Book Review: The Plan

This is the latest book from Kendra Adachi, aka The Lazy Genius. If you are not familiar with her work, she hosts a weekly podcast where she addresses all areas of life through a specific lens. Her tagline is to be a genius about things that matter, and lazy about things that don’t. And the most important part is that you get to decide what matters.

In this, her third book, she aims that lens at the world of productivity. This book is life changing! I felt that Kendra was talking directly to me, solving problems I didn’t even know I had.

I want to explore one concept from the book that spoke to me the most. Kendra uses an analogy of looking at our daily task list as if it is a puzzle. She posits that we attempt to find the perfect solution to our day just like she would complete a jigsaw puzzle, “repeatedly creating a static image, meticulously putting its pieces in place, starting with the edges and working my way in.”

Instead, Kendra invites us to think of our life as a painting. “Remembering that I’m a painter helps me focus on the fullness of what I bring to the table instead of just focusing on my tasks.”

I have always explained why I love computer programming with the analogy that it is like a puzzle. I know when the program is complete (because it works and meets the requirements). I feel joy and a sense of accomplishment when I have solved the coding problem. But I’ve unconsciously been living my whole life that way… as a puzzle that I need to complete.

Thinking of my day as a painting makes me feel less stressed to “finish” everything. After all, a puzzle is incomplete if there are missing pieces, but it is less obvious if anything is missing from a painting. An “unfinished” painting is often still interesting and beautiful.

To extend the analogy, at some point a painting must either be completed and sold, or abandoned. Projects and tasks can be seen in that way. We get to decide when they are good enough to be called “done.” And we get to decide when we are ready to share them with the world. We even get to decide if we want to abandon the project altogether because it no longer matches the image of who we are.

This analogy also lessens my anxiety around getting things “right” all of the time. In a painting, mistakes can be covered with another coat of paint. Or, like the wise Bob Ross instructs, we can treat them as “happy accidents.” How many times have I started a project or pursued an interest that I thought would lead me to my end goal, but then I found that I didn’t want to be where I ended up? Even those “detours” have provided valuable insight and experiences. I use the lessons and skills learned in other projects and other areas of life. The main point is that we need to keep painting.

Although I’ve highlighted just one of the ideas from this book, there are several valuable concepts, which Kendra calls principles, and also many practical steps to follow. There are entire chapters on planning a day, week, month, project, and more. I expect to refer to this book regularly, and I look forward to rereading it annually.

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