Episode 008 - Reconceptualizing Waste with Christine and Tammy

In today’s episode, we discuss how reconceptualizing waste can help us declutter our work and our lives. We recognize and discuss different types of waste we need to combat. Today’s pare down pointer is about making sure you are not taking your work home with you!

Today's episode sponsor is Professional Learning Partnerships. They empower educators to transform learning, leadership, and culture in school districts by leveraging key ideas from brain science, so that all students and adults can thrive.
Contact Julia at PLP on social media:
Twitter: @julia_skolnik
Instagram: @proflearningpartnerships

Transcript

In today's episode, we discuss how reconceptualizing waste can help us declutter our work and our lives. We recognize and discuss different types of wastes we need to combat. Today's pare down pointer is about making sure you're not taking your work home with you. Hello, and welcome to the minimalist educator Podcast. Today. Tammy and I are talking about reconceptualizing waste. Thanks for being here with me, Tammy.

Anytime, Christine. I love our conversations, especially when we're talking about reconceptualizing something.

Yes, absolutely. Even if it is trash and waste. So yeah, so we do often think about waste in terms of trash in terms of unwanted items. So we do want to encourage people today to expand our thinking about waste. So how can we do that? And how can we think about how waste manifests itself in our work in education?

I think manifest is a really powerful word here because it feels like it does manifest. Because because there are just so many things that in whatever role you're in, like you could be a paraprofessional or a teaching assistant, teacher, coach, Administrator, Superintendent, whatever, there's just this manifestation of stuff that collects maybe not a consistently within your role, right. But like think when you start a new role, there's so many things to learn and sort through and figure out and not saying it's all like waste, or trash or anything like that, but it's a lot of stuff. And then you get, then you kind of get into, you know, a bit of a roll in your roll like a, you know, get some momentum going, you've learned some things and then you start uncovering a bunch of stuff that's just unnecessary. And at the beginning of a roll, I think it's kind of nice, not knowing what you don't know, right, the things that have been sitting there, perhaps in that we're sitting with the person that was in the role before you, or yeah, it's just kind of not knowing those things. So you can kind of have come in with a fresh idea of what might happen. And, and form your own kind of conceptualization of what going to be. So when we think about waste, we usually think of physical waste. And we all encounter that in our spaces, right? So we all have an office, or we all have a classroom, we all have some physical space that we work in. And this is a type of waste that we can all connect to. We all have been in spaces where there's stuff in there that we don't need, and it it causes us to physical clutter causes stress and anxiety. So there's a bunch of research behind that the physical environment and how that impacts our mental health. And we kind of overlook that, sadly. So when we, when you move classrooms or move into a new office or something, people always leave stuff behind. Okay, I won't say always, most of the time, mice are stuff left. Yeah, yeah, that's all the time. Yeah. And that, knowing that you're bringing your own things into that physical space is one thing, right? Because you got to pack it up and move it in, figure out, like organize it, decide where it's all going. But when you're having to navigate someone else's physical stuff that's been left behind that doesn't have any meaning for you. Or maybe not yet. Like maybe there's some things that you will eventually need and have purpose but it is so stressful. And we just like kind of push it off as a non issue. So that kind of mental waste that stems from physical waste is really everybody in education experiences that everyone huh? I'm confident in saying all that every educator has encountered that. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Because yeah. And then on top of that, as you're talking about that I'm thinking about, yes, you, you may have inherited physical waste in your room, and then you're bringing your own in. But then you also have the 2030 students in the room as well, who may be creating or bringing in additional physical waste as well. So there's, there's a lot of a lot of stuff to deal with. Yeah, in the room,

