How I Prepare for Back to School
I feel like I might have found a few answers to the mystery of “how do you prepare to head back to school after summer.” It’s likely nothing awe-inspiring but these few things have made it of
Back to School preparation involves fighting anxiety, deciding which task to tackle first, and caring just a little bit less. You’ll see what I mean. These three things might seem contradictory to preparing to head back to school, but they are realities that I face every fall. Here’s how I use them to help me prepare for back to school.
Anxiety
If you’d come over my house this afternoon, you would have seen me making my daughters clean their rooms and their bathroom, running downstairs to do multiple loads of laundry, asking my husband to hang up the pictures he said he was going to hang a few weeks ago, and organizing the water bottle and lunch box cabinet so we could actually have something orderly. I organize and boss people when I’m anxious. I waited all summer to do these tasks, but the night before we head back to school seemed to be the perfect time to have high expectations. It always backfires. The work gets done. But we don’t love it. And somehow this anxious feeling of never having time ever again hits every year.
All of a sudden I realize that I won’t be home to get things done and now things matter that I didn’t really care about during the summer. The reason: I knew I’d have time to take care of it tomorrow if I didn’t get to it today because summer… But when school begins, I realize that tomorrow is going to be full of things to do and I’ll be tired so everything needs to get done now.
When I feel anxious about school, it comes out sideways. I try to get everything in my home life together so that I feel like I have a level of control somewhere in my life. I didn’t think I was struggling with it this year until my daughter said, “You’re really stressed out and you’re taking it out on us.” Well, there you have it. She was right.
I don’t do it on purpose, but I often prepare for back to school by feeling really anxious and trying to get everything together, organized and in place. Do you feel that way too? How does your back to school anxiety show up?
Do you have those teacher dreams? The ones where the kids are out of control, you’re told what a terrible teacher you are, noone shows up to concerts or there aren’t any instruments to play?
Do you try to control things or people? Do you procrastinate, avoid life and/or cry? Do you feel like you won’t have time to do anything for months on end now? I have definitely felt all of these at one time or another before the school year begins.
Back to school feelings are real. Check yourself for how you’re feeling and handling things. Then breathe. Make one decision instead of twenty at a time. Let a few things go and focus on one thing that you’ll do that is helpful. And if your daughter shares an observation about how stressed out you are, believe her and make the choice to do something restful. Nap. Watch a show or read a book. The dishes will be there tomorrow. The laundry will keep piling up because everyone keeps wearing clothes. The cabinet drawer can shut and you can hide the clutter one more day. Your life doesn’t have to be put together the night before school starts. It’s really okay to let it continue as it was and let some things go.
Where do I begin?
I wrote down a list of things to complete the week of inservice. Every time I finished one task it seemed like five more had been added to the list. Sometimes I just stared at the list and couldn’t determine where to begin. There are so many things to do! Where do you begin? What’s most important? What letters need to be sent, rosters created, t-shirts ordered, music prepared…. and what is my schedule this year?!
Choice Paralysis hits me hard at the start of the year. It’s not something I often feel, but the lengthy list of ‘to-do’s’ at the start of the year is definitely one of the times However, I’ve found ways to make it work. It often starts with just selecting one task.
When I feel like I just don’t know where to begin, I choose one task from the list and begin working on it. It might be the easiest task. The shortest task. The one that will help other tasks get done. The important part is to just choose something to work on. And then select the second. The third. And so on.
What do you feel like doing?
Do you have high-energy or low? What tasks work with your energy level?
Are there multi-step items you need to complete? If so, what’s the first thing you can do to begin that chain reaction of steps that follow?
Take a little off
I can get consumed with my work and let it eat at me to the point that I’m not engaging with the people I care about most when I’m home. Caring a little less about work has helped. Notice I didn’t say that I stop caring. I still care a lot! I’m VERY passionate about my students, music education, learning, growing, creating and anything tied to my role as an educator and musician. But I care just a little less so that I can still leave room for my family, my dog, my friends, and downtime that preserves my sanity.
To care a little less means:
setting simple boundaries (not checking school email after dinner)
not spending time rehashing the five minutes of the day that were the most challenging
giving my girls the same care and attention I gave to my students during the day
going to bed at an earlier hour so I have energy to teach the next day (rather than creating cute graphics and working)