Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 85 - How to Stay Focused and Productive During Stressful Times

November 09, 2020 Kitty Boitnott
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 85 - How to Stay Focused and Productive During Stressful Times
Show Notes Transcript

Everyone struggles with staying focused and being productive on occasion even in the best of times. But when experiencing stress during times of high stress like we are all experiencing now, it becomes even more difficult to stay on task.

This week, in my weekly newsletter, I wrote about this. You can take a look at it at https://kittyboitnott.coachesconsole.com/show_client_newsletter/?id=5fa1a2aefbb5814f3e33f289&cld=5ed53726fbb581dc68c233c4.

Use it to learn some tips for how to stay focused and productive in spite of the stress of a pandemic, elections, and all the other major events we are currently experiencing today.

If you would like to make an appointment, feel free to sign up for a complimentary Discovery Session at http://teachersintransition.com/calendar.






Speaker 1:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers disliking deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you to join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to, and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to episode 85 of teachers in transition, the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boynton up. I'm the owner and founder of teachers in transition and boys not coaching. If you've listened to me or any of my episodes in the past, you know, that I alternate topics each week between stress management and career transition for teachers who are burnt out and ready to go ahead and make those career leap or look for a new job. And this week, the topic of the week is stress and stress management. And what I wanted to share with you is an article that I just wrote this week. It's a newsletter piece that I will post a link to so that you can access it, uh, without even an opt in. If you would like to take a look at the actual article, that the name of the article, and it will, it'll be dropping to a Tuesday. So by the time you hear this, uh, episode, it'll already have been presented to my audience and it'll be available online at the link I'm going to provide for you. Uh, it's dropping on Tuesday, the 11th of November, and you should be hearing this around the 13th of November, uh, staying productive and times of high stress as the title of the article. And I see I started it with the idea that we have all been experiencing more stress than usual, that even in the best of times, when things aren't quite so crazy as they are these days, it's a struggle for some of us to stay focused on tasks that we need to be focused on. It's hard to be productive when there is so much going on in the world that we feel like we need to be paying attention to. And often, especially in this day and age, our attention is riveted to the news, the latest event, or whatever's happening over, over the weekend. We were all on pins and needles about the outcome of the election. Certainly we've been on pins and needles about the pandemic since March, and there is no seeming end in sight. There is good news this morning about the potential for an effective vaccine, but even if that is true, we're still months away from the distribution of it. And therefore we continue to need to be mindful of social distancing and good hygiene and wearing a mask when we're out in public so that we protect ourselves as well as protect others. All of that is stressful. And I know that from talking to teachers who were struggling with online virtual teaching for the first time, it doesn't really matter whether it's your first year of teaching or your 21st year of teaching. It feels like your first year. And as I've told my students, I am an adjunct professor for a graduate class at the university of Richmond. And I have said to them a couple of times, and I believe it to be true that teachers are being asked to build an airplane while they are also flying it. And they are being asked to do things that nobody's ever done before they are being held accountable for the performance of students that they may not even see except on the stage screen. And it is stressful. Every day. Teacher I've talked to this fall has been stressed to the max and as some districts are even now thinking about going back into in-person learning or hybrid type model of learning, the stress continues on. So how do you manage to stay productive when you are stressed out, perhaps you are a teacher who has your own kids at home and you need to be overseeing there, their education. And you're trying to figure out how to create lessons that will be engaging and, um, and affective for your students who are your online students or your hybrid students, or even your in-person students who are also, let's not forget stressed to the max, even if they're not necessarily aware of it. What they know for sure is that things are not the same things are not quote unquote normal. And, and they're usually from what I'm hearing, they're, they're getting with the program and going along with it, but it still has to feel on some level, a little stressful that they are not getting to play with their friends. Like they used to. They're not, they're not being allowed to be as interactive with their cohort as they would like. And so we're all just stretched to the max. And yet we are being asked to do more than ever before. And in the meantime, we have to learn how to cope. So this particular newsletter article is about coping, staying productive, even in the midst of high stress times when you are stressed out, how to at least make some effort to set aside the stress and stay on task long enough to be productive and get your work done, or, or to, uh, complete a project that perhaps you've set for yourself at home. So I want to share with you some of the strategies that I wrote about in the newsletter for this week, and you're welcome to take a look at it at the link provided in the show notes below. So the first thing to do is to actually confront your stress. It's not useful for you to be in denial about what is happening around you and how it's affecting you. So you need to at least be willing to confront that yes, you are stressed and yes, a lot of it has, has been totally out of your control. And all you can do is the best that you can do, but don't, don't try to deny that you're stressed out because that won't help confronting your stress is the first step in managing your stress. The second thing is to focus on the things that you can control. Now, I've talked about this before, you know, the serenity prayer is give me the wisdom to understand the things that I have control over and the things that I don't have any control over and the ability to know the difference. So pay attention to what are the exact situations that you are directly responsible for and have control over. And what are the situations that are outside of your realm of control and yet affect you nonetheless, so that your response to what's going on around you is critically important, just knowing and acknowledging that you're not in charge and that you don't have control will go a long way toward allowing you to release some of the stress that you may be holding onto to, because sometimes we kid ourselves about how much control we actually have, and we think we have more control than we did. So focus on