How to Get Stuff Done When You Don’t Feel Like It (Rerun)

Summary

The Lazy Genius Podcast
Episode: How to Get Stuff Done When You Don’t Feel Like It (Rerun)
Host: Kendra Adachi (The Lazy Genius)
Date: February 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on a universally relatable challenge: how to tackle tasks you don’t feel like doing—whether that’s paying bills, cleaning the kitchen, or basic chores. Kendra offers a compassionate, system-based approach rooted in her signature Lazy Genius philosophy: be a genius about the things that matter, lazy about the things that don’t. Drawing on both practical advice and personal anecdotes, she lays out clear steps and principles for getting through unavoidable “ugh” moments in everyday life.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Recognizing Tasks You Don’t Want to Do

• Everyone, including Kendra, faces daily tasks they dread (e.g., bills). The first step is acknowledging that “there are things we have to do that we don’t love doing, and we still have to make time for them” (02:49).
• Real-life example: Kendra uses her dislike for paying bills as a running illustration.

2. Step 1: Ask “Do I Have To Do This Now?”

• Not every task is as urgent as it seems. Kendra urges listeners to assess urgency rationally, not reactively:

  “We get in the habit of responding to the urgent right away, but some things are not quite as urgent as we think they are.” (04:09)

• If the answer is yes (e.g., bills due today, a mess that can’t wait), do it right away to avoid bigger problems:

  “If you don’t figure out how to feed your family when they’re hungry, they will turn on you and become feral.” (05:30)

• If not urgent, move to the next step.

3. Step 2: Ask “If Not Now, When?”

• Name a concrete alternative time. Be specific to avoid the stress of an ambiguous “later”:

  “When you ask yourself, if not now, when? you’re giving yourself a context for what’s best for you.” (08:21)

• Tips for “right now or later” thinkers: use technology (timers, alarms) to commit to a future time.

4. Step 3: Build a Small, Doable System (Lazy Genius Principles in Action)

Kendra demonstrates her process using her bill-paying example and introduces several Lazy Genius principles:

• Decide Once:

  “Somewhere from the 1st and the 3rd of every month is when I’ll pay all the bills. … That is the beauty of decide once.” (13:07)

• Put Everything in Its Place:

  “Bills cannot go in the same place as catalogs … We have two places for mail: one big basket for non-urgent things … and a smaller basket for urgent mail.” (14:56)

• Batching:

  “I grab them all, I open my app, I pay all the bills … and I’m done in 10 minutes. And then I don’t have to think about it again for another month.” (16:30)

5. Personalization and Division of Labor

• Tasks don’t have to be equally distributed in a household—play to individual strengths/preferences.

  “I can manage the hatred of [paying bills] better than he can. … I’d rather do it than him do it.” (12:11)

• Be honest about what works in your specific season of life.

6. Kindness and Acceptance

• Be gentle with yourself when things don’t go as planned:

  “It’s okay to not like doing something. It doesn’t make you a bad person.” (17:40)

• “Live in your season” and be realistic about challenges unique to your current life stage.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you don’t clean up pee right away … actually, let’s just not talk about it.” (05:25)
• “If not now, when? Like for real, when? Name your when.” (08:21)
• “Mail is a very broad category, right? … If I treat all my mail the same way, I will forget many important things.” (14:41)
• “Start small. Just start small.” (20:58)
• “I rarely do something I dislike while not simultaneously doing something I do like.” (21:00)
• “I do a get up countdown. … 3, 2, 1, get up. I don't know, it's weird, but it works.” (22:01)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:12] – Introducing the problem: universal resistance to unwanted tasks
• [04:09] – First key question: “Do I have to do this now?”
• [08:19] – Second key question: “If not now, when?”
• [10:42] – Transition to systems: “create a small, doable system”
• [13:07] – Lazy Genius Principle: Decide Once
• [14:56] – Lazy Genius Principle: Put Everything in Its Place
• [16:30] – Lazy Genius Principle: Batching
• [17:40] – Self-kindness and acceptance; living in your season
• [19:05] – Kendra’s personal list (“How I get stuff done when I don’t feel like it”)

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Kendra’s Top 10 Tips (Quick Recap from Episode 403)

[19:05]

1. Remember how much you dislike urgency—avoid it.
2. Be motivated by a well-systemized home.
3. Rely on systems for stuff you hate.
4. If you choose not to do something, actively enjoy the time instead of feeling guilty.
5. Start small.
6. Pair disliked tasks with something you enjoy.
7. Don’t save annoying tasks for when the kids are gone—do them with kids around.
8. Set timers to keep tasks manageable.
9. Use a “get up” countdown when lacking motivation.
10. Ask for help or solidarity—you don’t have to do it alone.

