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Transcript

🧘🏼‍♀️From Chaos to Calm: In the Classroom & At Home · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:05
  Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the line
• 0:09
  of writing for teachers. Now, today's episode is very
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  much another one that hits close to home, and it's from chaos to
• 0:19
  calm classroom and home balance. And look, I am not going to
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  pretend that I have this perfect because I do not.
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  It has taken me years to figure this type of balance out and I
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  am still working on it. You've probably heard all of the
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  tips before, but I'm just going to share what works for me.
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  So take it, leave it, adapt it. It's just, it's as easy as that.
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  You don't have to do any of these things.
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  I'm just going to share with you what works for me because maybe
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  something great will resonate with you.
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  But I like to break my life into three parts.
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  Time before school, time at school or work, and time after
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  school. Three things.
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  And when I start looking at my days that way, things to me got
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  a lot clearer at school. I make a list of what actually
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  has to get done there, whether it's testing kids, printing,
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  copying, doing meetings, just all of the non negotiable stuff.
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  And that way I'm not carrying any of that mental load home.
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  And at home, I also make a list because I'm a list human of what
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  is for family, what's for house, and what is for me.
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  And yes, planning downtime is part of the plan.
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  If it's not on the list, it won't happen.
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  That's just honesty. So I'll give you my example
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  routine, not because it's perfect, but because this is
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  what works for me. So I get to work early so that I
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  can smash out my admin tasks and actually leave on time in the
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  afternoons most days. That is because I have kids that
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  need to go to sport. OK, I have a life outside of my
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  job. You all should too.
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  So while they're at training though, I'm not watching if I'm
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  if I'm not watching a game. So say they're actually training
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  and they're not playing a game. If they're playing a game, I
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  will actually watch the game and interact with that because I'm a
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  competitive human. But if they're training, I use
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  that time for myself. So that is reading a book,
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  relaxing, just filling my own cup.
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  Some training sessions are easier because grandparents drop
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  the kids off and I just have to pick up and I go 15 minutes
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  earlier. So I get 15 minutes of
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  uninterrupted, like reading a book time.
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  Easy as that. In the mornings, I wake up
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  early, so I get to work early because I wake up early.
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  I wake up early, I get my workout done and I tick that box
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  before the kids are even awake. And somehow my body thinks that
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  that happens on weekends too. And sometimes it does.
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  But anyway, I get up early. I meditate first, so I listen to
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  a very short 2 to 5 minute meditation.
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  I don't scroll on my phone. I don't do anything like that.
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  I get up, I meditate or I listen to some affirmations and then I
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  do a workout. So yes, I use my phone and watch
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  a screen to do that, but I do a workout so I have moved my body.
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  Once I have done that, I then get ready for my day.
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  So that's when you have your shower, get dressed to all of
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  the things and then I get my kids bags ready for them to
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  pack. I get breakfast stuff organised,
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  then I go and wake the kids up. My kids have tech time in the
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  morning. I own that because it saves my
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  sanity. Honestly, it does.
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  I'm just going to be real with you.
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  Like that's how it works. I pack lunches the night before,
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  so in the morning it is literally just grab and go.
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  They we grab them, we put them in their bags.
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  That's what they do. During this time, when they're
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  eating their breakfast and I'm getting ready for work, I will
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  quite often do my gratitude practise.
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  That's when I sit down and I think about and write down 10
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  things I'm grateful for that day.
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  So I'm starting the day in a positive mindset.
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  It also helps with getting the kids ready because they see me
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  writing, they talk about it too. It's just that type of thing.
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  But yeah, the kids have technology while I'm getting
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  ready for work because that works for us.
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  Their grandparents, as I said, help a lot with pick up in the
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  afternoons, which gives me some breathing room to finish up my
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  day. So they go home, they've left
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  the school grounds because I work at the same school.
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  And then after that I can get some more jobs done before I
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  leave. And then when I'm at home, I
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  don't do school work. Literally The only exception is
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  reporting time, and in that time I allocate specific time to do
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  it. But otherwise, when I am home, I
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  am home. That's it.
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  That took years. It's taken years to get that to
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  happen. But marrying the man that I did,
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  he has also assisted a lot in this process because he gets
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  very angry if I actually do work at home.
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  This time when I'm recording my podcasts is done on a night of
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  the week when my kids actually have swimming.
