Busyness

How do I even think? It is one of the most hectic times of

the school year. I teach ENL, so we have the State English proficiency exam going on. As department head, I am crunching data and developing schedules for next year, and then there are post tests, final exams, and other State exams that are nearly here. Students are asking for reference letters and help with college applications, and then there is everything that normally goes into teaching. On the author side, I have more query letters to write, more to draft and edit, and social media to learn to make and post, along with getting ready for a Writing conference this summer. Personally, I have my marriage, home, family, friends, and health to maintain and improve on. It is easy to summarize myself as being busy. I am sure you have your own version of busy to contend with, and maybe it looks like mine or something similar.

In the past, I have found busyness as an excuse to "lock in,"

if locking in means to tunnel vision into survival mode. When that happens, important things fall off my plate, and in the past, that mostly meant things related to my own well-being. I am learning that the tunnel of "I'm busy" is not a good excuse to shortchange myself. However, I have these habits. So, what am I to do to change them? I wish I had an easy answer for myself and others. However, there are things I am learning that I will be trying and that might help you, too.

Firstly, I am not going to sacrifice my routine. Busyness

tends to make me chuck my routine for minute-to-minute priorities. I built my routine for a reason. It works for me. The busy needs to fit into the routine, not replace it. Next, I am going to make better use of my planner for checklists of to-dos. Half of my stress comes from not being sure if I am keeping track of everything, especially as my health has brought brain fog on board. Checklists help me know what to do and what is done. I can assign due dates to form an IRL Quest-log and dailies and color code for at-a-glance prioritization. In video games, I play exactly one that has daily quests. I usually don't bother with them. In this case, dailies are the number 1 priorities, and top priorities are number two. Dailies are health tasks, family tasks, and personal life tasks.

These two frameworks alone make a huge difference for

me. They give me peace of mind that everything will get done, and I can still take proper care of myself. This is very important for me as the days seem to move faster because it allows me to build in rest. Rest is the easiest thing for me to cut out. Is this new information? No, but it will be new if I can follow through with it this time. The busyness does mean a shorter post this week, but hopefully, as the busyness closes in, you will be able to find your own plans to keep the crazy at bay, too.