[PODCAST 195]: Decide Once (Advice from The Lazy Genius)

Over the past few years, I’ve been hearing wonderful things about The Lazy Genius Way, and I finally got the audiobook and then the hard copy book.

I totally recommend it!

And this month in ARISE, since we’re focusing on routines, I thought it would be a great time to discuss this book.

More will be happening inside ARISE, so come into the membership if you want to be part of our powerful community discussions (there’s a link at the bottom!), but for today, I’ll highlight one principle in this engaging, helpful book:

Decide once.

Essentially, Kendra is suggesting that we reduce decision fatigue by creating some simple structure for our lives. Here are a few of her examples from the book:

• She wears the same outfit every Monday—a black top and denim shorts or pants.
• For teacher gifts, everyone gets the same book each year.
• When she attends weddings, she has a “summer dress” and a “winter dress” that can be dressed up or down, depending on the event.
• Her family eats pizza on Fridays and leftovers on Saturdays, and if they eat fish, it’s salmon.
• She scrubs the toilet right before taking a shower.
• And whenever there’s a chance to “decide once” and make things simpler, she does.

As I read her examples, I thought of a few examples from my own life that I thought might be helpful to share:

• Eric wears a navy collared shirt and khaki shorts or khaki pants every day. His brothers even came to a get together dressed just like him one time, and his friend texted him one day with a photo of himself in navy and khaki, with a message that said, “I’m channeling my inner Eric.”
• I switch up my tops, but I have 6 pairs of the same black pants with pockets, and I wear them every day.
• I used to have white socks with different colored heels, so we had to match the colors together after doing the laundry.  Now all my socks are black.
• We give gift cards or send money via VenMo for weddings.
• We sing our special happy birthday song and text it to our loved ones for their birthdays.
• We generally use the same shampoo bottles and same soap dispensers in each of our bathrooms, so we can easily buy in bulk and refill them.
• I have 10 meals/snacks, and smoothies I eat throughout the week as the “base” for my diet. I love each one, and I rotate through them. I batch smoothies and soup, and Eric and Spencer have their own quick meals. I make a big family dinner on Sundays, and sometimes once or twice during the week, but usually not (because of our stage in life).
• We do an hour of “Saturday jobs” where I make a list of what actually needs to be done–and I give part to Spencer and part to myself. Eric does the yard. Otherwise, we reset the rooms and tidy as we go.
• Eric does laundry on Thursdays, folds the laundry as he listens to comedy on Pandora, and then has me and Spencer put our folded items away.
• Now that we have a new grandson, we had a brief discussion with our daughter and son-in-law and asked which items would be helpful for us to have here at the house. They gave us a basic list, which we’re working on right now, and we’re buying things that can last for the next decade and beyond–so any and all future grandchildren can use the same items.

I don’t know if those kinds of examples are helpful, but there you go…

As I was thinking about this topic, I also realized that SO much of the STEP program is about deciding once.

• You make simple landing spots that are predictable and stable–so things aren’t flying all over your home, office, or digital space.
• You have one inbox.
• You decide at the beginning of the month what your Current Projects will be.
• You only read your emails when you have time to process them, and you make a decision on the emails once (2-minute rule, delete, unsubscribe, save in @immediate action, archive).
• You process every item in your inbox with the 8 processing questions.
• You file papers and digital items in distinct places so you can find them in seconds.

I had to smile as I read a recent “STEP win” inside our STEP Mastery Facebook group. One of our members said that her husband was looking for a manual for an item they’d purchased in the past, and he asked her if she knew where it was. (He was kind of doubting that she did…) Using her STEP Command Central, she went and found it in 20 SECONDS, and she was so excited to share! What a thrill to read that!

I hope you’ll build your full system and join our STEP program, and if you haven’t yet become a STEPper, please visit https://LearnDoBecome.com/STEPprogram! And if you are in the program–and/or you’re looking for some great books to supplement your system, The Lazy Genius Way is full of fun, helpful ideas, and they truly work beautifully in the context of a STEP Command Central.

That is why I genuinely love what we do here at LearnDoBecome so much—because I can’t think of one productivity book or tool or idea that doesn’t work WITH your Command Central.

If your life is feeling overwhelming in any way, I hope you know that we can each benefit in HUGE ways by putting simple systems in place to help us do what matters most, and I am so, so glad you are here!

Related Links:

Are you a STEPper yet? Learn more here!

Each month, our ARISERs join together to apply principles of productivity to real life, so we can wake up excited and go to bed content. Join us in the ARISE membership!

Enjoy the book, The Lazy Genius Way (Amazon Affiliate Link)