What's Saving My Life

Instead, we value contentment, compassion, and living in our season. We're going to favor small steps over big systems and learn to be lazy geniuses. Being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't, and I'm so glad that you are here.

Today is episode 481, what's saving my life. Even though we do these episodes once a quarter, it feels like I have lived a million lives since the last one.

But since the last three months included May, I guess that tracks, because that time of year is not.

“So this is a phrase, what's saving my life is a phrase popularized by Barbara Brown Taylor, and it's just a simple question that helps you notice and contentedly appreciate where you are right now.”

What's saving your life right now? My list is pretty lighthearted today. Summer brings that lightness, I guess, that no matter what is on your list or mine, the practice is what matters. Notice what's happening in your life, the good things that make it lighter, easier, better, and celebrate them. So that's what I'm doing today with my list. After that for a little extra something, I'm going to introduce you to team LG. If you have been around a while, you might know some of them already. And if you've ever emailed us, you've interacted with them. But since this episode is about what saving my life and our annual in-person retreat was last week, it seems like the perfect time to introduce you to them since they save my work life every single day.

After that, we'll celebrate the lazy genius of the week, which is one of my favorite messages we've ever gotten, and we'll close with a mini pep talk for when you're overwhelmed by all you'd like to do. Frankly, at this time of year, that's about as real as it gets. So let's go ahead and jump into what saving my life. I'll do a quick one here before we head to the break, and then I'm so sad.

Actually, that this one that I'm sharing is no longer relevant. Y'all, the first thing that saved my life was the World Cup.

“Like, the way it saved my summer life is in Calculable. This summer, we had a lot of crazy moving parts, but it's like the World Cup was the steady thing.”

I could count on it to be there every single day. It was over a month, a month of almost daily soccer games, and International World Cup Soccer is my favorite sport of all time. Like, it's my favorite thing to watch, and I love watching sports. I love the pageantry. I love the fans. I love the athleticism. I love the international superstars and the players who become famous overnight. I love, I love the game of soccer. It's like such a slow burn, and I think one of the most interesting sports to watch because it's so specific and strategic, and nothing happens for a while until it suddenly does.

And then everyone is like sprinting, and I'm standing up in my living room with my arms, a Kimbo, ready to cheer. It is just the most fun. I watched every match except the one or two that started at midnight.

And I missed the Argentina Cape Verde game because I was at a friend's birthday party, but then the next morning I watched the replay. Like, I watched the whole game, the next morning.

My family didn't watch as many matches as I did, but pretty close. Part of it is because it was just a great World Cup of so many great games. We had fun enjoying it as a family. We have plans to visit some Spanish restaurant that cost found to celebrate the winner. That was something he proposed early on to celebrate the World Cup by eating the food of the winning country. The whole family was rooting for France to win, so we could eat participatory last that did not happen. Next summer, I get to watch the Women's Tournament, which I love more than the men's, and it will be in Brazil, which will be, oh my gosh, an absolute blast.

Because, like, few countries love soccer like Brazil does. Sports are just the best, and I'm so glad I got to have the World Cup save my life this summer.

“Okay, let's do one more. This is something I've mentioned already. I mentioned on the podcast, I think I mentioned a newsletter, and it is the game, magical athlete.”

I know a lot of you bought the game after I mentioned it. I really, really hope that you are loving it. I hope you're loving it as much as we do. We actually went to a birthday party last night for some friends, and they, like, at a brewery, and they brought magical athlete, and, like, so different kids were playing it, and different families were like, oh man, I guess we got to get that game. Like, it's just so fun. So, fun. So, this game is save my life recently, because it's made family game time easy, like everyone enjoys playing, and we just have a blast.

Since I love games, but my family members love different kinds of games, too varying degrees, having one we all really like is such a win. And since summer is a little looser with time, and we're not dealing with as many evening activities yet, we've had lots of fun nights after dinner, playing magical athlete. As a reminder, it's a role in move game where you get points for winning a race, and you want the most points at the end of four races. But the fun thing is the racers themselves, the magical athletes, every racer or game token, has a different power.

