The Lazy Genius Kitchen: Have What You Need

Obviously, you can’t have a Lazy Genius kitchen without being a Lazy Genius, so here’s your primer.

A Lazy Genius is a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.

“Who decides what matters?” you ask.

You do.

You are the only person who can live your life, but my guess is you’ve been living that life according to other people’s rules.

Ask me how I know.

As a self-help junkie, I spent years collecting tips and hacks, systems and manifestos, rules and routines to optimize my life. I spent countless hours and a ridiculous amount of mental energy building a big Machine of Life, trying to replicate the perfect day, succeed at the perfect goals, and be a generally perfect person.

However, that approach had its problems—namely, that I became more robot than human. Can you turn yourself into a cyborg? The jury’s still out, but I say yes.

Living like a robot is living like a genius, and while genius sounds good in theory, it has its problems. You’re at the mercy of everyone else’s opinions, running yourself into the ground to live a perfect life. You’re so obsessed with following a plan and doing it right that you ignore your own humanity.

Eventually, you hit a proverbial wall and simply can’t do it anymore. My wall came in the form of motherhood, but walls aren’t exclusive to life stage. We all hit one, and if you haven’t yet, it’s coming. Sorry to spoil your fun.

At that point—after all your genius plans dramatically fall apart—you swing to the other side of the spectrum and get lazy.

You give up on everything. You think, If I can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all? If I can’t manage everything, why manage anything? Enter being a “hot mess.” The phrase is on all those t-shirts and coffee mugs for a reason. It feels good. However, working hard at being a mess is often just as draining as working hard to be perfect. You’re a different-looking robot, but a robot all the same.

Listen, there’s nothing wrong with order or with dirty hair and yoga pants. What is wrong is believing they’re mutually exclusive. What is wrong is making snap judgments about a person, including yourself, about her value and vulnerability based on where she lands on the Lazy-to-Genius spectrum.

No one, and I mean no one, is completely together or completely a mess.

Being a Lazy Genius is not about either trying hard or giving up. Those don’t have to be your only options. Which is rad, because you want to live a life that means something, right?

You want to invest your efforts in things that matter to you.

You want to feel secure when you walk in a room.

You want to be steady when things around you spin out of control.

You want to live a life of purpose and heart, connecting with yourself and the people you love.

You want to be yourself without bowing to everyone else’s “shoulds.”

Being a Lazy Genius is how you make that life happen. You’re a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.

And you get to decide what that is.

I got so jazzed about this idea a few years ago that I wrote a whole book about it.

It’s called The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done; it was a New York Times bestseller (which is not a crazy thing to say at all), and I truly believe it can make you more of who you already are and help you get stuff done.

Most self-help/productivity books give you a set of rules to follow based on what worked for the author. And I get that! When you love a new recipe or find an awesome kitchen gadget, you want to tell all your friends about this great new thing! But not everything works for everybody, no matter how good it is.

That’s why The Lazy Genius Way is based on principles, not rules or systems you need to copy. These thirteen principles can Lazy Genius (yep, we made it a verb) literally anything based on what matters to you. You can slowly build a system, think strategically, and be intentional, all without being so daggum hard on yourself.

Here’s a quick rundown of the principles if you’re unfamiliar or just need a refresher.

These Lazy Genius Principles (LGP) are foundational, and I will refer to them throughout the book by their LGP number. You can always flip back here if you need a quick refresher.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed the Lazy Genius crash course. If I had certificates, I’d give you one. Instead, I’ll share a quick rundown of where we’re going next.