Use Your Teacher Skills to Simplify the Holidays [Episode 294]

Heidi 0:01
This is episode 294 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research-based and teacher-approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at SecondStoryWindow.net.

Heidi 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:35
Hey there! Thanks for joining us today. Last week we got your classroom ready for all that the holiday ramp up brings with it, today we’re tackling the other half of your to-do list, which is everything waiting for you at home.

Heidi 0:47
But first, let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what’s our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:55
Since we’re talking about home tasks this week, our try it tomorrow is to send a confirming text. So pick an upcoming plan that involves other people and nail down a detail like who’s bringing what to dinner or what time someone’s flight lands.

Heidi 1:10
Or you could flip this around and send out the details that someone else is waiting on from you. The people that you’re coordinating with will be very grateful not to have to hound you for that information.

Emily 1:21
If you like this idea or anything else we share today, could you do us a favor and share this episode with a teacher friend? Every time we share the show, it helps more teachers find us.

Heidi 1:31
So last week we got you back on the bike after flying over the handlebars at school, but school isn’t the only place that the holiday ramp up throws a stick into your spokes. Right on top of everything happening with school this time of year comes a quadruple to-do list in your personal life.

Emily 1:46
You know how it goes. There are gifts and gatherings and the cookie exchange that you signed up for in a moment of weakness, plus all the regular stuff that demands attention no matter what month it is, like dinner and laundry and walking the dog.

Heidi 2:00
If you are like a lot of teachers, the only thing keeping you going right now is the sweet promise of winter break, and all of the things that you will finally have time to do.

Emily 2:09
Of course, my favorite part of the break isn’t what I do; it’s what I don’t have to do. There is nothing better than turning those alarms off for a few days.

Heidi 2:20
That honestly gives me such a thrill. That just made me think of the Good Place. I love that show so much.

Emily 2:28
It’s so good.

Heidi 2:29
And if you haven’t seen it in The Good Place, there is a massive menu of frozen yogurt flavors with things like cherry and pumpkin pie. But they also offer some more unique flavors, like the cool side of your pillow, and a new line opens up at airport security. But I think they definitely need to add getting to turn off your alarms. I would like a big bowl of that, please, with sprinkles.

Emily 2:52
Oh yes, it is the best. Not to mention the time to take life a little bit slower for a few days is also a thrill. But unfortunately, by the time break finally gets here, a lot of teachers are just too wiped to enjoy it, or they spend the whole break with a knot in their stomach because they’re thinking about everything they have to do when they get back to school in January.

Heidi 3:13
It’s so unfair because you should not have to choose between taking care of your responsibilities and enjoying your time off. So let’s fix that problem by revisiting something that’s probably not on your radar right now: the first day of school.

Emily 3:27
I know. Stay with us. Life in December and life at back to school are more similar than they may seem. Think about everything that goes into launching a school year. You plan around a calendar full of dates that you can’t control. You write out detailed plans. You prioritize and strategize and organize hundreds of little details.

Heidi 3:45
And wouldn’t you know it, the skills it takes to manage all of that are the same skills you need to navigate December’s obligations. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, your month is probably packed with extras like concerts and travel on top of trying to get ahead on work, so today we’ve got three ways to apply those teacher skills at home, so you reach the end of December with enough left in the tank to enjoy your break.

Emily 4:10
Our first tip is to prepare your home to run on autopilot, and we’re kicking things off with a reality check. Don’t plan December as if you’ll have the same time and energy that you have in a normal month, because spoiler alert, you will not.

Heidi 4:24
I know that feels like a bucket of cold water on all of our pretty ideas, but December can wear you out even when it’s full of things you love. And when you run low, the everyday stuff that keeps life afloat is the first thing that slides.

Emily 4:38
Which is how you end up eating breakfast for dinner three days in a row.

Heidi 4:43
No hate to brinner. I love eggs and toast for dinner, but that can only last so long. So let’s make some of it easier now. And one thing that helps me a ton is freezer meals in December.

Emily 4:54
Oh, it’s so lovely to know you’ve got something warm and tasty waiting for you at the end of a long day. But I really struggle with the overwhelm. To get around that, I remind myself that this is not a lifestyle change. I only have to figure out freezer meals for a few weeks, not for the rest of my life. Although, if you’re one of those people that like takes this on and becomes like a meal prepper, like all the power to you. I think it’s amazing.