It is chaotic and silly and so much fun. Every family that plays with us has either gotten their own game or borrow hours. It is just the best.

So, that is the second thing, saving my life, magical athlete.

All right, before we get into the rest of the things that are saving my life right now, let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. Here we do. Here's a quick reminder about the podcast recap email we send. It goes out every other Thursday. You used to be Friday. We have moved it to Thursday. And it summarizes the episode. It shares the lazy genus of the week. It has a little extra note for me, usually, often with some pictures for my own life. So, if you would like to get that podcast recap email, head to the lazy genuscollective.com/recap.

All right, number three, the third thing that has been saving my life this summer is a daily tidy. All right, this is nothing new.

“We've done timer tidies for years and years, but I always forget how important they are in the summer when everyone is around all day long.”

So, every day, at least once, sometimes twice, we do a quick tidy of our main living area. Just put things back in their place, straighten up pillows, close cabinets and drawers, kick the shoes under the shoe bench instead of having them scattered around the floor. Very simple quick things that when done, make the house feel put together and really nice to be in.

Because we do that every day, it doesn't get overwhelming.

And I think that's true for everyone. There's no task too small to help you move your house along to feeling like a home you really enjoy being in. Like, even picking up one thing matters. You don't have to view tidying or cleaning in like this all or nothing way. One quick task, one quick tidy. It really does make a difference. And the more you trust those small choices, the more you'll do them and we'll benefit from them. It's like building a muscle. And my daily tidies do that. I love them.

“Okay, then number four thing that's saving my life is brick. We have been using the brick device and our brick apps for a few weeks now and it's just been so great.”

I shared a couple of weeks ago how breaking the voice phones has been helpful as they get used to having them. But today I'm just going to share how it's been saving my life. So I fall prey to the dopamine hits of a smartphone just as much as the next person and brick stops that in its tracks. I have a schedule set on my brick app for my phone where my most time wasting apps. Now those are personal to me, right? That my apps that I get on and then look up and I'm like, where did the time go? Like Instagram and games and even some shopping apps.

Like don't get me on the Sephora app. Are you kidding me? I will be there for so long. Those apps automatically get brick starting at 830 in the morning and they don't unbreak until I do it manually. So in theory, if I don't unbreak my phone during the day, I don't really have access. To apps that are not crucial. But do take up a lot of time. And that has been so amazing. I've purchased way less in the last few weeks because I don't mindlessly pop over to Sephora, as I said, or Amazon or something and just get fed sales.

“And then I'm like, oh yeah, maybe I do want that thing. Like I really don't. I don't. I also have the games on my phone brick because if I have time to play games, I would honestly rather read.”

If I'm going to do anything on my phone. It's not that the games or the shopping or the social media or whatever are inherently bad. But when I have access to them all the time, I get sucked into their sirensong, which takes me away from the things that I care about more, which is why I break them. Now, what's cute about brick is if you try to open an app that is currently brick, the screen says back to living, it's like your app is brick, go back to living. And it always makes me laugh. It's like a really great reminder because yes, it's exactly what I want to do.

It's just made me enjoy my life more and notice things and not get sucked into the the black holes of my phone and I'm just really, really glad that we got one. Okay, number five, Costco or Tissory Chicken already shredded. This has been on the list before, but it's still true. I find chicken breasts to be the least thrilling protein to cook. But it's also like mildly essential if you're trying to get more protein, like everyone is over 42. So this chicken's just a miracle to me. It's tender, delicious, flavorful, but can also take on anything that you throw at it.

And then the other half I make into chicken salad or something that's easy to just grab each day at lunch. My favorite chicken salad is, I've shared it before, it's made with mostly Greek yogurt, so that's like double trouble on protein and then use grapes, walnuts and a ton of herbs to provide. That is like an herb blend and my secret ingredient to making this delicious chicken salad.

“You know that trend going around right now where it's like five things that are worth the money or is it seven things that are worth the money?”

