I love a good to-do list. Checking that box is satisfying, but sometimes the journey there is arduous and the result is…not worthwhile. A rigid to-do list quickly becomes arbitrary, something you complete because you said you would, not because it furthers your goals.
Have you ever stared at the blank page (or newly-drawn bullet journal template) and packed it full just for the heck of it? Sometimes the unexamined thought going through my head is “What’s the absolute most I can accomplish next week?” rather than, “How can I pursue my most meaningful goals and simultaneously honor my values?”
For teachers, the summer is a combination of much-needed respite from school routines and an extended cram session for next year. We rest, but we also do everything we can to make next year more manageable for ourselves. I’m not in the classroom this year, but I still have a long to-do list for the summer, readying my TpT store for a fall semester in the time of COVID-19. I decided to organize my planner a little differently than usual:
Instead of planning out every moment of every day, I’m going to use the time management matrix to set goals for the week. I’ve changed the wording of the matrix, replacing “urgent” with “expedient,” and “important” with “meaningful.”
Expedient tasks are things that will have a short-term return. They are necessary, but not really fulfilling or interesting. They leave you feeling drained.
Meaningful tasks are the opposite. They may not have a short-term payoff, but they move you closer to your life goals and take your values into account. Here’s how my work quadrants will look for this summer:
Quadrant 1: Expedient & Meaningful
- Post weekly blog posts
- Post quotes, ideas, etc. to Instagram
Quadrant 2: Meaningful, but Not Expedient
- Draft blog posts for the future
- READ professional development books to cover on the blog
- READ children’s literature to stay up-to-date
- READ books from my favorite authors/genres
Quadrant 3: Expedient, but not Meaningful
- Digitize my existing TpT products so they can be used for distance learning (so tedious)
- Learn more about WordPress, figure out how to add more categories to my top menu
- Develop a social media strategy
Quadrant 4: Not Expedient, and not Meaningful
- ummm….shows??
- (I’m sure these will brainstorm themselves)
I’ll need to spend a good amount of time in quadrant 3 in order to digitize my TpT store. This isn’t enjoyable, it doesn’t leave me feeling fulfilled, but it is necessary. If that’s all I did, the summer might be productive, but it would also feel wasted. So I’ll spend some time in quadrant 2 every day, working toward longer-term goals and breaking up the monotony of quadrant 3.
How is your summer looking? How do you build meaningful tasks into your planning frenzy?
