Summer Self-Care Strategies: Unplug, Recharge, and Revitalize for Educators

Is your summer break truly a break, or does work still creep into your downtime? Learn how to finally unplug and establish boundaries with practical tips designed to help educators rest, recharge, and rejuvenate. In this episode of the Teachers Ed Podcast, I, Edward DeShazer, promise to guide you through four essential strategies to achieve a healthier work-life balance. From setting specific times for checking work emails to turning off those intrusive notifications, discover how to keep your personal time sacred and free from professional interruptions.

Explore the undeniable value of rest and recreation tailored for your well-deserved summer break. I’ll share actionable advice on establishing a good sleep routine, avoiding late nights, and rediscovering hobbies that bring you joy. Whether it's golfing, reading, or simply savoring quiet moments, these tips will help you recharge effectively. With intentional time management, learn how to carve out at least 30 minutes to an hour each day for personal activities, ensuring you maintain well-being amidst busy schedules. Tune in to transform your summer habits into long-lasting self-care routines that will carry you through the school year refreshed and revitalized!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to the Teachers Ed Podcast, a place where the best and brightest in education come to inspire, to connect, to learn and to grow. I am your host, edward DeShazer. Welcome back. After two weeks off, we are back, getting ready for the summer. I was to apologize for my absence. Between traveling, between some events, between wrapping our school year up, just had a lot going on, wanted to make sure I honored myself and honored my obligations. But we are back and I'm back with you. I'm excited to be back today. Most of us are on our summer break. If you are not, thoughts and prayers to you as you finish up these last little bits of school. I think it's unfair for the folks that are working past mid-June. School should be out by then. So we are definitely thinking of you as you finish up the school year. Happy to be back.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Today's episode we are going to be talking about four tips. I'm going to give you four tips for rest and recharge rejuvenation. You know how I feel. If you have listened before. You know I speak very often about my R&R, which is not my rest and relaxation, but it is my recharge routine, and summer is the perfect time for teachers to recharge their batteries. So we're going to jump right in. I'm excited to be back. I hope everyone is doing well. Happy Father's Day to all of my dads that are listening in education. I want to make sure I say that to you all, as this is going to be airing on Father's Day. But let's jump in. Let's talk about the four tips that I have for you for rest and recharging, and the first tip that I have is encouraging you all to unplug from any work related technology. It is very easy, as educators to and I'm one of them in the summer, I like to attend PDs, I like to stay working. People are like you get the summer off and I'm like I don't, because even in the midst of my teaching time and my time in the classroom, I use my summers a lot of times to continue to sharpen my skills as a teacher and as an admin, just because that's what a lot of the conferences are. In the next episode we actually talk about some of the conferences that are out there.

Speaker 1: 2:55

But I think it is important for us to unplug and take a break from work-related technology, whether it's. You know, I'm sure your admins are still sending emails out, but let's take and set a clear boundary with those things this summer. And let me go back we need to set a clear boundary with these things all year. This is not just a summer thing, because I know educators that are checking emails at midnight and 1 am on a Wednesday when they have work the next day, like this just has to be something that we stop in general, because we need to have a clear divide and I also don't think it's possible to really divide work. You know, when they say the work-life balance, because they blend so often, I don't think that there's really ever a divide. But we have to find a way to set clear boundaries to make sure that work is not overflowing into our personal lives. So this summer I'm going to ask you all to Set times when you'll check your work email.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Maybe it's every morning. You start your morning 8 to 9 o'clock. You'll check it. Turn those notifications for your work email off on your phone. I can promise you this this much as a school administrator if I have something that is so important that I need you to answer immediately, I will not be sending it via email. So what you should do set a time 8 to 9 am every morning. That will be my time when I check my work email, you turn those notifications off on your phone and then you check it again the next morning. Because if you're anything like me, when I see the little red bubble above my email, I'm like forced to check it Mentally. I have to get rid of that bubble. So I'm constantly checking that bubble or checking wherever that notification is.

Speaker 1: 5:05

So what I would tell you to do turn those notifications off for your work email. Keep your whatever other ones on. I'm not talking about those. I'm specifically talking about any work related emails. Turn those notifications off. Set a clear time every single day. It I'm specifically talking about any work-related emails. Turn those notifications off. Set a clear time every single day. It does not have to be in the morning. Maybe you're a check your email before night person. Maybe you want to do it noon to one. Whatever that time is, set an hour a day. That is the only time that you will look at your work email, and I'm not saying you need to look at it for an whole hour. Just find a consistent time when you look at that email and other than that, forget about it. I need us to prioritize our self-care. I've said this a million times, over and over and over again. Burnout does not happen intentionally. Burnout happens on accident, because we are not intentional with how we take care of ourselves.

