's the purpose of a to do list, right? It's to remind you of what is still undone that you need to do. Your brain dump is the week's long, unorganized, overwhelming to do list. You do not stop there. Cause that would be horrible. But it is where you need to begin. Okay, for my upcoming week, my list includes an overnight work trip. So I have to like pack, prep the work, make sure all my kids have rides to and from school while I'm gone. I have two friends birthdays this week to be intentional about. I need to write and record an episode. I have a kid's band concert as well as a weekend of band since the boys will be going to their all state band clinic for three days with a performance at the end, which is very exciting. But that means that they need food and rides and ironed clothes for their performances. Right? Then there are regular chores and meals and my own movement and rest. Especially since this week there is no school on Friday, which is the day I normally take off and automate that rest. That's when my rest is automated, is my day off. I don't have that this week, so I'll have to be more thoughtful this week about that. Okay, now I put this brain dump in my playbook. If you use a playbook, you already know that there is this big double spread at the start of each month labeled brain dump. It's so nice to have a space to just get it all out. Doesn't have to be organized. That's actually the point is for it to not be. You just get it all out. Now sometimes I will go beyond this week and write whatever is on my mind or that I know what's coming up. But usually I just brain dump one week at a time, maybe two. And then the following week I will just keep adding to that same brain dump list in that month spread. You know, it's sort of like I just keep building on that month's brain dump. However you do it, whatever you use, the point is just to see what you've got. Pull everything for the week out of the metaphorical closet so that you can make good decluttering choices so you can see it. So that's step one. Step two is sort just like you do in a closet. Once you get everything out, you start sorting and putting similar things together. You know, it's like all the batteries are over here and all the bed sheets are over here. And that's what you're gonna do with your brain dump list too. Now, how you sort is up to you. You can sort by urgency. This is why I love the framework now, soon, later, and nevermind. It is a to do list framework that helps you triage all the things on your list into an actionable order based on their urgency. You know, what needs to happen now, what needs to happen pretty soon, what's later this week, but still important. And what can I just say, like, ah, nevermind, nevermind this week. This is not the time. Sort your tasks by urgency. You can also sort your tasks by importance. You can use the framework have to and hope to. That's a favorite of mine. Go through your brain dump list and decide what has to be done this week. Like there's no question. And then what you hope to get done this week, that is also important. But you can choose more easily when you have it separated by have to and hope to. You know, because those are two different things. If you don't get to what you hope to do, it's like it's fine, it can go into the next week. Okay, so that's another way that you might sort is by importance. You can use have to or hope to or something else that you would like. Now you might sort by the type of tasks. Like you might put all your errands into one list, all your computer work into another list. Maybe you list out all the like administrative adult type tasks and responsibilities. Maybe there are just a bunch of things that you need to do in the kitchen. It's like grabbing all the winter gloves and putting them together in one pile, right? When you sort things by how similar they are, you can see a better way to tend to them all at once. You can batch it. You can use one of our favorite lazy genius principles and batch it. And then finally you might sort by day of the week. I find this framing better at the end of the process, personally, since the final product at the end of decluttering your week is like a to do list for today and then a to do list for the rest of the days. But depending on your brain dump list, it actually might be easier to go ahead and sort tasks by the day that they need to happen. Your week sometimes will actually align with the days of the week better. Okay, but that is step two. It's sort. Sort however you like, by urgency, by importance, by the actual type of task, by day of the week. By whatever you need. Okay? Put similar things together. That's step two. All right, moving on to step three. Step three is simplify. When you look at your sorted lists, what can be simplified? Meals, chores, errands, work, meetings. If you're going to be in a car a lot, can you simplify an extra busy day by like swapping a carpool route with another parent? To simplify how much driving you're doing that day, can you simplify your lunches this week by just making a pot of soup to eat this whole week? Like, even though it's summertime and it's hot, you really do need a simpler way to cook and serve your lunch. What can you simplify? Now, we have got some great lazy genius principles to help you do this. I already mentioned this, but you can use the principle batch it. So combine all your errands into one day. Do them all in one day at one time. You can batch your meals. Making your meals. Batch homework time with kids. And rather than doing it piecemeal through the afternoon as kids come home, maybe like you normally do for this week, because it's a lot busier. Batch homework time with kids and do it all after dinner. So it's like, hey guys, we're not doing homework after you get home from school today, we're gonna do it after dinner. So, like, go play now and then you tend to everybody and help them all