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Time Hacks for Busy Teachers Ep. 48

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Time Hacks for Busy Teachers S. 4 E. 4clock, notebook, Time Hacks for Busy Teachers

Listen to this episode to learn more about ways you can make the best use of your time in order to avoid the frustration and overwhelm of not getting things done.

Show notes:

Episode Summary:

Do you often feel too busy, overwhelmed with things to do, and over extended? Are you fueled by caffeine, using sugar as a quick boost or living on adrenalin? If so, you might benefit from these time hacks that will allow you to make the best of your time and take control of your to-do list.

In this episode:

The following is a summary of the content in this episode. To hear all of the examples and stories, please listen to the podcast episode.

Introduction:

So many of us are chronically exhausted with all the things we have to do. Do you feel like you never get enough done? Are you constantly putting out little fires everywhere? Are you over committed and overscheduled?

Other signs that you might be out of control with your time is that you put things off to the last minute, creating stress and urgency as you rush to get them done. Likewise, you may speed while driving to avoid running late. You find yourself procrastinating not because you don’t want to do the things you need to do, but because you don’t even know where to start.

Dealing with a constantly overloaded system causes adrenalin to keep running through your body. Adrenalin is great, and it helps keep us safe in times of disaster or when we are in true danger. But when we aren’t in danger, it just overloads our system. We stay in fight or flight mode which causes chronic stress.

If you want to know more about that, listen to episode 16, Real Self Care, where we talk about ways to stop stress hormones from flooding your system.

We’re all been overloaded and stressed by our work load. We’re talking you today not because we have totally mastered time, but because it is regularly something that we think about and plan for.

Today we’re going to share some time hacks that might help you get back in control of your time.

Time hack #1: Eliminate distractions and interruptions.

Every time your brain switches from one activity to another, it takes up to 15 minutes to adjust to the new task and then back to the first task as we refocus. That’s inefficient. When we are busy, it is tempting to try to juggle several different activities at once, but means nothing is getting our best attention.

It’s possible to control the disruptions with a few of these ideas:

  • Turn your phone on silent when you are working. You don’t always need to answer the phone when it rings! Likewise with computer notifications.
  • Close your door when you are trying to get serious work done. It prevents the coworker from stopping in to chat during your prep time.
  • Watch how often you are scrolling on your phone. Scrolling is a serious time disrupter. You think you’re taking a break and then you look up and 30 minutes have passed.
  • Try using the Pomodoro technique where you focus on one task for 25 minutes before you take a five minute break.
  • Check email a couple of times a day, rather than checking it constantly. There is always going to be something new in your in box, but you rarely need to see it right away. You can set an auto responder that tells parents what times you will check your email and when they can expect a response from you.
  • Turn off push notifications on your phone and computer.

It is a great idea to control your time where you can.

Another way to get on top of your to-do lists is to use batching.

Time hack #2: Learn to batch tasks.

Batching tasks means that you put like items together and then handle them all at once.

Many of you already know that food prepping on the weekends makes your week run more smoothly and help you eat better. Apply that same idea to other tasks.

Instead of going to copy something every time you need copies, try to make all of your copies for the week ahead of time.

Put all your errands together and run them at the same time.

The same principal works with home chores too. It may seem easier to throw in a load of laundry every day, but it adds to your mental load every time you do it. You might actually save time or energy if you do it all on the same evening or weekend morning.

Consider how you can save time or mental energy by batching your tasks.

Time hack #3: Set up an environment for success.

You probably spend most of your time in one of three environments, your home, your classroom, or your car.

Consider how these spaces support you. How do you feel when you are in your spaces?

At home, are things fairly organized so you can find what you need easily? Is it over stimulating with too much stuff?

Is your home calm and relaxing or chaotic? What could you do at home that would support you throughout the week? Play soft music? Light a candle? Have dinner ready in the crock pot?

The same ideas work at school. Is it time for cleaning out and organizing the things in your room? Do you need a refresh? Is your classroom full of visual clutter that stresses you out? Try taking a few things off the walls. Over stimulus causes you to fight to attend to things. Some students are very susceptible to too much stimulus and it can act on their nervous system in a detrimental way.

Don’t forget your car. How does that environment support you? Could you pack your bags and put them in the car the night before? Keep your gym bag in the car, filled and ready to go? Keep an extra phone cord in the car for when your phone drains down?

It is difficult to relax and unwind on your drive home from work if you are surrounded by empty coffee cups and the French flies the kids spilled on the floor.

Time hack #4: Know your daily “must-do” tasks.

We often have expectations of getting more done than we can possibly handle. If you have one forty minute prep period and plan to grade assignments from 8 classes, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Narrow down your expectations:

  • What are your top three priorities for the day? If you only got these three things accomplished, your day would be successful.
  • Who needs you on your “A” game? This one reminds you that people are your priority.
  • What can I do for myself today to bring me joy, peace or fulfillment? Don’t forget about yourself in the process.

 Time hack #5: Spend a few minutes each day in silence and reflection.

You need room to slow down and breath. Silence also allows you to connect with your inner voice, which usually offers wisdom. It will allow your creative a chance to come through. A few minutes of reflection  will often slow you down enough to see the big picture, to help you make good decisions and good choices, all of which can improve your focus and time management.

Your silence can look like many things- a walk in nature, exercise, journaling, meditating, praying, or just spending a few minutes looking out the window.