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Recap & Takeaways

Kendra’s message is practical and compassionate: chores and dull tasks don’t have to rule your life, nor do you have to use brute motivation or complex systems. By pausing to ask “Do I have to do this now?”, specifying when you’ll actually tackle the task (“If not now, when?”), and building small, repeatable systems using Lazy Genius principles, you can make unwanted tasks less painful. Above all, be kind to yourself, accept the realities of your season, and don’t be afraid to ask for help—or find ways to inject a little joy into the mundane.

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Signature Sign-off:
“Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.”

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For more on building small systems for your own dreaded tasks, check out Kendra’s back catalog for focused episodes on meal planning, cleaning, and more.

Transcript

[Kendra Adachi]

This episode is sponsored by Merit Beauty. One of my favorite Lazy Genius principles is start small. You do it in routines. You do it around your house. You also can do it with makeup and Merit Beauty does that well. Starting with less usually works better, which is why I use their minimalist stick every day. It is replaced foundation, concealer, all the things I just like. Swipe it on, do a quick zhuzh with a brush and I'm done. It's quick, natural looking and it actually makes a difference without much effort. Their mascara is the best I've tried, giving me natural looking lashes that just look longer and more awake. And if I'm not wearing makeup at all, their great skin serum still makes my face feel fresh and pulled together. Everything Merit makes is clean, vegan, cruelty free, and made with ingredients that leave your skin feeling good even after you take it all off. Right now, Merit Beauty is offering our listeners their signature makeup bag with your first [e-mail] that's M E R I T beauty.com to get your free signature makeup bag with your first order. Meritbeauty.com 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 exhausting and unsustainable. So here we do things differently on the 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're running an old episode that I think you'll appreciate hearing right about now. It's episode 238, how to get stuff done when you don't feel like it.

So this happens every day and I.

Hope that the tools in this episode help you get your stuff done a little more easily. We at the end of the rerun, I'm going to share a quick summary of episode 403, how I get stuff done when I don't feel like it. It's a short list of reminders that help me, so I will share that at the end. For now, enjoy listening to how to get stuff done when you don't feel like it.

Hi there, you are 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 238, how to get stuff done when you don't feel like it. How real is this episode, y'? All? The number of times I have to do stuff I don't want to do is a very high number. And it is part of life, I think. I think it's important to name what we can be a genius about and what we can be lazy about. But some things, like, you know, paying bills, we can't just drop off our task list.

There are things we have to do.

That we don't love doing, and we still have to make time for them. So how do we do that while still being lazy geniuses? That's what this episode is all about, and we're going to make it as linear as possible. So let's start with the problem. Start with a thing you don't want to do. You're sitting on your couch or driving home from work, or driving to work or lying in bed trying to find the momentum to get up. That happens to me this morning. And there is something on your mind you don't want to do. There is something that's keeping you from moving forward because you just don't want to do it. As we walk through this process of getting stuff done when you don't feel like it, I'm going to use the personal example of paying bills. You can use whatever you would like. I hate paying bills. There is something about it that breaks my brain. So that's where. That's where I'm going to start. I will walk to the mailbox, grab the pile of mail inside. I will find a bill, and then I am reminded that I need to pay bills, right? And then I groan and complain and I walk slower and I roll my eyes and I feel like my whole afternoon is ruined because I have to pay bills now. I am pretty sure you do not have to work hard to imagine your own similar scenario about something you don't want to do.

So.

So here is your first question in that kind of moment. Do I have to do this now? Do I have to do this now? We get in the habit of responding to the urgent right away, but some things are not quite as urgent as we think they are. Now, if I am going through mail that we have gotten over the last couple of weeks and I find a bill that is due literally today, much like what just happened with an email I got from my credit card company being like, hey, Kendra, you're great, but you need to pay us today or we're going to get real mad if.

