Red and Green Energy

 This week, I'm having my freshmen do a "red and green" activity, paying attention to how they spend their time, as well as which activities energize them (green) and which deplete them (red). This information forms part of the foundation of a project in which they create a personalized stress management plan.

Often, when I assign projects like these, I do at least some of the activities, too. I find them both interesting and informative (which is why I assign them in the first place) and having the experience of doing what they're doing helps me to determine how to frame the in-class discussions that follow. This time, though, as someone whose freshman year in college is far, far behind her, I was pretty sure I already knew the answers, so I haven't done the activity. But, as I waded through my burgeoning to-do list, trying to not only balance my obligations against other activities that were greener, so to speak, but also to find the green activities that might already be on the list, I began to wonder if my informal assessments were on track.

I also began to wonder about some other things. Is it a green activity, for example, if I only feel good after it's finished? Or, does that mean I should list "checking things off my to-do list" as a green activity? (Or both?) If something was a green (or red) activity before is that still the case? Can I grow out of -- or into -- green activities?

While I doubt that physics, chemistry, and cleaning the bathroom will ever leap over the barrier, moving from red to green, I suspect that I'd label some of my activities differently now than I would have when I was younger. And, in discussing this activity with my students, I was reminded that these nuances matter because that's where growth lies. 

While I can't cross something I must do off my to-do list because it's a red activity, I can balance the red and the green to create not only a schedule, but a life that makes the most of the time I have. But first, I have to know which is which.

I guess I have a little homework to do.

Photo credit: NoName_13 via Pixabay