I have read all of Kendra adachi’s books, but I felt like this one was written for me. As many other people of my generation, I feel the need to be productive, and when I’m not meeting my goals, I feel like a failure. This book explains why we feel this productivity need and how society has changed to form these impossible goals for women. I love how she moves on to how to how exactly to make plans and be productive on an appropriate level, while also troubleshooting through situations that would decrease productivity. The book is so easy to read through, and it just makes sense. This book is a treasure to have in your home library, and so useful to read at different points in your life. I will definitely be reading this again!

I was thrilled to get a copy of Kendra’s newest book. I’m a devoted follower. This book gave lots of good advice. My problem with it was there were too many lists. I couldn’t possibly remember all of the steps for each section. I did like the short chapters and recaps at the end of each.

An interesting framing - a time management book aimed at women. It had some interesting concepts and references. It didn’t quite click for me as a whole framework. I am interested to check out the author’s earlier work. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you thank you NetGalley and Convergent Books for the advanced copy. I changed jobs in January and I’m still trying to find my daily rhythm footing and this book came into my life at just the right time. Kendra is just so incredibly gentle while also giving you just the right amount of a kick in the pants to get you moving towards a more integrated you. Because I listen to her podcast I heard the whole book in her voice as I read which made it even better. I’m so excited to put these incredibly practical and kind steps into action

I am a Kendra Adachi Stan. She is an auto-buy author and her advice in books (and the Lazy Genius podcast) have helped me feel both relaxed and in control of my life.

The PLAN is right on brand for Kendra. It is written with humour and her “big sister energy”. I appreciated her background about productivity, industrial complexes and a lack of female-driven voices in this sphere.

This book is for someone looking for a system and a hug in order to trudge through or turn a page on their current situation.

Kendra Adachi does not miss! The Plan is an excellent blueprint in how to manage our time and lives in order to be more productive yes, but more importantly, make re happy in our lives.

This is the rare book I will keep going back to. She had me at the fact that 95%+ of time management books are written by men. It’s just different when you identify as a woman. Full stop. Kendra is a revelation!

I received an advanced reader's edition through Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinions.

I was pretty excited to find out this existed! Several years ago, I read a book about managing your home without loosing your mind- and it led me down a rabbit hole that introduced me to the lazy genius way and Kendra Adachi (which led me to several other authors I'm so glad to have found). Her first book is life giving, and rocks your world. My favorite of the principals is the magic question.
Her second book is all about making your kitchen work better for you. And this third one is how to hack your life, how to be thoughtful in how you schedule it and make things happen.

I think I've probably been an undiagnosed ADHD woman for my whole life. And honestly, there are somethings that have eluded me and how to do them. Like making effective TO Do Lists. If I write it out on paper it seems overwhelming, if i do a brain dump it's too many things all loosey goosey all over the page. This is one tangible thing I can point too in just a few short weeks of reading through the book I've been able to do! If I break the list down into easier to plan parts because I'm overwhelmed by it, I don't already have a plan in place for it or I just really want to make it happen- and THEN I can make the parts smaller, make them visible to me and make them matter I can make them happen. It's brilliant!

It seems like such a minor thing but it's helped so much! I'm still eating that frog (so to speak) but now it's only one leg at a time on the menu. I like having a list that is easy for the awkward pauses in the day to get a small step done. Highly recommend this book!

The PLAN : Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius. I think the idea behind this book is very good, and the focus on women and cycles is definitely a new perspective. However the execution is a bit of an information and jargon overload. It needs to be less padded out to make it practical. I don't think the comparisons with other time management systems are necessary, its quite distracting. Its a good idea, but for me needs to be less complicated, de-jargonised, and less small talk. But overall a great idea and thinking about your own needs as a women is a brilliant thing to bring into the mainstream. About time, hopefully it will help bring change in many other areas.

This book has some very helpful information and it makes some good points about tailoring time management strategies for women. That being said- it devotes an inordinate amount of time trying to convince the audience of the malevolence of the patriarchy and how much more women have on their plates than men. I’m not saying she’s wrong, I just was curious that such effort was expended in the persuasion.

Again, there was some very helpful discussions in this book, and I’m not sorry I read it; however, there were times when I felt like I was drowning in an alphabet soup of acronyms. It felt like too much was happening to make sense of it enough to utilize it for a time management system, but it had helpful strategies to empower women to live authentically and fully.

I’d like to thank Convergent Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This really is a different sort of productivity/time management book, and I appreciate its consideration and kindness. It's realistic and honest about life. That said, there's nothing wildly revolutionary either. But it's a light, quick read with practical tips. Definitely recommend to anyone hoping to kindly make life work better.

Kendra Adachi typically writes about time management from a female perspective — offering practical tips and advice for homekeeping and lifehacking. The Plan is a bit different; it outlines a planning framework that takes into account the shifts in a woman’s priorities, needs, and energy levels as she moves through hormonal shifts each month (though Adachi also uses seasonal shifts, so this book could apply to those who don’t have these hormonal cycles). She helps readers define what matters most to them at the moment to make each week, month, and season more enjoyable.

