The list is long
The to-do list drives
my internal dialogue.
Must stay curious.
It’s usually about week 4 or 5 that my project list gets real. It’s generally about week 4 or 5 that I begin to wear my invisibility coat as I navigate my schools from car to desk and wear my headphones 24/7. It’s usually week 4 or 5 that I fight the teacher instinct to complain about how tired and busy I am.
I usually sync into a panic and write lists. Long lists. Wish lists. Daily lists. Long-term lists. So many lists I forget where I actually need to start.
Then I give myself a stern talking to and remember three little routines that get me moving:
- If it can be done in 5 minutes, do it now!
- If it excites my creative beast, do it before lunch (if the reverse is true, aka, it’s a menial task, do it after lunch with a looming deadline)
- Update the wish lists. In my world, a to-do list is just a wish list. It used to be the validation of my existence. Not any more. It’s merely a reminder of the big stuff.
These 3 little tasks usually centre and ground me and fire up the old creative sparks. Then I’m off and running, a Spotify radio channel is chosen and off I go!
Once I’m in the ‘flow’ the world slips away. The noises of school become the same as the therapeutic clattering of cups in a cafe. This is the world I love. To be honest, it’s probably the world that I crave.
This is my space to be curious, pose questions, hypothesize, get stuck in digital rabbit holes, solve problems, and create. Curiosity is my drug, to-do lists are my enemy.
I truly believe that curiosity is the key to so much of what we do as educators.
Without curiosity, we stop. We give up. We put things aside. We merely make our lists longer and longer. We settle for second best. We do the same old things in the same old ways.
So my question to you is…..
“How does your workday unfold? Do you make endless to-do lists, or do you give yourself time to get lost in the curiosity?”