A few minutes of silence and reflection is a way of plugging into your own energy source, a way of recharging your inner battery. When your battery is charged, things run more smoothly. There are fewer glitches and you will feel that you have more control over your day. And as a bonus, it often helps you to stay closer to your dreams and follow through on the goals that will make them come to life.

All of these ideas come down to making things less chaotic and more simple. Take control of what you can control. Taking control of what you can will allow you to take control of your to-do list.

Recap:

Most of us are challenged by not having as much time as we’d like, but all of us are challenged to work with in the same 24 hours per day. We can’t get more time, but we can make better use of our time and set up systems and processes that will allow us to use our time in the best ways possible.

Quote:

You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself.

The storm will pass. 

Timber Hawkeye

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Inspired together Teachers podcast episode 16, Real Self Care

Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:

Download our FREE resource: The Inspired Teachers Guide to Taking Back Your Life.

Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com

Instagram: Inspired-Together-Teachers

Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers

Facebook Teacher Warriors Group: Teacher Warriors Facebook Group

Linked In:  Inspired Together Teachers

More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

Raise Your Standards E. 15

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   Raise Your Standards S. 1 Ep. 15

raise your standards, teacher and students image

 

Listen to this episode to learn more about how you can raise your standards to live in alignment with your beliefs and values.

Show notes:

Episode Summary:

We all have personal standards. Sometimes they serve us well and sometimes they don’t. In this episode we talk about the standards you have set for yourself and where you might need to examine them, tweak them, or even change them.

We’re not talking about Common Core or state standards, we’re talking about the standards you set for yourself, the standards you live by and that drive your actions. Though the educational system may set the curricular standards, you are in charge of setting your own standards!

In this episode:

What do we mean by standards?

Today we are talking about raising our standards.

We are not talking about the Common Core, Next Gen Science Standards or your state standards.

We are talking about your personal and professional standards.

By definition a standard is a “level of quality or attainment.” A standard is also an adjective we use to describe “an idea or thing used to measure” it’s what we use for comparison to what is “normal” or an expected level.

Examples of standards:

  • We set standards, or boundaries around what we are willing to do based on our values and beliefs.
  • We have standards around how we act around people, talk to people, and present our selves.
  • We have standards around the quality of work we will do.
  • Our standards tell us what we expect and what we will tolerate.
  • We also set standards for how we want to be treated and what we expect from ourselves and from other people.
  • If your standards are high, you understand your worth and your value and act accordingly.
  • If your standards a low, you are going to accept pretty much anything from yourself or others, you have low expectations and settle for the path of least resistance.

Though the educational system may set the curricular standards, you are in charge of setting your own standards!

What determines the type of standards we have?

  • Our standards are deeply ingrained; we often developed our standards as children when our parents and others taught us how to act.
  • We learn standards from watching others model- both positively and negatively
  • We also choose to create our standards as a reflection of our personal values.
  • Our standards are also closely related to our beliefs about what we think we deserve, and about our value as a person. As your understanding of who we are or what we believe changes, so should our boundaries.

It isn’t always easy to change your standards. They have become a part of us. That said, we CAN change our standards and we may need to in order to elevate our lives.

Leonardo DiCaprio understands that sometimes we will need to raise our standards when he said, said, “Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”

Raise Your Standards for Personal Interactions

Do You Need to Raise Your Standards?

As you have become a teacher, chances are, you have raised your standards in some areas of your life.

  • Many of us are rethinking our relationships with food, choosing foods that are higher quality, organic, local, and more nutritious.
  • We may have raised our standards in terms of exercise, recognizing that exercise helps us reduce frustration and become more mindful.
  • Since you are a working professional, you have likely raised your standards in terms of your personal wardrobe. The world has gone more casual in dress, but there are various levels of casual and also appropriate and inappropriate situations for some clothing.

There are some other areas where it is possible to raise your standards.

  • You may also need to raise your standards in how you talk to yourself. Many of us have a mean girl or a bully voice in our head that doesn’t say very nice things.
  • How can we expect others to show us love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when we don’t even show that to ourselves?

 You may need to raise your standards in your interactions with others.

This is where it gets tricky. Examining how you interact with others takes it out of the individual realm as it involves another person. We are no longer just considering our wants and needs, but those of the other person.

You may need to raise your interpersonal standards if you have ever found yourself doing one or more of the following:

  • Failing to correct a student because you don’t want to hurt their feelings.
  • Not speaking up at a faculty meeting when you disagree because you don’t want to upset your colleagues or make them think you are a troublemaker.
  • Letting a student, parent or other teacher yell at you.
  • Letting a student undermine you by allowing them to change the direction of an activity.
  • Allowing someone to take credit for your work.
  • Doing the work of someone else rather than call them on it or letting it go undone.

If you have experienced any of these things, is a sign of an interaction which needs to be improved.

Here are a few ways to raise your standards in how you interact with others:

  • Understand that teaching often involves correcting someone or helping them to change behaviors and that this is a positive thing.
  • Teachers often hesitate to correct students because they don’t want to make them feel bad. Rather than framing it as criticism, frame it as help. Help students to understand that it is your job to offer guidance.
  • Help students to understand that having a growth mindset means that they are going to make mistakes and that is part of the process. It does not mean that you will punish them.

Do not allow other people to treat you with disrespect.

  • You teach other people how to treat you by how you respond to them.
  • If you allow someone to take credit for your work, or to undermine your decisions they will likely continue to do so.
  • If they know that they can slack off and you will pick up their end of the project, they will leave you doing more than your fair share of the work.
  • You do not have to allow anyone to scream at you. You can respectfully suggest that you will set up another time to talk when emotions are not running so high.