Heidi 5:18
And then you can share all your tips and tricks with us.

Emily 5:21
Yes, please.

Heidi 5:22
But for me, it’s more helpful to kind of think of it like bringing dinner to a friend after surgery. There’s an expiration date to this task. I just have to manage it until my friend is better.

Emily 5:33
Except in this case, the friend in need is December You, who does not have the bandwidth for cooking dinner or dirtying the kitchen. The easiest way that I have found for doing freezer meals is just to double the meal that I’m already making and freeze the second portion. But you could also set aside a weekend and prep several recipes at once. There are a lot of plans online for how to do this efficiently so that you’re using similar ingredients for multiple meals.

Heidi 5:57
Once you’ve got the meals under control, think of the other household supplies that will probably need a restock between now and January. Refill medications as early as you can. Stock up on tissues and toilet paper and foil and paper plates and all of that stuff.

Emily 6:11
If you can afford it, you can grab all your restocks during one grocery trip. But if not, create a list of what you’ll need and buy a couple extras each week. That will save you a trip to the store on December 23.

Heidi 6:22
And that’s probably about my least favorite time to be at the store.

Emily 6:25
Oh, it’s chaos! And we have a lot of experience of being at the store on december 23 with our dad, who saved all his shopping until december 23, and then would make us go out with him to do the shopping. So we know it’s crazy out there. You don’t want to be out there.

Heidi 6:39
And let’s just extend this same idea to any of your household routines. Consider what’s non-negotiable, what can be simplified, and what can wait. Feeding the pet, non-negotiable. You’re going to have to do that every day. Mopping the floor, that’s something you can simplify. Mop the high traffic areas and the guest bath, but skip mopping the laundry room. That can totally wait till January.

Emily 7:00
If you want a step by step way to do that, episode 13 of our Holiday Head Start podcast, hey, remember that? That episode walks you through building a minimum upkeep plan, and we will put a link to that episode in the show notes, along with a link to our Holiday Head Start playbook, which has pages to help you plan everything you need for the holidays.

Heidi 7:21
And probably then some, but just be aware that we have not made any new Holiday Head Start episodes in a while. I think this whole year, yes, but we are hoping to get back to it soon. We really miss it, but the episodes that are there are just top notch.

Emily 7:36
They’re so good.

Heidi 7:37
They are full of great tips to help you get through December in one piece.

Emily 7:41
If you already have a system for putting regular life on autopilot for a few weeks during back to school, just dust it off and put it back into commission for December.

Heidi 7:51
And if you don’t have that kind of system yet, consider this December your dry run for next summer. Sometimes it feels more worthwhile to give attention to something when you realize that you can get multiple uses out of it.

Emily 8:02
Okay, so our first tip for preparing your home for December is to put your home on autopilot for a few weeks. Now let’s look at our second tip, which is to decide what matters most before everyone else decides for you.

Heidi 8:16
The thing I love most about this time of year is the unique experiences it offers. We can’t load the kids up with cocoa and drive around looking at lights in February. And I don’t have a list of movies that I love to watch in June. Although maybe I should. We just have this tiny window to enjoy whatever makes this season feel special. And if we miss it, it’s gone for another year.

Emily 8:39
We probably all know that feeling so well. You wanted to decorate cookies. You even bought some cute sprinkles, but you were too busy to make the cookies. And now it’s january 4, and it just seems silly to make cookies with Christmas sprinkles.

Heidi 8:50
Yeah, I mean, technically, you could decorate cookies at any time, mix up some green frosting, and listen to Irish jigs while you decorate shamrocks in March. But you know, it just doesn’t have quite the same feeling.

Emily 9:02
So let’s make sure there’s time for what you want to do this year. Unless you really love the idea of St. Patrick’s Day cookies, then you should totally do that. Start by listing everything that you enjoy doing this season. Then pick your top three. If you get stuck between two things, ask yourself: If I could only do one of these, which would I choose?

Heidi 9:20
Now don’t panic. Just because we are ranking activities doesn’t mean you have to skip everything but your top three. This list just tells you where to put your time and energy and money first, and then anything you can fit in after that as the bonus.

