The first week had us do a Discovery and Intention journal assignment. I put a lot of work and thought into writing this, and I'm convinced that it's going to make my life better.
Things to note, in case the Discovery and Intention concept is new to you. It was new to me. The first bit is observing the state of a problem, without judgment, but including noticing feelings associated with the issue. That's the Discovery. Then, the Intention bit is making an executable plan for addressing the problem. You'll notice, while I was writing my Intentions, I was also being very honest with myself about what things were likely to be stumbling blocks, and I pre-determined a counter-attack to those stumbling blocks. The intentions were specific enough so that, when it comes time to do the thing, I don't have to think about how I'll do the thing, I'll just do it like a robot. So, rather than listing "Do More Yoga," I specified when I would do yoga, and how I would do it, and where. I even included a contingency plan for what I'll do when I run off-course. I made a chant for myself. I'm fairly convinced that this will work, partly because, as I was trying to figure out what to chant, I sat in my chair and chanted it, and suddenly I found myself on the floor doing yoga.
So, this is my commitment for this week. I will revisit this plan on Saturday, to see if it needs modification.
One of the things that I've felt frustrated with lately is feeling overwhelmed and unfocused, so that’s what I worked on for this assignment. I took a good deal of time developing it, and I think I have something very functional moving forward.
Discovery
I'm easily distracted. I can wake up with a goal of accomplishing three simple tasks, and at 10pm feel like I can't name a single accomplishment, on or off my list. It makes me sad when this happens, and it often makes me angry at myself. In fact, I started writing this yesterday and got distracted by... I don't know what.
Sometimes when I sit down to start a task, I feel like I'm in a cave and can't see well enough to do anything. The thing that I can't "see" is my thoughts that surround the task at hand.
I have a lot of things that I think about: ideas for teaching, conversations that I've had with friends or students or colleagues, deadlines that I have coming up, what I should be cooking for dinner tonight, what's on the schedule for the next week, or next month, or next semester or next year. Most of the things in my thoughts have connections to each other, so no matter what I'm working on, it's very easy to ping another thought.
My past experience with To Do lists has not been very fruitful. Most of the time, my list contains all of the things I want to do, and that sort of list feels overwhelming. As a result, I usually declare defeat even before I finish writing the list. A couple of weeks ago, I experienced a To Do list success that has been memorable. I was feeling very distracted that day, and I had a few things that I wanted to get done, so I wrote down something like 4 things. I got distracted during the four things, but I was able to easily pull myself back from distraction because "it's only 4 things," telling myself that I can go and do this other thing after my list is complete. And I completed the 4 things, not super quickly, but without ever fully engaging in a distraction along the way. This was memorable to me because I think it offered a clue for help. The thing that helped me to return my focus to the list, and each task in the list was understanding the full scope of the task, and knowing it was relatively brief. In contrast, one of the things that has allowed me to get distracted from finishing this assignment was not knowing how long it would take me.
Intention
This coming week, my kid is out of town, so I have an opportunity to focus on my own needs and goals without that distraction. For this week, I'm going to practice the following:
- Morning yoga
- Every morning at 6:30, get up and do Yoga with Adrienne.
- I understand that opening up the YouTube app on my phone makes it very easy for me to get distracted and watch videos, so I created a Calendar event for 6:40 every morning and included a direct link to the specific playlist that I’ll be practicing from every day. That way, I can just open my phone and click the link to get started without distraction.
- If I find myself getting distracted on the way from bed to the living room, I will start chanting: Yoga for focus. Yoga for strength. Yoga first, then other things.
- Morning lists
- The things that I have to do on a given day generally don’t change. So, I have created a skeleton list on which I will fill in blanks without much forethought.
- Evening Reflection
- I will take my same To Do list from the morning, and write Discovery-type thoughts, reflecting on the various things I accomplished throughout the day.
- I will set a time limit on this activity---10 minutes---so it can be a simple task. Whatever I can write down in 10 minutes will be sufficient, but I must spend that 10 minutes every day.
- Friday afternoon planning
- Each day’s To Do list is intentionally short-sighted. It only tells me what I’m doing that day.
- On Friday afternoons, I will take my same skeleton list and specify goals for a 1-week arc, a 1-month arc, and a six-month arc.
Skeleton To Do List
To be highlighted, crossed out, and expanded upon on a daily and weekly basis.
- Math 30
- Lesson plans
- Creating worksheets
- Creating quizzes
- Creating exams
- Grading
- Creating videos
- Communicating with students
- Online Math 30
- Community of Practices
- Online Notes
- Report
- Planning for next meeting
- Math Advising
- Coordination with TAs
- Organizational stuff
- Communicating with students
- Geometry committee
- Gathering information
- Evaluating information
- Making plans
- Communicating with committee
- Online Learning Course
- Reading
- Homework
- Home Duties
- Laundry
- Cleaning
- Cooking
- Shopping
- Making
- Repairing
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