You are hit with something that you.

Don'T want to do. There are definitely times when the answer to do I have to do this now? Is yes. Like you do have to do this now. Thank you. If the answer is yes, just go ahead and do it. You know, paying overdue bills, cleaning up an accident in the bathroom where a kid had really bad aim, feeding yourself or your family because it's 6 o' clock and everyone is melting down and hungry. Those are the kinds of things that do need immediate attention. Now, you could absolutely ignore them, but the. The aftermath of that decision is way worse than just doing the thing now. If you don't clean up pee right away. Actually, let's just. Let's not talk about it. If you don't pay your bills on time, you will be.

You will.

You'll be paying more in interest.

You will pay late fees.

Your power could get turned off.

If you don't figure out how to.

Feed your family when they're hungry, they will turn on you and become feral. Chances are you already know the things that are urgent. That's why you jump on them right away, even though you really don't want to do them. But there are a lot of things that feel urgent that might not actually be urgent. And that is why your first question is, do I have to do this now? And this is also. Let me clarify, this is also not spoken to yourself in a whiny tone like you're a fourth grader being asked to put away his laundry, like, do I have to do this now? It's not that. It's more intellectual and rational, Do I have to do this now? Is this truly necessary in this moment? And only you can know the answer to that. If I get a bill, that just reminds me that I have bills to pay in general at some point in the future, I don't really have to pay that bill right now. I can make a plan for when I should, which we'll get to. But ultimately, I don't have to carry the weight of this thing I don't want to do, because I can release doing it until later. Now, as you ask that question, do I have to do this now? The answer might be no, but qualified. You know, maybe you don't have to do it now. Something like cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. But man, will you sure be glad you did it now when you wake up tomorrow morning. So have to is relative, you know, Do I have to do this now? That is relative. But you can make decisions as we always do, or always try to at least make decisions based on what matters to you. Okay, so you've decided if it has to be done now. If yes, do it now. If no, here's your next question. It's pretty simple. If not now, when? Let's go back to the dirty kitchen. If you don't clean it now, when will you clean it? When you answer to yourself, tomorrow morning or tomorrow before the next time I cook dinner. Really think about if that's the time that makes sense for you and what matters most. If you're like, no, I'm exhausted and I really just need to go to bed, then do that. Do that. That can be an answer. I'm not trying to trick you into choosing only one answer here. But when you ask yourself, if not now, when you're giving yourself a context for what's best for you, you can kind of see your scenarios a little more clearly and you can make a decision that works. Let's go back to my bills. I have established I don't have to pay the bills right now that I just got from the mailbox, right? But if not now, when? Because they have to get paid for you. You have to figure out something for dinner. If not now, when?

Like for real when?

Name your when. If it's not now, but it has to happen then, it has to happen some time now. Before we move on to the next step, which is the fun step of using lazy genius principles to build a system, I want to talk briefly to the folks who find it challenging to see time they this way. Some of you are either right now or later, just like in general later. Those are your two. Those are your two time buckets. If you're not doing it right now, it just exists somewhere in the future. So to you, I would like to say that part of your system of if not now when is to use some sort of technology to specify your later. A timer, a an alarm, a calendar notification. Your brain can think I'll do it later and be correct. But you need a fail safe. You need some kind of automated net to move your generalized later to an eventual but very tangible right now. And ideally a right now that's not stressed out and late and frantically trying to finish something because you forgot that your right now was coming up. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored by ritual.

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Okay, so you've named if you have to do something now. You've named when that will be and recorded it somehow if you need to. Now it's time. This is the fun part, to create a small, hear me, a small doable system around that thing. Maybe even one that you can replicate. And this is where we bring in lazy genius principles.

We are going to apply a few.

