When Work Follows You Home

Let’s begin by looking backwards. On Sept. 16, Mara and I released an episode on three things you should be doing now to care for yourself. Mara took the lead on that one as we dove into designing your morning, clarifying your identity and mission, and building a sustainable habit of creating you time. As an aside, I’m still enamored with the idea of creating a “third space” in which you can be yourself, without trying to be something for everyone else, and a shoutout to listener and daily email reader Penny Connor for that concept.Last week I did an episode on transitioning from work to home in ways that will make it easier to leave school at school. The three key components were investing time in reflection before walking out of school, listening to personal things (like music or audio books) on your commute home, and having specific practices when you walk in the door to home that signal your body to shift into home mode.I acknowledged then that many of you do have duties that require you to work from home and that we would dive into that today, but before we go there…Sponsor Spot 1:I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope Adventures for sponsoring today’s show. Lots of companies can help you organize class trips, but Kaleidoscope helps you organize adventures – because isn’t that what student trips should be? Kaleidscope is a full-service tour company offering a range of adventure opportunities and they excel at customizing trips based on your unique context, needs, and goals. And if you still need some help getting the ball rolling, check out their great e-resources including The Ultimate Guide to Planning Student Travel, The Ultimate How-To Guide for International High School Travel, AND The Ultimate Financial Guide for Your Student Trip. These are all FREE and packed with helpful tips and advice like how to get your parents on board, funding your trip, picking chaperones, and more.Connect with Kaleidoscope Adventures at mykatrip.com for your free copy or to talk with a pro planner.Show IntroCelebrations:Fall: Leaves, great sleeping temperatures, and footballKey Points Part 1The most significant barrier to turning off is when work intrudes into your home. This can happen for three primary reasons:You have a duty that specifically requires you to work from homeThere is a real emergencyYour work is your life (the issues you work on are the issues you live with)You view yourself as a martyrLet’s look at some general habits for when you MUST work from home and then address each of the other circumstances.Limit who can contact you at home. If you have a work phone, shut it down and allow your boss/important person to reach you via your home phone. Or program your phone to only allow certain people to reach you at certain times (Hint: iPhone’s Short Cuts feature is super helpful). Create (and enforce) strict boundaries about what duties are and are not off-limits for being interrupted at home and communicate those to people. If you are in charge of getting subs, control how people reach you and when you will check email. You can also do something like add all your teachers to your favorites and set your email to put all messages from favorites into a special folder. This way, when you open your computer to check email, you only need to look at the favorites folder so you aren’t getting sucked into other things. The technology has made it harder to be away from work, but we can also use it to flip the script. Designate a location you go to when you must do work at home, whether that is phone calls, email, or something else. Maintaining physical separation from your normal living areas when you are working is critical! Bonus: make your home workspace uncomfortable so you won’t be tempted to spend extra time there. Closet anyone? 🤣Going back to one of the questions I asked you last week: what happens if you are unavailable for six weeks? The school will keep functioning, even though some of the “critical” things you always did may not get done. Maybe they weren’t so critical after all?Sponsor Spot 2:I want to thank IXL for sponsoring this podcast…Everyone talks about the power of data-driven instruction. But what does that actually look like? Look no further than IXL, the ultimate online learning and teaching platform for K to 12. IXL gives you meaningful insights that drive real progress, and research can prove it. Studies across 45 states show that schools who use IXL outperform other schools on state tests. Educators who use IXL love that they can easily see how their school is performing in real-time to make better instructional decisions. And IXL doesn’t stop at just data. IXL also brings an entire ecosystem of resources for your teachers, with a complete curriculum, personalized learning plans, and so much more. It’s no wonder that IXL is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts. Ready to join them? Visit http://ixl.com/assistant to get started.Key Points Part ...