#416 - What’s Saving My Life - podcast episode cover

#416 - What’s Saving My Life

May 05, 202546 min
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Summary

Kendra shares ten things currently saving her life, including faith-based music and podcasts, discovering her true colors through DIY color analysis, a favorite cleansing balm, and the importance of noticing small joys. She also discusses deleting Instagram, prioritizing strength training, bird watching, family time with Family Feud, and using a seasonal playbook for planning.

Episode description

If you’re new here, this is a favorite episode we do once a quarter. Barbara Brown Taylor, a fantastic author, coined this phrase years ago: what’s saving my life, and I love the regular practice of taking note of what that is for me. I’m sharing ten things that are saving my life right now in this particular season of life, and they, as always, are quite the smattering of unrelated things. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Jesus by Jon Guerra The BEMA Podcast RMS Coconut Cleansing Balm (affiliate link) Caroline Girvan YouTube channel Merlin Bird Identifier app Get a Summer Playbook Get the next Latest Lazy Letter that lands in inboxes on Wednesday, May 7 Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) Download a transcript of this episode. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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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's episode 416. What's saving my life? If you're new here, this is a favorite episode we do once a quarter. Barbara Brown Taylor, a fantastic author, coined this phrase years ago. What's saving my life? And I love the regular practice of taking note of what that is for me.

If you have read the plan, then you know that the letter N in plan stands for notice. If we don't notice our lives, we can easily get wrapped up in the preparation of our lives, which is the P in plan. or even in constantly adjusting things so that they work, adjust is the A. plan because we want things to work well right but without noticing without noticing what is alive

What is working? What is making life beautiful and meaningful and fun? We can skew into robot territory pretty fast. We need all three. We need preparation, adjustment, and noticing. order to live which is the L in a wholehearted way, right? So today's episode is one of my personal practices of noticing and kind of collectively one of our own. I'm going to share 10 things that are saving my life right now in this particular season of life.

They, as always, are like quite a smattering of unrelated things. You can take that as encouragement that your list, which I highly encourage you to make one, doesn't have to be Like all serious or all meaningful or all whatever you think it's supposed to be. Like I have a cleanser on this list. It's making my life magical in every way. So don't sleep on the small stuff. It's going to be a mix. important because so is life, right?

Okay, so let's jump into the 10 things that are saving my life right now. The first two of them are connected to my faith. And I'm going to put them at the top and put them together so that if you are not into that today, if that was not your vibe today, you are absolutely welcome to skip ahead a couple of minutes. to number three. But we're going to start as one does with number one. The first thing that's saving my life right now is John Guerra's new album. It's called Jesus.

Many of you regular listeners know how much I love music and how it's, I mean, it's just a massive part of my life, both in listening to it and also playing it. my like my only tattoo has to do with music I make playlists all the time I'm a bit intense about not shuffling them. And music is also a way that I connect to people in my life. Like not just even the music I listen to, like my oldest kid, Sam, he's a musician and he is a composer of concert band music, which is not this album.

But while that's like a different vibe altogether, it's still so connective, right? And it's, music's just a huge part of our family culture. So anyway, this new album by John Guerra, that's John with no A. And then Guerra is G-U-E-R-R-A. It is genuinely special. I mean, all of his music is.

good but this album has been massive for me and could be for you too especially if your faith has has been through some things recently I think it's really hard to find like quote-unquote Christian music that speaks to the layers and intricacies and fears and joys of loving Jesus without feeling like trite or surfacy. or just flat out wrong and john's music is a treasure and how humble and honest

and beautiful it is. He's an incredible musician. So like the songs themselves are really cool and beautiful and like sometimes a little weird, which I love. His voice is a stunner, but the lyrics are like, straight to the soul in the best most authentic way i love every single song on this album i've listened to it so many times but the song called i see the birds is a major favorite

So if you just have time to listen to one song, maybe you could listen to that one. So if you're needing some Jesus music that makes you feel grounded, try this album, Jesus by John Guerra. I have listened to it straight through. I mean, no joke, probably. since it relates Barely a month ago. It's been constant. April was a hard month and this album met me in just the right.

