For those of you who don’t know, I committed to the #educoach challenge to post a blog once a week for four weeks. Initially, I was extremely excited about this challenge. Reflecting on my professional practice is something I enjoy doing personally and aspire to do more of.
That being said, the third week has officially began…and I have posted once. What does this mean? I procrastinate, I lack time management skills, possibly my priorities are not in order, or maybe I’m not making time to honor my personal interest of reflecting on my practice?
I think it’s the latter.
Over the weekend, I found myself stressed about getting caught up on my blog postings for the challenge. Yet, here it is Monday morning and it’s still not posted…
Its 7:30 am, and I’m finally sitting down in a quiet office to put my thoughts on paper. As I do, I realize I don’t feel guilty about being behind on my blog posting. This weekend I chose to honor my personal interests over all else; I slept in, baked banana muffins, and spent Saturday afternoon watching Michigan State beat Michigan in football…and it was refreshing!
When I started my blog I wanted to set a weekly goal for postings. However, I didn’t because I wanted it to be something I enjoyed doing, not a checklist. This doesn’t mean blogging isn’t important to me or that it’s not worthy of my “to-do” list, but that the point of reflecting on my professional practice is doing it at a time that is meaningful for me…and sometimes that doesn’t line up to the deadlines.
I saw a Tweet from author Pete Hall that said he schedules a 15-minute meeting with a fictitious person every day as a sacred placeholder for whitespace and reflection. This may be the first small step I take in finding time for professional reflection.
How do you find time to reflect on your practice?