at the same time after dinner. Batch tasks that require you to sit, like folding the laundry while you're listening to your kid read for school. Right? So use batch it to help simplify the complications of your to do lists. You can also simplify by using the principle Decide once. Decide once that you are not saying yes to anything new this week. Whatever is here is here and nothing else. No yeses for the next seven days. Decide once that you're going to be in bed by 10 o' clock every night. Even if there are still dishes in the sink or tasks to be done. You decide to be done with whatever is waiting for you so that you can prioritize your sleep during this extra busy week. The dissertation will be fine. It's gonna be fine. You can simplify it by deciding once that you're gonna wear a certain kind of outfit all week so you don't have to think about what you're gonna wear. Decide once is a great simplification tool that you can really use. Just for a week. Doesn't have to be forever. Use it just for this week. Another principle to help you simplify is to Let people in. See if you can share a morning of errands with another mom who's home with tiny kids. Like, go to Costco together so that one of you can, like, run and get what you need while the other mom hangs there with the kids who are like playing in the carts together. Or trade caring for each other's kids while you each run errands solo. You know, a couple of mornings this week. Or you can simplify by literally making something more simple. So, for example, this week I am simplifying movement by not worrying about long gym time. I try to get one long weight workout at the gym every week, but since I'm out of town for a couple of days and the kids don't have school on Friday, everything is condensed this week. Everything. So that means I'm going to simplify movement, but I'm just going to do free weights at home for shorter times and like walk around the neighborhood if it isn't too hot. I'm not going to worry about a long gym day. I'm just going to make that simpler. That's a great simplification for a busy week. Now this is a great time to remind you that your simplifications don't have to be forever. It's just for right now. I love my long gym time once a week. It's something I really like to prioritize and do. But guess what? Three of the five weekdays this week are very weird and out of the ordinary. I'm okay if what I normally do needs an adjustment to make this week work better. This is like the prime time where you might hear those old productivity voices telling you that if you don't do whatever you normally do or do the thing that you committed to doing, that you're letting yourself down. No, you're not. I'm not. I'm just making an adjustment to simplify my week, to declutter my time so that I can feel better and more grounded in what I have to do. Like, that's wisdom. That's wisdom. That's not quitting or letting myself down. So back to the decluttering process. Look at what you have. Sort, simplify, and then step four, remove. Now, you will already probably start to see this very clearly as you're going through your list. You can be like, wow, what can I just take away? What can wait? What can completely leave this week without it being a huge problem. So go through your brain dump list, go through your sorted and simplified lists, and make a mark next to anything that it can be Taken away this week. It can be taken away. I made a brain dump list last week like I usually do. And on it were several things that I ended up removing right away. Honestly, before I even sorted or simplified, I just knew I was like, these things can go absolutely. They are not urgent right now. One was hanging a new painting in my office. I cannot wait to hang this thing. It is so beautiful. I have that. I have to find a good home for the painting that's currently in its place. I have to attach hardware to the new painting in order to hang it. So it's a couple of steps. But listen, that could wait. I could just lean the painting against my desk until then. It's fine. It's fine. And taking that off of my brain for the week, it's a way to declutter it. It's like I'm not even gonna think about that. I'm not gonna worry about it right now. Another thing from my list that got removed was cleaning out my closet. Yes, it would be really nice, as it gets hot to go through my sweaters and declutter my closet a little so I can like get my T shirts front and center because North Carolina is like hitting record highs right now. But it doesn't need to happen. Like it's fine to remove it from the week from a busy week. I'm home three days, one of them. With the kids home, this is probably not the time to organize my closet. I also removed a couple of phone calls that can wait. A trip to the tailor to tend to a pair of like non urgent pants and a front porch cleanup that I had planned. Now one might argue that all of those things will keep getting pushed, and that's possibly true. But I'm not removing them from existence. I'm removing them from my week. By taking them off my list for this week, I am taking away the pressure to complete them. And that matters now. Who knows, Maybe there will be time to tend to something this week. Maybe like when the kids are home on Friday, we can all take a half an hour and clean the front porch as a group. I don't know. But I'm not going to force it right now. I'm going to take care of the essential things first and then see what's left over. Task wise and energy wise. Right? So look at your sorted lists. What can you remove? You don't have to cross it out all the way. You don't have to scribble it so you can't see it. You know, just make a note somewhere that says, hey, this is not for this week. Like, this can wait. You know, use a little star circle or a highlighter color or something. And then when you declutter next week, you're actually already starting from a better place.