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  So they are not home. They are off doing their
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  swimming lessons or doing something.
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  And that's when the grandparents and their dad do all of that so
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  that I can do my recording, My scheduling of posts, like all of
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  the things that I need to do for me, for my passion projects gets
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  done when they're not home. And then when they're home, I
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  cook their tea, we have everything ready, we have time
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  together, they go to bed, easy as that.
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  So I am still not doing work when they are home.
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  So another thing, and I'm just going to be real with you, but I
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  don't clean my house. That sounds gross, but I pay
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  someone to do it and I will own that because again, it saves my
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  sanity. I am not spending two hours on
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  my weekend cleaning my house and it would take two to three hours
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  for me to do it to a standard that I'm happy with.
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  I'm not spending that time doing that.
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  I'm going to spend time with my family and time doing stuff that
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  I want to do. So yes, I budget and I allocate
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  and I have ever since I got pregnant with my kids, my
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  husband and I had a conversation when I found out it was twins, I
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  was not cleaning because I did not have that many hours in my
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  life. So I have had a cleaner for how
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  old are my kids, 1010 years. I've had a cleaner for 10 years.
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  That's it. I have someone that I pay to
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  clean my house and I will own that.
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  And if you don't have that and if you can budget for yourself
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  to have that, it is such a blessing.
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  You get so much out of it because you get time back.
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  It's time freedom. And I will pay for that any day
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  of the week. So I own that.
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  Let's just make my life easier. So as I said, on top of my
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  teaching, I run a business and this podcast.
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  So that's when I block out that afternoon for my business.
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  And sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, I need to record
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  things and that's fine. And honestly, it doesn't feel
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  like work. It is actually quite relaxing
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  for me and on a Sunday afternoon, everyone's usually
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  really tired anyway, so the kids and hubby don't really mind if
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  I'm doing that. But the key to all of this is
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  that when I'm at work, I am present at work.
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  I focus on the things that need to get done and if it doesn't
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  get done, guess what? The world does not end.
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  There is a quote that I actually love that it's it's not a very
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  positive quote, but it just makes sense.
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  If you died tomorrow, they'd replace you in a week, so does
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  it really matter? Honestly, just let that sit with
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  you. I think I used to get really
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  offended by people saying this to me, but working for the
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  amount of time that I have and seeing the shortages that we
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  have and how we would like, we would be begging for teachers to
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  teach at the moment. But honestly, if something was
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  to happen and you can't do your job tomorrow, we are just going
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  to find someone to replace you. It is what it is.
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  But can someone actually replace you in your friendship group or
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  in your family unit or in all the things that you do in your
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  life? No, because you are the only you
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  and that is your power. So just remember all of that
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  because the truth is we put so much pressure on ourselves as
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  teachers. So much pressure.
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  But if you are doing your best always, you can't let that kind
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  of thing consume you. You don't have to work till 8/9,
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  10:00 at night lesson planning and doing all the things to then
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  turn up and teach again the next day.
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  You're doing too much if you're doing that.
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  You need to schedule your time. You need to do things wisely.
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  I had deep seated teacher and mom guilt for years learning how
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  to do this process and allocate my time and now I do not have
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  that. You probably get that that
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  jealousy feeling when you see people leaving school.
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  Oh what? How can they go?
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  It's 3:30 and they're walking out the door.
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  How are they prepared for the next day?
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  Honestly, they have used their time wisely and some teachers
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  are amazing at it. But yes, I will get to work at
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  7:30 in the morning when my kids are up a ridiculous hours.
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  Anyway, we are up, we are ready, we are out the door, We get a
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  coffee on the way to school, whatever.
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  That's me. I like that.
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  That's my little treat. We go to school, we get
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  organised for our day, the kids have some tech time.
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  I get organised because when kids are at school, that's when
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  testing needs to happen. So that's when I'm going to do
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  it because I can't test a kid or talk to that kid when they're
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  not at school. So I need to do the things that
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  require physical human beings to be there when they're there.
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  And then the other times is my admin time.
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  So that's what I do and I work that out and I work around all
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  of that. My big tip for you though,
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  something really important is to make sure that your family and
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  your friends are on board with your schedule.
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  Share your schedule, get everyone in the in the loop so
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  you're not carrying all of this alone.
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  And most importantly, guard yourself.