for sure. And you had mentioned to in your question about, like, expanding our thinking about it, about waste and how it manifests. And I think that we, I mentioned the discounting of the mental clutter that we encounter because of physical clutter. But that's not always the case, either. There's lots of kinds of wastes that we encounter in our roles. And we'll, you know, we'll break down a bunch that we talked about in the book too, and, and we just overlook them, sadly. And like, it really takes a mental toll on us as educators like, we wonder why we're so tired. At the end, not even the end of the school year. But you know, you think of like, even in the quarters, like October, there's like a slump, where we just, we've kind of like come off this high of like starting the school year, and then you kind of realize, like, all the stuff that's happened to you, and setting things up, and then you know, it's a rough time of year, and then the countdown begins right after that for winter break. Yeah, you know, like, you're just like this, this perpetual cycle of tiredness. And that's not just from being in a cluttered physical space, but that mental exhaustion from, like, the emotional bit of stuff that we carry with us all the time, because like you said, there's 20 or 30 kids in a classroom. And everybody's got something they bring in with them. And it's positive or negative, right? Yeah, they're bad. But it's energy. And we have to maintain our own energy in some way. Right. So if we're emotionally and psychologically on all the time, it's just, if we don't have a way to, like siphon it, or compartmentalize it, there's just all of this baggage sitting there. You know, and like, we hear about like, emotional baggage from like, personal relationships, and yeah, family stuff and all of that. But that's real in schools to like, it's tiring. Yeah, for sure. really tiring.

I mean, you we hear terms like care, fatigue, and decision fatigue. And I think those are absolutely the truth when it comes to the work that we do. It's very much the case that we are caring about our students, not not just their academic performance, but their well being and their health, etc, as well. And so we are expending a lot of our emotional energy in caring for all of those young people. And we are making a lot of decisions every day. I think it's really hard for people to fathom, just what is going through teachers heads when, when the constant like, what's the time, how long till the next break? All right, I've got this much time, how much can I get done? What did they just asked me? Let me answer that now that person's asking that over there. Do I deal with that person with the scissors? Or do I deal with that person with the glue stick? You know, there's there's decisions that are happening constantly? Every every hour of the day when you're with those students? And I think, you know, a lot of it is needed. It's not all waste. breakings I think there are things happening in our work place that are adding to that that are unnecessary. That That means that it it does tip over into into waste, I think, would you agree with Yeah,

yeah, I agree. If there are some decisions that we can hand over or not have to make at all, then yay. Right. So even even as a teacher, you know, think about all the decisions you're making for your students when you don't need to so like, how do you hand some of that over to them? And this is like a whole other big conversation and like multiple episodes, whatever about like, transference of responsibility and student agency, but if you don't need your student and you know any age kindergarten, or high school All, or even like a colleague Right? Like, if you don't need them to ask you the question because everybody's got a way to figure it out without asking you. And that's great, because it's one or two less decisions or questions you have to answer. And that just reduces. It's noticeable. Like when you're, when, even and I hate to say this, but when there's certain students out sometimes like the question askers, or the the ones that need a little bit more attention, and if they're not there for a day, it's noticeable how much more energy you might have, and you don't have to tend to some of the, that extra effort and energy you have to give, for sure. And this, even as adults, right, even as adults, it's noticeable with like, the amount of energy you need to give someone to like, listen to what's happening, which we need to do, we you know, as, as colleagues, we have to put the time and the care into each other, for sure. But you can definitely feel when there are certain people that just use more of that. And, yeah, it just becomes this kind of waste pattern where you're just constantly giving it and it's not necessary, maybe

that's it, yeah. And it makes me think as well, I can't remember the name of the book that I read this, and now it's just gonna annoy me, but I remember reading in a book, and they were talking about a job that they had previous to education, and the difference in you have a bad day at work in another profession, you've just had a bad day. But if you have a bad day, as a teacher, so often, you feel like a bad person. So we have gotten so we've got so much emphasis on on our job and, and being wrapped up in our identity, that we're putting all of this on us. And like how fatiguing is that when we're when we're, you know, aligning a bad set of experiences without, you know, morals or virtues as a human being, you know, like, that's a lot of emotional energy that we're expending in our work.

Yeah, and I think that crosses over into like, another kind of waste, which is time waste. And, and we talk a lot about our use of time and, and how it teachers always feel like we just, there's just not enough time to like, cover all the content or like spend enough time with each kid and do all the things that administrators are asking us or, or districts or whoever, right, like wherever they things are coming from. But you and I talk about how like some better uses of time. So do you want to share about like time blocking? And like, kind of that time protection? A bit?