- [27:21]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Right?
- [27:22]
Kendra Adachi
Because you've decluttered last week. This is why I love using my playbook for this. Because there's space to do all of this stuff, especially the space for weekly lists. There are pages, full pages for like week one, week two, week three, and four of a month. So it's nice to stick things in their best week, you know, to like as I'm decluttering and be like, I'm not doing this this week or next week because so and so. But I can put it in week three. This is a good spot to put this thing. It's just really nice for it to have a place. But I don't have to think about it again until I get to that week. And then once I do, I can sort and simplify and remove from those tasks and declutter that week. But it's already gonna feel a little less busy because I've started the process already. Okay, so those are the first four steps. The final step is to start with today. Here's where you can make a specific to do list for today based on what you've seen, sorted, simplified and removed. Sometimes all I can do is start with my best list for today and leave the rest until tomorrow. And then tomorrow I'll look at it again and I'll make another list for that day. Just start again, make a second list. Now. Sometimes when you go through this decluttering process, you actually feel pretty good about grouping your to do list across a few days. You know, the way that you're simplifying is by batching all of your errands on one day. So you can actually easily make that list for that particular day. Right. Or you might know that you have 90 minutes while your kid is at soccer practice on Wednesday to either like work on your laptop in the coffee shop down the street from the field, or you're gonna run errands before picking your kid up. That that only happens on the Wednesday during soccer practice. Right? So if you want to make multiple lists for multiple days, please do, please do. But ultimately, on paper and in your heart, I want you to start with today. Whether you're doing it the night before today or in the morning with your coffee or at 11 o', clock, and you wanna wisely and kindly start stewarding the rest of your day, just consider what can be done today because you have already sorted, simplified and removed, the list should be a little more doable to make than it was before you did any of those things. Now your life still might be crazy busy, especially on a particular day of the week. Just like a closet might still be full of stuff even after you've decluttered it, it's still got a lot of stuff in there. But when your schedule and your closet don't hold unnecessary things, when they are sorted just enough to feel like a you can catch your breath. And when you have made certain things more simple, knowing that it's good and wise to do that, when you feel overwhelmed rather than feeling bad that you've like changed your mind, all of that makes your week feel better. So look at what you have. Sort it by the type of thing, right? Whether it's by similar tasks or urgency or importance, or even days of the week. Then you're going to simplify what can be made simpler this week. Remove what doesn't belong for this week. And then as you make an actual fresh to do list, just start with today. Start with today's tasks, not the entire week. If you can, start with today for yourself and whatever energy that you are bringing. Start with the smallness and the goodness of this day and it helps you see the good that's here right now, even during a busy time. And that is how to declutter your week
- [31:18]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
this episode is sponsored by Indeed. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. So when the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for Sponsored Jobs.
- [31:29]
Kendra Adachi
Indeed.
- [31:30]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Sponsor Jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent.
- [31:33]
Kendra Adachi
It helps your job stand out in
- [31:35]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
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- [31:50]
Kendra Adachi
who check all your boxes.
- [31:51]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Less stress, less time, more results.