Speaker 1: 5:59

So this summer the best part about summer is it gives you an opportunity to set routines that you will feel bad for missing once school comes back. So let's start setting some of those routines. What are some things that you wish you could do during the school year that you are not able to do because you feel so busy Like? One of them for me, is taking walks. You know getting up in the morning and taking walks. It's hard for me to get up in the morning and take walks during the school year because I get to work at 6, between six and six thirty in the morning every day. So for me to get up and take a walk, that means I have to get up at four o'clock, four fifteen, and a lot of times it's very chilly in the morning being in Wisconsin. But setting that routine now in the summer, when you're able to do it and have time, what that ultimately does is when the school year happens, you will be so used to getting your walk in or getting your workout in or, you know, taking 30 minutes to read a book that you like. Whatever that routine is, you set that practice now so that when school starts you feel bad when you miss it. So you have June, july, part of August to get these in. School comes back. Yes, you're not going to be able to do it at 8 am, 9 am, you know, like you're used to, but your body will be so accustomed to getting that done that you will almost force yourself because now it has become a habit that you do not want to miss. And then maybe when you get home from work, maybe you are someone that can get up at 5 am and knock that out, if you are great. I used to be a 4 am workout person. I would work out an hour before I went to work and then what I found was it just wore me out Like that extra hour of sleep was so much more valuable that I had to shift some things around and find other times throughout my week to work out. Sorry for the interruption.

Speaker 1: 8:12

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Speaker 1: 8:41

The next thing after really establishing a routine and we're still talking about the self-care aspect but after establishing a routine, you know, whatever that is whether it's working out, eating healthy making sure that we get some sleep is important. You know, we don't want to be someone that is, you know, staying up till 1, 2 in the morning all summer, because then when school comes back, it is so hard for you to get back into the routine that you're accustomed to doing. Now. I'm also not telling you that you need to be up at four or five. Yeah, whatever time you normally get up, but let's just establish a good sleep routine so that we're actually recharging our battery.

Speaker 1: 9:27

One of the biggest mistakes that I used to make many years ago this is many, many years ago, not any, not anytime recent was as an educator. When summer came and I knew I had more free time, what do you think I did to fill that free time. I intentionally paused to give you an opportunity to answer that question out loud, but I used to spend all my time drinking, going out and doing all these other things, and then I would almost do that. You know too. Oh man, I wasn't able to during the school year. I'm not able to go out on a Wednesday. Let me go out and grab happy hour on a Wednesday and next thing, you know, happy hour turned into happy night, and it was just a long summer and when school came back you know, august swings around, august swings around I did not feel like I was rested at all because I spent the majority of my time in the summer drinking and staying up and out later than I should have.

Speaker 1: 10:24

So what I am really encouraging you to do and I'm not telling you to not stay out later sometimes go out and have fun. What I'm telling you to do is make sure that you are very, very intentional with really getting the rest that your body needs. As a person, you deserve it. As a mother, you deserve it. As a father, you deserve it. As a friend, you deserve it. Whatever your titles are, you deserve for your body to be able to actually rest and get recharged. The next thing I have finding some hobbies and interests, like what are things that interest you that you can be doing in the summer to just enjoy life. You know, for me, I love to golf. I always say golf is self-care. Golf is something that I spend my time in the summer doing because it makes me relaxed.

Speaker 1: 11:19

It is a time where I'm most times not checking my emails, not answering calls, like I just get away used to do a while ago and you stopped because you've allowed yourself as an educator, to just be an educator Like. You forgot that you used to like doing puzzles. You forgot that you know used to like to knit. You forgot that you you know whatever hobbies and activities that you used to love to do that as you try to become a better educator and you wore yourself thin when it was time for you to have free time. If you allowed yourself to have free time, you didn't do it. You know we spend so much time and I, you know, hats off to all the. I gave the father's shout outs, but also hats off to all the mothers, because what happens so often and I'm learning this, you know with my son.

Speaker 1: 12:23

Being busy in sports is that you know you work all summer, then sports, or you work all school year, then sports consume your summer and you are just busy, busy, busy. But we have to like listen to me If you don't hear or take anything else away from this episode you have to intentionally make time for yourself to do the things that you love to do with the people you love to do them with, and sometimes the people you love to do them with is yourself, whether that is reading a book, whether that is just sitting in your driveway and getting fresh air. Like I understand what it is like to be a parent and to feel overwhelmed after having a full summer of teaching. Now you got to come home and keep your children engaged and do all that. But if you don't make the time, the time will never be there. So it is your job to find at least 30 minutes to an hour every single day. Yes, I am not just saying once a week, I'm telling you to find that time every single day that you can make for yourself to do something that you love to do. And, trust me, there are times for me where it's just sitting in quiet, like you deserve that, but you have to be intentional with that and you have to make the time to do that, because if you don't make the time, the time is never going to be there.