So that is Jesus by John Guerra. The second thing that's saving my life that is also Jesus related, it's the Bama podcast. Bama is spelled B-E-M-A. It's a podcast that goes through the Bible through an Eastern lens instead of a Western one and also a Jewish lens. Because the Bible was primarily written in many ways to the Jewish people. Okay, so there are many things.

that I thought I knew about the Bible growing up in church. But this podcast has really opened my eyes to some new ways of viewing scripture that I never had before, or at least I never had as comprehensively as this. So I started at the very beginning of the podcast and that first episode released in like 2017 or something. And they're still making new ones.

I'm assuming I will eventually catch up. But for now, I've been really grateful for different perspectives on what the Bible says, especially as I'm reading through the Bible in a year with some friends, which I've mentioned before. This podcast has just been really grounding, really grounding. So if you haven't listened to it before,

Maybe you can do what I did and just start with the very first episode, see what you think. And if you're like, huh, this has me thinking about some things, then you can listen to the next one and keep going if you want or stop. But for me, I have really enjoyed the Bama podcast.

And in this season, it has really saved my life. Okay, so those are the two faith specific entries this week. And now we move on to the third thing that's saving my life in this season, which is a biggie. And it was doing my own coloring. I am not an expert in color analysis by any means. So for those of you wanting me to do an entire episode on this, it probably will not happen. I do not want to lead you astray.

But I mentioned before that I have been playing around with DIY color analysis. And I mentioned it in the last newsletter. I put some links to some videos that I watched that helped me kind of think through it all. Side note, if you don't get the newsletter, you can sign up for that at thelazygeniuscollective.com slash join. It comes out like just once a month. That's it. If it's the first Wednesday of the month. But I share like longer form things like how I'm figuring out DIY color analysis.

Actually, our next newsletter, it goes out this coming Wednesday. So if you're listening to this on the day the podcast episode releases on Monday the 5th, it comes out this Wednesday the 7th because that's the first Wednesday of the month. So if you're listening before then, you will get a newsletter so fast. That's so fun.

And then what's cool is that in each newsletter is a link at the bottom to archived newsletters, to all the old ones. So you can always go back to the latest lazy letter that went out on April 2nd. read there what I wrote about color and color analysis. Okay, so back to why this is saving my life. I performed my own color analysis because what I had done virtually It did not feel right.

It just didn't feel right. I was told I was a summer. And because if you don't know, you're like, what does that mean? If you don't know, it's broken into the four seasons. And then each season is broken into like three subsets of that season. So anyway, I was told I was one of the subsets. And if you look at me, you might think that's right. Like I don't have a ton of contrast in my features.

If you see me in an orange or a yellow shirt You will immediately know that my undertone is blue, that it is cool and it is not warm, oh my gosh. And because of those two things, because I have a blue undertone and because I don't have a lot of contrast in my natural features and my hair and my skin and whatever, then I'm a summer. I should be a summer. But when I watched like some of these color analysis videos, I realized, I learned.

that how you look on the outside, it cannot be the main factor in what season you are. You really do need to do the swatches to see. Plus a friend of mine, the reason I was doing this at all is a friend of mine had a birthday coming up and she had always wanted to get her collars done, but was like, you know, it's pretty expensive actually, especially if you do it in person, it's hard to find somebody, blah, blah, blah. So I committed myself. I was like, you know what?

i wonder if i can learn how to do this i wonder if i can watch enough videos and practice with actual color swatches like i got like quilting samples uh and i could do this myself So I did, I learned, I learned and I learned and I learned. And then we did colors for my friends and it, it kind of, it worked. It was pretty wild, but I did my own colors too. So when I did my own color.

I learned I am not a summer. I am not a summer. I am a winter. You guys, I'm a winter. I don't have snow white hair and lips. I don't have porcelain. I mean, I do have porcelain skin, but it's really just skin that doesn't like the sun. But I don't have high contrast in my features like a winter day.

But y'all, I'm a winter. But because I had had my colors done and was told I was a summer, then I went through a couple of years of trying to make my closet summery, which meant cool colors still like a winter has. but soft and muted ones. A closet full of soft

muted clothes, except for the black ones that I refuse to get rid of because my summer palette told me to not wear black. Absolutely not. Anyway, so I have spent months, months and months and months, feeling a little off, feeling like I'm... And now that I am wearing stronger, deeper, brighter colors, like you're supposed to when you're awake. I just, I feel so much more.

