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there. You are listening to the Lazy Genius

0:58

podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to

1:00

help you be a genius about the things

1:03

that matter, and lazy about the things

1:05

that don't. Today's episode 371, How

1:08

to Lazy Genius a Day Trip.

1:11

Summer is often a season for day trips

1:14

for many reasons. If you are in education

1:16

and you have some time off in the

1:18

summer, going somewhere for a day is

1:20

much more of an option now than other times of

1:22

the year. If you're home with kids,

1:24

you have a lot of days to enjoy slash

1:27

fill up, and a day

1:29

trip could be a fun option. If you

1:31

still work through the summer like most working

1:33

adults, and you can't really take time off

1:35

for a longer vacation, a day trip is

1:37

more feasible. Or if you love

1:39

to go places, but money is tight right

1:41

now, going somewhere for a day is more

1:44

doable in this season than going somewhere overnight

1:46

or longer. All in all,

1:48

day trips might be on your horizon over the

1:50

next few weeks for a variety of reasons. So

1:52

let's talk about how to lazy genius them. Now,

1:55

this is a weird beginning, but a phrase

1:58

that is often used in entrepreneurship. and

2:01

internet marketing is surprise

2:03

and delight. Surprise and

2:05

delight. A business owner's job or

2:07

a marketer's job is to surprise

2:09

and delight their customers because

2:12

being surprised and being delighted are, I mean,

2:14

surprising and delightful. It's a

2:16

lovely thing to have something happen to you

2:18

that is out of the ordinary, that also

2:20

makes you smile or laugh or have a

2:22

good time. It also doesn't require

2:24

anything grand, you know? You can be

2:26

surprised and delighted in the smallest way

2:28

and it still has an impact. I

2:31

have been a member of Book of the Month forever

2:33

and I still get so happy that

2:35

every book I get comes with a bookmark.

2:38

Like every package has a bookmark and sometimes

2:40

they're new designs. It's so fun.

2:43

It's surprising and delightful every time. So

2:45

that phrase is actually a great one to tuck

2:48

away for a day trip to. Now

2:50

you might argue that the broader point of a day

2:52

trip is to surprise and delight, but different

2:55

trips have different priorities. But no

2:57

matter your priority, there are multiple

3:00

tiny ways to infuse surprise and

3:02

delight into your day trip that

3:04

make the day memorable. And

3:07

if you have tiny kids, they also make

3:09

the day more manageable. So today

3:11

we're going to apply the lazy genius

3:13

method to day trips to help you

3:15

plan yours. But as we do, I

3:17

want you to remember that phrase, surprise

3:19

and delight. It's your

3:22

energetic guiding light. At

3:24

the end of this episode, I will share some of the things that

3:26

we do on a road trip for the

3:28

day that are a surprise in the sense

3:30

that they kind of only happen when we're on a

3:33

road trip and they're also quite delightful. They're the things

3:35

that get all three kids in the car, even

3:37

if only one of them is excited about where we're going.

3:40

Again, I will share those at the end of the

3:42

episode. Okay, let me

3:44

remind you of our beloved lazy

3:46

genius method before we apply it

3:49

to day trips. It is five

3:51

steps. First, prioritize. You name what

3:53

matters. Step two, essentialize.

3:55

Get rid of what's in the way.

3:58

Step three is organize. put

4:00

everything in its place. Step

4:02

four is to personalize

4:05

or feel like yourself. And

4:07

then finally, step five, systemize.

