Links Mentioned in this episode
How to Do a Brain Bedlam Briefing
Episode 15–Chaos to Calm
Show Transcript
Have you ever looked at your back to school to do list, gotten overwhelmed, and just put it away for another day hoping that the list would magically just disappear? If so, this episode is for you.
Welcome to Beyond the Bedlam episode 16. In this episode, I’m giving you my top four ideas for a chaos free back to school experience. Grab a pen and a cup of coffee, it’s time to start simplifying.
Hi friend this is Lauren McKenzie and you’re listening to Beyond the Bedlam, a podcast for teacher moms. If you’re new here, I’m a teacher, wife and mom of two who loves to help others make strategic and simple shifts so they can win at home and at school. If you’re overwhelmed, have no time for yourself. And wish someone could help you get a game plan together, you’re in the right place. So turn up the volume, straighten your teacher mom tiara, and get ready to win!
1:08
This episode is brought to you by the Beyond the Bedlam System. Approach your day feeling calm, confident and equipped to do what matters–and do it well. Visit https://beyondthebedlam.com/resources to learn more.
1:30
If you’re listening to this episode in real time, it is back to school season for many, many teachers here in the United States. So we have no time for beating around the bush today. Today’s episode will be a short episode with four quick tips for simplifying your back to school season to have less chaos. I’m not here to give you bulletin board ideas and clutter your to do list with more projects that feel like the weight of the world has been just added to your shoulders. I’m just here to share practical solutions to help you feel a little less chaotic as you go back to school. Now, I know you’re probably already putting your classroom together or even hosting open houses at the time this episode airs so I’m just going to do some quick suggestions in this episode. If you’d like a deeper dive on any of these ideas, reach out at https://beyondthebedlam.com/contact or shoot me a DM on social media to let me know.
2:35–Clearing out the Brain Clutter
My first suggestion for reducing your chaos in the back to school season is to clear out your brain clutter. So many ideas swirling around in our head can just make our brain feel overwhelmed. I know a lot of teachers have a hard time during back to school time because we’re so excited and then our creative juices start flowing and we get all these wonderful ideas. And then there’s just so many things in our head that our brain starts feeling overwhelmed and it can’t think straight. If you need to clear your brain clutter, do a Brain Bedlam Briefing to help you inform your brain of everything that you’re trying to remember. It gets it out of your head and on paper or in a digitally saved manner. This way, you can come back to it later, but feel a little less chaotic and a little more calm knowing that you’re not going to forget all of these wonderful ideas and important things that you want to remember! If you would like instructions about how to do a Brain Bedlam Briefing, go all the way back to Episode One. In this episode, I do a super deep dive on how to do that. And if you just want the resource (a guided paper to help you to know what to do), visit https://beyondthebedlam.com/episode 15. There’s a free download in that episode that shows you how to clear your brain clutter.
4:13–Creating Systems
My second suggestion for lessening your chaos and moving towards calm is to create systems that work with you instead of against you. There’s a couple of different ways and places that I like to create systems to help me feel more calm. I kind of divide these into school systems and personal systems or home systems, whatever you want to call them. At school most of us have a lot of systems we use. I know a lot of teachers have a special drawer for copy baskets or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday type folders. I have a system for lesson planning that I like to use that makes it more efficient and creates less work long term for me. I have a system for how to enter and exit the classroom. And not only do I have a system for my students on that, I also have a system for myself about what’s going to happen first thing when I walk in my door in the morning, and what the last couple of things that are going to happen before I leave. I also have systems within my week for how I’m going to batch my work at school to create similar tasks all at the same time so that I’m not chasing my tail the whole week long trying to do 17 different things on a 15 or 20 minute planning time. Those are just a couple of the types of systems that I like to do at school and at home.
And please pardon me for being obvious here, but meal planning is a system that has really been a blessing to our family. Not only knowing that we’re going to have something to eat and when it’s going to be ready so I’m not having to think about what I’m doing, but also because I spend less money at the grocery store when I meal plan. On a teacher salary with inflation happening right now, that is a blessing to to have that option already ready. So meal planning is really important to me in the home. I also have a laundry schedule that I very, very, very loosely follow. I know you may have seen the pictures on social media that say you know, laundry washing, it is not a problem, but folding and putting away might be 7 to 10 business days… That is definitely true in our home! But everybody always has clean clothes to wear because I have a system for how it’s going to get washed.
The most important systems that I have at home are I have a morning routine and an evening routine that I do because I’m able to take those items off of my to do list, so my to do list feels shorter because they’re already done as a part of my routine. So it’s automated and don’t have to think about it. If you would like a framework for how to set up systems and routines that will work for you. I’ll put a link in the show notes and episode description to the full Beyond the Bedlam System that I use to help keep myself organized and simplified.
