During the early stages of the Covid pandemic, I recommended what I thought were probably temporary emergency measures. Not even a year into the pandemic I was asking “Are things getting worse? Or is dystopia the new normal?”
In the face of overwhelming demands or expectations, ask yourself 2 questions:
- What is the minimum I could do here?
- What is the easiest way to do this?
I’m serious: minimum + easy. For those of you who think minimum and easy mean shitty, take a breath. You have some really nasty voices in your head. (I call them gremlins.)
You still want your minimum to be effective. I’m not saying “do something to say you did something and then fuck it“.
I’m suggesting that you really focus on what is important here — what is essential. And then pick one thing you can do to move towards that. If you have choices, pick the easiest thing.
This goes for your own work, for your kids’ education, for dinner, for housekeeping, everything.
We all need a lot more cognitive and emotional capacity just to deal with the general situation. That means less is there for other things. (That’s why you are exhausted and weepy, btw.)
This strategy works better if you focus on your own values and priorities.
Sometimes you need to do the slimy politician thing and say “what do I need to do to make the school think I care what they want my kid to do” or “… make my boss think I care about that bureaucratic process” or whatever.
A lot of the time, you can focus on your values and it’s going to be okay with those other people too.
For example, your kid can’t learn anything if they are an anxious sad mess, so maybe creating an environment that makes your kid feel safe and loved is more important than whether they learn to do long division. Forcing them to sit and do the long division worksheets is going to mean you don’t hit EITHER goal. There is no real reason you have to hit the “learn long division” goal right now anyway.
Which reminds me, I have written more of a how-to post about identifying and solving whatever problem is resulting in someone being in tears. If someone’s crying, something’s got to change…
- Maybe it’s your kid that’s crying.
- Maybe it’s you that’s crying.
- Maybe it’s one of your students that’s crying.
Maybe it’s something other than crying
- Acting out
- Missing class or avoiding work
- Struggling to concentrate
- Being short tempered
You don’t have to wait until someone’s crying.
You can set things up so they are easier. You don’t have to wait for the more difficult way to cause a problem.
Use these 2 questions as a mantra for everything.
- What is the minimum I could do here?
- What is the easiest way to do this?
You can do this! #TeamNoBurnout
Related Posts:
Are things getting worse? Or is dystopia the new normal?
So tired you could cry? Permission granted.
So tired you could cry? Enable Low Power Mode.
Spotlight On: Meaningfulness Matters
An earlier version of this was published on my personal Facebook on 9 August 2020. Lightly edited and added to the Spotlight On Dystopia, Uncertainty & Disruption in April 2023. Added to the Spotlight On: Burnout in August 2024.
