A new level of planning nirvana

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About 16 months ago I started to meditate. I wasn't perfect and would miss here and there. I also would go weeks without meditating before I got back to it. But I liked it and really wanted to make it a habit. Then 71 days ago, I started meditating again and I have stuck with it every day for those 71 days. I'm pretty sure I never made it beyond 30 days before. Something would always get in the way. Also, before I did not make a specific time for it and tried to squeeze it in whenever. This time I have a specific time set aside for it and it is part of my daily routine. This makes a huge difference. So what does this have to do with planning nirvana?  Well, it's like this. Since I started meditating I can feel my mind being a whole lot calmer. I don't have all these wild thoughts. I am more thoughtful and deliberate in my thoughts. What that has led to is a more careful planning process. Let me explain.....

In the past, when I would sit and plan entire units, I would do it in a fugue state. I would have all these ideas running around my head and I would pick one or two and use them and then maybe reconsider them and switch them out and on and on. The end result of this would be that I would completely forget what I planned and either not follow the plan or be surprised that I needed some supplies I didn't have and therefore had to change the plan on the fly. I would end up in a giant mess because I would do something then discover I had actually planned something that was way better then maybe switch it up for the third time. It was ugly and I hated it. I was in a constant state of no follow through. It was not just lesson planning but everything in my life was like that. My mind would work at a million miles an hour and I would grab an idea as it sped by but I wasn't committed to the idea.....ugh, it was miserable.

This time has been incredibly different. 6 days ago, I posted about how I had planned out my next chemistry unit. Well, in the past I would have forgotten about it or come up with something better. That has not happened. I have stuck with the plan. I have printed and copied everything I need for that unit and it is all organized in my classroom. I have done the same with AP Chem and AP Bio. The only things I need to do with the APs is to add in a lab to each unit. And I might add a POGIL to AP Chem since I have 2 in AP Bio. Look at that. I have not only stuck with the original plan and not really changed it, but I can even remember it. Generally. Initially, I thought it was because I had just hit on a way that works for me, but the more I think about it the more I am convinced that it is the meditation. It has allowed me to calm my thoughts and to really devote some brain power to some topics that I needed to.  You have no idea how good this feels. I not only have a plan in place, but I have also set it up so that I am ready to use it, and I remember almost all the details of the plan.

This has led to another breakthrough. Because I have the planning down and I don't have to spend time or mental energy on it, I now have time to focus on other aspects of teaching. There are a couple of things that happened last semester that really bugged me. I have come up with a fairly simple way to combat most of them because my planning was in place. Oh, how good that feels. To not only know what I want but to have a plan in place to get it.

So I am in a place of planning nirvana. The things I have put together this break are fairly simple so they should be easy to maintain. I will provide updates as the semester progresses and maybe, just maybe I can move on to creating the kind of lessons I really want to.

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