flexible focus
A straightforward, tried-and-true technique for being effective in the face of chaos is to create a Limited List. You ask, what might that be? As teachers we are in an endless cycle of keeping up. One way to manage this is to make a list of three to five items you want to concentrate on just for today. If they are significant or if your day is jam-packed with meetings, pick three things.
If these are medium-sized tasks, select 5. Pick six things if you're feeling upbeat. They should be ranked important to least important. Then you focus on them in order of importance. For me, this is the challenge because I often jump from one thing to the next, but it is extremely important to focus on one thing at a time.
Creating a Long List. This is a list of all the additional things you'd like to do. Prioritize your list by placing more urgent items first. Don’t pay attention to this lengthy list of things that would be wonderful to accomplish before completing your short list. If you get these things done, you can work on this list.
Each day, concentrate on the most important item on your Limited List. After finishing it, pay attention to the next thing. Eliminate interruptions and FOCUS. You don’t have to finish everything all at once and it is okay to stop in the middle of a task and pick it up the next day. The important thing is to make sure to continue on your path.
Giving yourself the flexibility you need as long as there is progress makes it easier. You can just pick up where you left off when you were interrupted, or you can take a break. You can also add incoming tasks and communications to your Long List if you have them. or, if they are significant enough, move them from the Long List to the short list while moving something else off of it. Be adaptable and give yourself room to change as the environment does.
Each day, take a minute to reflect on your accomplishments and cross things off your list. Then, move the tasks that still need to be done to the next day's list. Make a new list for tomorrow so that you will know what to concentrate on when you begin.
While this all seems relatively simple it can be challenging. The fact that we frequently feel exhausted and lose our capacity to concentrate when we are feeling overwhelmed is one of the biggest obstacles. We simply lack the mental energy to handle challenging jobs.
In these situations, making self-care a priority is important. Do what you must do to direct your mental energy in order to focus and function effectively.
This entails setting priorities like:
Rest and restoration
Taking space
Do exercise
Eat healthy
Any soothing experience that calms your sympathetic nervous system (a bath, a cup of tea, a slow walk)
We can all be productive and keep our attention on what is important if we take care of ourselves. Think about what your capacity is, what you can do to increase that capacity and what things you should get rid of because they are blocking your progress.
