On Drudgery

As the next school year approaches, I am reminded of this simple fact: 

You don't have to enjoy a task to be good at it.

Too often, when I encounter people who learn I am a teacher, they make comments regarding the "passion" I must have for the job, and that it must require a great bit of "dedication," etc. Passion and dedication most certainly do exist for some career teachers. Even as I write the words "career teachers," I catch a snort in my throat. 

I've been teaching for 20 years, and I don't consider myself a "career teacher." 

That's because, I think, I stopped enjoying it long ago. Passion never really existed for me in the job. Dedication, not really. Curiosity? Maybe. Advocacy? Definitely. Creativity? Most assuredly. 

It was probably the creativity that stuck with me. And with recent (within the last 10 years) developments in education, the creativity is completely gone from teaching. Just gone. Curricula are structured, and teachers are expected to teach it and keep up. Yes, meeting individual student needs does take some creativity. 

It's not the same as it was before. 

Now, don't get all weepy and lament, "Oh, Amy! You really must get out if you don't like it! Think of the CHIIIIILLLDREEEEN!" The children? They have never been the problem with my enjoyment of teaching. Never. They are the challenge, they are where the creativity comes from, and they have such an amazing energy. I enjoy my time with the kids. I really do. 

This helps me get through my day. So many teachers around me say, "If they would just leave me alone and let me teach my kids." The kids are the most enjoyable part of teaching. 

But the reason I'm doing the job today is not because of children. Shocking, I know. It's because I am stuck in a system that pays me just enough that I can't afford to get hired anywhere else, and entices me to stay with a nebulous agreement called "retirement." I'm stuck. The risk I would take for my family by leaving is just too great right now. 

How do I keep on? How do I continue to show up, every day, and do a great job? (Not just a good job, folks. I kick ass.) 

It's because of a very important business skill. Tenacity. 

That's it. Tenacity. I keep showing up because the public school system will not win. It will not break me. It will not take my creativity and spark and energy from me. It will take my time---that's the trade. I'm trading my time and skill and talent for money. 

And that's ok. 

I learned tenacity in my childhood, when I was presented with the task of hulling strawberries. My dad had a rather large strawberry patch in the garden, and he would spend a lot of time out in the heat, squatting in the garden, picking strawberries. I would then have to hull them. I would dump the gallon bucket of strawberries into the sink, run water in the sink so they were soaking, and would cut the tops off each one. I would then cut each one in half (or quarters, depending on size), and place them in a bowl. 

It felt like I stood there for hours on end, hulling/cleaning strawberries. I'm sure it wasn't that long, but that's drudgery. Time stands still. And oh, how I hated that job. 

Why did I do it? Obviously, I wanted to eat the strawberries. And it was a fair trade. Dad always said, "You don't have to clean them. But if you don't clean them, you don't get to eat them." Since I wanted the reward of the fruit, I put in the work. 

Today? You should see me with a pound of strawberries. A pound? Shoot, that's 5 minutes of work. Not even work, if it's only 5 minutes. BRING IT. 

My hands know exactly what to do. The muscles in them are perfectly trained to slice the top off a strawberry and slice it in half, drop it into a bowl, and pick up the next one. I barely have to look. 

That's teaching, for me. I know exactly what I'm doing, and I go in and kick ass doing it. I don't have to like it to do a good job. And I'm trading my skills for money (just like I did for strawberries). 

In business, tenacity is an amazing skill that I think you should hone. And it often comes from drudgery. Do the repetitive work that needs to be done. Or hire it out, if you want, but you are paying for it in any case. Keep at it, and it will become easier. 

And when it does, your creativity will kick back in. Which is what I'm finding for myself. 

Stay tuned. 

Summer Update

Let's see how I did on my list for summer:

• I will continue to gain private label clients for my handmade soap business.
• I have begun work with one client, and I'm still communicating with another. 
• I will rewrite my three books on soap making.
• This has not yet happened.
• I will ghost write a book on roller skate maintenance.
• This is happening right now! 
• I will sell my roller derby necklaces at Rollercon and have the time of my life, for one week.
• Oh, how this happened. THIS HAPPENED! I did have an amazing time, made some great contacts (one of whom has already called me), and paid for my trip entirely. It was very successful.
• I will travel home to Iowa for 5 days, and visit my family. 
• This is done! It was also a great time--fantastic to see my parents, and my sister and her kids. My brother, as well. 
• I will garden, exercise, skate, swim, and generally relax.
• Lots of exercise, lots of skating, lots of swimming. Not so much gardening, but sometimes you have to let things go, in order to relax at all.
• I will work for a friend on her new project. Top secret!
• This continues. Top secret!

