So you incorporated self-care over the summer and got consistent with incorporating it into your summer schedule.
But now with back to school right around the corner, you can’t seem to find the time or be consistent with your self-care goals.
Hi, my name is Helena Hains and I am a Self-Care Coach. I help teachers create an authentic self-care plan that doesn’t take a lot of time.
I believe teachers need to prioritize their self-care before serving their students.
Today we are going to discuss how teachers can be consistent with self-care during the back-to-school season.
We are also going to cover:
- What being consistent with self-care during back to school looks like
- How to be consistent with self-care during back to school
So if this sounds like something you are interested in grab that cup of coffee and let’s get started!
What Being Consistent with Self-Care During Back to School Looks Like
Before we talk about how to be consistent with self-care during back-to-school, we need to figure out what this might look like.
Starting with what is consistency?
Consistency is taking small, incremental steps to make a certain action a habit.
In other words, it’s the little steps you do to make something easier.
For example, one way to be consistent with journaling every morning could be:
- Buying a journal
- Having it open every day for you to write in
- Setting an alarm on your phone
According to Healthline, it takes an average of 66 days to create a new habit.
It can be easy to understand then why so many teachers struggle to make a self-care goal a habit.
Being consistent with self-care looks like doing the same thing for a while to the point where it becomes automatic.
For instance, a consistent physical self-care habit someone might have is to go walking every morning before work.
Now that we know what consistency is and how it relates to self-care, let’s talk about how you can become consistent with self-care this back-to-school season.
How to Be Consistent with Self-Care During Back to School
Being consistent with self-care during back-to-school can be one of the hardest things for teachers when it comes to self-care.
Especially during back-to-school season.
You’re busy planning, decorating, prepping, welcoming students, communicating with parents, etc. It’s no wonder that teachers throw self-care out the window during back-to-school.
But that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are 5 strategies to be consistent with self-care this back-to-school season.
Measurable Goals
The first way to be consistent with self-care during back to school is to get super clear on your goals.
Much like writing objectives at the end of the lesson, you need to write yourself measurable goals that help align you to your outcome.
Inspired by Michael Hyatt’s book “Your Best Year Ever,” you want to make these goals measurable.
For instance, creating the goal “to drink more water” is not measurable and there is no clear way to figure out if you reached that goal.
You could drink more water for one day or week, but would that mean you reached your goal?
Instead, try creating the goal:
“I will drink 12 cups of water every day by 8 pm consistently for 365 days before December 31st.”
This goal is measurable, tells you how often, how much and when you wish to reach that goal.
By creating clear, measurable goals you can be more consistent with them because you are clear on the actions needed to reach those goals.
Write it Down
Another way to be consistent with self-care this school year is to write your self-care goals down.
An article by CNBC stated that “Participants who wrote down their goals achieved those desires at a significantly higher level than those who didn’t. She found that you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams, simply by writing them down daily.”
Hence why writing things down is so important.
So if you want to be more consistent with self-care during back school write down your goals.
Alarms
It can be easy for teachers to neglect their self-care when they are overwhelmed with work.
Oftentimes teachers may find themselves working long past contract hours into the night.
That’s why one way you can ensure that you are consistent with your self-care goals is to set an alarm on your phone.
For example, every day after school I have an alarm that goes off that reminds me to read.
This reminds me that I should stop working and start reading my book.
When you give yourself visual reminders, you are ensuring that you won’t forget to do something.
This is also a great reminder to leave work every day or to start prioritizing your family if that is one of your goals.
Gamification
Another way to be consistent with self-care during back-to-school is to make a game out of it.
Gamification is the action of applying typical actions of game playing to something.
Also mentioned in “Your Best Year Ever” you can use a tracker to track the progress of how often you reached your goal.
For instance, I can put an X on a box after every day that I drank 12 cups of water.
The longer I am consistent with this the longer my streak will be. Hence the less likely I will want to break it.
Much like the tracking used by Fit Bit’s or Apple Watches, gamification is a great way to track your progress and be consistent.
Accountability
The final way to be consistent with self-care during back-to-school is to find some form of accountability.
One example of this would be if you wanted to leave work every day by 4 pm.
Find a teacher friend that has the same goal and keep each other accountable.
That way you can remind them to leave on time and vise versa.
Habits are easier to be consistent with together that’s why accountability is a great way to be consistent with self-care during back to school.
Overview
You made it through all the ways to be consistent with self-care during back to school.
As a recap, in this article we talked about:
- What being consistent with self-care during back to school looks like
- How to be consistent with self-care during back to school
If you want to learn more about how to be consistent with your self-care goals join the Teacher Self-Care Membership!
This membership is perfect for you if:
- You are a teacher who feels exhausted, emotionally drained, or experiencing burnout.
- You want to prioritize your self-care.
- You want to set goals, priorities, or boundaries in the workplace.
If this sounds like something you are interested in joining the waitlist to get notified when the doors open by clicking here.
Happy Teaching!
The Present Teacher