Learn to have courageous conversations.

  • If someone throws you under the bus, call them on it.
  • Know your value and stand up for yourself when needed.
  • If people in your life leave you feeling resentful, angry and hurt, speak up. You can do this without accusations by addressing how you feel.
  • If you value the relationship, say so, and acknowledge what kind of behaviors you want or need.
  • Though it can be difficult to do so, try to stay calm and speak with a low voice.

It isn’t fun to have courageous conversations, but when we do so, often times we clear the air. It is a chance to let go of anger and resentment. It is also a chance to better understand the other person and let them understand you.

Raising your standards may be a sign of self care.

Recently, there was an article on the Today website called: Dear Moms: Trips to Target are Not Self-care. The basic premise was that many women think that a trip to Target is self-care. They walk around and look at the candles and pillows and drink a Starbucks latte, and then buy things their families need. That is not real self care. Real self care is actually asking for and getting something you really need- like an entire night to yourself or a day away with your friends. This is an example of how raising your standards can mean speaking up and asking for what you really need.

We’ll do an entire episode on real self care in the near future.

Be aware of what you bring to your interactions.

  • The other side of the story is in what your attitudes and actions say about you.
  • In episode 9 we talked about how YOU Set the Tone.
  • You’ve heard of the Golden Rule, and it is not bad advice to treat people how you would like to be treated.
  • Raising your standards means being aware of you what you bring to interactions.
  • Being respectful and kind goes a long way.
  • People notice when you show up with integrity. You can take the high road and become a positive role model.
  • “Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.” Mandy Hale

Though it is a process rather than an event, it is possible to raise your standards around relationships and interactions. You won’t always get it right, and old habits sometimes die hard.

We say this all the time, but it is true. Try to keep moving in the right direction. Small steps in the right direction will often add up to big improvements.

Recap: When we raise our standards, we understand who we are and how we need to show up in the world in order to give and receive value. That is a worthy goal, one that will serve you well as a teacher and in other parts of your life.

Quotes:

“Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”

Leonardo DiCaprio

 “Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.”

Mandy Hale

Resources mentioned in this episode:  

Today: Dear Moms: Trips to Target are Not Self-care.

 Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

YOU Set the Tone  Inspired Together Teachers Podcast Episode 9 

Blog: Raise Your Standards for Personal Interactions

 

Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:

 Download our FREE resource: The Inspired Teachers Guide to Taking Back Your Life.

Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com

Instagram: Inspired-Together-Teachers

Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers

Facebook Teacher Warriors Group: Teacher Warriors Facebook Group

Linked In:  Inspired Together Teachers

 

More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

 

 

 

 

Inspirational and Motivational Influencers Ep. 90

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 Inspirational and Motivational Influencers

Season 6   Episode  90

phone with podcast playing, Inspirational and Motivational Influencers

What are we listening to now? Listen to this episode to find out what to look for in following inspirational and motivational influencers.  

 

Show Notes:

Episode Summary:

For the last 20+ years, there is no denying that the world has been radically shaped by social media influencers. Whether directly or indirectly, how we dress, decorate, or spend our money has been shaped by online influencers.

There are also motivational and inspirational leaders who have used the social media available to them to share their positive and insightful messages with the world. They challenge us to show up in the world as our best selves, they give us quotes to live by and they remind us of our strength and perseverance.

In this episode we share what we look for in inspirational and motivational social media influencers. We also share some influencers we’re currently following. If you aren’t following them yet, we bet you will be by the end of this episode.

Introduction:

Ah, the social media influencers. They are there every time we pick up our phones to scroll. 20 years ago that wasn’t even a thing and now, depending on how much time you spend on social media, you could be hearing hours and hours of social media influencers’ thoughts each week.

With the advent of YouTube in 2005, Instagram in 2010, and new social media outlets popping up regularly, social media not only became a way to share ideas, it also reinvented how people promoted brands, products, and ideas.

All of a sudden we were no longer learning about products through television commercials, but were instead hearing about them from celebrities and soon-to-be-social media celebrities in the feeds on our phones.

When was the last time you actually watched a commercial?  Today we stream things or fast forward through commercials.

It is pretty crazy when you think about the reach that some of these social media influencers have. Of course, the number of followers and degree of influence can vary drastically. Some of the most popular influencers have millions of followers and endorse multiple products.

In today’s episode, we will share ideas about social media THOUGHT influencers. We stress the word THOUGHT. These are influencers who use social media to put positive thoughts out into the world. They motivate us and they inspire us. They use the platform of social media to challenge our negative thoughts and to encourage us to live our  very best lives.

Specifically, we share three things we look for when finding social media inspirational influencers to follow and we then share a few of our favorite social media motivational thought influencers.

3 things to look for when deciding which social media inspirational and motivational  influencers to follow:

They share your values.

 We have done several episodes in which we have talked about staying true to your values. It is a key component of living an inspired and fulfilling life. We are at our best when our actions align with our values. We should be striving to surround ourselves with people who value the same things we do. What is the feed that is going into your head?

The beauty of social media is that there are likely hundreds or even thousands of motivational and inspirational social media influencers who share the same values as you.