And also that trend went around maybe two weeks ago and right now doesn't count anymore because like, Internet trends are so fast. I don't actually know the deal, but anyway, my list, if I were to do that right now, my list would absolutely include pre-pled rotisserie chicken. Yes, you could buy a raw chicken and cook it. I could too, I won't. I am absolutely willing to pay the premium to have someone do it for me and even cut it up like I'm a baby bird, so all I have to do is eat it.

Like, I will always pay for that, always. It's totally worth the money for me. Okay, so that's number five. Number six is also a food item that is frozen raspberries of shocking, right?

I'm discovering all these new things. So raspberries cost a million dollars and fresh ones have gotten the memo from avocados that it's like fun to mess with people by being beautiful one minute and then disgusting sludge the next minute. But because raspberries are kind of a superfood for me and that I love them, I love raspberries. They are a low sugar food and they have a ridiculous amount of fiber. I try to eat raspberries most days. It's just like a really easy decide once for me.

“Well, a month or two ago, I was like, wait a minute, can I buy frozen raspberries like it was some kind of new invention?”

Well, it turns out, yes, you can, yes, you can buy frozen raspberries and frozen raspberries are kind of magical. Obviously I put them in smoothies, but I also live putting them straight into yogurt like the texture is really great. I recently did the whole like, let's put cottage cheese and other stuff in a blender and see what happens thing. I did cottage cheese, frozen raspberries, some sweetener and a little lime juice. Y'all, that was delicious. Almost like ice cream, the protein and fiber above above. Just like a big bang for my buck food purchase.

So I'm so glad that I wise stop and realize that people freeze raspberries and then sell them to you like what an idea. The next three things are skin care, make up things and they have been my staple summer items by a land slide. I barely do anything else other than these three things because they're so fast and they do what I need them to do.

So the first one, this is number seven officially in the whole list, it is new to me.

It is the Edam sunscreen primer stick, Edam is E-A-D-E-M. It's packaged like deodorant. It's like this tiny butter yellow deodorant. But it's not deodorant, it's sunscreen that you swipe on your face. I'm fairly confident it's a Korean skincare brand. And they know those skincare. It is formulated to work both under and over makeup. So I have one of my pool bag and I just swipe it on when I'm, you know, still outside and it's been a couple hours. It makes reapplying sunscreen throughout the day so tag them easy.

Plus the texture is amazing. It doesn't feel like much of anything. It doesn't leave a cast. It does work like a primer. If you're going to use it before makeup. It really does sort of make your skin smooth and easy to apply everything. Like it is, it is fantastic. Now, is it priceier than a lot of facial sunscreens? It is, but not by a lot. Not by a lot.

I still have and love my LTND skincare. That sunscreen is great. I will never stop using that.

But for like quick mornings, when I'm just running out, or honestly, I just want to put sunscreen on, but I don't want to have to wash my hands after. Like, truly, that's like one of the biggest says that I don't have to wash my hands. I swipe some of this on and then I'm done. It's just, it's so great. It's such a great product. Okay, so that's number seven slash one. Number eight slash two. The second skincare slash makeup product is when I have talked about before, like both on the show and even in ads.

This is not an ad, but you will probably hear me talk about this in an upcoming ad.

“And it is the merit minimalistic. I use the color oak. That's what I wear as oak.”

I don't know if I will ever use any other foundation for the rest of my days. Like, truly, I have not used anything for coverage except the minimalistic in weeks and weeks and weeks, maybe months and months and months. Like, it is so good. It goes on flawlessly, it stays put, and it doesn't look like makeup.

So, during the summer, I pretty much just do a quick swipe under my eyes and around I nose and then I blend it in with a brush and it's done. I can look awake and less depressed in six seconds. It's just like the best product for me that I have ever used. Now, others have been good and some really good. This to me is my personal best. I just cannot imagine a product working better than this one.

“Now, here's the thing. I do think that getting your color correct, that matters a lot.”

