TL;DR:
- December is a busy month, and matching your energy with your tasks can help you stay present and productive.
- Use Kendra Adachi’s TODAY acronym to plan tasks based on high- or low-energy days.
- Honor your capacity to prevent burnout and maintain balance during the holiday season.
It’s December. The final month of the year and the month that is go-go-go and do-do-do. In an effort to stay present and grounded as educators, parents, partners, friends, and in our other important roles, we need capacity and bandwidth for allllll of the things. And there’s just so many things.
This month’s small shift in thought helps us shift our actions, and it comes from Kendra Adachi, author of the books The Lazy Genius Way and recently released book, The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius.
In The Plan, Adachi writes about mindset and strategy specifically in terms of how to plan our days based on our capacity.
How to plan our days based on our capacity…what a brilliant idea!
Our human experience shows us that there are days when we have greater capacity, and days we have less. Plain and simple. Knowing that December is such a busy, non-routine month for most, how do we move through these December days accomplishing tasks, while not burning out? It’s a challenge many of us will face in these upcoming weeks.
Knowing that December is such a busy, non-routine month for most, how do we move through these December days accomplishing tasks, while not burning out? It’s a challenge many of us will face in these upcoming weeks. Click To TweetKendra says, “There are two things that make any challenging day feel the way it does: The first is fragmentation – we are pulled in so many directions at any given time. The second is urgency. Everything has this sense of it has to be done right now. When everything feels like it must be done right now, we often freeze and end up doing nothing in response. It’s just too much.”
My favorite quote from the book is this: “Matching your own energy with the energy of your life on a practical level can be really helpful.” What does this look like? When possible, we are encouraged to plan our day based on our energy level. Gasp! What a concept!
Match Your Energy with Your Life
To highlight some of the strategies on those days we have greater energy, capacity, and bandwidth, and the days we have less, Kendra Adachi walks us through the acronym TODAY. I love that the word is today because we get to check in with ourselves and ask, “What is my energy level today? What’s realistic for me to accomplish today?”
Let’s first look at the days that we are energetic, outgoing, and ready to go and take on the world.
T – Tricky
Prioritize items that need to be thought about deeply; a problem to be solved or a challenge to think through. We have greater capacity to logically and strategically think through things on days when we have more capacity. Prioritize the tricky stuff!
O – Optional
What is optional today? This is to help conserve all of that energy we have and prioritize it on getting the most energy-necessary tasks done first.
D – Delightful
What can I do today that would bring me delight? If we’re feeling more mindful and present, we can “keep the humanity in our day,” name what’s delightful, and proceed accordingly.
A – Active
How can we be active today? What needs tending to or finishing? Are there things that can be completed with this additional energy/capacity that will help us feel a little boost of accomplishment? When we consider what we won’t have the energy for later, it helps us put our energy into the right things now. Knock out the things you can when you feel the energy level to do so.
Y – Yes
Given the circumstances of your day, your bandwidth, and your capacity, what gets a yes today?
Lower Energy & Capacity
What about the days when we have lower energy or capacity; when we just don’t have as much to give or offer as we did on a higher energy day? These lower energy days tend to come frequently in December, so here’s what the acronym looks like on those days.
T – Tender
What are you feeling tender about? Is it an overwhelm due to logistics? Is it an emotionally heavy time? Do you need sleep that you’re just not getting? Are you so busy you aren’t eating foods that fuel your body? Understand what’s tender so you can better understand the reason for lower capacity/energy/bandwidth. This is such a compassionate thing we can do for ourselves. Honor where we are right at that exact moment.
O – Output
What is the realistic amount of output you have on this day? This is an opportunity to check your body and mind alongside your tasks and to-dos. Our November self may have more capacity than our December self, so expectations for what can realistically be accomplished can and should be adjusted.
D – Delegate
What can you delegate? What can you give to a coworker, neighbor, or family member? The challenge here would be to delegate before we are at our wit’s end. When I think of holiday tasks at home, Pat and I will divide gift-buying and wrapping responsibilities for our two kids. We have a shared note with a Pat and Suzanne column and it’s a delight to see things getting checked off.
For work? We are in the midst of planning a big mid-year professional development day for 600 of our closest friends in 2 locations (1200 colleagues total!). You’ve heard me say a thousand times I get to work with some of the most talented people on the planet, and that means I don’t have to own it all. Together, we can all lead as we plan a great day for our colleagues.
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A – Accept
What do you need to accept today? It is accepting that your family commitments will make your workday have a hard stop right at dismissal? Do you need to accept that you may not be able to complete as many work tasks as you need to based on your energy level? Is there something you just really don’t want to do, but you must accept the fact it needs to get done anyway? Maybe you’re accepting the fact you’re going to have to say no to a few holiday invites or social events. Accept what you can manage or control, and accept some of the things you can’t.
Y – Yes
Just like the other acronym. Given the circumstances of your day, your bandwidth, and your capacity, what gets a yes today?
The invitation in this busy month of December is to match your own energy with the energy of your life on a practical level. What can your days look like based on what you know or how you feel? When your energy is different, your days will look different and that’s exactly how it should be. As fully formed human beings there is a lot happening to us and there’s a lot happening within us. I think this framework of TODAY is a gentle and generous way for us to approach the day with relation and respect to our energy and capacity.
Honor your energy. Honor your capacity. Today and every day.
Small Shifts; BIG Gifts!
During this busy month, try to check in with yourself as often as you can to gauge your energy level. As you apply Kendra Adachi’s acronym of TODAY, how does it help you decide your next right action?
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.
Check out the Teach Happier Podcast here!
