This was well-organized, well-researched and well-meaning. I loved the Pep talks in the back and the idea of personalizing your weeks. I especially loved how much grace Kendra extends to us all—this is a very gentle approach to prioritizing what matters in your life in a very doable way. I loved how she incorporated seasons, check-ins, and energy levels in the menstrual cycle in this book, making it so unique. I will definitely revisit this one!

Kendra nails it again! I literally read the book hearing her voice guiding me. She puts all those crazy things in life into perspective and gives you the tips and tricks to handle everything with grace. Her new pyramid framework helps you to focus in and live! And the setup of having pages to turn to in order to focus on specific problems makes this a book that will be a go to guide on those hard days!

This was just the hug I expected it to be! If America Ferrera’s Barbie movie monologue and a warm chocolate chip cookie had a baby, it would be this book.
If you follow Kendra already, you know what a delight she is and this book is everything you’d expect from her. If you don’t follow her, do so and pick up this book!
She brings her trademark humor, kindness and practicality to the table with The Plan.
This would work great as a book flight with How to Keep House While Drowning, which Kendra cites a couple of times. The end became a bit repetitive, but there were still great reminders and summaries. Love love love!

The Plan is a good time management book if you enjoy Kendra’s podcast. It’s good bite sized mantras and general pep talk. I think it requires a bit of work to translate it into something practical for your life and it spends a bit too much time telling how it’s different than other books or is filling a void.

Just appoint me the president of Kendra's fan club. Her ability to simplify decision making in a world that is flooded with choices, just serves to effectively simplify and enhance our lives in a technological world that is filled with 24/7 stimulation. I really loved this book and the simple tips that balanced philosophy on time with easy to implement strategies. And, it's always delivered in Kendra's trademark, conversational and humorous tone.

I have been following Kendra Adachi for years through her podcast as well as her books. Her advice is approachable, manageable, and applicable. It feels like a cozy hug. She acknowledges your concerns, provides solutions, but also provides a calmness and peace to the approach.

My favorite parts of the book were her pep talks at the end. They made me feel comforted in a way that I can't explain. I honestly wish it was a book of just those pep talks. I appreciated her new approaches to these concepts of time management, but some of the work felt repetitive. I think she has great ideas. I loved her first book, but these first ideas are repeated again in the beginning of the first part of the book. I understand the need for this repetition and introduction to her concepts since she has new readers. I think I would have appreciated it more organized in a different way.

The project chapter is not to be missed!

Almost all time management books are written for men and have the underlying recommendation that in order to focus on your future you have to hustle now. As Adachi puts it: "Most time management authors and experts are men who do not have a boss, a home to run, or a menustral cycle - all of three of which are notoriously unwieldy.' This book is chock full of kind and helpful ways to plan whether that's for today, tomorrow, or next week. Instead of focusing on what you're doing Adachi encourages readers to take a step back and ask why you're doing it and how it integrates into your life.

I'm a longtime listener/reader of Kendra Adachi and this book takes some of her best life approaches and packages it into a very accessible time management environment. The undercurrent of this book is kindness and meeting yourself where you are, which I believe makes you more efficient in the long run. I will definitely be returning to this book for bigger seasons of planning for my life!

Adachi does lean into the idea of the patriarchy making life difficult for women which I don't disagree with, but it felt a bit heavy handed at at the beginning of the book. I also thought the parts of the book that mentioned aligning your plans with your hormonal cycle were interesting, but seemed quite impractical and Adachi did mention that it may not be feasible to do this.

Kendra Adachi is the wise and kind genius behind the Lazy Genius empire. Her attitude - 2/3 calm compassion, 1/3 backtalking sass - brings a much-needed breath of fresh air to her subject matter, which is usually the kind of being-a-person-with-little-people questions that seem basic and boring to some people but are critical to those of us in the trenches. (For example, a recent podcast episode addressed how to get out of the house in the morning. If your answer is "put on a jacket and grab your keys", this is not the book for you.)

For readers familiar with Adachi's work, the PLAN is more of the same, but delightfully so. It reminds us that we are people first and getting-things-done machines... never. It points out that traditional productivity advice is written by and for people who don't have to take care of anyone else - and quite often people who are young and able enough that they barely need to take care of themselves. It insists that we do not have less worth because getting up at 5 a.m. to run ten miles is not within our world of possibilities, and that being our whole selves is more important than checking off our to-do list. It encourages us to find the rest and joy we need, even while acknowledging that our kids will come home at 2 p.m. and immediately require a snack.