I mentioned this before, but the first time I got the merit minimalistic, I got it in the wrong shade, so it didn't look good. Like, but, and it was barely the wrong shade. To the point where I did not realize that was the problem at first. I just thought the product didn't work for me. So, try to explore how to find your right shade. Like, don't give up on the shade.

I, again, am the color oak and I always have like two backups in my drawer.

I'm so terrified they're going to stop making it, and then I will be in the depths of makeup disparaure, which is actually a great segue into the final makeup product, which is when I did just buy like four of because I'm convinced it's not going to stick around. And that is the road pocket blush in the color pinky tan. The road is R-H-O-D-E. Okay, so I do my sunscreen stick, my minimalistic, and then I do a swipe of road.

“I'm a cheekbones to blend it out, and I look like I've been on the beach in the best way.”

Not in my usual way, which is blotchy and sunburned. So, road is Haley Bieber's makeup brand, which, say what you will, but the girl can make a blendable blush. Good gracious. I have tried three different shades, and honestly, I love them all, but I reach for pinky tan consistently. It is quite literally, like it gives me a pinky tan. I don't feel like I'm wearing makeup. I just look like a sun kissed version of myself, and, frankly, with both of these products, with merits, minimalistic, and the road.

I'm barely wearing any makeup. It is about as minimal as you can get, but I think I have perfected my most basic daily look, and I'm just obsessed. So, road blushes, they go out of stock pretty often, and the last time, like I went to check again, because I checked and checked and checked, and it was out of stock.

“And then I caught on. I maybe I got on a weightless knee mill or something. I don't know, but I happened upon the cart when it was in stock, and I bought four.”

I am not messing around. I mean, I still think I finished my first one, that I ever bought, but I will take no chances.

I will be buried in pinky tan. I will. Okay. Next step is akin to the frozen raspberries, one of those things that has been around forever, and yet I was like, "Huh, is there something that will help me with this?" So, I have planar fasciatus, because I'm a woman in my 40s, and this is what happens apparently, like when your estrogen starts going down, as you either get planar fasciatus or frozen shoulder, doesn't like PT told me, and I was like, "Well, based on the experiences of my peers, that checks out."

But my PT and my doctor told me a number of things that I could do, one of which was to not walk barefoot. Like, I need more support, especially as I'm healing, and the inflammation goes down. And I was like, "Hmm, I wonder if there's like a shoe out there that would help support me, but like still like you could such a thing exist." Hmm, I got some broken stocks. Everybody has been wearing the shoes forever, including when I was in middle school, and still I'm like, "What's the hype about?" I do, and I understand it now. I understand the hype now.

Since my foot started footing at the start of the summer, I figured a pair of sandals would be the way to go, you know, because I'd be, it was a hot outside. So, I got one pair of Bergenstocks, and I wore them. I got some Bergenstocks sandals. I noticed a difference in my pain levels, like pretty, pretty quickly. Pretty quickly. It turns out that walking barefoot is a bit of an issue, and so, not walking barefoot works really well. And, and even, it's so great to like be supported when you're walking, and it also looks cute. Like Bergenstocks are cute shoes, man, which is why I then bought another pair to wear in the house.

So, we are a family that takes our shoes off at the door, but I can't walk barefoot in my house anymore.

I like I need house shoes, so I got some Berk clogs as my house shoes, and I never looked back. I'm still doing like stretches.

I still have more pain on active days where I'm like walking a lot or whatever, but I'm managing everything pretty well, and now I am a huge fan of Bergenstocks. Everyone else has been for decades. I am a late adopter of most things. Okay, next up. What number are we on? 11? I think it's 11. It's sleeping in. I do not get to sleep in during the school year.

If I want any time myself before that, then obviously we're talking, I got to get up earlier than 630. Now early isn't bad, except that my bed times are rarely early enough to give me enough sleep during the school year.

My boys go to bed later. It's still something I'm getting used to, but in the summer, well everything changes in the summer y'all.

