Just take a moment...

School gets busy. Works gets busy. Life gets busy. I mean, it’s October people! What happened to August and September?! With all that busyness we get tired and often don’t take those moments that we all need to slow down, analyze and reflect. While reading the various blog updates that get sent to my inbox there seemed to be two common themes; reflection and sharing.

Change, information overload, and daily “noise” from all of our various screens (I have 3 on my desk right now) and media are constants in today’s world. We need to take the time to analyze all of that information to make good decisions about what is good information, what will work well for us now, what we want to consider at a later date and what we can just say, “Eh, that isn’t for me!” So how does one find the time to reflect? Don’t find it, schedule it! Whether it’s fifteen minutes or a couple of hours, open up that calendar app and make an appointment with yourself. Set a reminder that will pop up on your phone, iPad, and computer. When that reminder pops up, shut the laptop, put your phone and iPad on silent or Do Not Disturb (swipe up from the bottom of your iPad screen and hit that little crescent moon symbol), and enter your quiet place. As John Dewey said, “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” So, take a breath and then just think about how your day went. What went well, what didn’t go well and what could you change to make it go better? Jot down some notes if you wish so that when you get busy again tomorrow your thoughts don’t get lost in the shuffle. Those notes will also help with the next step, sharing. Yup, reflecting just isn’t enough. You need to share with others. Whether it’s bouncing ideas off of your colleagues in the lunchroom or writing a blog post for the world to read, we all have a story to tell. So tell yours and by doing so you may spark others to share their thoughts and then all can move forward.

Hmmm… guess I need to take a look at my calendar and set up a few appointments with myself! See you at lunch!