I did not realize how frustrating it was to get dressed every day or to catch myself in the mirror, like a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Like the style of my clothes was right. The fit of my clothes felt right, but the colors weren't. Now that I know. No soft, no muted, no man. I need cool and bright and deep to look and feel the most like myself. I just feel so much lighter. Sometimes you don't know that something is heavy. until you remove it

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The fourth thing that's saving my life right now is it's the cleanser. It's the cleanser I mentioned at the top of the show. Okay, so it's from RMS. That's the brand. Now y'all know how much I love this brand. I think I've had something from RMS. on my last three What's Saving My Life episodes, like I think.

Now, I'm not saying that RMS products will work for everyone. Just like that's the case with any brand that you might love. It's not going to work for everybody because that's just not how things go. but RMS sure does work for me. I love their products so much. I have makeup and I have skincare, but there's a new product I tried because this has sort of been my...

My process is when I run out of something I already have that does a certain job then I explore a different brand that might be better particularly RMS because I just love their stuff so much. So I ran out recently of my green clean cleanser. That's the, the, like the balmy cleanser from pharmacy, the brand pharmacy. And I've loved that for a long time. Like it's, it's really solid and I've used it for.

But I was like, it's time to try. It's time to try the RMS one. It's called the coconut cleansing balm or coconut. balm cleanser or something. Anyway, it's like in a light blue tub, like shallow tub. So here's the deal. This stuff is so good. So it goes on like a balm, you know, like an oil. It's oil-based, right, to remove makeup.

But then what you do, because usually when you do a cleansing balm is you put the balm on and then, that sounded like Seinfeld, and then you use like a rag and you take the balm off and then you use a water-based cleanser and you wash your face again. That's like a two. um like a two-step cleansing process which is recommended especially if you wear makeup because what both water and oil like neither one remove everything you kind of need both okay here's what's so great

You put it on your face like a balm. You know, you rub it in. It's like an oil to remove the makeup. And then you don't wipe it off. You put water on your hands, and you work the water into the balm on your face, and it creates a lather. It's a double cleanse in one product. so that i'll rinse my face and then i do like one final wipe with a washcloth and my face is my face is warm

and this stuff smells amazing, works like a dream, it makes my skin feel so good, like really clean, but you know, not stripped, not dry, it's just very moisturized, but not like overly so. It's one product instead of two. i'm so obsessed with it i'm so obsessed with it i've been using it every day for like a month and it makes me happy every so good so officially the name is called i looked it up it's called coconut clean cleansing balm from RMS. Okay, so that is my

whatever number, fourth thing, saving my life. So good. Okay. Number five, very different from a cleansing balm. Number five is noticing. Now this whole episode is a practice of noticing, but noticing my life and all the small things in it has been massively important the last couple of months. I've had busyness like kind of a regular busyness I mean part of it is the time of year right a lot of us are having that but there's also been grief in several areas

some ongoing unknowns both personally and professionally that are still happening like right now and then just the pace of like regular life you know when life is irregularly busy not just busy but like it's a little more so which now is the time of year it seems to be for a lot of folks Plus, there's personal difficulties and heartache. For me, my default with all of that

is to go into robot mode. I just plow forward and I prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust and prepare and adjust so that life can keep going and I move so fast in doing that. that I don't stop to notice. what's happening around me what's going on in my body what my body's trying to tell me to do to slow down or whatever and also what

Tiny little nuggets of good are here right now. That is why the phrase good is here right now, which I've shared in many a podcast episode, is such an important mantra for me. It has to be a mantra. It has to be because it's not natural. It is not what I think to do first. I do not practice no.

But the more I do, the more I practice, the more natural it becomes. And I'm genuinely grateful because in this season, I've needed to notice. And I've noticed small things more naturally than I ever have. I've needed to. It's been a gift to notice my kids laughing.

