Planning Spotlight: Annual Rituals, Spontaneity, and More with Jodi Wellman EP 276

Best Laid Plans

Sarah Hart-Unger

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today's episode, Sarah interviews Jodi Wellman, author of You Only Die Once: How to Make it to the End with No Regrets. This is Jodi's second visit to the podcast, and this conversation is all about the planning rituals that Jodi herself uses to ensure the (finite) life she is living has all of the elements that make it feel truly well-lived. They get into the weeds about her monthly vision boards, planning brunch dates, and how one might actually PLAN IN some spontaneity (yes, such a thing is possible!). This episode will help you get excited and inspired to gear up to plan 2026.Jodi can be found at her website https://fourthousandmondays.com and on instagram at @fourthousandmondays -- her (free) newsletter comes out each Mondy and is a wonderful way to start the week.Sarah also mentions Best Laid Plans at Home: Planning 2026 in this episode; details can be found at theshubox.com/courses Sponsor Notes: IXL: Make an impact on your child’s learning, get IXL now. Best Laid Plans listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ixl.com/plans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Green Chef: Make this fall your healthiest yet with Green Chef. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠greenchef.com/50bestlaid ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and use code 50BESTLAID to get fifty percent off your first month, then twenty percent off for two months with free shipping. Mint Mobile: Ready to save on your wireless? Make the switch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mintmobile.com/BLP⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. PrepDish: Meal plans ready to go, in your inbox each week. You can try 2 weeks free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠prepdish.com/plans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to best laid plans.
0:11.0	This is your host, Sarah Hart Unger, and this is a podcast where we talk all things planning
0:15.1	and planning adjacent.
0:16.5	And today, I have planning on my mind even more than usual, which is really saying something.
0:22.6	This is because I am actually gearing up to host our third annual Best Laid Plans Live
0:28.1	planning retreat in Fort Lauderdale. I'm co-hosting it with Laura Vandercam, who's my podcast
0:33.7	partner and friend. We do best of both worlds together and love planning ourselves together.
0:39.2	And the first year, I hosted Best Lead Plans Lab by myself. And then it turned out I really felt like
0:45.2	I needed a partner in crime for this endeavor. And so Laura joined me for the second and third.
0:50.4	And I am so excited for this year's event. I am definitely not trying to give anyone
0:54.6	FOMO who is listening to this. And in fact, once this airs, we will have already had our
0:59.3	wonderful event. So maybe I'll share a picture of some of the fun that took place. But I guess
1:04.9	this is to say we are in that time of year where people are starting to think about 2026. I know it because I get lots of requests
1:12.7	about helping people select planners. I am already starting to hear people kind of reflect on
1:19.4	some of the wonderful things they accomplished in 2025. I had the pleasure of leading the fifth
1:24.3	core session of planning by season today. And it was just really fun to hear
1:28.2	some of the things that people accomplished throughout the year, having looked at their list all year long.
1:33.7	And I am just really just excited to kick into this reflection season, a reflection and
1:38.6	celebration season, as I call it. So I was going to interview Jody Wellman, who you're going to hear from later today in
1:45.5	this episode, but we've heard from her before, and she's wonderful. She does a lot of writing on
1:50.9	death, but not in a dark kind of a way, more about how using the concept of death can help us
1:56.5	live more intentionally. And her book is one of my favorite nonfiction kind of reflective reads.
	...

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