4:10

Keep things in a flow. Now

4:13

for any topic and for day

4:15

trips specifically, you won't need all five of

4:17

these steps in equal measure. That almost always

4:20

happens when you do this. When you walk

4:22

through the lazy genius method, some steps are

4:24

gonna be more robust than others and that

4:26

is totally normal. Don't think you're

4:29

doing it wrong. If you don't have much

4:31

for one particular step or even more than

4:33

one. For example, it's unlikely

4:35

that we will have to systemize much about

4:37

a day trip. There's

4:39

no flow to really stay in because this

4:41

is not a repeatable thing, right? Now

4:44

you might systemize things like travel

4:46

house rules or packing lists or

4:48

something, but the application of that

4:50

step to day trips is probably

4:52

quite small. That's very normal. So

4:55

that's just a reminder. Okay, so

4:57

let's think through the method and how it might help you plan

4:59

a day trip. Because my guess is that at

5:01

some point in your life, you have planned a trip in the

5:03

wrong order. We've all done that. All right, now

5:05

the reason that we start with prioritize and

5:08

essentialize and not organize and

5:10

not just for day trips, but in all the things is

5:13

because so often in life, we

5:16

organize first. We try

5:18

and set up the details. We put things

5:20

in their place and then we find ourselves

5:22

harried or frustrated or missing something or did

5:24

we even wanna go here in the first

5:26

place? That definitely

5:29

happens and it's because organizing

5:32

is never first. Choosing

5:34

where you're gonna go weirdly is

5:36

not the first step unless the priority of

5:38

the day trip is to go to a

5:40

specific place. So I really

5:43

don't want you to skimp on thinking

5:45

through the steps. The order of them

5:47

really, really matters. Trust me on this,

5:49

the order super-dupe matters. Okay, so our

5:51

first step in the lazy

5:53

genius method is to prioritize. You

5:55

need to name what matters

5:58

about your day trip. Okay. Now,

6:01

if you do not have a location chosen

6:03

yet, don't worry. Like I said, that's actually

6:05

kind of good. You get to decide what

6:07

matters most about the day trip in general.

6:10

Is it that you want a new experience?

6:12

Do you want quiet adventure?

6:16

Does it matter the most that nobody complains

6:18

or at least they complain as little as

6:20

possible? Does it matter most

6:22

to experience comfort and ease, but in

6:25

a new place because you just

6:27

need to get out of your house for the day, you don't

6:29

need to stretch anybody's comfort zones. What is

6:31

the main priority here? Once you

6:33

know that you'll be able

6:35

to narrow your focus, your choices,

6:37

and you'll have a more rewarding

6:39

experience that more closely match your

6:41

expectations. Okay. So step two

6:43

is to essentialize with prioritized. Next, we're going to

6:46

essentialize. We're going to get rid of what's in

6:48

the way so that you

6:50

can have what you need. So what

6:52

is in the way of you accomplishing

6:54

this priority on your day

6:56

trip? Is it that your kids are different

6:58

ages and they like different things? Is

7:01

it not having as much money to spend as you would

7:03

like? Is it navigating a

7:05

new place on your own with three tiny

7:07

humans in tow? Is it

7:09

that you still don't know where you want to go? Name

7:12

what is in the way, get rid

7:14

of what you can, and then also

7:16

name what's missing. What do you still

7:18

need to have the type of day trip that

7:20

matters to you? And now

7:23

you can organize. This is where

7:25

step three is meant to be. Now

7:28

that you know what matters, you've gotten rid

7:30

of what's in the way, whether emotionally or

7:32

logistically, and you've named what you

7:34

need, you can start to put things in their

7:36

proper place. You can organize

7:39

where you're going, how you're going to get there,

7:42

what you're going to do, that kind of

7:45

thing. Logistics are best after

7:47

you have prioritized and essentialized.

7:50

All right. Step four is to personalize. How

7:52

do you need to feel like yourself? Either

7:55

planning the day trip or actually being on it.

7:58

What do your people need to feel like themselves? My

8:00

sister and I often joke that we do not have

8:02

resilient children. I see other kids

8:04

try new things and go to new places and

8:06

like they're just gamers on a hot day. And

8:09

my kids are literally in a heap on the sidewalk

8:12

begging to immediately go home. Hannah's

8:14

kids are that way too. We just have like creature

8:16

comfort children who are not much for adventure. But

8:18

adventure is still a good thing to do, right? Resilience

8:21

is something that can be developed. So our

8:23

family still takes trips, both day trips and

8:25

longer to show our kids that they can

8:27

pivot in new situations. They can learn to

8:29

have a good time wherever they are. But

8:32

one of the hardest things for

8:34

me personally about family trips is

8:37

the complaining. What immediately

8:39

makes me not feel like myself is

8:41

when I am internalizing all the complaining

8:43

and the balls of children on the floor.