For readers unfamiliar with Adachi's work - if you feel like you are drowning in your own life, if reading traditional productivity books makes you feel like you are doing it all wrong, if you don't know how to be yourself while also being a parent and partner and family member and friend - well, no book can fix that. But this book can help.

The Plan was good that I read it in two days, and it only took that long because my life got in the way of me reading it cover to cover. This is the book that every woman has been waiting for. Kendra doesn't give us another time-management book, but she gives us the tools we need to better manage our time based on our real lives, the obstacles that we face, and the energy we may or may not have. This is a book you will turn to again and again because it has so many great strategies you'll want to refer back to. It was so good I recommended it to my husband and told him to "ignore the fact that it's written for women, I think you'll get a lot out of this."

Kendra Adachi can always be counted on to bring the hilarity and the practicality!

In The Plan, Kendra helps readers achieve a fully integrated life now instead of greatness in the future, like time management books from men are wont to do.

Kendra writes: “You're a flesh-and-blood person with a beautiful, slightly unruly life who just wants to get your stuff done, have fun, not yell at your people too much, and occasionally feel bone-deep contentment.
You want to make hard things a little easier and enjoy life more often than you endure it.”

If that resonates with you (it definitely did with me!), you will love this book.

As I was reading, I was really wishing the book came with a journal or some practical way to use the tips—and then the quick reference guide at the end completely delivered!

Thanks, Kendra for a resource that will actually work and for giving us lots of laughs in addition to tons of great tips!

Will Kendra Adachi pull off a New York Times bestseller three-peat with The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius? I’d love for her to get the recognition even though making it can be arbitrary, because what I read in an advance reader copy from NetGalley was insightful, humorous, and the most compassionate time management book I’ve read. Yes, I’m a library power user (I know multiple card numbers by heart) but I’ll be buying this book to refer to it again and again.

The Plan was written to bridge the disconnect between popular time management practices and actual life, especially for women who often juggle multiple roles and more daily variability than men. Kendra addresses the culture of productivity, seeking contentment, and making small, sustainable changes based on your values. It’s less buy this planner, use this system, start everything again on Monday, and more like a hug and gentle kick-in-the-pants to consider principles and strategies so you can determine what matters to you, feel like yourself, and get things done. The last section is full of pep talks for when challenges come--Kendra has the best big sister energy and I loved them!

Not everything in the book was applicable to me like noticing and planning around monthly hormonal fluctuations (I’m always tired and want to stay home!) but I’d still highly recommend The Plan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC!

I love Kendra Adachi and all things Lazy Genius. I read her previous books and enjoyed them very much. What I loved about this most recent book was that it stuck with her principals of life, but gave a new take on time management. She explores the world of time management through a female perspective, and it was so interesting! I found myself shaking my head along with the information in agreement. If you love lists and pictures that illustrate topics you will love this book. There is so much useful information and practical examples sprinkled throughout the book.

If you are a female who has ever felt overwhelmed by all the roles you’re juggling, feel like you’re stretched too thin, or wonder how in the world you’re ever going to get everything you need to accomplish accomplished, this book is for you.

I’ve been a huge Kendra Adachi fan for the past 2-ish years when a friend introduced me to her podcasts, and when I say she is like the cool aunt you always wished you had, I mean it. This book is no exception to literal genius that she is. If you are someone who thrives on to-do lists, gets joy by starting a new planner each year, or frequently find yourself in chaos management mode (guilty of all 3!), but somehow still find yourself falling short, again—this book is for you.

This book is a time-management book like non-other. It’s written FOR WOMEN with the female mentality in mind—realizing that often we do wear so many hats—wives, moms, friends, employees, church volunteers, etc.—and also struggle with things like hormones that cause “mom guilt” and constantly make us feel less than. This book is all about shifting your perspective from making a “quick fix” to making sustainable changes that helps you be more present by focusing on what’s truly most important to you…and if you’re not sure what that is, helping you to figure it out.

My favorite part of the entire book is the last section of Kendra’s pep talks…something that I have found myself needing OFTEN and she just speaks so genuinely and compassionately—truly the cheerleader we all need!! I will be buying the hard copy of this book when it is published because there are soooo many parts of the book I found myself wanting to highlight!

Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for providing me with an e-ARC copy to this book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
This book is incredible and it changed my life!
I’ve been reading a lot in this genre recently trying to get out of a rut in work in particular and this author just gets it and speaks to me. Maybe it’s that I’ve been reading so much written by clueless men or maybe this author is just a genius but whatever the case I’m hooked and I need more.

