Self Care Isn’t Selfish- Self Care at Work

Season 1- Episode #8

Welcome to Tick Tock Tech! In this episode, we are continuing our four-part series on self-care for educators by discussing tips for taking care of yourself at work.

“Psychology Today describes burnout as "a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment." Teachers are usually high achievers who like to work hard and are always looking for ways to improve. These traits are commendable but can mean that educators fall prey to perfectionism and don't leave enough time for rest and recuperation. In her new book, The Weekend Effect, Katrina Onstad argues that we live in a "cult of overwork," and being a workaholic is often celebrated as a virtue when it shouldn't be. Teachers, especially, need to be reminded that they're more than their job. While teaching does become part of your identity, you still need to nourish the other parts of yourself that demand attention and care.”

I can't think of another profession that you would be told that you aren't going to make much money, you must really love a part of the job, that you are lucky to have vacation time, and that you should definitely do more during your off-hours.

Especially starting out in a profession. It is easy to assume the role of "teacher", and begin to feel as if your time isn't your own and you should be "teacher" at all times.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or hit Play Below.

Episode Resources

Calm App

Built-in breathing reminders on apple watch

standing reminders

PostureMinder (upright posture reminders)

Watches with Fitbit challenges and goals

Water intake goals

THE PIP

Transcript

Auto Transcription- Please forgive errors:

(00:00):

Psychology today describes burnout as a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. Teachers are usually high achievers who like to work hard and are always looking for ways to improve. These traits are commendable, but can mean that educators fall prey to perfectionism and don't leave enough time for rest and recuperation in her new book. The weekend effect, Katrina, Ted argues that we live in a cult of overwork and being a workaholic is often celebrated as a virtue. When it shouldn't be teachers, especially need to be reminded that they're more than their job teaching does become part of your identity. You still need to nourish the other parts of yourself that demand attention and care.

(00:54):

Welcome to the Tick Tock Tech podcast, where we talk about all things, education tech and teacher happiness, join host Anna cliff and Cassie frost. As they share simple ideas to guide you and bring meaning to your day to day experiences.

(01:11):

So I came across today's quote. When I was looking for information about teacher burnout, I think we all know it's a real thing. And I'm adding that book that's mentioned on in the quote to my reading list, which maintain me a little while to get to because of the whole selfcare thing, but I'm still adding it to my reading list. So personally, I can attest to the feeling that teaching becomes like part of your identity. So I was in the classroom for 15 years. And when I first looked at moving out of the classroom to the, at role that I'm in now, I remember like my first thought being, but I won't be a teacher anymore. I feel like teachers hear so many things from the beginning of their career that makes it easy to assume the identity of a teacher. So like other professions are careers or jobs.

(01:56):

Teachers seem to be told, like from the very beginning, you don't go into teaching for the money. You must really love kids. You're lucky you get summers off, get ready to give up your evenings. And weekends teachers should definitely coach lead a club because it helps you form better relationships with kids. All of these things are true. Those are all like very true statements, especially the like weekends. But I can't think of any other profession that you would be told. You're not gonna make much money. You must really love one part of the job that you're lucky to have vacation time and that you should definitely do more during your off hours, especially starting out in a profession. No one would start in that profession ever, but teaching is different and it's easy to assume the role of teacher and begin to feel as if your time's not your own. And you should be teacher all the time. Like from the time you get up to the time you go to sleep, when you go to the store and you're shopping, you're thinking of things for your classroom, it becomes you are the teacher. And having that separation can be really difficult. So when we're talking about self-care, that's what we're focusing on today.

(03:05):

This is so interesting. Casy it's and it's so timely. Cause I feel like right before our winter break, I was so burnt out and it's just like trying to get everything done that you need to get done and signed off on before a break. And then, then you're still answering. And I don't know about you, but even though I put in a away message up with my email, I still end up replying and doing work. It's like, I feel like this necessity to not get behind. And some of it's my own just wanting to stay ahead of the game, but also like the feeling that I'm I'm I'm needed. I need to like respond and do my work. And so that idea of being overworked and feeling like overworking is like that. I, I like that. What, what you shared earlier about being a workaholic is workaholic is often celebrated as a virtue when it shouldn't be like to me, I, I feel like I definitely take that thought not outwardly. Right. But I, I, yeah, I do more. I feel like the more I do and the harder I work, the more people appreciate what I do, but it also makes it really hard on myself. And I, I put self care aside so often.

(04:16):

Well, and it's really hard when you do go above and beyond to then feel like you need to do that and perform to that standard all the time in education, we view it as a 24 hour a day job. And that's just something I feel like we kind of bring on ourself and we do to each other. It's kind of a cultural thing. Like this is your life now this is what you do.