Speaker 1: 13:50

We all have the same 24 hours. I know that you know a teacher that's listening or an admin that's listening that has you know three, four kids. It's much more difficult because your kids are all over the place, but maybe it's working waking up 30 minutes earlier, or maybe it's right after dinner. You're like no, what, after dinner, I'm taking 30 minutes to myself and you set those boundaries with everyone. But when you do that, you have to clearly communicate those boundaries to everyone else around you, whether that is your husband, your wife, your family, whoever that is. Just make it very clear like, hey, you guys, I'm going to go take 30 minutes. I'm going to go in the room During that time, unless it's an emergency, I would just ask that you guys don't bother me, so you can really make sure that you are getting the time that you need. The last and final tip that I have for you all is spend quality time with your loved ones. This is a great time to reconnect with some of those people that you may have not lost contact with but you have drifted from because the school year was so busy. They were so busy. But finding time to spend quality time with those loved ones, take some outings, take your family to the park, whether you're going on walks, take them to the water park. Jump in the car and drive that two hours to that campground and spend some quality time with your loved ones. And while you're doing that, I want to encourage you to, while you're there, have some meaningful conversations.

Speaker 1: 15:21

There was a meme and it wasn't even a meme. Well, it starts as a meme, but then the context was the person. So it was a meme that someone posted and it was a picture of Blockbuster movies and the meme, or the meme, said children these days will never understand what it was like to go to Blockbuster on a Friday night to get a movie, which is very true. Children these days will never understand the excitement that we had as kids. To you know, for me, we used to ride our bike to the mall, the block bus. It was the end cap on the mall and we would go and pick out. You spend 20 minutes there picking out a movie. All the new releases were usually gone because those are gone right away. But that was the meme. It said people never understand, or kids these days will never understand what it was like to go to Blockbuster on a Friday night to pick out a movie.

Speaker 1: 16:18

I said that to say the person that posted the meme went a little further and it made sense. They said it's not that we miss going to Blockbuster and picking out the movie as much as we miss being connected with the people that we love the most, without phones and computer screens and all these other things. Because when Blockbuster was around, once you pop that tape in the tape player yes, I'm dating myself you pop that tape in the tape player, nothing else mattered. You didn't have to worry about your cell phone ringing. Yes, every once in a while that house phone would ring. You didn't need to open up your phone and check Facebook or check Instagram or, oh bing, you got a text coming. People don't miss the actual text coming, like people don't miss the actual. And yes, I'm sure that's like some of it is the nostalgia of blockbuster, but I think what we miss the most is the meaningful connection. So I said all that to say make sure you are making and remaking those connections with your family, with your spouse, with your kids, with, with your parents, with whoever you may have been neglecting that connection with. Now is the time to reconnect that. Again. We're trying to build habits while we have the time, so when we don't have the time, those habits are strong and we do not want to miss out on them. So, again, let me go through these again and make sure I didn't miss any.

Speaker 1: 17:54

First was unplugging from technology. Second, prioritizing self-care, not health care. We ain't doctors, even though, as teachers, we are doctors and nurses so often. Prioritizing self-care. Number three is engaging in hobbies and interests that you enjoy. And number four is spending quality time with your loved ones. Those are four tips. If you're like you know what, that's just a lot. Find one and just do one of those, and I would encourage you to focus on the self-care before the rest, because it's so important that we are taking care of ourselves or the other stuff won't matter. If you are not taking care of yourself, you won't even have a healthy body and a long enough life to make those other things matter. So, as teachers, you deserve it.

Speaker 1: 18:42

You need to spend this time getting back, connected with who you are finding the things you love doing, the things you love doing them with the people you love, because now is the time for you to really recharge your battery, and I know some of you are probably working other jobs. Some of you are working summer school, some of you are nannying, some of you are, you know, some of you are bartending. Some of you doing all these other things because, as we know, you know, the pay for teachers and the amount of work is does not have a the proper correlation that it should have with how much teachers make for the amount of work and stress they take. But now is your time to be intentional with those things that you're doing. So let's get it done, let's re-tap in, let's use these four tips and let's make sure that this summer we take back our summer and we recharge our batteries. That's all we have.

Speaker 1: 19:37

I appreciate you all for tuning in. I will see you next sunday as we begin to talk about professional development opportunities that are taking place that you can find. There's a couple that I'm in, but there's so many across the country. No matter where you are, what your role is in a school, they have them for you. But this week we're focusing on how to recharge ourself. Next week we'll focus on our growth, but have a great day Again. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. I will see you all next week.