Janet came in one morning talking about her book.
The way she talked about it, I could tell she was deep in it. I asked her when she found time to read and she said she had started getting up five minutes earlier. Just five. She kept the book on the breakfast table and read while she had her coffee. That was it.
I stood there thinking about that for a long time after she walked away.
I had told myself for years that time for reading for fun was something I would find later. And here was Janet, same job, same hours, same season of life. Reading. Because she had claimed five minutes that were already there.
She found time. She just decided where it was.
We all have pockets. Small ones. The few minutes before the house wakes up. The lunch that sometimes has a quiet end. The commute. The ten minutes before bed when the phone is too easy to reach for. Watch your days this week. Notice where these pockets are.
Here is something I learned recently that I keep thinking about. When you travel somewhere new, where the sights and sounds and schedule are all unfamiliar, your brain is in a state of heightened neuroplasticity. Nothing is on autopilot. The brain is taking in new information, updating constantly, open in a way it seldom is on an ordinary day. In that state, new habits are significantly more likely to take hold. Anchor a small daily practice to something already happening, after breakfast, before bed, first thing in the morning, and the brain installs it more readily than it would in your normal week.
Summer does that too. The routines shift. Autopilot turns off. And your brain becomes more open to building something new than it is during the rush of the school year.
Just find one pocket of time and one activity to fill it. Maybe that is a book you have been meaning to read. Maybe it is a course you have been meaning to start. Maybe it is five minutes with a lesson inside The Teaching Practice, learning something that will show up in your teaching in the fall.
Pick the pocket. Pick the activity. Tomorrow morning, begin.
Gail
What are you going to fill your pocket with?
If you're looking for a great book...
Check out what's on our breakfast table this summer in our Summer Reading List.
If you're looking to strengthen your teaching...
Spend five minutes a day inside The Teaching Practice. Every lesson builds on the last, so by fall you'll return with new skills already becoming part of your practice.
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