- [31:54]
Kendra Adachi
When you need the right person to
- [31:55]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of the show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
- [32:22]
Kendra Adachi
This episode is sponsored by ixl. I don't need to tell you that the end of a school year is busy and kids feel it too. But what feels most helpful right now is not more pressure, it's confidence. IXL is an award winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning. Whether they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and writing skills, or reviewing science concepts for a big test. Kids get instant feedback with clear explanations and everything is organized by grade level and skill, so it's easy to find what fits. Right now, it's proven to improve grades. Studies show kids who use IXL score higher on tests proven in all 50 states. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the US make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now and listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixcellearning.com genius visit ixcelearning.com genius to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price all right, let's get in today's A Little Extra Something where I'm going to share an update on the album project that I'm doing. So like I said at the start of the episode, I set my count at 300 albums for the year. Kind of split down the middle of like brand new albums to me and then familiar things that I want to re listen to. But at my current pace, I think that's number is probably going to be optimistic. It might happen, it might happen. But there are a couple of challenges to listening to albums that I did not anticipate. The main one is having to listen to a new album alone. I don't know what the content is. I don't know if there's language, I don't know if it's appropriate for when my kids are around until I listen to it. Which means I can only listen to a new album when I'm on my own. And since a good bit of the time that I spend alone is working, I can't just randomly listen to like the new Harry Styles album while I'm working on a podcast episode. So finding time to listen to albums with singing words has been harder than I anticipated. Which is okay. We adjust, right? And the adjustment, it likely comes at the expense of some of those 300 albums. It's probably going to be a smaller number, but that's great. I don't mind that at all. The other thing is that I'm just a big fan of audiobooks and I love to listen to those when I could be listening to albums like I'm listening to the Louise Penny books in the Inspector Gamache series. There's so many of those books and I love them, but there are so many of them. I've also been listening to the full cast Harry Potter audiobooks as they have come out. There's just a lot of great stuff to listen to that I genuinely enjoy. So my album time has not been as high as I expected it to be, just across the board because it's like I forgot how much I love audiobooks. So here's where I am with the project. I have listened to 65 full length albums so far in 2026, so I'm on track to come close to 200 for the year for sure, which is great. I'm like very happy with that. And again, it may be more, it may be less, the number is less important. More than half of the albums of those 65 are new and there are a couple that I've listened to multiple times that have just like shot up to the top of my list like becoming go tos and I did not expect that to happen so quickly, but here we are. So I want to share a couple of them with you. The first is called Creature of Habit by Courtney Barnett. She reminds me a little bit of Tom Petty, but like a female indie version of Tom Petty. The songs are so good, so fun, so loud. It's weirdly nostalgic music while also feeling modern and fresh. And the language, the, the. The lyrics of Creature of Habit are fairly family friendly. Like there's no language. There's nothing terribly objectionable, at least for my own listening. I have turned to that so many times. I've played it in the car when my kids are there. It's like it is just a good time out of the gate. So fantastic. So that's Creature of Habit by Courtney Barnett. The second album that I've gone to multiple times is called Pumpkin by Georgie Parker. This is like down the middle singer songwriter album with just enough like interest and weirdness to grab you. I love a singer songwriter album that's just like somebody with a guitar. I love that that this has some extra instrumentation, some interesting chord progressions. It's like just got enough of a little to make you go, whoa, what is this? Her voice is incredible. The lyrics are beautiful. It's just so good. She reminds me a little bit of like Lizzie McAlpine. I've never known how to say her last name. Maybe like a little bit of Gracie Adams. Mostly like old school Regina Spector. She. It's Just like pure and beautiful and moody and cool. It's just great. Great vibes. Both of these albums are so good for a drive. Creature of Habit is for like sun or open windows, Happiness. Pumpkin is for like clouds, Open windows and melancholy. Both are just excellent and I will keep listening to them for a very long time. So again, that's Creature of Habit by Courtney Barnett and Pumpkin by Georgie Parker. And that's my album update. Today's a little extra something. All right, this week's Lazy Genius of the week is Rachel from Dallas. Rachel writes, rebranding leftovers has been a game changer. No one in my family loves to eat leftovers, but in the season of family gatherings, practices, games, homework, and working parents, cooking a different meal every night is just not possible. So I started putting ABC Night on our weekly meal plan and explained it was anything but cooking. Chicken tender tacos. Check. Pancakes and peanut butter sandwiches. Sure. Last night's spaghetti on a pizza crust. Why not apple nachos with caramel sauce? Sign me up. If ABC Night isn't on the calendar now, my son specifically requests it. The kids