8:46

It makes me a crazy person. So

8:48

it's important for me to feel like myself

8:50

as much as possible to fill my bucket,

8:52

to wear comfortable clothes, to have a book

8:54

in the car, to bring headphones if the

8:56

kids are going to listen to

8:59

music that I do not like, so that I do not

9:01

run out of energy before we've

9:03

even done anything yet. And

9:05

then I'm more prepared for the balls of

9:08

children on the floor later. We all

9:10

have things that make us off

9:12

center, not just kids. So personalize

9:15

as much as you need to. And

9:17

then the final step is to systemize or keep things in

9:20

a flow. Again this is unlikely

9:22

to be a necessary step, but still ask

9:24

the question when you're thinking through your own

9:26

day trip. There might be an interesting answer

9:28

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10:10

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10:13

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fee with code LazyGenius. That's

10:31

code LazyGenius. Recently,

10:36

our family took a day trip to a nearby

10:38

city, and I'm gonna give you the rundown of

10:40

our day so that you can see how the

10:43

LazyGenius method worked to help us plan, and

10:46

also share with you the things that we always do on day

10:48

trips to surprise and delight our

10:50

children and ourselves, and some of the things that didn't

10:52

work out so well. So a couple

10:54

of months ago, I saw an Instagram

10:56

ad for something called The Brick Convention.

10:59

It was a fan event for Lego. It's

11:02

touring the country, and there was gonna be

11:04

a stop in Durham, North Carolina, which is

11:06

about an hour away from where we live. Well,

11:08

my middle kid loves Lego, Ben. Sam,

11:12

my oldest, he used to, and he gets

11:14

the bug occasionally still, and then Annie's kinda

11:16

meh, but she tends to be game for

11:19

things as long as I'm going. So we

11:21

didn't have to worry about where we were

11:23

going here, because the whole impetus for the

11:25

trip started with this Lego convention, right? I

11:27

sent the link to Kaz. He thought it

11:29

would be fun, so we got tickets. Now,

11:32

the priority for us

11:35

with this is to do something unusual

11:37

and new in the hopes it

11:39

would be fun. It was like a tiny little

11:41

adventure. That's our priority, okay?