(04:38):

Yeah. And then when you model that for other people, you, you almost have this expectation, right. That other people are going to put, put in the extra time and the extra work. And I don't know about you, but I, I know that this is something I need to improve on, but sometimes I'm judgmental when people don't want to stay for meaning late and they have somewhere, they have to go. Like, I know that I have, I'm lucky enough to have the support able to do that, but not everyone is. And so taking that step back and realizing that that yeah, teachers are putting in a lot, so we've gotta figure out some solutions and share some ideas to figure

(05:11):

This out. I, I am right there with you. And I think what you brought up is a really interesting, because you're right. It's not necessarily the outside world that tells teachers this. We tend to talk this way to each other as well, but let's talk about some solutions. What can we do at work? So again, this is part two of our four part series of selfcare. Last episode, we talked a lot about like selfcare in general, some tips and tools to kind of recognize and remind yourself of those self care things. This week, we're talking about work. Like what can we do at work? What can we do regarding work and self care? And I'm curious what you came up with, because this is not an easy one, you know?

(05:50):

And I, I, as we were talking, I was reflecting back on times that I had to keep in my schedule for myself. Like, for example when I was pregnant, I remember like scheduling walks in my day to get my feet, like to get my body moving. Right. And I didn't ever give up those walks. Like I took care of myself because I was taking care of my, my body for that. Right. And then another one that I did was even when I was, and not everyone has the, was fortunate enough to, to be able to do this, but I breastfed. And so I had times in my day where I had to take care of that and do it. And so now that I don't have that stuff, I don't always remember to like, keep that time sacred. And it feel, you feel guilty or just putting in like a five minute walk on your schedule.

(06:35):

But that's one thing I've been really trying hard to do is picking a time in my day that I don't let anyone schedule over. And that's just my time. And sometimes it's not always personal. Like I get a time to walk, but maybe it's just like, this is my email dedicated time. And I'm not telling this is where I'm going to do this. And when I'm done with it, I'm done with it and I'll come back to it later. So I like to make sure that I dedicate some time and to it and put it on my schedule.

(07:01):

You know, I think that's a really big one. I am, I am the notorious prep time giver up. I work through my prep times. I work through my lunches. I've gotten better at lunches, but you know, when I was in the classroom, I had, you know, students needed me during my prep. I, I was there. So I love that idea of just taking, even if it's five minutes and do you

(07:22):

Know, one of my coworkers and I actually do walking meetings sometimes, and I haven't done it as recently, but I need to revisit that.

(07:30):

I love that idea walk. Oh, I love that. I love it. Okay. What else do you got? Okay. I

(07:35):

Actually have some breathing apps on my phone and even like a Google extension. So calm is one of my favorite apps. I really like it. I just need reminders. Like I need it in my face reminders all the time and sometimes smells help me sometimes sounds help me. But for me, like having just that, that app on my phone to stand up, even like whenever I see the stand up one, I for sure stand up. Like I want to hit my twelves stands a day. And so I don't know. So some of those I think are just like those. Built-Ins just using them and thinking about

(08:05):

'Em, here's my favorite. And I've gotten better at this one, but this is so important to me and I was never good at it. And I've gotten better at it over the last 10 years. Don't skip lunch. Your lunch break is your time. And whether that means you take a shorter lunch break and it's only 20 minutes because you just can't bring yourself to taking a full lunch break, but take that time. That's your time in the middle of the day. You can eat obviously, but get away from electronics. Get away from your email. If you can't sit at your desk and not check your email, get away from your desk. I would not recommend even a teacher's lounge. Don't go and talk about kit. Take a walk outside. If the weather's nice, take a drive. I'm about five minutes from our school. There's a river on days where I know I can have more time.

(08:54):

I'll go sit by the river for five minutes, takes me five minutes to get there. Five minutes at the river, five minutes back seems kind of dumb, but that's, it's a separation thing. Absolutely separate yourself from a work to remind yourself that you are a person first. You know, we talked last time about, you know, that identity of teacher separate from that for just a few minutes a day, just for that lunchtime. And as you get better at it, that's actually a really good time of day. If you need to make a doctor's appointment, if you need to check in with something, all of those home things that you don't do during the day, because you're gonna constantly immerse in teacher world, and then you're trying to catch up on them all evening and all weekend, you can actually get a lot. Are those little things done on your lunch? That's

(09:37):

A great idea. Like I think about the vet appointment for my dog. I set that up during the day. And when you were talking about your oil change, I was like, I need to do that. So I did that on my lunch hour. All right. So let's, let's recap this a little bit. Okay. So we are really talking about how teachers are so overworked and are feeling like we are. Oftentimes we're doing more than just the basics of our job. We go above and beyond our normal hours and we feel like we need to, because that's the demand of our job and everything needs our attention and care. And so, as we're thinking about this, it often leads to the burnout issues that we see in our careers too. Think thinking of things that we can do, we can set up like specific times, put those on our calendar, black it off setting alarms and notifications for walks or breathing breaks or standup breaks. And even thinking about walking meetings. And then another one is don't skip your lunch. Don't skip your meal times. And even if your lunch doesn't mean you eating, but it means like setting up other things on your personal calendar to take care of, get that stuff done, do it spend that time. That's just your time. That's not school related. That's personal life related to just do for you. I think that's it. Cassie. I think we've got a couple. We could probably talk about millions more, but that's a good start.

(10:57):

Thank you for joining us. For another episode of TikTok tech, you can find links to information discussed in today's episode, along with references on our website, don't forget to like subscribe and share this podcast. So you don't miss any tips and tricks. And so your fellow educators can join in the fun.