100 Posts in 100 Days
The last two weeks have been Full. Yes, with a capital “F”. Several overlapping activities including:
7 days of orientation activities for new faculty
7 days of providing professional learning sessions for new and returning faculty
7 social events, dinners, and happy hours with new and returning faculty
7 social events, dinners, and happy hours with new and returning faculty
3 days back and forth from school to the hospital for my wife’s planned and successful surgery
1 day of new student orientation on campus
Most days I was up and active before sunrise and didn’t arrive home until after sunset. The days were full, they were long, and they were successful. The goals that were set out were accomplished, our new faculty are more settled in their new homes each day, and my wife is recovering well from surgery. I feel good about what has been accomplished.
This morning I was successful at what we have been calling the “bed to couch routine” 😅One of the dogs and I made it from the bedroom, downstairs to the couch and successfully watched Netfliix for a couple hours. We got up and had a walk followed by some errands. It’s the afternoon and we are back on couch. We are taking downtime.
I’ve been thinking about our teachers and how full their schedules have been the last several days. They will welcome students to their classrooms Monday morning. Many of them are probably using time this weekend for final preparations. I’m hoping that amongst organizing all those last minute details that they are also finding some form of downtime. Downtime is essential for our health, memory and productivity:
“Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life.”
~Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime
Farris Jabr
Planning for downtime can be a healthy habit to develop going into the school year. This blog post, “The Importance of Downtime”, by The Study Blog at The University of Warwick Library in the UK offers some ideas for how students (and others) can plan for downtime:
- Set your work hours and stick to them
- Unfinished business? Write it down and work on it tomorrow
- Meditation or mind dump
- Prepare a good night-time routine
Life is busy and full. No matter how busy and how full, though, including downtime is important our cognition, health, and overall well-being. If you are an educator going into the new school year, how will you spend your downtime?
I always planned my downtime time, just as carefully as planning my days with students ( marked it down in my planning book) . These include meeting up with friends for coffee after work, walking, and exercising ( no longer than an hour) to give me time to attend to other things as well . It was essential for my well being and my ability to tackle the myriads of challenges and tasks we face as teachers .