Reflection Guide: PRIORITIES + The Lazy Genius Way
Questions to consider as you reflect on your priorities and/or read The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi!
January is just around the corner, which means so is the kick-off to our 2025 nonfiction book clubs! If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ve already received all the book titles and details for our first quarter of the Reading And Purpose Nonfiction Book Club. If you’re not a paid subscriber and want to join us, upgrade your subscription and you’re in!
Our theme for January is PRIORITIES. You probably know what a priority is, or can easily look up a definition, but I think one of the best descriptions of prioritizing comes from Kendra Adachi’s Lazy Genius motto:
“Be a genius about the things that matter, and lazy about the things that don’t.”
Simple! Profound! Dare I say, genius.
It does, however, tend to prompt further questions: What if everything matters? How do I decide what matters more? What do I do about the things that I put off in favor of other things - or the guilt / pressure / stress I feel in the process?
That’s where our book club discussions pick up!
Reflection Guide for PRIORITIES + The Lazy Genius Way
Feel free to reflect on the following questions in your journal, while on a walk, or as you read The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi. These will help form the launchpad for our book club discussions in January!
(And as you’ll see by the questions, you can still fully participate in the discussion even if you don’t read the book. Just bring along your own life experience!)
What do you consider your top priorities at the moment? How do you know these are your priorities? What distinguishes them from other tasks, to-do’s, or life areas?
How different are your priorities now compared to a month ago? A year ago? Five years ago?
Can something still be a priority even if you don’t attend to it every day? What if you don’t attend to it every week? How often do we need to pay attention to something in order for it to truly be a priority?
Kendra Adachi’s Lazy Genius motto encourages us to ‘be a genius about the things that matter, and lazy about the things that don’t.’ How helpful do you find this distinction? What would fall into the ‘things that matter’ category for you? How about in the ‘things that don’t’ category?
In her principle ‘Decide Once,’ Adachi suggests addressing decision fatigue and preserving mental energy by streamlining where possible. Some examples she offers include always buying the same teacher gifts, creating a ‘uniform’ for yourself, and making menu plans you can simply rotate and repeat. How does this concept land with you? Does it feel liberating, restricting, boring, helpful? What’s one area you could streamline that would free up your mind and/or your time?
How frequently do you re-evaluate your priorities? What prompts you to do so?
How many items are currently on your to-do list? Do you ever actually complete your list? Aside from external deadlines, how do you determine the order in which you’ll complete them?
How many priorities can a person realistically honor at one time? Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, wrote how the word ‘priority’ was originally only singular in form and referred to the single most important thing; it wasn’t until the 1900s that we began pluralizing it to refer to multiple ‘priorities.’ Can we truly honor more than one priority at any given time?
“Productivity doesn’t always have to be the goal of your day,” writes Adachi. “It’s ok to have a day that’s full of resting or holding a baby or never even glancing at a to-do list.” Do you agree? How do you feel (or imagine you’d feel) at the end of a day of resting or not doing any tasks on your list? How often does it seem realistic to have a day like this?
Adachi’s third principle, ‘Ask The Magic Question,’ refers to this: What can I do now to make life easier later? What activities or routines come to mind for you with this principle? How often do you put this into practice? How does that compare with how often you put things off for ‘future you’ to deal with?
In what ways do you prioritize service, giving, or philanthropy? If you had $100 to give, for instance, would you prefer to donate $5 each to 20 different causes, or $100 to one cause near and dear to your heart? What helps you choose where your time and/or treasure goes?
As we embark on a new year, what do you choose as your top priorities in 2025?
I’ve purposefully chosen the topic of priorities to start our 2025 book clubs because being intentional about what matters most - rather than leaving things up to chance, circumstance, or mood - can have a positive impact throughout the entire year. Let’s start - and set ourselves up to finish! - 2025 strong, positive, purposeful, and prioritized!
Questions? Comments? Books or topics you’d like me to discuss here? Feel free to email me at readingandpurpose (at) gmail.com or comment on this post directly in the app/website. I love hearing from you and I appreciate your support!