AY Advent: Third day of preventing burnout
In which I continue with the theme of self-care
Your time is going to fill up faster than a plastic cup in a tsunami. If you’re not already good at Tip #2 (Just say NO), then your time is going to fill up even faster than that.
Before your cup fills up, falls over, and floats away, put in your guardrails. Your iron cup holder. Set your boundaries. If you’ve got guardrails and boundaries in place, it is much easier to say NO, which means it’s much easier to remain in control of your life. Feeling in control of your life, nay, exercising control over your life, keeps burnout at bay.
Tip #3: Schedule in your self-care NOW.
Get out your day planner. (This might be weird, but I love my hardback actually-existing-in-space calendar. It’s beautiful and friendly, and I can check off my to-dos with an actual pen. Very satisfying.) Prepare to start filling it in.
Wrap your mind around food for the year. What will you be eating for breakfast? Where? What will you be doing for lunch? Who will be making dinners? When? (every night? on the weekends?) When will grocery shopping get done (and by whom)? Schedule food in. At least weekly. But start with a full month so you can set the routine in stone.
Eating well is essential. Your body and mind feel better when you do, which keeps negative thoughts and self-beliefs from dragging you down.
What kind of exercise is sustainable for you? Decide now. When will you actually do that exercise? Schedule it in your day planner. Since your weekly schedules will vary, planning your exercise on a weekly basis — say, every Sunday evening — is a good idea.
A wonderful therapist once told me that exercise is part of my job. If I’m to be present and optimally available to my clients, I need regular exercise. It helps me manage anxiety and other emotions. It raises my energy level. It makes me strong. It is an appointment with myself that I consider just as sacred as my appointments with my clients.
Need inspiration? Listen to a veteran teacher I interviewed a while back who is also a wellness coach.
This is an idea you won’t find anywhere but here: Schedule in goofy breaks. Honestly. It’s great to find a groove and clip-clop through a routine, but sometimes routines need to be jostled to keep the Fun Factor high. Your first goofy break can happen as early as September 19, which is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Start practicing talking like a pirate NOW. Tell your students to practice. Or just spring it on them. Whatever works for you.
I mean it: Schedule in fun. Doing the unexpected, being goofy, not taking yourself or anyone else too seriously, is an antidote to burnout.
Build in regular, healthy releases of aggression. Adults who don’t participate in team sports don’t, I suspect, do this nearly enough. Here are some ideas:
Join a team sport.
Play adults vs. (old-enough) children games. The basic rule? “There are no parents on this field. We are here to win.”
Visit a rage room. (WTF??)
Go to an axe-throwing bar.
Take up archery or visit a firing range. (I am not a gun wielder, but I assume firing guns — safely and dangerously — releases aggression.) Shoot skeet!
Choose your adventure. Invite your friends. Put it in your calendar. Do it.
Plan opportunities for others to take care of you. Massages. Mani-pedis. (Pedicures should be tax-deductible for teachers, as you’re on your feet all day long. Your feet are a business investment.) Facials. Hair cuts that make you feel fabulous.
Schedule those in.
Finally, create a Teacher Support Group. Support groups, places where teachers can air their difficulties, share their feelings, feel connected to caring colleagues, and come up with healthy, data-based plans of action that dissolve relational tensions, are proven to prevent burnout.
How to create a TSG? Find 3 - 5 other friends who would like to meet weekly for a couple of months to talk teaching. Get in touch with me so I can assign you a facilitator (whom you will have to pay — the rate depends on how many teachers you get in the group and how many weeks you want to meet). Or just let me know you’re interested in joining a TSG and I’ll do the rest.
Contact me. Get information. Set up the meetings before you decide you just don’t have time to get cared for by kind, empathic, smart, pragmatic colleagues and a facilitator who holds it all together for you. I have been amazed these past 20 years at how hard it is for teachers to do this good thing for themselves because they are too busy — meaning they are well on their way to burnout.
A really nice thing about TSGs is that other people are counting on you to show up. It’s way too easy to bail on yourself — blow off that exercise appointment, stop at a fast food joint on the way home, skip lunch — but much harder to bail on other people. TSGs are places where other people care for you and, in so doing, remind you, permit you even, to care for yourself.
I’m sure you have other great scheduling suggestions. What do you do? How do you do it? Please let others know by leaving a comment!
And, as always, subscribers are welcomed and adored!