Or notice the new gray catbird that started visiting my theater. Or notice how much I love wearing these bright blue earring studs. And I just like feel happy when I wear them. Or notice... how familiar I am with Annie's hair because I braided. What a tender sweet thing that is. Noticing will always save my life, but it's been so high right now. It's been so important that it actually makes the list this month. So number five.

The sixth thing that's been saving my life is deleting Instagram from my phone for long stretches of... I've mentioned this a couple of times in various places. I'm not sure if I've brought it up on the podcast before. I can't remember. But basically since January, since the beginning of January, I have had Instagram.

deleted from my phone not just hidden because hidden wasn't enough i could still get to it even if it was hidden you can search man um but i've had instagram off my phone for like 98 I reload it. I reinstall it into my phone when I have like an idea for a reel or I just want to check in on some favorite creators. But when I'm done, I delete it again. I check DMs on my computer, like on my laptop as part of my workday. But ultimately, as a user, I just don't really use it.

if at all. Now, I am not any different than a lot of you, okay? I genuinely love Instagram, but there are some things that have changed about it. And the biggest one for me... is that you can no longer reach the end of Instagram. Do you remember back in the day, in the early days?

When you only saw posts from the people that you followed, so you literally could get to the end of your feed and be done. Like, especially if you didn't follow about a couple hundred people. Not everybody was posting all the time. Like, you could get to the end. That doesn't happen anymore. Plus I think years of checking Instagram and refreshing Instagram has made the compulsion to do that more automatic.

than it's ever been you know like we feel differently we probably respond well not we i'll say me i know i respond differently to instagram now than i did you know several years So I wouldn't say that I'm in like. some sort of Instagram detox or anything. It's more, I'm just recognizing its value in my life compared to what it used to be because things change and also what it is compared to everything else. You know, I sometimes miss it.

But not very much. Like I'm finding joy and fulfillment in other spaces on a personal level. And then on a professional level, I'm really lucky. to be someone with a job on the internet where I don't have to depend on Instagram. to share what I'm working on, right? I have this podcast and I have my email list, like those are the primary things. And then I have books and bookstores and stuff like that. So people find me that way. A lot of creators don't have those.

So Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, that's where they go to work. That's where their job exists. That's valuable and important. But since that's not my primary place of work, that's not where my job ultimately exists. I've been able to live like that's true and take Instagram off. And it's less about what has left, you know, Instagram's gone and more about the space that it's freed up for other things. Like I'm adding more reading and more music and just more quiet.

I'm really grateful to practice. not feeling as connected to something that has an algorithm that... it's really hard it was really hard in the beginning especially and there are times where it's just like oh man I really miss Instagram like I want to I want to zone out right now and I don't have the app on my phone to do It is hard, but I have ultimately enjoyed what's on my mind.

And I think it's saved my life in many ways that I probably don't even see yet. Okay. Number seven, the seventh thing that's saving my life right now is doing one strength training video every weekday. Okay. me and exercise, man, it's complicated. So exercise rhythms for a lot of people can just be an absolute.

Especially if you are a person who doesn't enjoy working out, which is me, or you have a history with diet culture or even perhaps like disordered eating or disordered movement. I have both.

So I don't like working out and I have a history of treating my body in a harmful way. So as I have recovered from that, i for a long time i just scrapped exercising i all together like just didn't really focus on moving i kind of swung the other direction we talk about that a lot with lazy and genius that like when you realize the genius way is not going to work because it's not really genius anyway sometimes

You just kind of overcorrect and you swing the other way and you don't do anything at all and are all out lazy about it, which sometimes is necessary for the season you're in and seasons of healing and seasons where you just don't have the same.

access to the output and to healthy output that you might have not just an exercise but in other ways so it's a tendency we do we kind of swing strongly from one side to the other and I definitely did that where I just i just stopped moving so i get that i think that's what we need to do But now I am. I'm two decades removed from that most harmful time.

I am 43 years old. I am in perimenopause officially. And I know that movement is a good way to tend to my body. Like, I want to care for her. I want to care for her. And I have been more and more over the past few years. But anything that was consistent or rhythmic or repetitive, you know, it just... wasn't happy.

like for years other than doing the one down dog every day that I wrote about in the lazy genius way and that was really important for me I think that was like the starting point in me moving toward movement for the purpose of care and tending rather than control you know otherwise it just doesn't work consistency is like not a thing. I would go through spurts of something consistent.