Here is where a word of caution is needed. Just because they share some values with you does not mean they will motivate or inspire you. For example, there are teacher influencers who share the value of love of teaching with you. However, they may use their platform only to sell cute bulletin board templates and behavior management charts that they sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. You may share the value of teaching as a vocation but dislike behavior charts. It doesn’t align with your values. You likely will not be inspired or motivated by their posts. They might be great for someone else to follow, but their values are not aligned with yours.

On the other hand, you may find motivation in your teaching and life from a non-teaching influencer. For example, we are always motivated by Natalie Ellis from Bossbabes who has millions of followers. Her career is not teaching but her message of helping women “make more money + live a lifestyle they love” speaks to our values so we find her very motivational. She is real and shares the good things and the challenges.

They are authentic.

Being in education, you can likely read people fairly well. You can tell when people are being authentic and when they are putting on a show. If you feel like someone is not authentic, you are not going to trust them. In that case, move on and find another inspirational influencer.

Sometimes you can tell when someone is only trying to pitch you something. They are acting and you sense that you are not getting to know the real person. For example, you have all heard of influencers who say how much they love a product so they can pitch it and make money but then find out later that they never even bought the product. The same kind of thing can happen with a thought leader. In some cases, they aren’t even selling a product, they are selling themselves as a brand.

This can be a touchy point, because many of the inspirational leaders have written books or have courses they sell.

Selling something doesn’t make the influencer inauthentic. If they have a great message and you want to buy a book, a course or a membership to hear more of their thoughts, great! However, if you feel they aren’t being authentic and they are just trying to sell you something, it may mean it is time to move on and find another influencer.

In many cases, authentic influencers didn’t write the book or create the course just to sell. They wrote it or created it to educate. Social media became a place to share their knowledge and insight. Of course they want to sell, but the selling didn’t come before the product.

We want to reiterate that just because someone is selling something it does not mean they are not authentic. Being in the online world costs money. There are expensive websites, software, graphic design programs … the list goes on and on. And that doesn’t even count the hours spent creating content.  Would you go to a book store and expect the books to be free? Of course not.

Paula: There is one popular motivational influencer I like to follow….sometimes. I loved her first book and her second. Usually, I like reading her thoughts about being a mother and better person. However, there are times I have felt that she was inauthentic on certain topics, just to put her voice into a popular topic when I felt like she was stretching to make it meaningful for her. I typically find myself being drawn back into what she is posting but I feel like there is a clear difference when she is being authentic and she isn’t. This motivational influencer has over half a million followers on Instagram alone so she is clearly speaking in a way that people listen, but I can easily move in and out of following her based on how authentic I feel she is being at any given time.

You find their words inspirational and motivational.

When you read their quotes, you commit them to memory. Think about the last quote you saw on social media that spoke to you in a way that inspired you. Whoever posted it might be an influencer you want to follow!

We both love Brene Brown and Daniel Pink as motivational and inspirational leaders who have used social media to grow their audiences into millions of followers. The other day, Brene Brown posted a Daniel Pink quote on her social media. For us that was a sign that we are following like-minded people! We have quoted both Brene Brown and Daniel Pink many times on our podcast. Why? They inspire us and motivate us. They challenge us to think differently. Not only do we quote them on our podcasts, we copy down their quotes and use them for sounding boards for our lives.

The next time you are scrolling through your social media and see a quote you want to commit to memory, note the author and the person who posted it. The odds are good that one of them might be a social media motivator that you want to follow.

Michele: I secretly collect quotes. I have a physical notebook and write them down when I like them. We often use those quotes on the podcast or in our workshops. I also write them in my planner- one quote every week because quotes inspire me.

 A few of our favorite social media inspirational and motivational influencers…

 Now that we have discussed what we look for in a motivational and inspirational social media influencer, we will briefly share a few of our favorites in case you would like a jump start in finding some people you might enjoy following.

 Brene Brown

 There are so many things we love about Brene Brown and we are not the only ones. She has millions of followers across multiple social media platforms. She is a researcher and a storyteller. We love her messages about vulnerability, courage, shame and empathy. We also love her books. But when we don’t have time to sit down and read, the videos, podcast episodes and posts she shares regularly on social media are small doses of the inspiration we need.

Malcom Gladwell

 With almost a half million followers on Instagram and almost a million on each of his other social media platforms, Malcom Gladwell is as entertaining as he is inspirational. You may know him as the New York Times bestselling author of Blink, Outliers, and other books or maybe you know his Revisionist History podcast but if you don’t know him as a motivational social media influencer, it may be time to follow him. On an interesting side note, Gladwell has even written on, and spoken about, the power and limitations of social media. Malcolm Gladwell is quirky, and he is an original thinker.

Arthur Brooks

 Arthur Brooks is a social scientist who studies leadership and happiness. We are very interested in happiness research. He has a lot to say about happiness!

Michele: I  took a course from him at Harvard and he was also a really good teacher. He also writes a column, How to Build a Life in the Atlantic which I like. Like most of my recommendations, I came to him through his books and research first, then followed him on Linked In.  That is usually how I find thought leaders, through their books first.

Daniel Pink

Though Daniel Pink doesn’t have as many followers as Brene Brown or Malcom Gladwell, he is only in the hundreds of thousands, lol, his message is just as powerful. Daniel Pink is a great example of someone who shares a lot of inspirational quotes. Most of his quotes are by famous people you would recognize and most of them. He talks about  about motivation, personal growth and creativity. If you like to read motivational quotes, be sure to follow Daniel Pink. We’ve shared tidbits from hi book Drive many times. If you are interested in motivation, check out Dan Pink.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is a creative soul. She wrote the book Big Magic. You may also know her from the book Eat, Pray, Love or from the movie. She has a creative mind. She puts ideas together in ways that others don’t, which is fascinating.

