A Baker's Dozen of Commitments

geralt via Pixabay

So, the semester is over. Going online meant a much smaller pile of papers to file -- something I did Sunday night after I'd put in all of my grades. (Check it off the list!), which means I should be free to do...whatever I want!

And yet, I still find myself showing up in my home office, ready to tackle school-related odds and ends. On Monday, I committed to spending a maximum of two hours a day on school stuff, a line in the sand I buried both yesterday and today as I one loose end led to another and I dug into an inbox full of emails that didn't make the cut for consumption while I was teaching. Oh, and spent over an hour on a Zoom call with a student, making plans for next semester.

As I work my way through what I've now dubbed my transition week, I've created my list of things I want to do now that the semester is over. I'm posting this list here, in no particular order, to make myself accountable.

I hereby commit to:

• limiting the number of times I check work email every day, and not checking it after 5 PM if at all possible. Teaching online made me feel a little like one of Pavlov's dogs (or how I imagine they felt anyway) and it's time to extinguish that behavior.
• creating an automatic out of office email to help me with the commitment above.
• downsizing my inboxes (work and home) with a daily target goals.
• taking some time every day to read the good stuff in my inboxes that got shoved aside by all the "do this now!" emails.
• getting creative -- writing, doing fun promo stuff (like making stuff on Canva), coloring, lettering, finally watching all those Sketchnoting videos.
• spending less time on the computer and more time with books -- you know, the old-fashioned kind -- oh, and all those samples on my Kindle.
• listening to the books I put on Audible.
• going through the stacks of magazines I have stashed in various places, reading what's worthwhile and recycling the rest.
• tackling house projects and organization projects, although I'm happy to report that the really obvious organization projects are much less visible. Progress has been made!
• taking another look at that 20 for 2020 list and seeing what I want to focus on next.
• taking out my pretty planner and writing things in it. For now, it will be things like webinars, but I'm optimistic that actual human contact isn't that far off :-)
• watching TED Talks.

  

  enriquelopezgarre via Pixabay

Oh, and one last thing: not overcommitting.

Wish me luck!