What Is Working So Far

Here are some things I am trying to do differently for now (the start of the 2026-2027 school year):

Audiobooks. This past year I have really enjoyed listening to audiobooks. When I have an intimidating task, telling myself that "it's time to listen to an audiobook!" makes it easier to start or continue the big task when I would otherwise procrastinate or stop.

Turning off almost all phone notifications. Since I am a mobile teacher who has an office but is rarely in it, I always have my cell phone on me in case someone needs to reach me quickly. However, receiving a notification can be very distracting for me. If I check it, then I tend to be on my phone for a little while after, usually stopping me in the middle of whatever else I was working on, making it harder to return to the original task. Even if I don't check my phone right after I hear (or feel) a notification, it can distract me until I check it. Now, I can still do things like check my email or social media from my phone, but I don't see, feel, or hear notifications from them. I don't even see that I have new messages until I check for them. This has really helped me stay on task with whatever I'm working on. Like I said, I didn't turn off all my notifications, just most of them. If I get a phone call (work or personal), that will still come through. Therefore I have told people to reach me by phone if it's time-sensitive. Otherwise, emails, texts, and other communications? Important but not urgent enough to derail me.

Removing social media app shortcuts from my phone homescreen. To be honest, I had intended to remove social media apps from my phone entirely, but I started by removing the shortcuts from my homescreen. Then I failed to follow through on removing them all the way. But it took me a couple of days to notice this failure. Simply making the apps take more steps to access has significantly reduced the number of times I open them, and the time I spend scrolling on them. Since I realized I could still check them on my phone, I have still done so, but it takes over twice as long to get to them - just long enough for me to wonder, "Is this really what I want to be doing right now?" This slow Saturday morning over coffee? Yes, it was. But most other times this week, no, it wasn't.

Journaling my time in an appointment book. In a post earlier today, I described how I hoped to use writing to help me organize my thoughts, communicate them to myself and others, and reflect. I have a reading journal, a teaching journal, and this blog to use for that. But, I also bought an appointment book. I wanted to use this to help me visualize what I do with my time. I did this because I was concerned I wasn't using my time wisely, both at work and at home. Firstly, I read the book Stolen Focus by Johann Hari over the summer, and learned that when you pre-commit to doing something, you are more likely to follow through on it. So if I budget my time in advance by writing it in my appointment book, I feel more likely to follow through. This is just as true for meetings on my calendar next week as it is for the small chore I've been procrastinating on at home that I just decided to do right now. I don't make myself budget out all my time in advance, though. Sometimes I leave it blank to fill in later. But I do fill it in later. When I catch myself "wasting" my time, I ask myself - do I really want to write this down in my appointment book? If the answer is "no," then I find something else to do that I'll be happier to write down. Sometimes it's less the activity and more the duration. For example, I don't feel bad about playing Mario Kart World with my spouse for a half an hour. To me, that's time well spent, partially because I'm spending it with someone I love. But I do feel differently about playing a browser game endlessly when I opened my computer to do a quick task and then realize I got sidetracked.

I have been keeping this appointment book for two weeks now, and it works pretty well, but I am also already changing how I use it. The pages are organized with eight columns, seven of which are the days of the week divided into 15 minute slots from 7am to 9pm. (The first column has space to record the month, the year, list one's priorities, write any notes for the week, and so on.) Writing in each slot with black pen creates a cramped-looking page that's impressive but also pretty scattered. I was hoping to use this to help me visualize time, spot patterns, etc. Part of the issue is that the first week or so back to work was less structured, with teacher work days before students start coming. The appointment book has been useful for making me realize just how time-consuming certain tasks can be, but I will have to work around a more set schedule when instruction is in full swing. First, I tried to use the pen to "block off" the times of the day when I was going to be somewhere doing something pre-determined. But I am not the neatest person, and even after trying to make a stencil, this didn't look appealing. It was also just more black ink on the page. So I used highlighters to "swipe" the time into color-coded blocks. Some of the color blocks don't take up a whole 15-minute slot, because my instructional time doesn't perfectly align with the appointment book I bought. But this is okay. I just swipe roughly one or two thirds of the slot instead, depending. (I had considered creating a custom appointment book or spreadsheet instead, but I chose against it because of the potential for distraction when using a screened device.)

Anyway, long story short, next week is looking pretty busy, by which I mean it looks busy but at least it also looks pretty, with the color-coded blocked-off times.

(It is my understanding that my appointment book is pretty similar to interstitial journaling, but with a more visual representation of time, which is something I need, but others do not.)

Will I keep using these tools and strategies last all year? If I am being honest, not likely. I have a neurodivergent brain (hence my inability to intuitively understand time) and tools and strategies often work really well for me until they don't. I have tried a lot of systems, methods, and ideas where I had to work for them more than I could make them work for me; these are the ones I abandon permanently. But if it works for me for a while, without a disproportionate amount of maintenance, it's more likely that I might return to it after leaving it for a while. So far these tools and strategies I am currently working with are pretty adaptable, which also increases the likelihood that they'll be better incorporated into my life, even as it changes. Something doesn't have to be permanent for it to be worthwhile.