Gabby Bernstein

Gabby Bernstein teaches about mindset shifts, which we often talk about on our podcast. Her shifts seem a bit wild at first, and her approaches may seem unusual at first. She is very real, honest and authentic about her own personal struggles and insights. She brings new ideas and news ways of thinking. She might help you with your own mindset shifts.

Adam Grant

Adam Grant is a researcher first and an influencer second. His ideas often connect to things we are interested in, such as human potential, which is a topic we have discussed and even create an entire workshop around. His discussions are also backed with science. We life like Shawn Achor, author of Big Potential, and The Happiness Advantage, and James Clear who wrote Atomic Habits for the same reason.

Conclusion

We end with this quote by author and speaker, Dave Willis:

“Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.”

That is exactly what social media inspirational and motivational influencers have the power to do.

Make sure you follow those that understand that power and use it to make your life better.

 Recap:

In this episode we shared three important things to look for in a social media inspirational and motivational influencers- shared values, authenticity, and quotes you want to commit to memory. We also shared a few of our favorite social media motivational influencers. If you decide to follow them, we hope you find them as motivational and inspirational as we do.

Quote:

Dave Willis

“Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.”

Dave Willis

Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:

Download our FREE resource: The Inspired Teachers Guide to Taking Back Your Life.

Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com

Instagram: Inspired-Together-Teachers

Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers

Inspired Together Teachers Network  Facebook Group

Linked In:  Inspired Together Learning

More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

This post may use affiliate links. If you purchase an item through our link, we will receive a small portion of the profit with no extra cost to you. This helps us to pay for the costs of bringing this free podcast to our community.

Declutter Your Thoughts Ep. 89

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Declutter Your Thoughts

Season 6 Episode 89

 

person's head full of thoughts, Declutter Your Thoughts

Check out this episode to find out declutter your thoughts to  tame the racing in your head!

 Show notes: 

 Episode Summary:

Do you ever feel like you have so many thoughts running through your head that you can’t really get a grasp on any of them? Do you feel like all of these thoughts keep you from thinking the happy and peaceful thoughts you want to think? We certainly do.

In this episode we explore how we can take 5 simple, common, home-decluttering strategies and apply them to decluttering our thoughts.

Decluttering our thoughts isn’t nearly as difficult as you might imagine, AND it will give us all more time to focus on the thoughts that really matter.

 Introduction:

In the past few years, we have all either heard, read or listened to experts telling us how to declutter our homes.

Can you hear Marie Kondo’s voice in your head or are you imagining the tv show Hot Mess House on Discovery Plus?

Because of her decluttering advice, Marie Kondo’s name has become a household name, in some cases even a verb, as in “I am going to Marie Kondo my closet today.” What is so amazing about Marie Kondo and others is that their simple wisdom about what could appear at a quick glance to be about decluttering a room or a house, was actually life-changing for millions of people.

What Marie Kondo and other decluttering experts helped us to see is that if you have a lot of clutter, it can prevent you from feeling good about yourself and your life. We all started realizing that if we reduce the clutter in our lives, we can improve our mental health and decluttering also can help us to focus on what we really value.

Marie’s philosophy on clutter and life, is probably best summarized with this quote, “To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose. To throw away what you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful.”

That is great advice for decluttering our houses…. and all those thoughts spinning around in our head every day!

Let’s rewrite her famous quote just a bit to apply to decluttering our thoughts:  “To truly cherish the thoughts that are important to you, you must first discard those thoughts that have outlived their purpose. To throw away thoughts that you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful.”

What we see in this is the connection between the decluttering of our physical space and also the decluttering of our thoughts. In the crazy, busy world we are in, information is coming at us like water from a firehouse. Our brains rarely get a change to slow down. They are cluttered with too many thoughts. Decluttering these thought is good and it is necessary.

So, we share 5 tips, designed to help declutter your home, that will work perfectly to declutter all of those thoughts we are experiencing as well! Mental clutter can build up quickly, so let’s Marie Kondo it out!

Decluttering Tip #1: Declutter Regularly

We learned from the organizational gurus of the last few years that decluttering on a regular basis can help keep your home clean and make the process of maintaining the sense of zen easier. Decluttering can’t just be a “one and done.” It needs to be an ongoing and intentional process.

The same can be said for decluttering our thoughts. Think of the volume of thoughts that come into heads every second of the day.

This is where habits and living mindfully connect.

Paula: We have both talked about how we like to have our quiet time in the morning. For me, that is a time to declutter my thoughts. Over a cup of coffee, I can journal, allowing me to focus on specific thoughts and shut out the others that don’t matter at that moment. I get up before everyone else in my house, every day, so I can have that time. My best thinking of the day happens at that time, because I can declutter using some of the strategies we will discuss here today, but most importantly, I do it daily. If I decluttered my thoughts early in the morning once per year, it wouldn’t have nearly as much of an impact as it does doing it daily.

Michele: My brain often feels like it is exploding with too much information. I take in a lot of information intentionally. I read a lot. I make lists endlessly. Once I have written something on a list, I can usually stop the panic in my head. Of course I usually have multiple lists so I can keep things organized- a work list, a home to-do list, even lists of books I want to read or lists for individual projects.