what you can control, identify the things that you cannot control and do pay attention to the difference between the two. The third thing to try to remember to do is to honor your productive hours. Now, what does that mean? Some of us are morning people, morning people I'm putting in quotes. Those are the folks who hop out of bed energized in the morning. They're ready to get ready for whatever the day has to bring they're at their peak productive period, sometime between 6:00 AM and 12 noon. And then the rest of the afternoon, they sort of drop off. Their ability to stay focused is not as sharp. They are perhaps turning to caffeine and sugary snacks to try to boost their energy level, to try to match how they felt in the morning. That's not really all that productive. What you should do is honor those morning hours during which you are at your peak and do the work that requires the most concentration and the most attention during those hours. And then leave other things that you perhaps don't need to be as short for, to do in the afternoon or during your off hours, your less peak hours. Some of us are more productive actually in the second half of the day. And some of us are night owls. We're actually more productive late in the evening. What I'm encouraging you to do is to figure out what your productive hours are. You probably already met, and then work with that so that you make the most of the hours that you are to concentrate and be focused and on task, and then arrange the rest of your work around the less productive hours. If you can do that, it will help you to get more done during those productive, productive periods. And you'll still be able to function during the less productive period. And you won't be beating yourself up because you think you should be getting more done than you are. We're all operating on cycles and we have up cycles and down cycles, and it's not a matter of right or wrong. It is what it is. And you need to know what your cycle entails and yeah, adapt accordingly. The fourth item that I offer in the newsletter is don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. All of us get overwhelmed on occasion. And right now we're often overwhelmed with everything that's going on. It's not going to be helpful if you try to be the Superman or superwoman and you wind up burning yourself totally out. So be willing to ask for help on occasion. We all need it help on occasion. We all do so recognize when your time for needing help is and know who you should go to to ask for that help. Don't, don't pick someone who's not in a position to actually help you or who is likely perhaps to be judgmental about. You're asking for help find someone who is in a position to actually help and go to them and get the help that you need. The fifth thing is during high times of stress, such as what we're going through right now, it may help you to streamline your life in an effort to keep things as simple as possible. This is not necessarily a good time to take on more than you ordinarily needed to, to, to manage. So don't feel like you need to be volunteering for extra stuff, sign up for that new committee that they've just come up with, streamline your life, instead of expanding and taking on more than you can handle, get rid of stuff, eliminate stuff. Somebody emailed me the other day and said, I'm on three committees that I'm, I'm not sure the best use of my time. And my recommendation was dumped. At least two of them, you know, there might be at least one that, that she could get some use out of it and that she could be productive in and offer assistance in. But three, given everything else that's going on right now is probably not the best use of her time. Number seven is don't beat yourself up. If you're feeling stressed out, it's okay, we're all stressed. I know for myself, and I'm a stress management coach. I understand stress. I know it intimately. And I understand the strategies that you need to put into place in order to minimize and manage your stress. But during these past months, I have found my own self, having trouble staying focused at times, not paying attention to all of the stuff that goes on in the social media world, checking my Facebook more often or Twitter, more often to see what's going on in wherever, whether it's has to do with the pandemic or most recently the election, everything has been up in the air. It's felt very unsettled. And even now with an election result, it's not settled because, well, you know, if, unless you're not listening to the news at all, you know what I mean? So don't beat yourself up. If you are feeling drawn into some of the confusion and chaos, don't beat yourself up over it, but do try to step away from it so that it doesn't keep you constantly embroiled and take some time away from social media every day so that you can separate yourself. Some from the ongoing chaos. I promise when you get back, you will find the chaos still going on. So you can step away from it for a while and it'll be there when you get back, but you don't have to be constantly caught up in it. And finally, what I would recommend is that if, if you respond well to a reward system and many of us do find a way to reward yourself when you are able to complete an important task at work, or you get a project finally completed, or you you're, you've been concentrating on a specific lesson, for example, or an outline. For course, when you get that done, we've awarded yourself in some way, something that's meaningful to you set yourself a goal that once you've achieved this particular goal, we are going to give yourself a specific treat, whether it's, uh, you know, I don't think it can be anything, a cupcake, or if food doesn't work for you and a trip to the store for, uh, a new scarf or something that will be, that will feel like a reward for you. And that's the final tip. But what I want to say in, in bringing all of this together is that staying mindful is probably the best advice I can give being aware of what's going on inside of you and in your head during these stressful days, just being aware of what's going on around you and the effect it's having on. You can help you to separate yourself enough, to relax a little bit. Being mindful will allow you to set aside some of what's going on outside of you, as you take care of you and taking care of you means taking a few moments here and there to just grieve, to become quiet internally enough, that you're able to relax. And then don't ever forget the importance of staying hydrated and eating well for good nutrition, as well as getting the sleep that you need. So those are some tips for today. If you'd like to download the newsletter article, there's a link in the show notes as always, if you would please email me if you have questions, if you'd like to make an appointment to talk about your specific situation, there's a link in the show notes for setting up a 20 minute complimentary discovery session. I would ask that if you would please, uh, write a review for teachers and transition so that other people can find it more easily in case they can use the information on stress management and career transition, and as always stay safe, be well, I'll see you next week.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it. An episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoy the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me@kittyboitnottatboitnottcoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.