P is for Pacing

Some people like to work until they drop, giving it their all. They feel personal satisfaction when they can say they are done, mopping their virtual brow. Others bite off smaller pieces but move ahead consistently, adopting an almost plodding approach.

Still others do a few minutes, then walk away from it. They dust the desk top, load dishes into the dishwasher, put paper in the printer, check teeth for leftover lunch remnants, file down the pesky ragged fingernail, then flick away more dust.

These people have a lifetime membership in the WPC or Worldwide Procrastination Club. And another group belongs to what I affectionately have dubbed the Vigilante Brigade - those who keep checking in to see if they have anything else to do or do better or do over, never able to define the finish line. It is futile to encourage that worker type to let it go.

It really doesn't matter which group you most closely mirror because it takes all kinds of people with all kinds of approaches. What does matter is that you recognize your own "MO" (modus operandi or method of operation for those who don't watch nearly as many crime dramas as I do). You learn to keep yourself in check by adjusting and improving through pacing.

We would be arrogant to assume self-care is for everyone else but us. Even more arrogant, really, to think our students need help with pacing guides and work habits when we aren't practicing the process ourselves. If right now you are frantically pushing real or virtual personal paperwork for long hours in order to meet the timelines and it splashes over into weekends and holidays, let's take an honest look at a few pacing questions.

• Do you find yourself putting things off (head talk: I can do that tomorrow, or next week, or never)?
• Could you have used a mentor's or friend's calming voice weeks ago but didn't want to feel dumb sharing your panic and asking for help?
• Have you ever done that tried and true self-survey called a "personal time and motion study" where you log everything you do in a work day to see where you are losing precious time (a five minute game on Facebook which turns into an hour of scrolling through newsfeeds)?
• Do you use a timer to self-limit yourself during the day? Keep colleague calls and instant messages to reasonable lengths. Grade in chunks for a set amount of time. Answer emails for another set time period.
• Do you organize small group webinars when you know you have two or more students with similar needs rather than trying to reach each separately?
• Are you doing your work (and more importantly, your play) with a grateful and joyous heart or is each day a growing drudgery?

At the risk of sounding unsympathetic, I suggest that many things which trip up our daily intentions to be proactive and successful in completing work are self-generated and controllable. We are all  WIPs, a professional writer's acronym for "Works in Progress." We all can change, but the key is recognizing first, the need, then second, the process which will work for us. For me, it is making reasonable and realistic lists and working hard to stick to them.

Reflection: Set three doable goals each day for a week. Then, make it four goals. Sometimes it takes diligence and practice to relearn personal pacing, and don't be afraid to ask for help. Our best lessons are not learned in isolation.