And then those spurts would drop off. And it's mostly because, I think I've identified why, I think it's mostly because I was trying to create a rhythm. that included consistent cardio and strength training and yoga, like on equally regular schedules. It was just trying to coordinate too many things. So even doing that in a small way, it just wasn't working.

So after I saw my doctor this last time, like for my annual, um, checkup or whatever, and she's so great. We like spent probably 45 minutes talking. Like she just spent so much time with her. she's so kind anyway she said to me that strength training at my age and in my current state of health and all that was more important than the other things

Um, because of, because of my age, you know? So when she gave me a priority, something just clicked in my head. If I give priority and regularity to strength training only, only, that's it. That's the only thing I like really plan. the walking because that's really what I do for cardio the walking and the stretching they can happen when they happen and honestly those are much easier to make

Like sometimes I want to make them happen on a fairly regular basis. Like I want, my body wants to stretch. You know, I want to do a few yoga poses while I'm watching the NBA playoffs, right? I love going for a walk when the weather's nice or when somebody wants to walk with me. I have opportunities to do that. So it's not, you know, it doesn't have to be like so regular, but it does happen fairly regularly. So basically, I like to walk. I like to stretch. I don't like strength.

That is not a choice I would automatically make, whereas walking and stretching sometimes are. So by automating that, by doing the thing I really don't like to do as much, but also happens to be, according to my doctor, the most impactful thing for me right now, and by doing a small thing every day, which remember, we start small here. I can let those other more natural things.

fall into place as they may. I don't need to create some three-component movement rhythm. I can just make a strength training rhythm and let the other two things happen now. So I have been doing a 15-minute strength training video every weekday. I alternate legs and arms. I really like Caroline Girvan, G-I-R-V-A-N. She has a YouTube channel. I think she's Irish. girl could like hurt a man real bad she has so many muscles um but she has like easy to follow short videos

that I don't mind so much. I usually don't like exercise videos, but I like her. I like her pretty good. And she doesn't talk during them, which I think is part of the reason. I just don't want people to talk to me while I'm doing stuff. And the way it goes, it's like a movement is 40 seconds. You know, you do it for 40 seconds and then you have 20 seconds of rest. And it's that kind of video where it shows you the next move in the top corner.

So I don't even have to like listen to the video if I don't want to. I can listen to something else. i've been doing that for about two months now doing one dumb dumbbell basically one dumbbell video every weekday and then the other stuff the stretching and the walking they just happen when they happen and they happen This is probably the most content I've been with an exercise approach in my entire adult life. And that is definitely a lifesaver.

Okay the eighth thing saving my life is an oldie but a goodie and it's my Merlin at Merlin like the wizard but it has nothing to do with wizard. is my Merlin app and my bird feeders. Uh, basically I've been spending more time than usual, which is saying something using my Merlin app. What you do is you, it's like a recorder and you press the button. It's like a list. It listens to the bird.

that are around you and it tells you where they are it's so great it's so great and then I also like have been watching my birds a lot more I think the reason is because, this is no joke, you cannot look out my windows. Or, well, I was going to say be in my front yard, but the birds probably wouldn't come as much if you were actually in the yard by the theaters. But you cannot look out my window. for 60 seconds without seeing a bird.

I'm basically Snow White at this point. Birds are always around. So I can watch them anytime. And I love it. I love it so much. It has been, watching birds is like a spiritual practice for me. That's one thing. It is also very calming. And I kind of feel like the birds and I have become kind of friends, sort of.

That's why I mentioned this before. That's why it was so fun noticing the new gray catbird that started visiting. Like he's new. This is a new friend. We haven't had catbirds at the theater before. And because I watch them all the time, I know that. I know that. So it just helps me feel connected to where I am, like literally, like physically in a meaningful way. And I just love my birds and they're saving my life.

The ninth thing that's saving my life right now is that my boys, you're not ready. They have gotten into watching Family Feud. You guys. This has been the most hilarious magical. so a few months ago Ben happened to catch the start of an episode of Family Feud hosted by the incomparable Steve Harvey and he was hooked absolutely hooked and then Sam joined in he kind of wandered in and he saw it and now Like that is what we do as a family of four after Annie has gone to bed from 10 to 11.