This is Kendra's best book to date! I love the way her Lazy Genius principles have been used to create a kind and flexible plan to manage your time in a way that makes you feel like yourself. The book is separated into 3 parts and all 3 are fantastic. Part 1 helps you to reframe your mindset and lays the foundational skills to be able to utilize the "plan", part 2 is a pathway for putting the "plan" into action to manage your time, and Part 3 is filled with pep talks that will talk you off the ledge and help keep the big black trash bag energy (or tears) at bay. This book would benefit every woman who picks it up!!

5/5

Thank you Net Galley and Convergent Books for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

I'm a fan of Kendra Adachi so when I saw her new book The Plan on NetGalley I put my request in right away (thanks for approving me!). This book was able to take Adachi's Lazy Genius Principles and present them in a fresh way, with added detail. This is a book written for women, and the overarching theme for me is that life doesn't have to be perfect to be good. I already practice many Lazy Genius Principles like doing things now that will benefit future me, and meal planning. Despite this, I found this book full of useful reminders to be kind to myself, and how to take what matters and make it smaller to combat overwhelming to-do lists. I would recommend this book to women who are looking to streamline their lives in a way that values what matters over perfection. You don't have to read her first book The Lazy Genius way first to enjoy this book, but I think it would add to your reading experience if you did.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Lazy Genius writes a planning book - for women! This is how you plan your life (if you want to) in a kinder way, allowing for life seasons and periods and managing the mental load.

The guidance to Plan, Live, Adjust, and Notice feels like something that might actually work in this crazy world we are navigating. She reminds us it's necessary to rest, and ok to just be sometimes.

A few sections of the book focused on lists and steps in a way that felt slightly repetitive, but it feels so much more useful than traditional time management advice including an 18-step morning routine and time-blocking when life just isn't predictable.

I read through it quickly in a few days, and I'm looking forward to having a hard copy to highlight and reference.

Practical and easy to follow, with recaps to conclude each chapter. Part One covers principles (of time management), Part Two offers strategies, and Part Three lays out pep talks! This is a quick, accessible read and I recommend it to any woman looking for or interested in reading about how to manage your days.

Thank you very much to Convergent and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

93% of time management books are written by men for men, so believe me when I say that The Plan by Kendra Adachi is unlike any other time management book I've read. You will not find the "push" behind the bootstraps mentality (although I did see one Wayne Gretsky reference). Instead, Kendra takes on the role of caring big sister to guide you through how to PLAN your life around your hormones and hiccups. For that reason, I can see that some might be turned away from this book. Because it's not what you expect when you pick up a book on time management. If you go into this book expecting it to be like others you've read, you will be disappointed. Instead, The Plan is full of compassion and kindness towards yourself with practical tools to navigate real life.

I have been a long time listener of The Lazy Genius Podcast. I listen religiously, and the podcast has become part of my Sunday ritual. I have several episodes saved to return to when I'm feeling particularly stuck with life. Her first two books The Lazy Genius Way and The Lazy Genius Kitchen are helpful resourses in my arsenal for troubleshooting different areas of my life. I am so excited to add The Plan to my repertoire, and I will return to it frequently.

The Plan is broken down into three sections: Principles, Strategies, and Pep Talks. Through each, Kendra walks readers through how to use the PLAN Pyramid (tetrahedron) to Prepare, Live, Adjust, and Notice. Each chapter also concludes with a helpful summary. Without the summary, it might be overwhelming to get caught up in the frequent step-by-step lists embedded throughout each chapter. As an action-oriented reader myself, I have learned it's best to read through the entire book before going back to implement changes (I also keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas for when I come back). The 13 Lazy Genius Principles are woven throughout with a whole bunch of new ways to approach "being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't."

What I appreciated most in this book was the softer approach. Here's a little of what you can expect with this approach:
- An entire chapter about cycle synching with women's hormones with productivity
- A Someday List instead of the more aggressive bucket list
- Pep Talks for various situations in life (feeling overwhelmed, feeling guilty, lacking motivation, etc.)
- How to plan seasonally
- Being kind to yourself

I predict The Plan being a divisive book because it's in the minority for books of its kind. Not all books are for all readers, but for those who need this book, it will change your life.

This book was extremely accessible. It was full of practical tips that I could implement immediately. I truly enjoyed this book!