In Waste: Finding Balance in a Demanding World from Cool Cat Teacher Blog, coolcatteacher@gmail.com, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher, asks,
“Did you complain pointlessly at any time? Are you pouring your time and energy into too many things? Even worse, are you pouring them into things that aren’t really a calling for you anymore?”
Usually at the end of every day, my husband and I talk about our day. We talk about how productive we were, whether it was a good or bad day, and the highlights of the day. I don’t know when we started doing this but I enjoy our conversation as we evaluate our day. I feel proud when I’ve had a good day, disappointed when it isn’t, and it is nice to have his support as I share about it all. I hope I do the same for him.
It is hard when I look back and see that I didn’t get a lot done during the day. We call it “spinning our wheels” where we feel we were busy but nothing got done. I think it helps to reflect about the day to see why it happened.
Where did I lose my productivity? Was I too disorganized? Usually this is my biggest problem. If I can see where I had the biggest problem, I can correct it the next day. Usually the next day is better because I have analyzed the day before.
Sometimes I realize that the project I was working on isn’t that important or necessary. I ask myself why I bother to continue doing something that doesn’t give me joy. When I was growing up, my parents always pushed me to finish what I started. Now that I’m an adult, I have to remind myself that if it isn’t necessary, I don’t have to finish it!
Sometimes what I am doing is not fun but necessary. Usually if I make a list of all the steps that I need to do, I can check each one off as I finish it. This really helps me get it done when I don’t want to do it.
All of these things are great to talk about with my class. Many of them feel the same way at times and I need to show them that even adults feel that way in the real world. They need to learn how to handle these feelings. That is the hardest thing for teenagers to deal with. Helping them deal with their feelings means they will be more successful in other ways.
How do you handle waste time? How do you help your students deal with this problem? Please share.
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