11:44

But what's possibly in the

11:46

way of that adventure being fun? What

11:49

do we need to essentialize here? Since

11:52

not all of my kids would be equally

11:54

into it, I thought that

11:56

something we might need was friends. Even

11:59

if you're doing... doing something you don't love, but you have a

12:01

friend around, it makes it better. And

12:04

as much as I wish my kids were friends with each other,

12:06

they are siblings. They are not really friends. So

12:08

I asked some family friends of ours who also

12:10

like Lego if they wanted to come. They weren't

12:12

sure for a little bit. And then

12:15

finally decided they couldn't do that day since the

12:17

weekend was already kind of busy for them. So

12:19

no harm, no foul. But I did lose

12:21

one of the things that would have helped me essentialize

12:23

the stay trip and have what we need,

12:26

friends. Otherwise two of

12:28

the three kids would still just think this whole

12:30

thing is kind of boring, which

12:32

spoiler alert is exactly what happened. So this is

12:34

a great spot to talk about the things that

12:36

we always do on a trip, depending on the

12:38

kind of trip that we are taking. Okay. One

12:41

thing that we always do when we're driving

12:43

longer than two hours is we

12:46

do a gas station snack stop. The

12:48

kids know that we will stop at a gas

12:50

station, preferably a big one like sheets or something

12:53

and everyone gets whatever snack they want. They think

12:55

it's the greatest thing of all time. However,

12:57

we did not do that on this trip

13:00

because our drive is just one hour. It

13:02

felt a little unnecessary. I

13:04

was prepared to have us do it as a way

13:06

to surprise and delight if the kids got restless and

13:08

I couldn't take it anymore. But

13:10

weirdly enough, we never hit that point in the car. However,

13:13

depending on the ages and attention spans of

13:15

the people in your car, a gas

13:18

station snack stop is a built-in part of your

13:20

trip is a really great idea. One

13:22

that we didn't do this time, but whatever we didn't

13:24

super need to. Something we

13:27

also do on a day trip or otherwise is

13:29

we stop for ice cream every time. Our kids

13:31

love ice cream. I love ice cream. Kaz tolerates

13:34

ice cream, but he's just happy to be there

13:36

because he's in any Grim 9. He's

13:38

just content as a, what's content? I was going

13:40

to say content as a peach. That

13:43

is not the phrase carry on, but

13:45

we always make an ice cream stop on a

13:47

trip. When we take a

13:49

longer trip, we like a full vacation. We usually

13:51

get ice cream every day. It's just part of

13:53

what makes things fun for us. We compare shops

13:56

and flavors. We try and organize the ice cream

13:58

into part of the day. that

14:00

makes the most sense for like a needed energy boost

14:02

because we know we love it. It just never fails

14:04

for us. Ice cream has never failed us. Side

14:07

note, we are doing an ice cream challenge this summer

14:09

in our town. We have made a list of 10

14:11

ice cream places within a 30 minute

14:13

driving radius that we love or that we want

14:15

to try. We're gonna go to one every

14:18

week, rank the shop according to

14:20

taste and experience. And then the

14:22

final week, we'll go back to the one with the highest

14:24

family score. This is how much we love ice cream. Okay,

14:27

so back to the day trip. Choose your

14:30

own type of ice cream. What

14:32

is something that you or your people really

14:35

love without fail? Add

14:37

that into your day trip every single

14:39

time. That way, even if the experience

14:41

itself is a fail, the

14:43

quote unquote ice cream isn't. It's like playing

14:45

your hot dogs, playing

14:47

your ice cream. Which takes

14:50

me back to our recent trip to Durham. We

14:52

had something going on in the morning of the

14:54

brick convention. So we decided to organize our day

14:56

by just going in the afternoon. So

14:59

the plan, which we know

15:01

is just an intention, right? It's not

15:03

a pass fail. Plans are just intentions.

15:05

If they don't go according to plan,

15:08

you didn't fail anything. Our

15:10

plan was to do like our morning thing in

15:12

town, eat lunch at home so

15:14

everyone could kind of rest and recharge after a

15:16

busy morning and then we would drive straight to

15:19

Durham. Since the convention started at three and it

15:21

only takes like an hour to get there, I

15:24

decided it would be better to go get ice cream

15:26

first. There's a Jenny's

15:28

in Durham and I never say

15:30

no to a chance to go to a Jenny's. The

15:33

reason that I opted for

15:35

the organization of ice

15:37

cream first, that's where

15:39

I was gonna put ice cream in its place was

15:41

the very first thing, is because Sam

15:44

and Annie were decidedly unhappy

15:46

about this trip. They really did not

15:48

wanna go. Especially once our friends could

15:50

no longer go with us. So rather

15:52

than have them keep asking when

15:54

we could leave the convention to

15:56

go get ice cream, I

15:59

decided to sugar them up. first. I think that was

16:01

an excellent plan cause. And I

16:03

figured that we would let the convention be what it

16:05

was, you know, we would just explore as we

16:07

go. And depending on how late we

16:09

stayed there, we would either get takeout on

16:12

our way home or right when we

16:14

got home and then take the food home. How's

16:17

that for a sentence? Anyway, no matter the, the

16:20

plan was takeout for dinner. We

16:23

just didn't know in what city or at what point it

16:25

would happen. So that was our plan. Our

16:27

organization part of the Lacey genius method,

16:29

putting everything in its place. Now

16:31

remember step four is to personalize. And as

16:33

I already shared, this is important for me

16:36

and my family. We are not a resilient

16:38

group. So being able to have

16:40

full buckets in whatever way it makes

16:42

a big, every just a really big

16:45

difference. That's why one of our travel

16:47

rules, like our house rules is that

16:49

you can bring whatever you want

16:51

in the car. I

16:54

am not kidding you. Annie brought her

16:56

entire bedspread. A pillow and two huge

16:59

stuffed animals. Okay.

