May: Reflection & Rejuvenation

April! Wow. You went fast. And you pretty much thwarted my attempts at Balance. 

But, hey, I’ve got one more month of school left before I can officially declare our first year complete. How amazing is that? And despite the glitches that come from starting a school from scratch, we still had 11 times as many applications as spots for the 2015-16 school year. And it’s only going to get better from here.

[Thank you for letting me indulge in a little pep talk to myself. These are the kinds of thing I have to remind myself of over and over because this work is so hard and the ratio of negative to positive feedback I receive is about 25:1! A girl has to find a way to sustain her energy and perseverance through the difficulty!]

So, May, you are upon us. I think I’m going to have to aim for another month of Balance without setting any big goals for myself. I’ve just got to keep it together. The daily routine of getting to school by 7:15am, staying at school until 4:30pm, rushing through swimming/dinner/bath/books, putting the kids to bed at 6:30pm and then working until 10:30pm is draining. But I can do it! We’ve got one more month! 

I enjoyed reading this article (courtesy of my friend Maia, whom you absolutely need to know about if you are a teacher or a school leader) about how sending late night e-mails kills staff culture and productivity. It totally makes sense (and yet trying to balance motherhood with work means that I am frequently sending late-night e-mails). So I installed Boomerang within my gmail account so I can still type messages at night by schedule them to be sent during waking work hours.

And just now as I was trying to find the link to Maia’s site, I got caught in a rabbit hole. There’s so much interesting stuff on her website! I learned about Google Labs for the first time, which has all sorts of interesting tools, like letting me see a little version of my calendar within my e-mail inbox. 

And I learned about zero inbox management! I feel more posts forthcoming….

Anyway, this month will be about seeking balance, making it through to the end, and starting to build the kind of life we imagine. Cheers!