Emily 9:34
Then for each priority, set a minimum standard of success. That will be your finish line, the point where you can call it done.

Heidi 9:41
If you think back to August, we said that the minimum standard of success for the first week of school is that every student feels safe, seen, and needed. If you hit those, you know your week was exactly what it needed to be, even if nothing else got done.

Emily 9:55
And we can totally apply that to our December tasks. So maybe for December at school, that means you end the month with your math lessons on schedule or with all your grading caught up.

Heidi 10:07
Having a minimum standard of success probably means some things won’t get done. Some years, my minimum standard for decorating has been just getting the tree up, even if it doesn’t have a single ornament. Now that is far from my ideal, but it honored the capacity that I had that season, and that made it enough. Plus, I probably could not have enjoyed a perfectly decorated tree if I had pushed myself too hard on that task, and that meant I had to drop something that was more important to me.

Emily 10:36
Time and energy are finite, so we have to manage them well, and that sets us up for our third tip. So far, we’ve set up home to run on autopilot and decided what matters most. Now it’s time to put your well-being ahead of busyness.

Heidi 10:50
December has a way of making busy feel like the goal. If you are running from one thing to the next, it feels like you’re doing the season right. But a full calendar doesn’t mean that you are necessarily enjoying any of it.

Emily 11:03
Yeah, you ever get to January and feel like you missed all of December? It’s probably because you packed too much into your schedule.

Heidi 11:09
And you already know this from back to school. Those first few weeks feel like running a marathon. Now, I have never been so foolish as to actually run a marathon, but I assume that if you leap off that starting line running as fast as you can, you’re not going to have enough left in your tank to make it to the finish line. And if you give everything you’ve got in August, you won’t have anything to sustain you at school in September.

Emily 11:33
Doing this probably means making some painful cutbacks. Maybe you skip book club in August so you can get to bed early, or you set aside a favorite hobby for a couple weeks. You do what you can to honor your capacity in that season.

Heidi 11:47
And December is the same kind of race, just with more glitter and jingle bells. And the easiest way to protect your energy is to decide ahead of time what you’re not going to do. And that’s why we love a let go list.

Emily 11:59
This is one of my favorite lists to make because there is nothing to do once it’s written. You’re just writing down what you’re choosing not to do this year. It might be matching pajamas or homemade cookies or the third holiday party in one week.

Heidi 12:13
But of course, watching The Holiday is not going on that list.

Emily 12:16
No, you will always make time for festive Jude Law because he is the superior Jude Law, and now The Holiday is going to be back in theaters this year because it’s been 20 years. Can you believe that?

Heidi 12:26
Oh, I don’t like that.

Emily 12:28
I had the realization that for us as kids, it would have been like watching a movie from 1977 in the 90s and being like, “Ah, this movie’s the best. I watch it every year.”

Heidi 12:40
Nope.

Emily 12:41
But Jude Law aside, simplifying something doesn’t mean you don’t care about it. You’re just trading it for something you need more, like a quiet evening at home or a few extra dollars in your bank account.

Heidi 12:52
I did this one year in my notes app. I set up a note called “Things I’m Proud of.” I wrote the things that I remembered to do, which I was proud of, but I also included the stuff that I let go of, like baking cookies. I bought them instead, and guess what? They worked just fine.

Emily 13:08
Something I let go of is a show that we skipped, even though we had already bought tickets the day of the show in December. It was so stressful, and once we talked about how much time and energy it would take to get there, and how much happier we’d be not going, it made the decision a lot easier.

Heidi 13:25
Yeah, the money was already gone by that point, but we don’t have to add to the cost of spending our time and energy on it too. Those are a lot harder to get back.

Emily 13:34
Besides deciding what to let go, you can prioritize your well-being by adding downtime to the calendar. In episode 209, we suggested you could preserve your capacity by scheduling nothing nights during the first few weeks of school. But December needs those nothing nights just as much.

Heidi 13:51
The scheduling part here is key. Write them in like an appointment. If rest only gets whatever time is left over, guess what? There’s not gonna be any left over, and you want to enjoy your December, not just survive it.

Emily 14:03
So, as your November and December calendars start filling with obligations, take a minute to decide what you want from this time. How can you prepare your home? How can you protect what matters? And how can you prioritize your well-being?

