A Lazy Genius Take on Time Management
Kendra Adachi offers some helpful time management advice even if it’s from a secular perspective
I came across Kendra Adachi on one of Cal Newports “in depth” episodes of the Deep Questions podcast. Since her audience is built predominantly for women, I hadn’t heard of her. Her sense of humor and critique of traditional time management advice immediately grabbed my attention. I knew that I had to study her work more fully.
Adachi makes a living on writing simple, thoughtful books on intentional living. Her podcast is wildly popular. In one episode she’ll discuss how she celebrates her birthday and in the next how she prepares for a busy month. She’s really good at what she does.
Here’s the main premise of her new book, The PLAN, Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius:
The goal is not greatness. The goal is not mastery over your habits or power over your day. It’s not creating an ideal schedule and then duplicating it until you’re dead. We’re also not here to “crush” anything… but if the goal is not greatness, then what is it? It’s integration.
She then unpacks this idea, both what’s wrong with your typical productivity advice and what integration means.
Most Productivity Advice Vs. Lazy Genius Living Advice
Most productivity advice will preach the following lessons ad nauseum:
Build your ideal schedule
Maximize your time
Be as efficient as possible
Streamline every moment
Crush your meetings
Get to inbox zero
While I certainly believe in these concepts and have taught them myself (see this and this), Adachi’s lingering point is still worth considering- what if these practices aren’t the goal? What if a more holistic perspective on life and work is better?
This is where Adachi then unpacks her idea of integration. I can’t identify in her work any references to faith and she doesn’t describe herself as a Christian. For her, integration is about finding contentment where you are in this season of life. That’s certainly not a bad thing but also is a fair bit away from what a Catholic concept of integration is.
A Faith-Based Concept of Integration
The Church has said a lot over the centuries about what integration means. We can look to a Catholic ethic of work. We can describe integration in terms of infusing our faith into our work. We can discuss what human flourishing means.
The US Bishops Conference has an excellent summary of various documents that touch on work (see The Dignity and the Rights of Workers). Each document attempts to elevate the dignity of doing a job that matters. The Biblical basis of work is outlined. Work is seen as a co-creating act in the very nature of God.
Here are some fantastic quotes that give you a flavor of what the Church teaches about a holistic view of productivity:
Work should be the setting for this rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God. (Pope Francis, Laudato Si)
Work is, as has been said, an obligation, that is to say, a duty, on the part of man. . . Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history." (St. John Paul II, On Human Work [Laborem Exercens], no. 16)
Work is a good thing for man-a good thing for his humanity-because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes 'more a human being'.” (St. John Paul II, On Human Work [Laborem Exercens], no. 9)
In these quotes, we see the goodness of work itself and the opportunity it provides, helping us become more fully human and giving us a means of glorifying God. This is a Catholic and Christian view of integration. Work can be good and God works through us.
No one puts this better than Saint Teresa of Calcutta who famously said, “I am a little pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more.” This is integration- God working through me.
This past week, I had a Mother-Theresa-pencil-in-hand moment. I had to lead a very difficult meeting and a priest said to me, “I wouldn’t want your job” My response was honest and to the point- it’s my job. Someone has to do it. Why not me?
Does The PLAN Miss the Mark?
Does The PLAN, Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi miss the mark when it comes to integration and productivity. I would frame it differently. She surfaces a flaw in our contemporary productivity space, namely that everything isn’t about striving for greatness.
Most of the people I work with in ministry are not waking up with the desire to crush their work. They are balancing young kids at home, a mortgage to pay and dinner to prepare each night. Their work is only one part of their lives.
I agree with Adachi, that there’s something bigger to strive for than just work optimization. She describes this as the integration of the various parts of your life such that you find contentment in the midst of it all. As Catholic Christians, we would expand her perspective with our faith.
To us, integration is about offering our productivity to God for His glory. It’s also about, as Mother Theresa says so simply, being used by God in whatever way pleases Him through our productivity and time management. In so doing, we will find contentment.
Pick up a copy of The PLAN for yourself and let me know how you interpret Adachi’s concept of integration.