17:01

Do your thing girl. Ben brought a

17:03

book because he always brings a book. I

17:06

brought my Kindle and I wore my comfy

17:08

summer jumpsuit that I've been wearing all summer

17:10

so far. Feel like yourself. And

17:12

one of the ways we do that is to let

17:15

our kids take whatever they want in the car. No

17:17

matter how large it is. We also

17:19

have a playlist that is our go-to for

17:21

traveling, at least for shorter distances. It's called

17:23

a Dachi van vibes. And it is a

17:25

mix of specific songs that each person adds.

17:28

The idea is that no matter what song

17:30

is playing, you're not that far away from

17:32

a song that you personally like. Now

17:35

this playlist, I'm not necessarily going to share

17:37

it because it wouldn't work for other families

17:39

because it has concert band music since that's

17:42

what Sam likes. It's like a wild mix.

17:44

It's a wild mix of concert band music.

17:46

Imagine dragons van Morrison and Taylor Swift.

17:48

Like what can you do? But it works for

17:50

us. Our kids like music praise

17:52

be. So that's a way we

17:54

can all feel like ourselves. We play music

17:57

that everyone likes at least in

17:59

part. For the some of the playlist. Okay.

18:02

Quickly. The reason that this

18:04

does not work for longer trips for us.

18:06

This is perfect for a day trip is

18:09

because the longer we're in the car, the

18:11

more tired and introspective everyone gets. We're

18:14

not big chatters after about an hour,

18:16

sometimes way less than that. But

18:19

when the music is intense or you're like

18:21

suddenly being forced out of your quiet reverie,

18:23

because Taylor Swift's 22 just came on, it's

18:26

not a great vibe. So

18:28

we usually start a trip with a

18:30

Dachy band vibes. If we're going

18:32

on a day trip, that's just all you play.

18:34

But if we're going to be in the car

18:36

for a while, I will eventually transition to breezy

18:38

instrumental, which is a playlist that all

18:40

of you love. That playlist is part of my legacy.

18:43

It's like that and change your life. Chicken. That playlist

18:45

has over 10,000 saves on Spotify. It

18:49

is the weirdest magic that just gets

18:52

any group of humans to just chill out and have a

18:54

good time. Like I still don't

18:56

understand why, but I will not question it.

18:58

It is so good. Breezy instrumental, everybody. So

19:01

the way that we feel like ourselves

19:03

is that we make the van like

19:06

a pleasant place to be. People can have

19:08

what they need. We play music. Everyone likes and we

19:10

call it good. Okay. Now

19:12

back to the specifics of our day trip. We did

19:14

our busy morning. We ate lunch at home. And then

19:16

I rang the bell to signal everyone that it was

19:18

time to start packing up because we have a bell

19:21

that does that because the children respond better to a

19:23

bell than to my voice. Ben

19:25

was pumped, right? He was so excited. He grabbed

19:27

his book. He went straight to the car. He

19:30

eventually had to come back inside because he was out

19:32

there for a solid 15 minutes before anyone joined him.

19:34

Like he was ready to know what else was Sam

19:37

and Andy were pretty whiny about going and

19:39

I was whiny because they were whiny. It

19:41

was not a great start, but we packed

19:43

up water bottles and Annie's entire

19:45

bedroom and loaded up. We

19:48

had to have a little family pep talk

19:50

as we were leaving about attitudes and how

19:52

sometimes we do things as a family that

19:54

one person likes more than everyone else. And

19:56

we still do that with a happy attitude

19:58

because we love each other. A

20:00

forced idea for some of my children and because

20:02

we don't yuck on yums. This

20:05

was mostly aimed at my oldest whose teenage

20:07

birthright is to argue with things right now,

20:09

but he eventually came around, especially

20:11

when we learned that we were going to go get

20:13

ice cream first. Apparently the

20:15

way that I anticipated the

20:18

needed organization of the day was on point

20:20

ice cream first was the correct call. So

20:22

we went to Jenny's. I got

20:24

three flavors and I remember how amazing

20:27

wild berry lavender is. I hadn't gotten that

20:29

in a long time. Man, it's so good.

20:31

The kids all got chocolate because they are

20:33

rather conventional and I did not argue with

20:35

them and it was just delicious. Then we

20:37

drove the four minutes to the convention center.

