Productivity and Prioritization
Energy management is closely tied to time management, but probably more crucial in being productive. The past few months have been busy for me, as I prioritized my personal and family life more than the professional. It was my first summer off since before the pandemic, where I was taking graduate-level courses for my Master's degree. Since I finished my degree, I could finally get to personal and family matters that I have been putting off.
The last few months of the school year was also hectic for me. My employer, the school district, decided to close down my school and redistribute all staff to other schools. I was finishing up my Master's degree and was wishing for a change at work, so I took the reshuffling as an opportunity for upward movement. I applied to various positions above my current role and ended up becoming promoted as a subject leader! While I did not get a pay raise, I will be receiving an additional weekly prep period in my timetable. I will also be part of the leadership team at the new school, which is thrilling.
While at the same time as me submitting job applications and interviewing both internally and externally outside of my school district, I also became more involved with my professional association by helping to organize and present at a province-wide conference. I signed up to present at another province-wide conference in October and to attend another one that is an entire week long during my summer break, which is happening next week. Overall, my career is gaining momentum and speed as my Master's just finished.
This summer break, my goals were more personal and family-oriented at home. We reorganized the garage, cleared out clutter from the hallway closets, consolidated the office to the basement, created a new spare bedroom upstairs, and painted the master bedroom. Numerous trips to Ikea and ordering furniture from Costco and Amazon were done, as well as assembling such orders. Even today, our new bed frame from Costco arrived, which needs to be unpacked and assembled before we pack for the week-long conference that is 4 hours away.
This is where energy management is key. The past few days had me wasting my time and energy on new K-pop music releases from various groups such as Infinite, New Jeans, Itzy, and more. K-pop has always been an interest of mine since adolescence and while I get busy with life and work, I periodically catch up on the latest updates. Regardless, I spent two to three full days of watching YouTube videos on them, much to the disappointment of my husband. But now that I am getting back on track, he is much more content. While I was watching hours of YouTube videos, my mind was becoming distracted by everything and nothing. It was overstimulated with the fast-paced visuals and sounds. I enjoy K-pop, but it cannot be all of the time. This is where prioritization is crucial. I finally reached a point of having to reprioritize and got back to work. Journaling helps me to reflect and refocus my internal thoughts so that I can gauge what is important for me to do and think about. Even before this blog post, I wrote in my private journal using pen and paper. I find it helps to use traditional methods rather than digital.
I still have much work to do, even before my school year begins. I had originally thought that I would leave teaching, but somehow things changed and now I am actually looking forward to returning. My classroom will be new, my teaching assignment will be new, and my title as a leader will be new. These were all changes I wished for and I finally received when I thought I could no longer wait.