Rest (from The Introvert Teacher)

In today’s busy world, rest is highly neglected. For many people, it has come to a point where if they are not doing any work or are not being productive, they feel like they are being a disappointment.

 Always remember: If you are not taken care of, you cannot take care of others.

 Rest is not merely sleeping or lying on a sofa or bed with your eyes closed, though these are essential to your well-being. Rest is taken when you are away from interruptions and distractions. It is taken when you are in a place of peace and, often, quiet.

 As an introvert, it is deeply important to be rested as this is where your energy comes from. You cannot hope to last very long if you are on your feet, around people for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.

 Learning to cope with busy times will help you to get more out of yourself without breaking yourself down.

 1) Wherever you work, find a place where you can be on your own

This could be an empty storeroom, your own private office – lucky you, a nearby park or even a bathroom cubicle.

 2) Go to your quiet place when you start to feel frazzled

 Take time out whenever you need to. There is no need to apologise for this.

 3) Get enough sleep

 Sleep is absolutely necessary for your body to rest and recover from the wear and tear it experiences on a day-to-day basis.

 We have all read the articles of how much sleep the average person needs. Remember, though, that some of us need more and some of us need less. Figure out your number and get that amount.

 As always advised, use the bed for its primary purpose: sleep. Do your work at a study table and keep your smart devices away from you when you are in bed.

 4) Tune-out, Self-encourage, Tune back in

 This is one of my most valued techniques. There will be times when you have an unavoidably busy schedule. Perhaps you have 4 hours of back-to-back sessions and each session requires you to explain a lot of information.

 Work a lull into your session. Perhaps you can get everyone to write something down, read a couple of paragraphs of their notes or books on their own, play a quick video or engage in a short few-minute-long discussion – though this produces a fair bit of noise and I do not recommend it for this purpose.

 In the most desperate of scenarios, I have created a lull simply by walking silently towards the board from where I was in the middle of the room.

 During this lull, tune-out for as long as you are able to and say something encouraging to yourself along the lines of, “you can do this!”, “they are engaged so well done you!”, “halfway through!” or even “only a while more and you can have a break”.

 Repeat the self-encouragement a few times – silently or your learners will think you are crazy – then keep silent for a second or two longer.

 Finally, tune back in and continue the session.

 This has helped me tremendously many times and I highly recommend it. In fact, some of you may already be doing this.

Lessons From My Book Cover

My book cover is almost ready. There are just a few little tweaks to make and it will be finalised. 

I wonder how much anguish the design team had to go through to accommodate my very particular requests. Despite this, they have done a fantastic job.

I've learned a few things through this:

1) Specific instructions give much better results

I noticed that when my instructions were even slightly vague, the draft cover did not turn out the way I imagined. With more specific, sometimes seemingly ridiculously so, instructions, the drafts get much closer to what I imagined.

2) Effective communication is two-way

We hear this all the time but this experience really cemented it for me. Things became easier once we were able to hear each other think and receive feedback at the same time. This was often done through Skype calls and communication was much clearer when there is feedback, even if it is just a repeat of what you just said.

3) Attitude counts

The design team was ever polite and encouraging even when I wanted to do major overhauls or went MIA for periods of time. For this, I am deeply impressed. Their positive attitude makes me want to work with them for the long-term and, I think, in any industry, this is the way it should be.

Writing Once Again

Finally winding down from four months of incredible busy-ness, I now have more time to get back to writing The Introvert Teacher.

Try as I might, I found it difficult to focus on writing while my mind was constantly occupied with lesson planning and preparation. 

I finally figured that it is better to simply stop writing and pick it up again when I become less busy instead of constantly worrying that I had not written much while I was preoccupied. By worrying, I found myself being unable to focus on either my lessons or my writing. Consequently, the quality of both suffered.

This reminded me of an article I came across that insisted that, contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking was detrimental to efficiency. It proposed focusing upon and finishing one task at a time. This was sage advice.

Yet another reason that supports my belief that popular belief is often erroneous.

Under the Microscope - Lessons from Microbiology

Being a student and teacher of the biological sciences has affected the way that I see the things around me. Microbiology - the study of micro-organisms - has done so in an especially large way.

Aside from the fact that I am now acutely aware of the omnipresence of micro-organisms, microbiology has taught me to take time to appreciate the little things in life, to analyse them carefully and to see the importance of the unseen.

Perhaps I will expand on each of these points in the next few posts. In the meantime, let's get back to this.

I learned to use a microscope in Primary School. It was a simple one that used a mirror to direct light through the sample. It worked reasonably well. I viewed bits of dust, bugs and hairs that I found on the ground. I saw things that I never knew existed and this got me interested in the little things that make up the greater whole.

This interest now extends beyond living creatures into situations, people interactions and even macro photography. It may be a stretch to say so, but I am starting to believe that my ability to notice little things started from that first experience.

I believe our traits and abilities have been honed over the years by practice and experience. Many of these traits must have started somewhere. Where would you say yours started?