Most mornings, I'm sleeping until at least 7, if not 8 this morning. I woke up at 7. 52. Are you kidding? All the kids are doing this as well, which is why transitioning to like school rhythms is going to need a couple weeks adjustment. Like I talked about in the back to school episode a couple weeks ago that for now goodness actual gracious. That sleep has been the literal best. I love going to bed without setting an alarm. I love lying in bed for a few minutes and enjoying the fact that I woke up when my body wanted to.

It is sublime and it only happens in the summer. I used to use this app. I don't remember the name of it, but it woke you up at the best time in your sleep cycle. Like you would give it a range of an alarm and it would wake you up like when you were the most awake in your sleep. But I stopped using it because it told me how I slept.

“That's why I don't have an aura ring. I am like too prone to optimization to have a lot of data in my life.”

Like I don't need anybody to tell me how poorly I slept. Like I can feel it and telling me is almost like a pile on and makes it worse. I need to just live as much as possible. But I also know that it would be nice to not wake up groggy when it's time to wake up again. So we'll see if I go back to that app and maybe I just won't like look at the sleep stats. I'll just treat it as an alarm as much as I can. We'll see. But for now, sleeping in has been easily a top five thing of the summer. I mean, I like I'm so sad that my sleeping in season is almost over.

It has been so nice. Okay. Number 12 will likely always be on my list in some way, but that is thrifting. There's been so fun this summer because I love a graphic tea and goodwill is full of them.

“I also love going with Annie who is becoming a bigger thrifter than I am. We go at least once a week if not more.”

And it's just so fine. We have so much fun. I was also able to articulate something about thrifting that's been helpful for me. So in truth, I really love shopping. I love the dopamine head of something new of discovering something cool. Bring something new home, finding a way to use it. Like that's fun in general. No matter where I'm shopping. But what makes goodwill and other thrift stores so great is that I can do all of that without spending much money at all. And without adding to consumer waste by buying new things. Now, of course, I still buy new things sometimes.

But I, like truly, I can't remember the last time I bought an actual piece of clothing new that was not underwear. Oh, wait. No, I bought, here we go. I bought a dressy outfit for a work event because I owned nothing that was like business cocktail or whatever the code was. But other than that, thrift it all the way. And I just love, I love it. I love that I get to enjoy shopping on a regular basis without spending a lot of money. Like even if I spend 10 bucks a week, which is like a good little haul at goodwill, that's still barely $500 a year.

“That's not a small amount of money, obviously. But when I think about doing the same thing at Target once a week, that is a very different scenario.”

So I'm getting all the fun and not any of the hardship. I'll be really sad when school starts and any I have to figure out like our new, our new thrifting rhythm.

We'll have to be more intentional about it because right now, in the summer, one of us will go, want to go to a goodwill and we'll just jump in the car and go because the answer is always yes.

It's just so much fun. Okay, two more. The 13th thing that is saving my life right now is finding a why for my health. So before I get into this too much, a quick disclaimer that I will talk briefly about disorder eating. So if that's a sensitive topic for you, please skip ahead a few minutes. I talked about this in detail in last week's newsletter. So I'm not going to get too much into it here, but essentially I had a real breakthrough a few years. I wish it was a few years ago, a few weeks ago, as it relates to my health.

So I like many women in their 40s have been dealing with all kinds of like kuku pants things all at once, just because I'm getting older.

It's all a mess in there. So I have dealt with brain fog, planar fasciitis, as I mentioned, hormonal migraines, skin changes, body composition changes, metabolic changes, since certain foods don't land.

“That they used to, my hair is changing texture, my sleep is up and down, I grunt when I get up and down off the couch, like just all kinds of things.”

I've always been resistant to anything related to food intake and diet because it's too closely tied to diet culture and to my own personal history of disorder to eating.

And I never want to go back to that place, obviously, to those years of counting calories and thinking about my body and worrying that it wasn't pretty or skinny enough, all those horrible things that took so much energy and time and kindness away from my life. I'm never going back to that, because those years were so hard and so horrible, I have swung to the other end and have like simply refused to be concerned about what I eat. I've had more care about how I move, like trying to walk regularly and stuff, but most of my late 30s early 40s have just been like living my life.