Of the principles here as examples so you can figure out how you might use those principles for your own thing that you don't want to do. As a reminder, the Lazy Genius principles exist in my book the Lazy Genius way. There are 13 of them. I. I won't talk about all 13 in this episode, but we're going to apply a few. Okay, first up, I'm going to share how I personally use a couple of the principles to deal with my bills that I hate so very much. Well, actually, before I do that, hold on, let me say this. Some of you might be thinking, why do you have to pay the bills? Can't cause do it because I'm. I'm married. I have a partner. And yes, he can. In fact, he is probably on paper way more qualified than I am because he has actual college degrees in both economics and math from Duke University. He's very smart. And actually, as I say that, I am not sure why the bills fell to me in the first place. But I mean, I guess I really do know why because I tend to be more organized than causes. And he also desperately does not enjoy administrative tasks, like at all. They just suck his soul dry. Now does he mind cleaning toilets or doing laundry or playing pretend with Annie for literally three hours straight? No, he does not. In fact, he kind of enjoys those things. And I, I do not. So while I hate paying bills, I can manage the, the hatred of it better than he can. The division of labor sometimes shifts in a marriage, but for us, I have always paid the bills. And I'm actually fine with that in kind of a broader context because it's kind of, it's kind of like the time question, you know, if not now, when? If not me, who? If not me, it's cause and he matters to me. His sanity around this task matters to me more than my own. Now, I'm not sacrificing my own well being for his, but in this situation, I would rather do it than him do it. And he feels the same way about other tasks. He would rather fold the laundry than have me fold the laundry because I would really rather not fold the laundry. And he doesn't mind it as much as I do. Okay, so I pay the bills and these are the principles that I use to do it. First, I decide once. A lazy genius principle is to decide once. And I do that by naming when I pay all the bills. Most of our bills are due between the 6th of the month and the 13th of the month. So my decide once is that somewhere from the 1st and the 3rd of every month is when I'll pay all the bills. Done. You know, decision made. That is the beauty of decide. Once you make one decision, one time about one thing until that decision doesn't work anymore. So when I pay bills, it's decided like when it's going to happen. The second principle that I use is to put everything in its place. This principle is pretty self explanatory in that things work more easily in your home and your life when everything has a place and then is put back in that place when you're not using it. Now here is something I learned about mail. Mail is a very broad category, right? Very, very broad. In fact, if I treat all of my mail the same way, I will forget many important things. In fact, there is an entire episode about dealing with paper that I will link in the show notes. And a big part of that episode is dealing with mail. So all that to say bills cannot go in the same place as catalogs and financial reports that need to be filed or shredded or something. In other words, bills are urgent and they cannot be put in the same place as mail that is not urgent. So we have two places for mail. We have one big basket for non urgent things that I just go through when the basket is full. And then we have a smaller basket for urgent mail. And that's also where, like, keys and wallets go. It's kind of like the daily catch. All those two baskets are right beside each other because I want to be able to triage the mail pretty quickly. But I put the bills in their place. I put them in the urgent place. That way, when it's the first, the second, or the third of the month, I know exactly where to find all the bills that I need to pay without having to sort through a month's worth of mail. The third principle I use is batching. Batching is doing one thing all at once. I could pay bills as they arrive. I have an app on my phone, makes it pretty easy. And I could pay one bill at a time when I have it in my hand when I get it from the mailbox. And in fact, I actually tried that for a while, but it just didn't work for me. I dislike paying bills so much that being at the mercy of whenever one would arrive, it would kind of make me sad. And then also sometimes I would be like, ugh, not now. And then I would drop the bill and assume I'd pay it later. But I didn't think about the win. I didn't ask, like, if not now, when? I didn't plan that. And then I didn't pay it and we got a, you know, a 45.

Late fee or whatever, you can get distracted by children.

Like, there are just so many things. So I personally would rather batch my bill paying. So I do. I grab them all, I open my app, I pay all the bills. I do, like, mobile deposit for any random checks that exist in the same place as the bills. And. And I'm done in 10 minutes. And then I don't have to think about it again for another month. So here is our path. Do I have to do this right now? If yes, do it, great. If no, ask. If not now, when? Then mark that time so you don't forget. And then if you would like to replicate that process or make that single task easier in some way, apply a couple of lazy genius principles to create, like, a small doable system. I would actually encourage you to look through the episode archives of the podcast at any titles that pop up of things that you really don't like doing. Cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kitchen, organizing paper like we've already talked about meal planning, figuring out chores for your kids. Look through the episode archive like on your podcast app, and there might already be an episode that applies lazy genius principles to. To your specific struggle already. So it'll kind of give you a good place to start. Like, you don't have to create a system. The episode kind of offers a couple of options for you. Now, as you go through this process, I would like to remind you of two other principles that are very important when talking about doing stuff we don't want to do. One is to be kind to yourself. It's okay to not like doing something. It doesn't make you a bad person. And when you put something off and the consequences are worse than you expected, please don't beat yourself up about it. You know, be kind. Learn, move on. The second principle to remember here is to live in your season. Remember that certain seasons are meant for certain things. This might be a season of a lot of chores because you're tending to your own home as well as the home of an aging parent you might hate. Washing dishes, and you have a baby who has bottles you have to wash all the time. And you're stuck doing a task you really dislike doing for a season. Some seasons will be more intense with this than others, and that's okay. So just remember to be honest about your season. Learn from it where you can, and be kind to yourself in the process.