Heidi 14:16
Having those things taken care of will help you get to winter break and enjoy your time off instead of just collapsing on the couch for a week.

Emily 14:22
Well, you can enjoy your break if you take care of the school tasks as well, and that’s the main thing we’re here to help you with. This year, we’re hosting a free four-day challenge: Reclaim Your Winter Break. That’ll be happening November 15th through 18th.

Heidi 14:35
One of our best tips for back to school is to plan the second day of school at the same time as you plan the first, so that you can leave on time after that exhausting first day. Our Reclaim Your Winter Break Challenge does that same thing, but on a larger scale. We will help you figure out how to wrap up December and get your first days back in January already before you walk out the door.

Emily 14:57
By the end, you’ll have a finished plan for tackling all the tasks that stand between you and a work-free winter break. Sign up free at secondstorywindow.net/winterbreak.

Emily 15:08
Now for our teacher-approved tip of the week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s tip is to plan like you’re Jennifer Lopez. So please do tell us about this, Heidi.

Heidi 15:22
Well, let’s start off by talking about one of our favorite topics: rom coms.

Emily 15:27
This isn’t even the first rom com we’ve mentioned in this episode.

Heidi 15:31
We have a brand. What can we say? Now, we are assuming that everyone has seen the Wedding Planner, and if you’ve somehow missed that one, here’s a little preview. At the beginning of the movie, Jennifer Lopez is pulling together all of the last-minute details of a wedding. She’s soothing cold feet, fixing dresses, and tracking down the missing father of the bride. And of course, she handles all of it because she has planned everything down to the minute.

Emily 15:54
She also has a headset, a whole team, a tool belt with a sewing kit in it, and Judy Greer as her assistant, and unfortunately, we don’t get any of that.

Heidi 16:03
Although maybe you could figure out the tool belt if you really thought about it. I don’t know if that’s worth the time. It’s fine. We are teachers, and we are used to making do. And the next best thing to a sewing kit tool belt is a script.

Emily 16:16
Or since we’re talking about wedding planning, maybe we call this a run of show document. The idea is to do all your thinking before the big day, so you can concentrate on what’s unfolding in front of you.

Heidi 16:27
We talk a lot about scripts during back to school. I think episode 276 was the most recent time we discussed it, but in this case, the script or a run of show document is a minute by minute outline of how a big day needs to unfold, and what is the biggest day on the teaching calendar? The first day of school.

Emily 16:46
Yeah, that day is less of a day and more of an event. December has a few of those kind of days too. Any day when your schedule is full of interruptions is a day when you can’t rely on your routine to carry you, and that is when a script can be very helpful.

Heidi 16:59
Of course, these December scripts don’t need nearly the level of detail that you need for the first day, but you’re still going to be so glad you have it when your math lesson gets moved to the morning, lunch is 15 minutes late, and the winter program practice runs into your planning time.

Emily 17:13
But scripts aren’t limited to school schedules; they can help you create a timeline for any big day. If you’ve ever forgotten to preheat the oven or left the salad you were supposed to bring sitting in the fridge, you could use a script. The plan holds the details, so your brain doesn’t have to.

Heidi 17:30
I do a script for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve, which are the two big events that I host. And there’s always a moment when I’m preparing, and I think I know what’s coming next. I don’t need to check, but then they look at my script only to realize I was overlooking a key step. So it’s always a good thing that I wrote it down.

Emily 17:48
To make a script for any event at school or at home, start with the timeline. Then look at each event and figure out what has to happen before and after. If you’re heading out to see the lights, the kids need to eat early and get bundled up. Afterward, maybe you’re stopping for hot chocolate and dropping Aunt Denise off on the way home. Once you block out time for those pieces, suddenly you know exactly when to start dinner and round up everyone’s blankets and any stuffies that are going to come along for the ride.

Heidi 18:16
Yeah, those kids and their stuffies. It’s also helpful to include a column on your script for supplies. So when we drive to see the lights, I like to make little treat boxes for the kids. But then I also need to remember water bottles, a garbage bag for candy wrappers, and then extra baggies so the kids can take their leftover treats home and they don’t take my cute snack holders because I don’t trust that I will get them back. So all of that goes on my script.