Well, sadly, a woman in her 40s, it's really hard to do that anymore, like to just like to live without paying attention, not without some consequences. Which made me sad, because I don't want to do anything that resembles food restriction and harmful patterns that I used to have.

But then, over the last couple of months, I've had conversations with friends about their parents.

I've started to notice how people in my life are aging. I've seen dementia take hold. I heard one woman say, "I know I can't control what happens to me. But I want to do everything I can, everything I can, to make sure that my kids don't have to watch me mentally drift away from them." You know, we can't control it, but we can contribute to making it less likely. And that got me, it's just a switch flipped in my brain, and I suddenly felt like I understood why my physical mental and metabolic health are worthwhile things to care about.

I'm not trying to control my life or play God. This isn't about ensuring that I live a long time. But what I do want to do is put myself in a great position to have energy and strength so that a fall is less likely to take me out or even happen at all. You know, I want independence as I age, I want the ability to play with my grandkids if I ever get them. It's nothing new, that's nothing new, but it felt new in my own head.

It felt like for the first time, it felt completely different and separate from the narratives that I had when I was locked into die culture and trying to get thinner and smaller at any cost.

So, I've been making some changes that have been really great. I feel really good, physically and mentally. I feel motivated to care for myself. I made a chicken wrap out of egg whites the other day, which was insane, but weirdly good. I'm not trying to change how my body looks. I finally understand that I can impact how my body and mind feel. And I love my life and my people too much to not feel as good as I can. This is a common phrase, right? Find your why.

“It's one of the biggest things about being a lazy genius, honestly. Like what matters, you know?”

If you don't know, if you don't know what matters, you won't be able to prioritize your time and energy into things that matter to you and you'll fizzle out trying to do everything. But knowing what matters does create space. It does. It has for me in this area as well as many others. Like clarity is such a gift. And when you really and truly know why you're doing something. And that's something matters to you on a deep level. You do it. Like it's, it's almost easy to do it because why would you not? It's why my life and eye culture eventually led to disordered eating.

My why was not clear, nor was it accurate. Like my reason for eating less and eventually eating like a dangerously small amount every day was because I wanted my body to be as small as possible. But that wasn't rooted in anything good or true, which means it harmed me. Like those choices were harmful. The cycles of restriction and binging and shame and all of that. It did not help my body.

“But more important, it harmed my mind and my soul, not just my body.”

Like, and thinness was not a compelling enough why for me to make those choices because deep down, I knew that that was not a reason to do anything. It was somebody else's reason for me, not mine. And even if it was mine, it wasn't good or lovely or anything we're aiming for.

I'm so excited, like genuinely excited about making different decisions because I see.

I see how my metabolic health impacts quite literally everything I'm struggling with as a 44 year old woman, like all of it is connected. And I'm actually really grateful for that connection and I have people in my life who are helping me see and nurture those connections more, like my physical therapist. I'm just really enjoying caring for myself and by extension, my family and community, by giving myself the best chance to be a present participant in my own life as long as I'm around.

“It's honestly kind of fun. I never thought it would be fun, but it's because the reason I'm doing it is fun.”

And that is saving my life right now and thankfully, won't ever stop. And then the last thing that saving my life right now is my playbook. I did not use my summer playbook a ton in late June, early July because life was just like life thing. Every week was different, but we were also not consumed with too many things, like there were busy things like camp and stuff, but honestly things just sort of like rolled on our own. And then a couple of weeks ago, I started feeling the weight of August approaching, I got a little squirrely, a little squirrely in my head, y'all.

I started thinking about all the things I needed to do and all the systems I could use in upgrade and all the charts I could make that needed highlighting and whatever. That, as often happens now, lasted just a minute or two, just a minute or two. Before I was like, "Hey girl, hey girl, hang on, hang on, start small baby, where's your playbook? Go get your playbook." And I flipped to the pages that closed out July and opened up August. I answered what was making me feel like myself, what I needed to relax about, what mattered the most right now.