7:32–Give Yourself Permission to Pursue Progress Instead of Perfection
My third suggestion for helping to reduce the chaos and the back to school season is give yourself permission to pursue progress instead of perfection. Progress is more important than perfection because in pursuing progress, we make small incremental changes that can actually last. In Episode 15. I talked about incremental process in my journey from chaos to calm and how just adding up those little small wins can really equal huge wins along the way.
While you’re pursuing progress instead of perfection, please don’t compare yourself to the teacher next door. We are all on individual journeys, and while we may arrive at similar or even the same destination, the journey is going to look different. So if you need to, turn off your teacher TikTok or Instagram or Pinterest in the weeks that are leading up to and the first weeks of school just so that you are not overwhelming yourself with even more ideas that you feel unprepared to execute at the time. It doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy those things later. But don’t compare yourself to people that are at a different place in their journey. And especially don’t compare yourself with the teacher next door because that will put a strain in your relationship. Find ways to accomplish what your administrators want and do it on your schedule and within a structure that works for you. But don’t feel pressured to compare yourself with teachers in your building or teachers that you follow on social media.
9:26–Enlist Help and Encouragement
My final tip for reducing your chaos and your back to school time is enlist help and encouragement. There’s lots of different places that you can find encouragement: your family, your spouse or your children. Maybe you are blessed to have extended family that lives nearby that can help tangibly, or maybe they’re not nearby but they surely can encourage you. Or friends that feel like family. You know that “framily” that people talk about… Don’t discount those relationships. In times like back to school season, it’s important for us to allow people to walk with us. If we try and give the appearance of I have all of my life together and I don’t need any help, it sometimes deprives people of the joy of serving. So allow these people to come alongside you and offer tangible help. Perhaps the dishwasher wasn’t loaded the way you wanted it. But guess what? Your dishes are clean and you didn’t have to do it. Perhaps the towel stripes don’t line up exactly. If you know what I’m talking about you are my people, because I like all of the stripes to face the same way when I fold towels. So maybe they don’t all line up. But guess what, they’re clean and they’re folded and they’re put away and that took something off of your plate! So allow people to come alongside you during this time. And also remember that teacher that I just told you don’t compare yourself to? Yeah, go find a teacher buddy in your school. If you don’t have a teacher, buddy, make a teacher buddy.
And finally, don’t forget to enlist your own self in encouraging celebrate yourself. Find a treat or a prize for accomplishing a small goal or even those little bitty tiny pieces that we’ve talked about in recent episodes. You know the research way back a long time ago wasn’t wrong: if an animal will do something for a prize, people will also do most anything for a prize. So if you’re having trouble getting motivated, decide on a prize, go put it in your Amazon cart, and click purchase when you have completed it! Or perhaps it’s not something that you want to buy, but maybe just time give yourself the gift of time because you need to be a real person right now.
13:24–Recap
So top four tips: do a Brain Bedlam Briefing. Get rid of your brain clutter, create systems that work with you instead of against you at home and at school. Give yourself permission to pursue progress instead of perfection. And enlist help and encouragement from your family, your friends, people at school and in the community, and most importantly, yourself.
13:57–Next Steps
Although four is a small number, it can still feel like a lot if you have a lot of chaos going on right now. Please remove the expectation that you need to do all four of these things or that you need to do all four of them right now–especially if you’re listening and you’re trying to figure out where to start.
Start with the Brain Bedlam Briefing above everything else that I mentioned today. If you could give yourself one gift, give yourself the gift of a brain that is able to concentrate because it’s not worried about trying to remember all of the things.
If that is already in place, then if you want a structure that works for busy teachers, use the Beyond the Bedlam System to set up some systems that work for you. You can find my system at https://beyondthebedlam.com/resources if you would like to check that out. It is not a system that tells you exactly what to do, but it tells you how to create your own system that’s going to work for you.
If that’s not your jam, then turn off your social media apps or set timers to limit yourself on your phone or other devices for a few weeks. That is something really simple that you can do just to eliminate information input, which is another way that you can relieve your brain of some of the chaos.
Remember to find a buddy! Maybe you’re super social, and having the support of another human being would be important to you.
Any of those are valid! You don’t have to do all of them. But pick one and get started. Regardless of what step is right for you to take today, I’m cheering you on. You are amazing and you can survive this back to school season!
I’m so glad that you’ve joined us today. I can’t wait to visit with you again. And until then, I’m in your corner cheering you on.
If you’ve enjoyed today’s show, remember to subscribe to the podcast before you close your app so you won’t miss feature tips tricks that I share along the way. I’d be honored for you to share with a teacher mom might be encouraged too! Talk with you soon.