I am an all or nothing person. It's sad, but true. My Sunday school class has been working through a book and I can't finish it because I can't get started again. There are only a few chapters in this book. I read the first one and it seemed to go forever. Because of that, because I felt trapped by the book in a long and rambly chapter, I haven't been able to get myself to start the next chapter.
When it comes to projects for home or school. It's all or nothing again. If I spend my prep working on lesson plans, then I want to get a whole month or a whole quarter done at one time. When I get interrupted, it frustrates me. I stay late after school because I want to get it ALL done. I haven't done any crafting at home lately because I feel like I'll use up all my free times just pulling materials out and putting them away. Why bother?
Recently I have been trying something new. I'm trying to break the larger projects into smaller portions. Then, if I finish a smaller portion, I feel like I have accomplished something. I have closure on that part of the larger task. Last week that allowed me to split my preps into time for long term planning and organization and short term tasks like shelving books or prepping new books for the library. I can be happy putting 5 new books in the library every day, but I'll never get any done if I let myself be consumed by having to finish every major project before I can switch to another one.
I saw a tweet the other day that linked to an excellent blog post called "How to Be a Teacher for More than 5 Years Without Killing Yourself or Others." The following portion really caught my attention:
You will never be finished with your work - A teacher’s work is never done. Seriously. You will never be finished. There will always be something else you could be doing. Every time you cross off one thing from your to-do list, two more things will be added. Like a sink of dirty dishes, it really can wait until tomorrow.
Even thought I am not a classroom teacher, this is still true for me. So I have to look at my to do list differently than I have been. It doesn't come naturally, so I really have to work at it. I keep reminding myself to just break it into manageable steps - even "baby steps." If I can get ONE step of a process done, I have to choose to be content with that. The all-or-nothing thinking stresses me out too much and impacts my ability to be content and manage stress.
How do you work best? Large projects or smaller steps?
Showing posts with label work vs. rest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work vs. rest. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Wisdom of Youth
When my son was in kindergarten, I was looking forward to our first spring break together. As I was teaching part time and subbing that year, I was excited about a free week and all the projects I could get done. At dinner one night I talked about all the things I was going to put on my to do list for the week. My son piped up and asked for his own paper and pencil so he could write his own list. I was so proud. Then he said, "How do you spell 'nothing?' "
This was a pivotal moment in our life together as driven mother and laid-back son. And now, several years later, he has done it again.
Now, we are thinking about our summer off from school. Last year I worked like a maniac to get the library the way I wanted it - at least some of the major projects I wanted done. I promised him I wouldn't do that again this year. But as June has gotten closer we've got more and more things on our schedule - vacation, church camp, basketball camp, swimming, golf, reading, etc. As I started thinking through my son's schedule for the summer, I felt as though it was slipping away before it even arrived.
And then my son said he wanted to cut a couple things out of the schedule so he had more free time for the summer.
He may be in elementary school, but he is a wise boy - at least when it comes to work vs. rest. And he is teaching his mother all the time.
So, we have called off some of the activities we had been talking about for the summer. I'll keep working at listening to my son's reminders to rest and play at least as much as I work and get things done. We'll see if we can feel rested at the end of the summer this year.
This was a pivotal moment in our life together as driven mother and laid-back son. And now, several years later, he has done it again.
Now, we are thinking about our summer off from school. Last year I worked like a maniac to get the library the way I wanted it - at least some of the major projects I wanted done. I promised him I wouldn't do that again this year. But as June has gotten closer we've got more and more things on our schedule - vacation, church camp, basketball camp, swimming, golf, reading, etc. As I started thinking through my son's schedule for the summer, I felt as though it was slipping away before it even arrived.
And then my son said he wanted to cut a couple things out of the schedule so he had more free time for the summer.
He may be in elementary school, but he is a wise boy - at least when it comes to work vs. rest. And he is teaching his mother all the time.
So, we have called off some of the activities we had been talking about for the summer. I'll keep working at listening to my son's reminders to rest and play at least as much as I work and get things done. We'll see if we can feel rested at the end of the summer this year.
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