“If solitude is the school of genius, as the historian Edward Gibbon put it, then the crowded, busy world is the purgatory of the idiot.”-Ryan Holiday
Your email is pinging. The whole school forgot to not “reply all” on a district wide email celebrating a milestone for one of your colleagues.
A colleague is asking for some of your time. A parent left a message and wants a response as soon as possible.
You have a classroom of students, or a schedule of small groups to get to throughout the day. All of this is going on, all in the few hours you have today.
Do you go into hyperactive mode, or do you shrink away from responsibility?
Do you find a quiet moment and make the next best choice?
Holiday’s idea of our crowded, busy world rings true in these days of connectivity and to-do lists. You can hustle a little more. Squeeze a little more out of your time. You can get it all done. You can also exhaust yourself past physical and mental boundaries.
When the pressure is on next time, try and take a moment. A minute, or 5 minutes.
Go to the bathroom or see if you can break away and breathe.
Perhaps your students are doing independent reading.
Maybe you’re in the primary grades and students are working on some independent work on the computer.
Take the time, do it now. Breathe and recollect yourself.
What you shouldn’t do is check your email or pick up your phone.
These moments of pressure can help you see what’s important and make the best choice.
No good decision was made in a frenzied mental time.
