Today officially ends the first half of my school year and, with that, starts my brain thinking about the new year and new semester. New Year’s Eve brings with it resolutions, and I fail at mine along with half the other people who set them. I can never seem to make it past February when I fall off the wagon of whatever goal I have set. This year, in an attempt to avoid the 1st month failure, I have settled on a new version of the resolution: a 30 day challenge.
To start, you must pick a goal and commit to it for a month. 365 days of change is just not realistic for me, but I can make a change for 30 days.
My goal was an easy one to settle on- I am a compulsive email checker. I check my email multiples times a day, at home, and at school. I know I need my email to get important school information and communicate with parents, so it would not be realistic to completely cut myself off. Instead, for the month of January, I have decided to commit to only checking my email while I am at school. I know I do too much school work after school hours, and I am hoping that cutting myself off from email after I leave the building will help me relax and separate work from home.
Step 1, before January 1st, is limiting the ways I can access my email. When my computer opens up, my email is the first thing I see, and that means I usually check it, so I need to delete that bookmark. I also have my email on my phone in case I need to check something while I am out, so I will have to delete that too. Hopefully limiting the access on my devices will help curb my checking it.
Step 2 is making sure I get my emails answered during the day. The biggest reason I check my email after school is that I have not finished responding to what I need to or I have emails to send that I did not get to during my prep period. Either way, I am going to have to use my school time productively to make sure I do not have a reason to open up my email once I get home. If I do not get to answer something, I am going to have to be okay putting it off until the next day.
Do you have any personal or professional resolutions you are setting for the New Year? Or are you going to give the 30 day challenge a try? Comment below to share your goals for the start of the year.
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Rachel Perugini
I am originally from Pennsylvania where I earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Shippensburg University. In 2012, I moved to Arizona to teach on the Navajo Reservation; I liked the state so much I decided to stay. I taught language arts, reading, and journalism for three years at Many Farms High School. During that time, I earned a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction for Reading. In 2015, I moved to Flagstaff where I currently teach 10th and 11th grade English. I have been an avid reader all my life, so I love that my job gives me that chance to read amazing books with my students all day long.
Comments 8
Good idea and good example. I think I will try it with setting some kind of goals for exercise. Thanks!
There is a 30 days of yoga program that I do to start the New Year, so maybe you can find something similar for an exercise you like!
I love the idea of a 30 day challenge instead of an all year challenge. Mine will be going home early enough to take my dogs for a walk.
I’m sure your dogs will love that goal.
Rachel, I love this idea! I think I will try something like this with my students when we return from break. I am seriously addicted to checking my phone in general (email, Facebook, Twitter, Insta, etc.) and I would like to set a resolution to check it less often (preferably never) when I’m with my family. No phone during Family Time!
If you have an iphone, you can set limits on apps with the last update- time limits on how long you use it or limits during certain times so you can’t use it during family time.
We’re having a lot of trouble with our 7th graders and this is the kind of tool they need. I actually gave them a week challenge a couple of weeks before the break and 5 out of 6 classes met it. I do think, though, that it’d be better to have them set their own goals. I still think I start with a 5 day goal though.
Thank you for writing this. I like this approach. I am going to go with a 30 day challenge. I do not know what it will be yet, butI am going to do it.