Adachi’s approach is gentle and forgiving. She outlines why many women —who are not striving in careers, for example— have not been served by self-help books written by authors who prioritize productivity and achievement over balance.  She encourages us to think of our lives as paintings rather than puzzles. Puzzles are meant to be overcome; a painting is a work in progress that we can constantly reimagine.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I have just finished reading Kendra Adachi's latest book, "The Plan". Now, I love all things Kendra Adachi, from her first Lazy Ggenius book to her podcasts to her fun and witty personality, and this book was no exception. Written chiefly for women, this book outlines why we cannot follow the basic tenets of general productivity that almost every book espouses because the majority of these types of books are written by men. As the book so eloquently details, men do not have the same kinds of demands as women do. Therefore, we need a different way to think about productivity. I really liked how this book was laid out, and its easy-to-read and easy-to-follow processes make it an excellent reference for women through all stages of life. Thank you, NetGalley, for this wonderful preview.

Kendra has once again written a book that has so much "big sister energy" that everyone needs to read! She provides various frameworks to use to assist in planning. She breaks each and every step down but also recognizes that you may not need or use every single one. The Lazy Genius brings another book I wish I would have had from day 1!

Kendra Adachi’s newest book, The Plan, is a little different than her previous titles. The Lazy Genius Kitchen was full of practical tips and advice and a regular reference or resource for experienced and brand new home cooks alike. Rather than give a litany of checklists, The Plan asks questions. Kendra is full of grace for those of us who’ve been failed by prescriptive self-help books because they’re targeted mostly at people wanting to achieve more in their careers, rather than balance in their lives. Kendra’s gentle direction guides the reader through her “Lazy Genius Principles” in order to create individualized strategies for making each week, month and season manageable and more liveable. This is not a book about how to streamline your life or how to make the most money or advance further in your career. This is a book to encourage you to enjoy the life you’re living now and help you focus on what matters to you.

Love this book overall! It’s a life organization book for women by a woman. It’s definitely a book to go back to time and again as you try to integrate yourself fully into your life.

I find Adachi's podcast very helpful and practical, and the book is mostly a collection of her approach to time management. I like having it all in one place. Some parts, such as her underlying philosophy, would deliver better in audio form, but the implementation ideas are things I could put to use quickly ("start small", in her words) even while feeling overwhelmed by day-to-day life.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of The Plan! I have been listening to The Lazy Genius podcast for a few years now, and Kendra’s way of life has changed mine.

This book is the natural continuation of The Lazy Genius Way and draws on both that book and a few external sources to create a planning framework that accounts for the variances in a woman’s (though it could apply to men as well) priorities, needs, and energy levels. The best part for me was the quick reference guide in the back, featuring all the diagrams and mantras introduced in the book.

I found this book to be empowering as it gives the reader the ability to determine what is important to them and gives them a method to prioritize what matters to them, while other planning books seem to be telling the reader what should be important to them if they want to be “successful”.

I'm never a fan of self-help books. I find they are guilt-inducing, constrictive, and full of ideas that sound great but don't translate well practically to "real-life". When I was recommended Kendra Adachi's first book "The Lazy Genius Way" a few years ago I was skeptical but read it anyway, and I'm not trying to be dramatic but it was truly life-altering and illuminating! So when I was granted a chance to read an ARC copy of THE PLAN, I immediately jumped right on it. I was excited to see how she would tackle time management with her signature refreshing "Kind Big Sister Energy" and I was not disappointed! Her approaches are SO compassionate. The highlight for me personally was how the majority (93% to be exact) of these types of books are written by-men, for-men. She acknowledged the need for a framework to work for women, and how rather than the goal being the widely-preached greatness, it should instead be integration and to start from where you are. She also stressed that time-management for women should be based on fluctuations with energy throughout menstrual cycles, and that had me pumping my fist up in the air with a resounding YES!! WHY is this not the default?! But, I am getting a wee bit ahead of myself, so let's dive into how this book is organized and what you can expect.

This book has three parts, each with a specific purpose and to be read in order as the aspects slowly layer on themselves. The first part lays the foundation for the general ideology, the second part gets into the nitty-gritty with specific, practical tips, and the third part features mini pep talks to be read when you are struggling with a component of time management. As someone who generally has trouble remembering what I have read, I appreciate that Kendra uses a lot of acronyms, imagery, and metaphors that actually make sense to teach the general principles. The Plan in and of itself is an acronym, and having imagery to teach how it all works together really drove the point home.

The highlights for me in each section were to:
1. Think of your day as a painting rather than a puzzle. As a recovering perfectionist this really hit the nail on the head, and I even put it to use already after a washing machine broke this week. Boo!
2. Use the TODAY framework acronym to help plan your day, and how it was interchangeable depending on whether you woke up with low or high energy levels
3. The pep talk about when you don't have help. As someone who had their nearby support system move this last year, this one felt especially poignant.

As always, Kendra expertly wove in such tenderness and kindness throughout and encourages you, the reader, to do the same. I am a big library borrower, but I loved this book SO much and think having a hard copy to annotate and refer back to would be useful, so am planning on picking up a copy when it releases. THE PLAN by Kendra Adachi is out October 8, 2024.

The voice here is so undeniably Kendra that I could hear her voice as I read. I think the basic framework in The PLAN is useful, but there were also so many different lists that were forgettable and not a lot of real content. The endless menstruation references were awkward, too much, and felt like an oversimplification for writing for an intended female audience.