Decluttering Tip #2: Start Small

 The home decluttering experts emphasize repeatedly how important it is to break down your decluttering task into smaller, more manageable chunks.

For example, if you want to declutter your bedroom, they suggest you start small- choosing a small area of your room to organize- one dresser drawer for example. Or if you are starting with your closet, they say not to try to tackle the whole thing in a day- start with 5 minutes at a time.

If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day, or maybe you start with 5 minutes on the first day and add an additional minute to your decluttering tasks each day until you are decluttering 10 or 15 minutes each day.

The same theory is true with decluttering your thoughts. If your brain feels like it is going 100 miles an hour, all day every day, saying that you are going to meditate for 3 hours each day to clear your thoughts is going to lead to failure. Start small. Break the decluttering of your thoughts into smaller, more manageable chunks of time.

Paula: I have gotten into a habit sometime over the past few years of setting the timer on my phone for 1 minute or 2 minutes if I feel like my thoughts are racing and it is impacting my thinking. I just sit for that 1 or 2 minutes and breath, following the meditation process of not thinking anything on purpose, letting thoughts flow in and out of my head like passing clouds but not focusing on them. I am always amazed at the difference I feel after just 1 or 2 minutes.

Of course I can’t do that all day, and we could never do that while teaching, but there is something to be said for the power in finding 1 or 2 minutes to declutter our thoughts. Trying to do that same exercise for 30 or 40 minutes whenever I feel like my thoughts are really racing would never work. I don’t have that long of a chunk of time. Try it in the car or taking a minute or two alone in the bathroom to just breathe.

Michele: I wish I could do that- let the thoughts just float by me. A few minutes organizing my calendar or my lists helps. It also helps to journal- or just write things down. If it is written down, I know the thought is safe or that it had been attended to. Then I can either let it go or deal with it later.

Decluttering Tip #3: Take Out the Trash

Decluttering experts warn that before you can organize the things that are important to you, you’ll need to get rid of the stuff that isn’t. They suggest going through the space you want to organize with a trash bag, stuffing the bag with things you know you don’t need. They encourage people to be ruthless when clearing out your space. If it’s expired, you don’t need it. Throw it.

The idea is to not organize the junk!

When decluttering your life, the experts suggest trashing the apps on your phone that you don’t need. Look at the apps on your phone. When was the last time you used some of them? How many subscriptions do you automatically pay for that you no longer need? Deleting what you haven’t used in the past few months is a good way to quickly declutter your devices and give yourself some extra space.

Some experts suggest you throw away, or give away, one item away each day. This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. That’s a lot of stuff.

Now, let’s think about what this means for decluttering your thoughts. It means you have permission to trash those thoughts that are expired. What are the thoughts you no longer need? Get rid of those first. Getting these thoughts out of your head will give you space to examine the remaining thoughts more clearly.

Michele: The thoughts I often need to trash are the ones concerning other people. I can’t control other people. I have to let go ideas about what they should do or how they should handle something. I can’t solve all the problems, it isn’t mine to solve. I have to let it go! It’s hard to do sometimes, it’s a practice and it is evolving.

Paula: For me, the expired thoughts, that I need to trash, are negative things that people have said to me in the past that stick in my head but are no longer relevant. These may be criticisms that were legit that I have fixed or they may be unfounded remarks that were trash from the beginning but I have held on to them and they reemerge when I am doubting myself. They don’t serve me. I need to throw them out and stop allowing them to come back in. These thoughts take up space that the positive thoughts could inhabit.

Decluttering Tip #4: Sort and Organize Items

Home decluttering experts often tell us to sort items into piles, grouping similar items. Create categories and keep items that are similar together so you know where to find them. They suggest that you don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This exercise helps you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.

For example, you could organize your bathroom drawers into categories such as “medicine,” “beauty products” or “nail care.” However, you choose to organize, be sure to think about whether this streamlines your use of those items which is what you want to do ultimately to make your life easier.

The same can be said of sorting and organizing your thoughts. For example, if you are driving to work thinking about supper ingredients you haven’t put together yet, the materials you need to prep for your first lesson, you child’s soccer forms you haven’t filled out yet, and a million other things. Start sorting those thoughts. For example, the categories could be “things for work today”, “things to think about on the way home”, “things for the weekend” etc.  Then you can work through the most important first- like the “things for work today” on the way to work and put the others off until your drive home since you can’t do anything about them on the way to work anyway.

Paula: I make lists of my thoughts. If I am worried I am going to forget something I write it down or email it to myself. That way I don’t forget and can focus on the most pressing category of thoughts without the distractions of other categories. For example, yesterday I emailed myself a list of 3 things I needed to ask my husband to do. Once I emailed them, that category of things, I could focus on the category at hand.

Michele: I do this naturally with many different lists. It helps me to then do one list at a time.  This usually works, but it is dangerous if I have so many lists that my lists become overwhelming. One of my lists is always a top three things I must do today, and that has been very effective.

Decluttering Tip #5: Limit New Items. 

When you buy something new, try to get rid of something else.

 This decluttering advice is pretty self-explanatory. When you bring something new in, take something out. We don’t want to be hoarders. We can’t keep all the things or it can be overwhelming.

The same is true with our thoughts.

Decide which thoughts can have real estate in your brain and which can’t. Some thoughts just be let go when you bring a new thought in. They can’t all have space there.

Paula:  I went to the ATM to get cash and my PIN number was just gone. I kept bringing new thoughts in without getting rid of old ones, so my brain did the work for me. Unfortunately, my brain decided to get rid of my PIN number. I wish I would have made an intentional choice of the non-essential thought to get rid of.