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  Care time with your life, with your life.
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  Because if you don't have that time, you won't have a Life, OK,
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  because your cup is going to be empty.
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  Go back onto my Instagram, have a look.
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  Now I have got ideas and reminders about self love and
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  self care and quotes for you to go back to.
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  They're not there just because they look pretty.
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  I have spent time, effort and energy creating those posts so
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  that you see them and go, oh, Mel's trying to remind me that I
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  need to take care of myself today.
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  Because you need to do that because you need to fill your
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  own cup first in order for you to do anything else with your
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  life. So please make sure you are
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  guarding that time. As I said before I share we have
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  a shared calendar in our family like we use the Time Tree app.
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  We share that amongst us so everyone can see where everyone
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  needs to be and when so that we can protect and guard our time
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  wisely. So if I have scheduled in and
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  for me this is myself care like a hairdressing appointment in
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  the school holidays, my mom can see that on the app and goes
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  Yep, OK cool. I need to have the twins from
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  this time to this time because Mel's having self care time.
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  That's it. It's as easy as that.
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  If my husband books in time off from work, that goes in the time
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  tree calendar so everyone knows when he's got a roster day off.
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  Oh Yep, he could do those jobs for us today because he's got
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  that day off. He doesn't need to do it when
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  he's working a long day because we've scheduled that in already.
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  So it's all of those things that come.
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  And I'm a very, very organised human being and I love this type
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  of thing. This is my niche of being
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  organised. I just love to do that.
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  So that's all of my little bits and chicks of handy bits of
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  information about having a bit of classroom and home balance
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  and how to do it all. Because you can't be thriving in
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  chaos. You just can't.
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  If you've got chaos at home and chaos at work, it just doesn't.
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  It doesn't work. And if you've got calm at work
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  and chaos at home, you will still come to work frantic and
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  frazzled. You need to have a balance in
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  both. So you'll need to put some
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  effort and work into doing those things and scheduling your times
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  so that you can make it work. Do a brain dump in the morning
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  if you have to. Just get a piece of paper and
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  write down all the things that are in your head that you think
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  you need to do today. Then prioritise them and go, OK,
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  these are all the things I need to get done at home.
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  These are all the things I need to get done at work.
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  These are the things that really actually need to be done.
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  So I'm going to focus on those today.
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  That's what you need to do. If it works for me, it might
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  work for you. Give it a try and see how you
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  go. But don't let all of those to do
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  lists consume you and guard yourself.
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  Care time with your life. So if you're feeling like you
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  are stuck in chaos right now, just start small.
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  Break up your day into parts. Make lists yard your downtime
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  and you will be absolutely amazed at how much karma your
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  life will feel when you just stop trying to do everything all
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  the time. When you're looking at all of
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  your to do lists, think about if that is a task that you alone
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  have to do, or can it be reallocated, especially if it's
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  at home? Are you the one that has to
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  continue to play bin Jenga and empty the bin, or can you get a
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  child or other human being to do that job for you?
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  I don't clean my house because I allocate that job to somebody
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  else. Is there some things that you
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  could allocate to somebody else or allocate some time elsewhere
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  in your week, All of those types of things?
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  OK, think about that. Stop trying to do everything
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  yourself. I did that for years, I got
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  burnt out. Learn from my mistakes please
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  and meditate. Take some time out for you and
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  to focus. So if you are currently in a
• 14:11
  really big state of chaos and unsteady you need to do some EFT
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  tapping. If you don't know what that is,
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  ask me and message me I will show you.
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  Do some meditation, do some nervous system regulation.
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  That's what you need to work on to help calm yourself so then
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  you can actually process what's going on.
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  So lots of things in there. Lots of Nuggets of wisdom, I
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  hope. Thank you for hanging out with
• 14:36
  me today. And if this episode has helped
• 14:39
  you, please share it with a friend.
• 14:41
  Someone might need this reminder too.
• 14:43
  Remember that you are more than your job.
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  You deserve calm and balance and joy in your life and if no one's
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  told you this today, you are amazing.
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  You are loved and you are so valued.
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  So please don't ever forget that.
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  You are valued at home and you are valued at work, but there is
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  only one you and that is your power.
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  So Please remember that. Have a most had the most amazing
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  day, afternoon, week, wherever you are up to.
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  And I'll talk to you again soon. Bye, guys.