Well, that was how to get stuff done when you don't feel like it. All right, so now I want to just give you a quick rundown of the episode. How I get stuff done when I don't feel like it. There were 10 things. I'm just going to blow through them here.

1.

I remember how much I dislike urgency. You might not care, but urgency makes me a bit unlikable. Remembering that it helps me do whatever I need before it becomes urgent. Number two, I am motivated by a systemized home. I work better in one, and I've cultivated mine over many, many years. Since I care about that, it's easier for me to choose habits that keep that system running even if I don't want to do them.

It just makes the choice like, yeah, okay, let's do this.

Number three, I depend on systems for stuff I really hate. It's easier to keep something going when you like it or don't mind. But for things you really do not like, it might be good for you to use some of your best problem solving energy to create a system of sorts for something that you dislike by automating it, simplifying it, you know, maybe even creating some. Some systemized machinery over time that you don't build right away.

But that way you don't have to like, work up the motivation every time it's time to do that thing that you hate.

Number four, if I choose to not do something that I dislike right now, I actively choose to enjoy that time. Not just like waste it away feeling guilty. Like if I decide I'm just too out of it and cleaning the bathroom can wait, I'm not gonna go rot. I'm gonna do something fun. I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna go read or, you know, watch a show or like go outside, go for a walk or something. And that way that's refilling me so.

That when it is time for me.

To clean the bathroom, I've got more energy to do it. Number five, I start small all the time. Doing what you don't wanna do. It will not work if you throw too many big solutions at it. Start small with how you get it done. Start small with how you begin.

Just start small. Just start small.

Number six, I rarely do something I dislike while not simultaneously doing something I do like. So, like, listening to music while I'm paying bills, listening to a podcast or an audiobook while I'm doing dishes. I'll have like a book in my.

Hand while I'm waiting, you know, in.

A parking lot for kids to come back to the car for me to take them home. I do something I like during something I don't like so much. Number seven, I do hard, like annoying things with my kids around. Like, I don't wait for them to be gone even though they're kind of underfoot. Like, don't save the annoying stuff for.

When you're by yourself. Ew.

Number eight, I set timers.

Timers are great.

You know, when they go off, you just stop. Like if you put it off this long, you can probably stop and just finish later. Or maybe by this time you have the momentum to, you know, get it all the way done.

Because the hardest part was getting started.

Number nine, I do a get up countdown. Like if I'm super tired and I just can't get off the couch, but I know I need to cuz dinner has to be made or whatever, I will literally give myself like a, like a, A countdown to get up. I'll be like, okay, you can get up. 3, 2, 1, get up.

I don't know, it's weird, but it works.

And then number 10, I ask for help or for solidarity, I lean on both. It's just really nice to have someone else be part of your hard, annoying stuff. You don't have to do it alone. You don't have to experience it alone. So either ask for help or ask for solidarity. And that's how I get stuff done when I don't feel like it. Thanks for listening to this rerun episode today. Hope you have a great weekend. This podcast is part of the Odyssey Family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, an executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. If you'd like a podcast recap every other week, be sure to sign up for the latest Lazy Link Listens email that goes out every other Friday. You can 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.

I'll see you next week.

[Rachel Braan]

Life can feel overwhelming, but you don't have to go through it alone. On my podcast from the Heart with Rachel Braan, I share openly and vulnerably about everything life brings us and what we can learn by living with our hearts a little bit more open. Every Friday, a new episode brings you a new story with topics on self care, motherhood, healing and more. You are enough just the way you are. This podcast is a reminder of that. Follow and listen to from the Heart with Rachel Braythen wherever you get your podcasts.