Yeah, I mean, you hear a lot when people are talking about productivity about blocking out time. And sometimes I get a little frustrated with with that commentary, because we're not in charge of our day. As teachers, you know, somebody else makes a schedule that's based on you know, when people are at work, or when the gyms available, or you know, all these other factors that have nothing to do with when you are at your most productive. But I think, where we can do some, some blocking some chunking of time, it's really useful. You know, one of the things that that has really resonated with me and my work is like the the time chunks and the time confetti. And so sometimes not very often, but sometimes in our day, we have just five minutes here or 10 minutes here where we can get something done before the kids come back or, you know, before you've got your meeting, and having your to do list categorized into what's going to take longer. And what can be done quickly, can be really, really helpful so that when you have that five minutes you're not kind of paralyzed into, there's so much to do, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to start, you've actually got a list of I could do these really quickly. Let me jump on one of them right now. And then so when you do have a longer planning block, or you have some scheduled time before or after school, or however you work in your day, you can then tackle the bigger the bigger items that are going to take a larger chunk of time. So that's one of the one of the tips that we've been talking about. As far as time waste. How about you what works for you?

I feel like yeah, like you mentioned those little things I take up they're kind of like time suckers, right like checking your email and checking direct message. Is and level. So something that I did to sort of protect my time. So I wasn't spending as much time doing that maybe I made a folder on my phone that's called Daily app check. And so I have, in order, kind of of importance, I guess, a few apps in there that I check every day. And I've tried to minimize, like, the time that I'm checking those, I haven't been as consistent, but at least I'm going to that one, that one folder, and I check my email first. And then once I've checked all those, then I go to the next app and check those. And it really doesn't take me that long then because I'm not like swiping through my phone, I'm not distracted by like, other apps and like fiddling around or anything, I just do those in order. And then then I'm done. Right? So it's, it's it's gone from like, you know, what would have been like 20 or 30 minutes of like, love a lot of time on here. It's now like five or 10, depending on what's in there. And, yeah, it makes a difference. And I know that some people are against like checking your email some things before you get out of bed or like first thing in the morning. But I find for me mentally, and just timewise like it, it helps me to do that right away, just to give me an idea of like how I might need to spend my time later. So if there's like a chunk of emails that I do need to respond to, I know they're there, I'm not going to respond, like I don't ever respond to anything right away. Because it is a protection of time, right? Like, I'm just opening it, to see what's there. So that mentally I know that I'm going to have to do that later. And that's just how I need to operate. Because otherwise, I'm going to spend my time thinking about why I need to check my email, I should really check it. Because I get obsessive about those things sometimes. Yeah. And, and so I just would rather know, like, what's sitting there, and then I know that I can free up my mind. And again, that's like mental waste, right? Or like, that emotional stuff sitting in there. That's like nagging at me. And it doesn't seem like a big deal. But I know we all experience it. Like that's why we check our phones all the time. Because it's in our head. It's in our head, and it's in our head. So So

you know, pretty lights and bells and alarms and things.

Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So I all my notification things are off.

Okay, so we've talked about the physical waste, we've talked about the emotional waste and time waste that's going on. So our last big category of waste is the economic waste. And I think, you know, this might feel a little bit strange, because, you know, how can we have waste when our budgets are so thin in schools. But I think when we really stop and reflect about it, there is some economic waste going on, for example, jumping in headfirst to a new program or a new tool and buying the resources, sending everyone off for the training, only to discover shortly afterwards that it does not meet our needs. And we have to abandon that and bring something else in and we've just wasted all of that. Time. And money. Yes. So can you think of some other examples of where we might see some economic waste in our schools?