Michele: Yikes! Your brain is deciding what to let go of. I haven’t done that. I have let go of things that I might regret someday. I no longer know anyone’s phone numbers. I don’t know birth dates either, unless it is on my calendar. I also stopped thinking about things on my husband’s lists or his to-do items. For whatever reason, I used to get things like his prescription refill notices.  I need to get that out of my brain. He can control that!

We hope that these decluttering tips are helpful. Maybe you’ve found one in particular that speaks to you.

We end with this quote by writer Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe:

“The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least”

 Recap:

In this episode we explored how we can take 5 simple, common, home-decluttering strategies and apply them to decluttering our thoughts. By decluttering regularly, starting small, taking out the trash, sorting and organizing and limiting new items,  it will give us all more time to focus on the thoughts that really matter.

Quote:

“The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:

Download our FREE resource: The Inspired Teachers Guide to Taking Back Your Life.

Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com

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Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers

Inspired Together Teachers Network  Facebook Group

Linked In:  Inspired Together Learning

More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

Living with Grace Ep. 88

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Living With Grace Season 6 Episode 88

hands sharing a flower, Living With Grace

Check out this episode to learn how to combat tension and divisiveness by living with grace for yourself and others. 

Show Notes: 

Episode Summary:

In this episode:

The following notes are key concepts from the episode, not a word for word transcript. We generally start with key points and then give examples and stories to illustrate the ideas. For the best experience, we recommend that you listen to the episode.

Introduction:

As this episode drops, it is just before the presidential election and our country, and the world in general seems extremely divisive. People are pitted against each other and anger and hurt are escalated. We are constantly surrounded by news and social media that allows fear and worry and shame to enter our daily thoughts.

People are hurting, and as a society we are recognizing the need to support mental health.

In this arena, there is support and comfort in living with grace. Stay tuned to today’s episode as we discuss living with grace.  Why do we need it?  What does it look like?  And most importantly, how can you level up your own life by choosing to live with grace.

What do we mean when we use the phrase “living with grace”?

When we talk about living with grace, we aren’t talking about being graceful, like a ballerina, though that might also be a worthy goal.

Living with grace is about choosing to be a better person.

It means showing kindness, or understanding or forgiveness.

It means having an open mind and being accepting of others’ beliefs and values.

Grace is a refinement- it is the absence of difficulty and instead feeling ease. It means making moments less serious, severe or difficult. Living with grace means being thoughtful, rather than overreacting. It means having common courtesy, which sometimes doesn’t seem all that common.

Michele: I remember a situation with a person who I had know for a long time but often struggled with.  I felt judged by her and didn’t think she really liked me. We had a large holiday party and she was there.  My daughter, who was four or five at the time, came running up to me crying and then proceeded to vomit all over everything- including herself, the floor, and the furniture. This person jumped in immediately and told me to go take care of my daughter and she would take care of everything. She’d find the paper towels and clean it all up. I was surprised by her kindness, and I remember it clearly to this day. I see that as an act of grace from one mom to another.

Paula: I think of grace in a teaching situation. We all know those students who it would be easy to be angry or upset with. But when we step back and look at them through a lens of understanding or kindness, that is giving them grace. They come in and they are angry or upset and if you feed into their anger you make them even more angry or upset.

When you say something like, “It sounds like you’re having a rough day. Can you tell me what’s going on, I’d love to be able to help,”  you’re showing grace to that student. We all know when we’ve said something like that, their whole demeanor can change. Sometimes we don’t give each other enough credit for giving grace to students. It can be difficult to give grace to others.

Let’s look at some ways we might work on living with grace.

Give yourself grace.

Sometimes, we hijack our own brains. We’re hard on ourselves and sometimes unforgiving.

That leads to a lot of personal doubt, the feelings that I’m not worthy enough, or I’m not good enough.

We tend to overemphasize our mistakes and let them drive our feelings about ourselves.

What would happen if we gave ourselves more grace?  We could forgive ourselves.

Recognize that what is over is done. You can’t go back, so you need to move forward.

Think of this through the lens of how you would treat a friend. Treat yourself like you would treat a friend. What would you tell a friend? You would speak kindly. We give grace to our friends. When they are in a rough time, we’d say things like, “It’s okay, you’re in a rough time, you’re doing the best you can at this time.”

How often do we talk to ourselves like that? Not often. That playlist in our mind to ourselves rarely  includes giving ourselves grace. If we added that into our internal conversation, wouldn’t that be wonderful? It is a goal for so many of us, we’ve thought about it, but we don’t think of it as giving ourselves grace. ” That’s okay. It’s alright. You’re doing the best you can.”

Why is it so hard for us to say that to ourselves?

It is like the well-known phrase from Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better.  Then, when you know better, you do better.”  That is the truth of it, you’re probably doing the best you can at the time.

Give yourself grace as you are learning and doing better.

Extend grace to others.

This one can be difficult. Sometimes it is easy to judge others. But you don’t know the whole story. You don’t know what they might be going through.

Paula: I was once working with a coach and having a difficult time with someone. The coach asked me, “What would change if you looked at it through the lens of someone who is…” and she proceeded to tell me the things this person was going through.

I immediately understood. She said, “Imagine extending that grace to her. Although she is not the best colleague, this is what she is going through in her life that makes her not her best.”

