Weekly Intention: Happy May!! Rabbit Rabbit! Well, no meetings week is over so the nights will be back to being full this week. And the days appear to be just as full. I have plans to go to work four days this week. That’s relatively uncommon for me but here we are. My intention for this week is to get through the days mindfully, slowly, and intentionally.
My other intention for this week is to figure out how I want to use my time like i mentioned yesterday. So here are some preliminary thoughts:
- Time at work: I’d like to take the time to think about and document my learnings from the last year and then recommend and put in place best practices from what I learned. I’d also like to meet with others and listen to their learnings so I can implement them with my teams.
- Time at the kids’ school: I’ve learned that committing time to the kids’ school is meaningful to me. It’s a natural and meaningful way for me to meet other parents and faculty. It shows me a side of the school I don’t otherwise get to see and it allows me to feel more connected to the school on a personal level (and not just through my kids.) I like it and plan to continue doing it. My two areas of passion and reading and math so I’ve already committed to shadowing the middle school STEM Fair lead in order to take over from her the following year. I’ve also committed to organizing snacks for MathCounts (though this is not usually my favorite type of volunteering, I am going to give it a try for a year.) and possibly co-running the Math Circles next year. I enjoyed doing Lit Club this year but it was very time consuming so I will only continue that next year if I can do it for Middle School instead. I will also volunteer at the Book Fair. This list makes me happy so far. I am a tiny bit worried about the snacks but I am sure we’ll be okay. Other than these, my plan to go to school once every two weeks for an event/talk/etc. I know this looks like a lot but I think it’s about the right amount for me, especially considering both my kids will be at the same school next year. I will take a step back and assess as I go, of course.
- Time with Jake: One thing that slips through the crack more often than anything else is time with Jake. Especially since we support each other so much as we take care of the kids and manage our work schedules. We don’t spend as much time together (just the two of us) as I’d like. We chat throughout the day often and send each other loving emails/notes but I still want more time together. I have two goals here, one is to carve out an hour during the week when the kids are in school so we can have breakfast/coffee together. And the other is to pick an evening where we can go on date nights every other week. If we do those two, I will feel considerable progress here.
- Time with the kids: Time with the kids is twofold for me: fun time and teaching time. I want to spend time with each kid, working on math together. For this, I want one hour a week per kid. And then I want to have fun time with each kid individually for an hour a week, too, doing whatever they want to do. We spend a lot of time during the week doing homework, talking about school/life but these are not necessarily consistent so this is what I want to make sure we do consistently.
- Time as a family: Here, too, I plan to keep it simple. Most of our family time is chores and/or eating and I’d like to change that. Three wishes here: 1. go hiking weekly – saturday mornings, 2. have a family night – every other week when we aren’t going on a date, 3. go back to taking our family photos weekly (consistency plays a big game, if it’s once a month, it’s much less likely to happen than if it’s every week.)
- Time with friends: This one is a bit tricky. Friend-time directly competes with alone-time and much much much of the time alone-time wins. So I need to always remind myself that friend-time is worth it. I’d like to commit to friend time every other week. Either book club, or 1-1 time or some other social event. That’s a pretty good amount for me. Maybe I can even say something a bit more like 2 old friends and one new one each month?
- Personal Time: And finally, me-time. Right now, I spend a lot of my me-time reading and doing puzzles and resting. I don’t want to remove any of those but I do want to reduce them and add more variety. I’d like to go back to adding exercise into my days, even if it means I sleep a tiny bit less. I think it will be a worthwhile compromise. I want to commit to 30 minutes of learning something new each week and 30 minutes to watch TED talks.
So there we are. No time better than now, so I hope to start implementing all of these starting this week. (Except for next year’s school volunteer commitments of course.) Let’s see how it goes.
Things I want to get Done: I have a long list this week.
- Work: Newsletters. no, really.
- Work: give my presentation.
- Work: document tracking.
- Work: 2 metrics documentation+work.
- Work: Start with YAG.
- Vacation: Figure out Memorial Day Weekend.
- Vacation: Book Sydney hotels (work/personal.)
- Vacation: Book flights to Cairns.
- Summer: Book camps for David (and third for Nathaniel).
- Personal: Come up with exercise plan.
- Personal: Try out 15 mins of art.
- Personal: Buy sneakers.
- Family: Pickup books back from teachers.
- Family: Take family photos.
- Family: Go hiking.
- Love: book date night.
This month’s intention is: May: Help others Shine: Ok now it’s others’ turn. It’s time to be the mirror to their light so it can reflect off of you. Think of ways big and small that you can help people in your life see their own light this month. Smile. Show them how amazing they are. Thank them. Oh, I love this one. This week’s intention is to make little notes for Nathaniel’s lunch every day. He always asks for them and I never make them. Let’s see if I can pull it off!
Ways to Shine this week:
- One: Bold: Bold plans at work. Bold plans to help out at the kid’s school. Bold plans all around this week!
- Two: Open: Open to being flexible this week. If things don’t work out, I will come up with new plan. Adjust as needed.
- Three: Heal/Nourish: I’ve been doing a better job eating more nourishing food. I’d like to take the time to ensure it continues.
I am looking forward to: most of this week for some reason. getting through my todo list above! I can do this!
This week’s challenges: On the upside, no one day looks to be super-stressful this week. On the down side, a lot of trips to work, a trip to David’s school and a lot lot lot of meetings. I have some solid work (and todo list items) I’d like to get done this week and I am not sure when I can do that in between all the crazy meetings but I’d like to see if I can pull it off.
Top Goals:
- Work: let the documentation begin!
- Personal: exercise, can i do it?
- Family: looking forward to setting a few routines here.
I will focus on my core desires (bold, mindful, nourish, love) by: starting some of the practices i outlined above.
This week, I will say yes to: getting stuff done!
This week, I will say no to: inertia. things are getting done this week!
I am worried that: i won’t get work done. i will do nothing for sydney. i won’t book the camps or come up with a plan for when jake’s parents are visiting. I won’t exercise. None of the things I outlined above will actually happen. I will get tired and give up.
This week, I want to remember: that life is a marathon and not a sprint. it’s going to be okay.
good work!