20:40

Super close. The kids y'all, it

20:42

was so funny. The kids were so confused because

20:44

the convention was in a hotel. They

20:46

don't go into many hotels. They also

20:48

did not understand the concept of the convention

20:50

center. Like that lack of

20:52

knowledge made them question our judgment and actually coming

20:54

to this thing. They're like, are you, are

20:57

you guys sure we're in the right place? This seems weird, but

21:00

we, we got into the hotel, found the

21:02

convention center. We scanned our tickets. We went

21:04

inside. I

21:06

immediately realized this was not what I

21:08

imagined. It was a hotel ballroom. So

21:11

the lighting was weird. It was like very

21:13

yellow and dim. The

21:16

Epic Lego builds that

21:18

I imagined and that were

21:20

advertised, um, they were epic

21:22

in design, but they were still

21:24

like fairly reasonable in

21:27

size. They were not huge statues. Like

21:29

I assume they would be. We

21:32

had to stand in line behind a velvet rope

21:34

and walk a path to see all the Lego

21:36

creations. And the actual creators

21:38

of those builds were standing there, like waiting to

21:40

be talked to, but we didn't know them or

21:42

have a lot of questions. So

21:44

I, I didn't have to do this, but I

21:47

did anyway. I basically like carried

21:49

the responsibility of the emotional fulfillment of

21:51

everyone in earshot. I tried to be

21:53

encouraging about details that I saw. I

21:55

was overly enthusiastic about how cool certain

21:57

things were. So my kids did not.

22:00

suddenly realized this was actually kind

22:02

of boring. And then the second

22:04

ballroom, while cool, was really just

22:06

a glorified overpriced gift shop. This

22:09

brings me to another day trip roll. We

22:11

like souvenirs. My kids love them. They still keep

22:13

them. But we do go in with a budget.

22:16

It depends on the place and the trip. But for this one,

22:19

we said to them, okay, kids, you can have

22:21

10 bucks each to get something you really love

22:23

if you see something you really love, right? But

22:26

anything beyond that is on you. And

22:28

even then, we do like to talk to them

22:31

about it first, you know, because

22:33

sometimes their decision-making skills are

22:36

questionable. So there

22:38

was a make-your-own mini-fig station

22:40

with just bins and bins

22:42

of pieces to choose from.

22:45

And Sam found

22:47

a tiny saxophone. And

22:49

so he wanted to make a mini-fig of himself. Of course, it's

22:52

concert black. He's

22:54

like, it's like a little mini-fig with brown

22:56

hair and concert black holding saxophone. It's

22:59

pretty rad, actually. Annie,

23:02

for her $10, she recently got her ears pierced

23:04

and she found a pair of Lego dolphin earrings

23:06

that she loves. So she got those. Ben

23:09

was the only one who wanted to get something

23:11

on his own. There was a Lego set from

23:13

the Marvel Universe that I had

23:15

never seen before. And he wanted to

23:17

buy it. It was $90, which is a lot, but

23:21

also he really loves his Marvel Lego

23:23

sets. He has Captain America's shield, Thor's

23:25

hammer, that Infinity

23:27

Stone hand thing, several others. They're like up in

23:30

his room. He's a big fan. The

23:32

problem was I didn't know if $90 was

23:34

us being fleeced or not. And since

23:36

I also had not seen this set before,

23:39

maybe it was one that was retired. Like

23:41

the whole ballroom was full of retired sets.

23:44

Sadly, the hotel wifi was awful and I could not

23:46

get a signal at all. So I couldn't check Amazon

23:49

to see if we could get it and get it for

23:51

cheaper. I was like, well, all right, fine.

23:53

Ben was in, so we got it. Y'all, when we got

23:55

back to the parking lot I got a signal. I found

23:57

that thing on Amazon for 70 bucks. Oh

24:00

well, you win some, you lose some. But

24:03

once everyone got their Lego item,

24:07

we gathered up, we were actually like sitting in a

24:09

circle in the middle of the ballroom, like not the

24:11

middle, but like away from everyone, but just on the

24:13

floor. We collectively decided we

24:15

were done and we left. Our

24:18

ticket window for this convention was three to

24:20

six o'clock and we were ready to go.