Overall, my summer has flown by, and has been very busy. My focus was on the roller derby necklaces for a long time, and now I can back off of that a little bit and focus on my writing.

My writing. 

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching the past couple of days. It's hard to jump in with both feet when your family depends on you for all finances, but I'd like to. I'd really, really like to just jump in and be a full-time business writer, author, and crafty diva. I would love for my life to be all of my choosing, and not someone else's. And then I remember: I choose to have a full-time job. 

I could quit. What would that mean for my family? 

Over the next couple of days, I will make a new list, for fall. Pushing forward is the only way that I see to ensure progress toward my goal of complete self-employment. Will this be my last year as a public school teacher? 

Time: Crush It Like a Bug

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Don't crush that bug, though. She's cute.

Today's lesson is about using your time wisely. It's not about time management, however. It's about time choices.

"What's the difference?" you might ask, and I might answer. In fact, I will answer.

Time management is about scheduling every minute of every day, and sticking to a schedule. It's about having a Plan B in case other schmucks don't manage their time well enough and screw your schedule over. It's about filling up 8 hours in your day.

Time choices, on the other hand, recognize that 8 hours of your day might need to be allocated for work, and might not need be. Furthermore, it's best not to. Some of us can't anyway.

Let me explain.

I have a full-time job. I am required to attend this job from 7am-3pm, 5 days per week. It's a 40-hour job. Fine. I also own a soap business and a publishing business. I must also tend to my child and talk to my husband on occasion. Maybe we'll have a meal together--you don't know! It could happen.

So, how do I get all the work done that needs to be done for a full-time job and two businesses? I decide how my time will be used and I crush that business work time like a bug.

You must give yourself short deadlines, and focus during short bursts of production.

Do not give yourself 3 days to do your taxes. Give yourself 4 hours, and smash it out. Schedule that time, and stick to it. Turn your phone off (not on vibrate, TURN IT OFF), close your office door, get someone else to take care of the kid, and focus on that one thing.

Give that one thing everything you've got, for that short amount of time.

Do not answer emails! Turn off the web browser. TURN IT OFF!

Do not answer texts or phone messages. How did you get that text anyway? Your phone was supposed to be OFF.

Do not wander around the room or the house or whatever building you're in. Do not talk to anyone (unless your task involves talking to one person).

Your assignment: Practice this skill with the next small or big project you have. Give yourself an amazingly small deadline, and stick to it. Crush that time like a bug, focus tightly on that one thing, and see what happens. If you got that project finished in 1/4 the time you thought you needed, that means

you have just freed up 75% of your time to do the things you enjoy.

Please report back on your accomplishments with this, and your goal-setting from the other day, in the comments.

Goal-Setting

"Women at Work" from the Library of Congress.

Things don't happen fast enough for me. I have learned this about myself, and accept it. Much of my business life involves doing one or two small things every day, working toward the larger goal.

It's all I can do. I have learned a couple of tricks, however, to get more done, faster. (More on that in another post.) I have also learned how to accept the slow progress of things.

Listen, folks. I have a full-time job. I have a soap business. And I have a publishing business. And I'm a mom. And I'm married. All of this combines into one word: hellabusy. Most of my friends know not to complain to me about how busy they are, because they aren't. They don't know from busy. I have one friend who actually has said to me, "I can't talk to you very often because when I do, it makes me feel guilty for what I'm not accomplishing. You just do so much."

Her problem, not mine, but that means I don't get to interact with her as often. Whatever. Her loss. And what does that mean about our friendship?

I don't have time to think about silly things like that.

Back to the point: goal-setting. I recommend what Tim Feriss (my productivity guru) says to do for daily goals:

Have two. Write down exactly TWO things that will make your day feel productive, if they get accomplished. Two things, and that's it. When you are done with those two things, your goals for the day are completed. After that, you can do what you like, and know that your progress is forward, not backward.

For long-term goals, this is what I have done. I write down specifically what I want to accomplish, and specifically when I want it done. I have broken down my huge publishing project into 4 different goals:

• When to launch (the exact day), and with how many books
  
• How much money I want to make each day (the exact amount!)
  
• How much money I want to make in a year.
• Having an exact amount of money in the bank, in order to become completely self-employed.

I have set these goals very high. "But Amy," you say, "what if you don't reach them?" So what? So what if I don't reach them? At least I will have made progress. Far more progress than if I hadn't set any goals at all.

What if I do reach them? What if I reach them faster than I thought I could? What if that happens?

There is no point in entertaining "what ifs." Set the goal, and get to work.

Your assignment: Set two daily goals, and complete them before you do anything else.