I brain-dumped all the things. I started triaging those things into the weeks that made sense so that I wasn't trying to do everything right now, because that does not work. And after about 20 minutes with my playbook, I felt completely different. I wasn't stressed or worried or panicked or grabbing a big black trash bag or buying a new planner. I just stayed small, I stayed in my season, did the work that I needed for right now?

And like now we're great, we're great.

Now, yes, there are so plenty of things to do, of course. But ultimately, I'm not spending all the plates worrying how it will all get done.

“I know what matters will get done because it is spread out across time.”

And I also know that even if I don't get everything done as quickly or like in the way that I hoped, it will also be fine. When I relax about that, and I release the perfection that I used to hold so close, actually get more done, it is the weirdest thing. A looser grip helps you hold more. So I'm checking off my list, but not in like a stressful way.

It's been pretty great. So if you are feeling that same squirreliness and you have a playbook sitting on your desk, pull it out and see if it helps you too. Just start where you are. It's fine if it's the last month of the season in your playbook, like, you know, that's what I did.

“The summer playbook is June July and August, and I barely wrote anything in half of those pages.”

And still going back to it in that spending time was invaluable. So if you would like to learn more about the playbooks, especially a school starts up, you can find more at the lazyginesscollective.com/playbooks. All right, so to recap, the things saving my life right now are the World Cup, well, that one did save my life, not anymore. The World Cup, magical athlete, daily tighties, brick, Costco, rotisserie chicken, already pulled, let's not get crazy. Frozen raspberries, eat 'em sunscreen, primer stick, the merit minimalist stick, road bush and pinky tan.

Bergen stocks from my old lady feet, sleeping in, thrifting, knowing a why for my health and my playbook. And that's what save my life right now. Okay, for today's a little extra something, I'd love to introduce you to the members of Team LG. I do not do all of this by myself, like, not by a long shot. In fact, I could not do any of this without my team, and so I'd love for you to know who they are and what they do,

especially since you might interact with them in the Facebook group or in the Playbook People Facebook group, at an event we do in person, maybe in the future. I just want them to get, like, the public applause that they deserve.

So, first up is the person you're the most likely to interact with.

Kara is our community experience manager. That means she isn't charged with everything related to how you interact with the lazy genius. She answers your emails, whether it's the ones that you send straight to hello at the lazygeniesclub.com, or the replies to newsletters, she answers all of those.

She pays attention to what you all are talking about, and what needs would be good for us to reference in podcast episodes and emails. She also helps with customer service.

“If you have questions or issues with the Playbook you ordered, and she manages our Facebook groups and Instagram.”

She brings the humanity into the business, thinking about you and how what we choose impacts you. She's the newest member of our team, and we are just so happy to have her. Next up is Leslie, team LG's director of operations.

She basically runs the machine of the business, like she does the books.

She does the scheduling, she figures out the pieces and parts when we come up with an idea. She has a master's and something having to do with space. She's like really smart and loves a spreadsheet, like nobody I've ever seen.

“Leslie's been working for this team for five years, and is she's the glue to everyone's glitter.”

Essential. And then finally, a name you hear more than any others, and that's Leah Jarvis. Leah has been with me the longest since 2018, and is our director of content and strategy.

Basically, she's in charge of what we make, and that we make it the right way and at the right time.

So, she plans our podcast editorial calendar, our email calendar. She sets up product launches when we have a new playbook. She designs anything that needs designing, and she makes sure the podcast gets into your ears every week.

“She also listens to many minutes of me rambling out an idea and speaks it back to me very clearly as one concise thing, which is incredibly helpful.”

All three of these women are in different life stages, and parts of the country. They have different professional and personal backgrounds.

There are varying preferences and beliefs and the love of dogs. Actually, basically, they all love dogs. I don't love dogs as much.

