TL;DR:
- Examining weekly, monthly, and yearly routines for happiness and well-being.
- Weekly: Carve out time for personal recharge and engage in meaningful activities like church.
- Yearly: Take a summer Facebook break for mental clarity and prioritize annual gatherings with loved ones for lasting joy.
Calendar Non-Negotiables
Back in April, we examined a few underwhelming routines I put in place every morning and evening that help me feel anchored and grounded, on the good days and the crappy days. Most were tied to universal practices of happiness like exercise, gratitude, time in stillness, and social connections. And some were not. But they all helped give me a good morning and a good night.
This month, let’s zoom out a bit and look at the routine things that happen on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis that proactively and positively impact happiness and well-being. If you are a longtime Teach Happier blog reader or you’ve read Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration & Reflection, some of these ideas may sound a bit familiar. Even so, our invitation is to examine our own weekly, monthly, and annual routines that contribute to our overall feelings of happiness and well-being.
We’re making the choices to have good days, weeks, and months with purpose on purpose. This can get us closer to a good and purposeful life. Click To TweetWeekly Practice: Calendar Non-Negotiables
Let’s start with Weekly. The first is the classic, my Weekend Wish. Yep. By Thursday of each week, my husband Pat and I share what we want our weekly wish to be. It’s just a small amount of time we carve out into the weekend just for ourselves as individuals. Of course, it depends on driving kids around and sporting events, but it is just a small slice of time away from responsibilities and tasks to do something that helps us feel a bit recharged.
Time for a long run, to meet a friend for coffee, to finally organize that one closet that’s been a mess for months, or to just…insert whatever you want. This may be a 30-minute something or 2 2-hour something. The purpose is to choreograph plans to claim a portion of a fast weekend to slow down and intentionally do something for your head or heart.
My second weekly practice that adds to my overall well-being is going to church. I love my “everybody always” church. It’s an inclusive, intellectual place that adds to the peace in my hurried heart. Spending an hour in a place that challenges my mind and strengthens my heart gets me in a good place for the week ahead. It reminds me of my connections to a higher power and keeps me humble knowing everyone is connected.
Monthly Practice: Calendar Non-Negotiables
I look at my calendar each month and ensure there is intentional time scheduled with family or friends. Since our families aren’t local, this usually looks like connecting with a friend over dinner, having someone over, getting the girls together for a nook night, or gathering up my best work friends for a happy hour. (In fact, as I write this on a Saturday afternoon, I am looking forward to heading over to a friend’s house for takeout and a couple of High Noons. I know I’ll be in bed by 9. It’s perfection to my 44-year-old self. Underwhelming, but so good for my heart and spirit.
Yearly Practice
It’s a little more challenging to come up with annual habits I practice, as I didn’t want to share things that are tied to holidays, but rather intentional decisions I create during certain times of the year. I decided to share my 2 Summer non-negotiables (we are getting so close!).
Facebook Fast
Let’s start with the ol’ annual Facebook fast. I can’t recommend this highly enough. It’s on my mind because now that we are in May and inching towards the end of the school year, I start to feel myself getting more and more agitated with every scroll. I don’t know why this happens….maybe because by May we are all just TIRED and routine-d out so my capacity for other people’s things is at a bare minimum.
So one day in June I say farewell, remove the app from my phone and it’s gone until September (one caveat is that I still keep alerts on for our Teach Happier page. All the personal feed is gone). I will admit, the first few days are always the hardest. I have to relearn what to do with my unscheduled minutes since I don’t have the option to automatically scroll to see what’s happening with everyone else.
Listen, I love my people. But with all due, I don’t want to look at other people’s summer…I want to enjoy my own. My teacher summer is a little shorter than most. I am back at it on August 1st, so it’s those last weeks in June and the month of July that I have. And those glorious summer days are so sacred. So, I don’t want to compare my summer choices and time with anyone else.
Benefits of a Social Media Absence
When I pop in to check the Teach Happier Facebook page and see I that little red notification pop up, the higher the number, the happier I get. I like to think I actually get more hours in my summer because not one minute is spent numbing out by scrolling. I read more books, see more friends, spend more time outside, and move through my days more presently than any other season. And I like how my head and heart feel most at this time, and I think the absence of social media has a lot to do with it. I am literally quieting the outside noise. It brings such a sense of peace and contentment. A breath of fresh air.
Girls’ Trip
The second annual non-negotiable? My girls’ trip with my beloved forever friends, Donna and Sarah. We’ve been doing a version of this Girls’ Trip for 20 years now (how are we so old?). We live in 3 states and are busy with kids and work and all the things. But this is something we all prioritize each year. Some years have been wild and crazy (pre-kids in Las Vegas), some years it’s adventurous (biking and ziplining in Charlotte), and other years are more low-key depending on how busy life is (Virginia hotel spa). The 3 of us actually just talked yesterday on the way home from work about where we want to go this year. It’s intentional to create the time to do this, but these days with friends from my formative years do something for my heart and soul that nothing else does.
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A Good Life On Purpose
When you think about it, a good life is basically an accumulation of mostly good days. Creating good days, weeks, months, and years ON PURPOSE isn’t going to just magically happen. We get to decide what these proactive practices could look like.
As Martha Beck reminds us in her book The Way to Integrity, “At the deepest level, you know what makes you happy and how to create your best life. That knowledge is coded into your very nature.” That brings us to our invitation this month: Think about what makes YOU happy. How can YOU create your best life ON PURPOSE by choreographing some conditions that become a part of your days, weeks, months, and years? What are the choices that move you closer to feeling a bit more anchored, steady, and content?
Open up your notes app or rip out a piece of notebook paper and actually write the things down. Take a look at them and notice what you need. Proactively prioritize what you need. And get those things on your calendar.
We’re making the choices to have good days, weeks, and months with purpose, on purpose. This can get us closer to a good and purposeful life.
Small Shifts; BIG Gifts!
What are some things you routinely add to your weeks, months, or years that contribute to your well-being? Prioritize them by getting them on your calendar. See if this overt reminder helps you have good days with purpose on purpose.
About Suzanne Dailey
Suzanne Dailey is a proud member of the Teach Better Family! She is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a master’s degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
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