24:23

It was a few minutes after four. Now in

24:26

the past, I might've seen that as

24:28

a fail. You know, we need to use

24:30

all of our time or

24:33

I might've thought that we need to stay in Durham

24:35

longer to make the trip worth it. Like we were

24:37

in the car longer than we were at the convention

24:40

or I would have blamed myself. I should have done

24:42

more research to understand what this thing was. We

24:46

don't do that anymore guys. We don't do that anymore. Plans

24:48

are just intentions. They are not past fail. This

24:51

trip was not quite what I pictured or what I intended it

24:53

to be, but that doesn't mean it was

24:55

a fail. That doesn't mean that I screwed

24:58

up. That doesn't mean that

25:00

we needed to like force

25:02

a new trip into a bad shape of a

25:04

trip because the timing wasn't what

25:07

we expected. No,

25:09

you just pivot. You go, all

25:11

right, I think we're good. I think we're done. Let's

25:14

head home. It was like

25:16

just a day trip. It was barely even

25:18

half a day trip and that's okay. That's

25:21

okay. So we left Durham

25:23

early enough that we just got fast food like a few

25:25

blocks from our house once we got back to Greensboro and

25:27

we took it home, which was an option

25:29

in the plan, if you recall, and it worked out fine.

25:33

We did not have to pivot much honestly,

25:35

except in terms of expectations and then just the

25:37

timing at the end. Our plans

25:39

mostly went according to plan, but

25:42

they were also fairly loose to begin with, which

25:44

really helped. You know, we had a little adventure.

25:47

We did something that not everyone was stoked about

25:49

and survived. We found ways to surprise

25:51

and delight with gift shop, mini figs, ice cream,

25:53

and comfy fans. In

25:55

some ways I realized this is not

25:57

like a super tip heavy episode. day

25:59

trips, but day trips y'all they are so

26:02

vast and what they can be. It

26:04

depends on who's going, where you're going, your

26:06

budget, your energy, your purpose, all of those

26:08

things. That is why I love the

26:11

lazy genius method. It is a process

26:14

that helps you name the things

26:16

that you need so you can have an

26:18

experience that you enjoy. And even

26:21

if the experience itself isn't what you expected,

26:23

you can be kind and pivot and still

26:25

feel like yourself. The

26:28

most important thing though that I want

26:30

you to take from this episode from

26:32

a logistical standpoint is to prioritize and

26:34

essentialize before you organize. If you do

26:36

not already have a place or a

26:38

thing to go to, don't start there.

26:41

Start with what you're wanting from the state

26:43

trip. What matters? What might

26:45

be in the way of what matters or what's missing?

26:48

Then fill in that gap with the actual

26:50

place and the time you go. It doesn't

26:53

always work that way, but when you're

26:55

just wanting to go somewhere, save the

26:58

somewhere for later in the

27:00

decision process and then

27:02

also find your ice cream. And

27:04

that is how to lazy genius a day trip. Okay,

27:07

before we go, let's celebrate the

27:09

lazy genius of the week. This week

27:11

it is Jessica Moran with a very

27:14

relevant idea to today's episode. Jessica writes

27:16

this often summertime involves

27:18

travel while our packing lists

27:21

have everything each person needs to pack. It

27:23

also has a section of things to do

27:25

before we leave. I started this doc when

27:27

my kids were little and I still print

27:29

it off and have made edits along the

27:31

way. Now everyone can run around and

27:33

cross things off our main list as we prepare to

27:35

go. I really love

27:37

this Jessica. While everyone is busy gathering

27:39

things to pack, they can stay in

27:41

that active energy to do

27:44

certain things too before leaving. It

27:47

also demonstrates a very important concept of the

27:49

whole family working together to get out the

27:51

door. It's not just one person's job. So

27:54

this is a really great idea. Thank you

27:56

for sharing Jessica and congratulations on being the

27:58

lazy genius of the the week. This

28:01

episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi,

28:03

an executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna

28:05

Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. The Lazy Genius

28:08

podcast is enthusiastically part of the Office

28:10

Ladies Network. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis

28:12

for weekly production. Thanks y'all for listening.

28:14

And until next time, be a genius

28:16

about the things that matter and lazy

28:19

about the things that don't. I'm Kendra.

28:21

I'll see you next week. The

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