They tolerate me for that, which I appreciate. But what we all have in common, and whatever member of team LG will have in common as long as I do this, is a dedication to compassionate time management offered in an authentic kind way. We care a lot about excellent work, transparency, inclusivity, and you. We care about you. Like, we're not here to make a buck at your expense. We genuinely want to help you as the lazy genius community, not need us anymore. Like, truly, I would love nothing more than for every person who reads my books and listens to this podcast to come to a place where you no longer need to.

Because of how much the lazy genius principles have permeated your life, like they've just become so natural. But until that happens, we want to be excessively helpful and generous of spirit toward you. And because of Kara Leslie and Leah, I get to do what I love the most, which is creatively solve your problems and offer kind solutions to life's chaos every week through the podcast and every couple of years through a book. Last week I talked about cause and how I couldn't do this work and be this person without him.

And today's a little extra something is another version of that. There's no way, like quite literally no way that this podcast, the emails, play books, Facebook groups, actual books would happen without these women. Just no way, there's no way. So when you listen and you read emails and you do whatever you do in this lazy genius space, know that it's not just me, is me and three incredible women who are excessively smart kind and who care about you as people. And that is today's a little extra something.

All right, time for our lazy genius of the week, this week we have Megan Boyd, Megan shared this tip recently in our Facebook group. She says, "My lazy genius mom suggestion and the thick of summer is this. When you are ready to run away, thinking about checking yourself into a hotel or a mental institution, take yourself to the movies. Yes, just yourself. It's quiet, dark and cool. You don't even have to watch the movie. You can take a nap. And after that movie, maybe go to another. The bougier, the theater, the better.

Thank reclining seats, food service, the works. Just make sure you don't stumble into any kids movies or the purpose will be defeated happy summer. This may me laugh quite literally out loud. What a great suggestion. Also the nap part. It's like, hey, you don't have to watch the movie. Like, just go to sleep. This is actually a really cheap solution to stress, honestly. Like going in the movies is way less expensive than getting a massage or getting a hotel room or any of the bougier things that we desperately want this time of year when we're stressed out that we like dream about.

But yeah, Megan's right. If you go for the fancy theater with the recliner seats, it's almost as good as a massage chair like just go relax in the cold darkness and watch a story unfold or not go to sleep nobody cares.

I might just go see a movie that day. We'll see, or actually wait, maybe I want to save that for a day when my kids are still home.

“Like, I don't want to go to a movie on a day where they're not home or they're in school.”

That matter. I'm a figured out either way. This is a great idea. Thank you for sharing Megan and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. Okay, let's close with the mini pep talk for when you're overwhelmed by all you'd like to do.

This is inspired by last week's office hours episodes and the folks who very much wanted to take care of all the things that once.

We all want that. We all want life to work smoothly and easily without a kick-ups or roadblocks or whatever. This time of year is primed for that. You know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, solving everything it wants doesn't work. Trying to do everything it wants doesn't work. Being unkind to yourself when things are left undone also does not work. None of those things lead you to wholeness as a person. They might lead to checked off lists occasionally. They might lead to getting everything done when motivation and opportunities strike at the same time.

But rarely will you be able to get everything done that you'd like to, especially when you're in an overwhelming season.

So instead of trying to hack your way to completion, don't you just take a breath, start small, be kind, and do what is most important today.

“Do what matters right now and let the rest go. Now you're not letting it go forever.”

You're letting it go for now and then when tomorrow comes and you have a new start, a new set of hormones and a schedule for the day, you can see what you can get done. But your day should not be measured by your list by how much you get checked off. The more you accept that and start to live it, the more you will actually get done because your grip is loose, your contentment is high and your stress is low. Yes, what happens when stress is low. Tasks are easier today.

“And that's how many pep talk for when you're overwhelmed by all you'd like to do.”

If this episode was helpful to you or if you've been looking for a way to support the show, please share this episode with someone you know or leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Every mention and share it makes a difference, so thank you for your support. And if you would like the podcast recap email that goes out every other week, you can sign up at the lazyginesscollective.com/recap to get it. This podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the Office Lady's Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, an executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jennifer Sure and Angel McKenzie.

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, I'll see you next week. [Music]