Emily 18:41
Getting all of that out of your head takes some time the first year, but the script is reusable. Next year, you pull it out, adjust a few things, and you’re ready.

Heidi 18:49
It also gives you a place to write down what works, so that you’re not trusting yourself to remember. You won’t remember.

Emily 18:55
And best of all, it frees you up to enjoy the day instead of writing a checklist in your head the whole time.

Heidi 19:01
All right. To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 19:06
Well, since we’re talking about the holidays, I wanted to give extra credit to something we have talked about on the holiday Head Start, but I’ve never given extra credit to here. That is having a Christmas morning caddy if you celebrate Christmas. So, in this caddy, I like to keep scissors because you know you’re going to need those to cut off the parts of the little toy that the kids just opened. But you’ll also want other things in there, like batteries for said toy and sharpies in case you need to label who’s of the identical things they just got. Who, which one belongs to who. What other things do you like to put in yours, Heidi?

Heidi 19:43
I think trash bags are a must because you’re gonna have a lot of wrapping paper. Unless you like having that all in your pictures, which is totally valid.

Emily 19:50
Oh, screwdrivers, so that if you need to open up a battery compartment that has a teeny tiny little screw in it, you know how those are.

Heidi 19:57
Yeah, so the little mini screwdrivers, not the big one that you would use for assembling IKEA.

Emily 20:02
I also like to keep a little list in there where I can mark down who gave my children what, so that we can write thank you notes later. You might want post-it notes in there, or an extra memory card for your camera, a phone battery backup, or a charger with a long cord that will reach the outlet from where you sit during present opening. This is just such a good way to plan ahead for a moment that can be overwhelming, and then have the joy of being like, I have everything I need right here. Oh, you can’t get that battery compartment open? Let me get out my little screwdrivers. It’s very satisfying.

Heidi 20:41
And the postits can come in handy, right? If someone’s opening something and it’s a duplicate gift or it doesn’t fit, you could just like mark, put the post it on it, but like mark it as a return, set it in a pile so it doesn’t get mixed in, and then you forget to return and it’s too late. All that. There’s so many pieces moving at that moment, and you’re probably tired because you probably stayed up way too late. So just just make it easy on yourself.

Emily 21:05
Yeah. So you definitely want to get your own Christmas morning caddy together. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 21:12
Well, since I used our Christmas light drive as an example, I’m going to give extra credit to cute snack containers. So the ones I use are little Christmas tree shapes with divided sections inside, and I like them because they’re just big enough to hold a couple pieces of candy. So it’s a treat, but it’s not a full candy feast. And I did look around online to try and find a link to the ones I have, and I could not find any. But I did see some people talking online that maybe Dollar Tree has some this year, so maybe you want to check that out, but I found some cute little boxes on Amazon. They’re just square, like more bento box shaped, but they come in red and green, which you might want this year. But they had a ton of other color palettes. I was like, oh, what could we use these for? And these also look sturdier than the flimsy plastic tree ones I have. And the nice thing is that the plastic divider between sections in this case isn’t removable, and if you’ve got little kids, you don’t want them to be tearing things apart because if they can pull out the little middle part, they’re going to end up all over your car and you’ll never find them again.

Emily 22:12
True story.

Heidi 22:15
And of course, you don’t need themed snack boxes to enjoy a light drive, but as the auntie, I’m kind of obligated to provide that, so I’m just fulfilling my duty.

Emily 22:23
It’s true. So if you’re an auntie out there, this is definitely for you. Although if you’re a mom that’s more put together than me, this also could be for you. But I could never pull this off. It’s it’s a delight that Heidi brings to the occasion that luckily I do not have to provide.

Heidi 22:38
And then I have the delight of leaving you with the children and going into my quiet house.

Emily 22:42
Yeah, I bring the noise and the mess home with me.

Heidi 22:46
Well, that is it for today’s episode. As we head into the thick of holiday ramp up season, remember to prepare your home, protect what matters, and prioritize your well being. And if you would like help preparing for the holiday ramp up in your classroom, join our free four day challenge: Reclaim Your Winter Break, November 15 through the 18th, and you can sign up free at secondstorywindow.net/winterbreak.

Heidi 23:08
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 23:14
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 23:21
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 23:27
Bye.