I think about that often. What if I assumed the best of her? Maybe she’s having a bad day because of what she is going through. People around us are struggling all the time, with an illness or a problem with a loved one- things that we don’t know.

What if I saw her through the lens of this?  My first thought is that I would give her grace. We need to extend grace to others.

What would be the worst thing that would happen if you always assume the best of others?

Michele: Sometimes I find it easy to take offense. If the clerk at the grocery store is rude to me, I feel it. I also assume it is about me, even though intellectually, I don’t even know that person and I know it isn’t about me. I have to remind myself to brush it off and let it go. I don’t know what is going on with her, but it is not about me.

Another way to live with grace is to respect diverse beliefs and perspectives.

Respect diverse beliefs and perspectives. 

There would be a lot fewer problems in the world if we could all learn to respect other people’s beliefs and perspectives. That also might mean being open to learning about them. We’re educators, we should be open to learning.

We tend to fear something we don’t understand. When we don’t know or understand something about someone else that seems strange or different to us it’s easy to be fearful of them.

Michele: I observed a group of Muslim men praying at the airport. A clock had started chiming, and their tradition is to pray five times a day by dropping to your knees while facing Mecca. They were very reverent.  I wish that everyone could observe acts such as these. It diminishes the fear and helps you see people in a fuller, more humanistic way.

The stereotype is that all Muslims are extremists and terrorists. You can pick them out from central casting displayed in almost every American movie about violence. If you don’t know anything about their lives or their culture, it is easy to be fearful of the unknown.

There is also a Muslim tradition to make the words “ God is good” the first words they speak to a new baby.

If people could see this kind of practice and understand it, they would not be afraid of someone just because they are Muslim.

Paula:  In Uganda, I had to learn to give people grace. I saw a little baby crawling in a village with no adult supervising. I was quick to judge. Where is the mother? How could a baby be crawling around without a mother? This was an example of  “It takes a village to raise a child.” Everyone needed to know that child in case something happened to the mother and she was not able to take care of it.

The mother was actually being a good mother by allowing her child to be independent and go out and seek others. In our culture here, if a baby was crawling around outside it would be very different. I had to give that mother grace. How difficult it must have been for her to let the baby go crawling around, knowing that it would find its way home or someone would turn it around towards home.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place, if we could all respect each other’s beliefs and perspectives? And then give a little grace once we’ve learned about it?

Try to see the good in the world.

There is certainly negativity and evil in the world. Bad things happen. News and social media feed the negativity.

It can be overwhelming, and if you let it, it can change your viewpoint towards the negative.

What if we believed that life is essentially good and that people are essentially good?

There would be less to worry about. There would be less fear.

We can choose to flip the script and assume that people is good and that life is good. As Mr. Rogers famously said, in any bad situation, “ look for the helpers.”  The helpers are the good in the world. That is an example of seeing the good in the world. There may be helpers out in the world but we miss them because we aren’t looking for them.

Michele:  I am currently loving a CBS Morning Segment called Kindness 101 with Steve Hartman and his children. It is available at CBS website or YouTube.  They find a story of someone who has done something kind and they explore that kindness. They interview the person and the kids ask questions. Now they have just rolled out an initiative for schools with lessons and materials. It always makes me feel good! I am also rewarded by knowing that there is good in the world.

Paula: I love the show what Would You Do? by John Quinones. People are put into a situation that is challenging. They don’t know it is a fake situation. For example, it might be a bakery and the clerk refuses to serve someone because of their race or gender. Then they stand by and watch what people will do. Often, people will step up and ask the person what they wanted to order and offer to order it.  Then they interview the people afterwards to find out why they chose to step in. So many times it is because they saw the injustice and wanted to make the world a better place.

I also remember learning about silver linings when I was taking a class for my Masters’ program and it has stuck with me. For every cloud, there is a silver lining and the silver lining is actually the beauty in the cloud. If you only look at the dark cloud, you will only see the dark cloud. If you see the silver lining, the shiny part, that is the good in the world. That’s the beauty, the bright spot peaking through.

Even in a bad situation there is a silver lining, that’s the beauty.

We’re not glossing over this and saying that everything is rosy all the time. We know that there are lots of issues and challenges in our world. But you can also see beyond them, or behind them, or in them see possibilities and opportunities to change things. That is the silver lining.

Yes, there is something bad, but I can step in, I can do something or I can say something. That’s hard. it takes a lot of courage but that is the silver lining, knowing that something can be better.

When a person is on the receiving side of grace, they are more likely to reciprocate.

We can do that in our world. We’re more powerful than we think.

Conclusion:

We end today with this quote from author and teacher Caroline Myss,

“Grace is a power that comes in and transforms a moment into something better.”

If you want to make the world better, make the moments better.

Recap:

Living with grace can help us to be kinder and better people and to impact the world in positive ways. You can start by giving yourself grace. You can also give grace to others. Grace is fueled when we respect others’ beliefs and perspectives, and when we try to see the good in the world.

Did you know that we have a free resource called The Inspired Teacher’s guide to Taking Back Your life?  Get it here. 

Quote:

“Do the best you can until you know better.  Then, when you know better, you do better.”

Maya Angelou

“Grace is a power that comes in and transforms a moment into something better.”

Caroline Myss

Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:

Download our FREE resource: The Inspired Teachers Guide to Taking Back Your Life.

Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com

Instagram: Inspired-Together-Teachers

Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers

Inspired Together Teachers Network  Facebook Group

Linked In:  Inspired Together Learning

More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

 

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