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I've never been a meal prep person. You know, those people who spend Sundays chopping a million things or eat an enormous bean salad 10 times the same week? Hard pass. I don't want to eat the same thing every day, and honestly, whatever I plan on Sunday sounds terrible by Wednesday. If that's you, you have my admiration. I just can't bring myself to give up a Sunday.

But I have become obsessed with other ways of setting myself up for being lazy and relieving the mental load of being a single mom business owner.

My Freezer Strategy

My freezer is currently stocked with high-protein waffles, baked French toast (so much lazier than standing in front of a stove), and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for my daughter. Yes, she's old enough to make her own breakfast and lunch, but hangry teenagers make questionable food choices, and this eliminates that variable from our day.

Activating my spreadsheet nerdiness for good: I now have a spreadsheet of all the food in our house because I'm an "out of sight, out of mind" person (ADHD much?). Things go into the freezer or pantry, and I instantly forget they exist. Then I stand in the kitchen acting like we have no food and we order something or eat boxed mac and cheese for dinner. Food waste is an expense I'm determined to cut.

Now, when the "what's for dinner" question comes up, I can tell my daughter to look at the list and pick something that sounds good. She's thrilled when she sees August's double batch of chicken tacos is there and ready to be thrown in tortillas or on some nachos.

I'm more than a little skeptical about ChatGPT's ability to decide what is delicious and come up with recipes, but I have been known to give it the list and ask it to suggest some combos, prioritizing things that need to be used quickly. AI at least gets me pointed toward ideas and I'll find recipes at more trusted sources.

The Business Connection

And yes, obviously this relates to business too. This week, I took someone through my Sprint Content Loop system in a VIP day, and I remembered it's exactly the same principle. You create lots of useful content all at once, log it in the content loop, and then it's ready to go when you don't know what's for dinner… I mean… don't know what's for posting.

My VIP client pointed out that people always talk about "repurposing and batching," but don't talk enough about how to actually do it easily. For me, one of those ways is making extra when you're already in the creative zone. Are you making one post with a testimonial on it? Great. Make 4 more using the same template and schedule them to post later or at least put them in your drafts. You did 5 in barely more time than it took you to make one and significantly less time than making 5 individually.

When I'm writing and the ideas are flowing, I don't just write one post. I do 6 and variations on a couple of them to post later.

When I'm designing a client process, I don't just solve it for that one client. I template it, save it, and suddenly I've got something ready to customize for the next person who needs something similar.

The Real Magic

The magic isn't in the prep itself. It's in removing that moment of "Oh god, what do I do now?" because past you did the hard thinking already, and you can autopilot it from there.

What's that thing that you've managed to optimize in your life or business that has taken the mental load out of it for future you? Or what do you want to optimize?

What are your favorite lazy productivity hacks? Share them in the comments below – I'm always looking for new ways to work smarter, not harder.

High Protein Waffles

Large batch - makes approx 15 waffles

Estimated 12 g protein per waffle

Can double the recipe and mix in a kitchen aid

Ingredients

• 3 ¼ cups / 400 g all-purpose flour

• ¾ cup / 96 g cornstarch

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 cups / 750 g container of greek yogurt

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 8 eggs

• 1 Tbsp sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Preparation

1. In a mixer, combine dry ingredients; mix well.

2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Batter will be very thick. Add additional milk if you need to thin it.

3. Heat a waffle iron. Cook them. Refrigerate or freeze in a plastic bag.