I’m told I’m good at giving advice. I’m also told I’m awful at taking my own advice. There are worse flaws right?!
In my last post I shared my Totally Organised New Class To-Do List and in the Summer holiday section there was only one thing to do – RELAX. So what am I doing? I’m lying on a sunny veranda in a beautiful garden in Kenya and I’m thinking not about the elephants I saw a few days ago, nor about the hippos in the lake at the bottom of this garden. No, I’m lying here thinking about September and what I can do to prepare for the new school year. I’m lying here thinking about how excited I am to get started.
Shutting off the teacher brain is so much easier said than done. It’s one of the reasons I decided to take a year out of teaching and try other things. I wanted to know what life could be like outside of teaching and guess what I found out? There’s more out there than planning and marking and report writing and worrying about children constantly. There’s a world of art and music and life and friends and so much we can do that makes life fuller.
Now that I’m going back into teaching, I don’t want to lose the life I’ve begun to make for myself over the past year. I know it’ll be hard to find a work/life balance – I’ve never managed it before. (Seriously, at my last appraisal the words ‘Aimée needs to work on getting a life’ were said. In the most supportive way possible, I promise!) So I came up with a plan to help me achieve this. I came up with my ‘Ideal Week Timetable’:
I promise it’s not as complicated as it looks! This timetable should (hopefully!) help me to keep on track. If I can manage to stick to it the those blank minutes and hours can be used for all the ‘life’ aspect of the balance. Obviously I know I won’t be able to stick to it religiously. I know that exercise won’t necessarily happen on those days at those times. I know that I’ll end up working more than this. I know I won’t be going to bed at 10pm every work night. And I know other things will come up that take over an evening or so. But I also know that those blank times are a promise. I’m promising to give myself a chance. A chance to change my lifestyle for the better. A chance to say, ‘Ok, today I did more work than I should have but tomorrow I have this blank space and I’m going to do something non-work related.’ Each week will be different, each week will change. But if I can keep even slightly to my ideal timetable, I’ll have made a difference to my lifestyle already.
Want to give it a try yourself? Download a blank copy of the timetable below and fill it in:
Remember, this is your ‘ideal’ timetable. It is not your absolutely certain, set-in-stone, end-of-the-world-if-not-followed timetable. This just gives you an idea of what life could be like. It gives you something to strive towards.
I’d love to see how your ideal week looks. If you don’t mind sharing, tag me in a photo of it on Instagram. My username is @the_classroom_constellation.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Blue skies,
Aimée
xxx
The Classroom Constellation 