Yeah, I feel like the economic part is sometimes just, it ties into timing, right? So sometimes schools get their budgets, and they have enough time to figure out like how they need to spend their money, which is great. But there are times when it's like, maybe additional, like federal funding for something comes up. It's like you have to spend this by you know, in two weeks, so make a decision because otherwise, like, you know, and so sometimes that rush to just find something to spend the money on was stressful. And, you know, like schools are always looking at stuff anyway. So they probably have a list of things in mind. But when you can't necessarily align it to your strategic plan, or whatever your school improvement goals are or whatever, and that's, again, a different conversation. But you, you need to be able to like, have that in mind so that when those kinds of situations do come up, it's like we do we'd have this funding we need to use it quickly. It is helpful when you know you can only use it for certain things like professional learning, which is great, but again, then do you have the right amount of time to like strategic Like, strategically pick the right learning for who's in front of you, or are you just going to blanket like, we're all going to do this training? Or is that individualized? So, and we know that the issues with just giving everybody the same training or experience when it's not necessarily needed. And I think that's why sometimes it's great if schools are having the option to hire people who can help them do things better with what they're already doing. And that's, that's exactly what we talk about all the time when we're talking about bringing principles of minimalism into our schools, like this is not a program. Right? This is like changing the way we think about something. We're changing the way we think about all of the wastes that we have in our schools. And so if we can have someone or a team or you know, whatever, come in and help us reconceptualize or reimagine, rethink the things that we're doing right now, instead of buying the next program, if we have that option, then that's the investment investment that should be made, right? Because you're investing in the people, you're investing your time and money into the people that are in front of you. Yeah, rather than, we just gotta buy this new program. And I know that sometimes you, like schools don't have the choice, because there's an update in curriculum, and you have to update your program, you know, we're not talking about that. But even when you do have to have some kind of specific program update, who's helping you do the updating, and the understanding of what it is that's in front of you, or what the change is, right? So I'm always like a big believer in the people resource, and like having the right people help you do the things that are just going to make the best change for you. Or with you, I should say, not for you. Yeah, and I think that eliminates a lot of waste. I agree

with you. And adding on to that, I think one thing we might not always think about is, is the cost of having high turnover. You know, when we when we employ people at schools, like there is some money being outlaid on on that person, as far as you know, maybe moving there, or at least the orientation and the training and all of that sort of thing. And so if you have a workplace where people don't want to stick around, because they're burning out, or they don't like it that miserable, you're actually wasting finances, they're by continually having to bring in and train up new people over and over again. So if you can actually have a workplace where people want to be, and they're happy and excited and meaningfully challenged, then you're saving yourself going through that process over and over again. Yeah, exactly. So I think we can move on to our wonderful pare down pointer for today. What do you think?

I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

So we really wanted to highlight today, just while we're talking about waste, is the importance of having some sort of decompression ritual, between work and home. So sometimes that emotional waste for psychological waste. We don't leave it at work, we bring it home with us. And it has that impact on our family time, or our home time. So having some sort of ritual that you do that makes it sound like it has to be like a big performance or something, doesn't it but we don't mean it like that. It can literally just be your walk home, sitting in your car for five minutes before you get into your house or before you leave the car park even just some sort of tradition that you have that is going to help your brain and your body recognize that you're no longer at work. And now it's home time. It's relaxed time. It's family time. So yeah, definitely. For me, it's it's walking. I walk home every day and just having that moment to look at the trees and the leaves in the flowers. It's springtime here at the moment. So there's flowers everywhere. And just taking that little walk home as a decompression moment is is really helpful for me. Do you have one that you use yourself, Tammy?

I also walk a lot and it's usually in the mornings when I can to kind of mentally prepare myself for the day so I use it as a mental preparation. But I did the same as you Like when I taught in New York, I would walk home a couple of miles through Central Park. Because I needed to, like unpeople myself. Yeah. Right. Like, you know, you're around people, you're around that high energy all day long. And it was just really nice to like, I often took the subway to but on some days, I just needed to be outside, walk, be with my thoughts. I wouldn't even listen to music or anything. Just like listen to the sounds of the city. And by the time I got home, then I was good. Like, I felt like I had decompressed enough to not feel like I had to think about being at work the next day. So yeah, walking walking is like, just good medicine.

Yeah. 100% agree earlier that Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the best. Okay, well, that wraps it up for us for this episode, and we will see you next time.

Today's episode sponsor is professional learning partnerships. They empower educators to transform learning leadership and culture in school districts by leveraging key ideas from brain science, so that all students and adults can thrive.

Be sure to join Tammy and Christine and guests for more episodes of the minimalist educator podcast. They would love to hear about your journey with minimalism, connect with them at plans EPLS on Twitter or Instagram. The music for the podcast has been written and performed by Gaia Moretti.