The New Corner Office: Save brainpower for important stuff

Steward your energy by making Monday decisions automatic

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work where location and hours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to make
set decisions for Monday's so you can free up mental

(00:27):
space for more important matters. I'm taking today's tip from
Kendra Adachi's new book, The Lazy Genius Way. In it,
she shares strategies for running households and life more effectively.
She writes in the book that Monday's used to be
pretty rough for her, which I think we can all
sympathize with. But then she hit upon the idea of

(00:49):
making a decision once and running with that decision again
and again. She made one decision about her outfits and
meal choices for Mondays and began each week wearing and
eating the same thing as she did the week before.
With that decision about her Monday outfit and her Monday
meals made, she could save her energy for other things.

(01:13):
I think this is a great idea. I'm sure you've
stumbled out of bed Monday mornings and stood in front
of the closet deciding what to wear. If you know
the answer is black pants and a certain nice shirt,
then you no longer have to think about this question.
If you know the answer to what's for dinner is pasta.
Because it is every Monday, you don't have to devote

(01:35):
brain power to pondering this when you could be figuring
out how to serve a new client. Now, of course,
you can decide once on stuff for any day, but
there is a particular genius, perhaps a lazy genius, to
doing this for Monday. Many people start the week in
a discombobulated state. They didn't go to bed on time

(01:57):
the night before, and so they're tired. They know there
is a big pile of work waiting for them, but
they don't know exactly what's in the pile, and so
it is easy to feel fried. And that's too bad,
because we tend to have more energy for anything at
the start of it. Tackle a big project Monday morning

(02:18):
and the week will be amazing. To tackle that big project, though,
you have to conserve your energy. And here's where the
Monday choices come into play. It's only one day of
the week where whatever you feel like on Tuesday, but
having a Monday morning uniform means that Monday can be
more awesome. So today, think about what sort of decisions

(02:42):
could help you navigate Monday. Maybe it's your breakfast choices.
Maybe it's what you wear or what you dress your
little kids in. Maybe it's what you listen to. Maybe
it's what work out you do. Maybe it's who you
call first from work. Maybe it's what you watch in
the evening. In any case, decide once for Mondays and

(03:03):
then you don't have to decide again. You can use
your saved energy for whatever you like. In the meantime.
This is Laura, thanks for listening, and here's the succeeding
in the New Corner Office. The New Corner Office is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, visit

(03:26):
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