Every single night. We watch two episodes of Family Feud. The boys always brush their teeth during the commercial break before the final Fast Money Round. It has been the greatest source of joy. I don't even have words for it. It's so fun. It has also been, I will say, an interesting source of like watching them kind of learn. about the world and also like look at how they look at the world versus how the world looks at the world. There's a lot of innuendo in the show.

Some of the questions occasionally are a bit much, but I've kind of loved how my boys have reacted to some of those. It's made that topic like a little more... Not palatable, but just like easier to access. You know, because there are some, you know, there's some interesting questions occasionally. And so we some of the boys have learned some words for things that were like, oh, I didn't know. I didn't know what that was. OK, great. Cool, cool, cool. But also it's sort of like.

just perspectives on how people see each other. So for example, one recent question was something like, we asked 100 married men, name something of your wife's you'd like to super glue together. And the number one answer was her lip.

was her mouth now ben goes well that's not i bet a lot of those those wives have plenty of good things to say it's so cute i was like you're right man or there will be like there will be something in an answer about like how annoying a mother And one of the boys will laugh but be like,

They'll say something about how that's not me and how they think that I'm not that way. I don't know. It's just been a really interesting practice and then being entertained while also seeing that how a lot of people see the world is different from how we talk about the world at home. They also just die when people give bad answers. They're like incredulous. There are nights where I'm not about to stay up.

and I've already gotten in bed, but I can hear the boys like beating the couch or yelling at the TV. And I know it's because someone gave a bad answer. It's just been so much fun. It's been so much fun. I never ever thought that Family Feud would be something that's saving my life, but here we are. Okay, the final thing that has been saving my life recently is my spring.

playbook now. Okay, this is going to be a seamless transition into telling you that it's time to buy your own playbook if you want. But this is not just a commercial. It actually was not intended to be this way. Playbooks where I make my What's Saving My Life list.

over time, like over the three months until the next episode, because I'm always trying to pay attention to that because it matters to me. It's a good practice for me. And my playbook is like, was on there immediately. I'm like, of course it's a playbook. because I'm only two playbooks in to using them really. Holy actual mo-

So this is a beautiful coincidence that we are about to spend a week or so promoting slash reminding you about the new summer playbook. It's time for the new summer playbook. And the spring playbook has legit been saving my life. Okay, next week we're going to do... like a kind of a whole episode on seasonal planning and also break down some thoughts about the playbooks themselves almost like a

almost like a little bit of an FAQ so you can understand what they are and how you might use them, how I use them, but also just thinking about seasonal planning in general. So I'm not going to go into that a ton today. That'll be next week. However, here's the deal. If you're like, Kendra, what are you talking about? Okay, I already mentioned my book, The Plan, right?

Preparation. Live. Adjust. Notice. Not preparation. Prepare. Who cares? Same thing. It came out about seven months ago and it is all about compassionate time management because we need some new takes. on organizing our time. And one of those takes involves... seasonal planning, not just planning a whole year, most definitely not your whole life. And also your day sometimes feels like it's a little haphazard because you're not.

You're not seeing sort of the 10,000 feet version of it, right? Now, for years, people thought the answer was a lazy genius planner. People would ask me to make one. Make a lazy genius planner. Make a lazy genius planner. And I did actually try. I did. But planners were not the problem, you guys. You don't actually need a lazy genus planner.

The thing that we're missing, and this is from many planners, which is why we keep getting new ones, because the thing that they're pretty much all missing... is a seasonal view and kind of a small seasonal view. So the playbook It is not a planner. It's not a planner, but it does make whatever planner you use or even just your Google calendar and like post-it note to-do lists work better.