get some freedom and creativity and I get a cleaned out fridge. This is so great. I love that. This is not a new concept. We've had versions of this before, but you guys, rebranding it is so key in the kitchen. It is so key. I know some people swear by, like, getting kids to eat broccoli by calling them little trees. While that never worked for my own children, I do think it's a great idea, which my kids are far more willing to eat something called fire pork than soy glazed pork tenderloin. Right. So calling your leftovers a completely other thing is so smart. I've heard of calling these, like, yo yo dinners too. You're on your own, yo yo. But I really like ABC Night because it teaches everybody that dinner can still be great without cooking. It inspires a little bit of creativity, which some people really respond to. So it's just a. It's just a fun rebrand. Thanks for sharing this idea with us, Rachel, and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. All right, let's close with a mini pep talk for when you can't catch a break. The other day, I was standing at the orthodontist with my kid being asked to make five future appointments over the next eight weeks. And as the very kind receptionist worked to find appointments that would work for me, I kept thinking, well, I hope this doesn't fall on Annie's awards day. And I hope I can switch Carpal run this day. And I guess I'll need to adjust just when I record my episode on this day. And I guess I won't have an empty day that week after all. Like, I thought it was just like a series of like micro decisions that felt heavy. And I stood there in the orthodontist office and I remember thinking how much I wish I had cause his job, my husband's schedule, he just goes to work in the morning and he comes home at dinner. Like he doesn't have to do any of the schedule Tetris because he's at his office and he can't now. I mean, if he was a single parent, he would have to figure it out. But he's not a single parent. He has me. And I have flexibility built into my job and my schedule, which is by design. You know, I appreciate the fact that I can take Ben to five or six appointments over eight weeks without it being stressful on anything but my own sanity. Now my own sanity matters, but it's also manageable, you know, like ultimately it's all fine. That also in that orthodontist office, I felt the weight of the last few weeks, really the whole of 2026. Cause it's. It feels like I haven't caught a scheduling break in months. I've had kids sick on my day off. I've lost my voice twice, which backed up all my work and made future weeks like so much busier and harder. Like no week has felt normal. Not yet in 2026, but. And I don't know, maybe normal isn't a thing with three kids and a job and a partner and all the things of a busy life. I've said this before, but I do tend to think of my life as full instead of busy. Busyness feels like it has no soul. Fullness still has soul. And also fullness can wear you down. Especially when you feel like you can't catch a break. When things like start to even out and then a kid gets a stomach bug or you sprain your ankle or your car needs a new transmission or whatever. You know, it's the whole like, when it rains, it pours idea. And this time of year I just think can feel that way. It's like, it's like pouring Google Calendar items. And it's in those times where we have to remember that greatness is not the goal. Changing our circumstances to be the easiest they can be is not the goal. Managing our lives to the point of absolute control is not the goal. The goal is to be a grounded, integrated person no matter what is happening around you. When I feel like I can't catch a break, honestly, it it means I think that my circumstances should be different and I start to try and manage or manipulate those circumstances. Instead. It's better to channel that energy into being my truest self and staying kind, staying boundaried, staying calm even when I have to make a million orthodontist decisions at 9 o' clock on a Monday morning. When you feel like you can't catch a break, remember that you operate differently than most people. You are not as shaken by your circumstances, not in the same way that productivity people are. You don't need to micromanage or over function or get big butt trash bag energy. Just breathe, stay kind, remember what matters, and keep on going with the next thing. I know that's not an answer with like a pretty bow. If you want one of those, there are other podcasters that you can go listen to, but I'm here instead to tell you that you can stop trying so hard. Be kind where you are. Live in your season and tend to whatever you need to tend to today. It's not as exciting as listening to an episode titled something like the best advice to change your life forever. I think you just need to breathe and stay soft and kind and stop hustling so hard. You don't need to change your life forever. Live kindly in the life you have today when you adjust your expectations to match that. Not catching a break isn't as stressful as it could be. And that's a mini pep talk for when you feel like you can't catch a break. If this episode was helpful to you, or if you've been looking for a way to support the show, please we would love for you to share this episode with someone that you know or you can leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Every single mention and share it makes a difference in making more people lazy geniuses. So thank you for being so supportive. This podcast is part of the Odyssey Family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weeks weekly production. If you'd like a podcast recap every other week, be sure to sign up for the latest Lazy Listens email that goes out every other Friday. Head to the lazygeniuscollective.com listens to get it. 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. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week.
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Kendra Adachi
Edu Sci.