So like, in fact, after using a playbook since December, because that's what we released them in November and the winter playbook runs from December through February, the spring playbook from March through May, which is where we are now. Like I've used two of them now. And I never want to live with it.

oh my gosh, this thing does exactly, exactly what I want it to do. It helps me see where I am in my life. It gives me space to name what matters about the season where I am. And not just like... conceptually I mean like literally what's going on right now what's on the calendar what has to happen there's space for me to brain dump all those things to organize what I have to do and what I hope to do and it's tiny

So it can be like a little field guide. It's not the size of those field guides. It's bigger, but it's like a...

which I know the measurements right now, but it's like a, it's a very compact little friend that helps you see your current season of life. I also love that now that I have playbook, for these seasons i can look back on them in future seasons and i can see what worked and see what didn't what i enjoyed what happened in my life at that time like i i cannot tell you how great so i created the initial vibes of them and then leah leah jarvis who's our director of content and strategy

She did like the design work on them. Then we found this woman owned company in Asheville, North Carolina called Otter Pine that does printing and fulfillment as well as like design. consultations and as a unit as like team lg and team honor pine we have created a truly like such a fantastic product i'm so proud of this thing and i use it every day i look forward to opening my playbook because i know i'm not going to be overwhelmed like it's meant to keep what's here now now And then the right.

It helps me see my life for what it is and I get the things done that I need to do. but some people like they don't even use every element of the playbook like they just use parts of it so you can use it however you want to but i just know that i personally love using them and i feel a genuine sense of calm when i think about them the playbook Absolutely. So like I said, I will share more about them next week as well as just like ideas about seasonal planning.

especially as we start moving into summer. So hopefully any questions that you have about them will be answered then. But if you know, you'd like to go ahead and get the summer playbook before June begins. you know, even the whole seasonal bundle, which is undated by the way. So you can start with like whatever season you're in, even though you're buying all four.

They are currently available to order. Y'all bought up our first round of stock faster than we anticipated, which is a great problem to have. So we've been out of stock for like a couple of months. But now we have a warehouse full of them and ready to go. The summer playbook runs from June through August. So May is the best time to order yours in order to have it before June starts.

start thinking about the season that you're in. So that is my 10th thing that is saving my life is my playbook. So to recap, the 10 things that are saving my life right now are the album Jesus by John Guerra, the Bama podcast. doing my own colors and wearing the right ones. The coconut cream cleanser from RMS.

Noticing. Deleting Instagram for the majority of the time. Doing one strength training video every weekday. My Merlin app and my bird time. Watching Family Feud with the Boys. And my playbook. And that is what saved me.

All right, if you want to go ahead and check out the playbooks, you can click the link in the show notes or you can go to thelazygeniuscollective.com slash playbooks. You can get all four seasons as a bundle or you can get the summer one in preparation for this next Northern Hemisphere season. The summer playbook is this delightful tomato red that is so happy and cheerful. I think you're going to love checking that.

Also a reminder that the next latest lazy letter goes out this Wednesday. So if you don't already get that, you can please sign up for that. I think it's probably, this is kind of a weird thing to say, but it's like the most human thing that we do in this space. It's the most personal for sure. You know, I'm writing about my actual life in actual real time. Like I write it the day before it goes out always.

And it's something I personally find valuable. And I'm always so encouraged by how valuable you are. So if you would like to try it out, it's also where I share all my book reviews and your girl reads a lot of books. You can sign up at thelazygeniuscollective.com slash join. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate the laser genius of the week. This week, it's Bethany Crum. Bethany Wright.

I have a birthday bin I keep in my kitchen cabinet that holds all birthday items, candles, balloons, decor, plates, napkins, etc. My kiddos four birthdays are one a month from September through December. So I whipped that baby out before the September birthday.

stock of everything i have and everything i need then i place a pickup order if i'm out of a certain candle need a couple more birthday plates etc that way i'm not scrambling each month trying to figure out what i still need I also decided once that our birthday decor is one garland, one birthday banner, and huge balloon numbers for the birthday kid, as well as fun disposable birthday plates.

I even keep the push pins above the window where I hang the banner so I don't have to replace them from birthday to birthday. Boom, done, birthday bin for the win. Bethany, this is so great. As a family that has a mess of birthdays across a couple of months, I personally love the brilliance of having everything in one place, deciding once what the decor is, and most importantly, noticing what you need, what is necessary before that need becomes urgent.

Such a great idea and one that I think will encourage a lot of listeners. So thank you for sharing, Bethany, and congratulations on being the Lazy Genius of the Week. 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 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. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week.

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