I’ve struggled with a number of organizational things in my life. When I was a kid, my backpack was a mess, and I never knew when anything was due, never studied for tests or quizzes and never knew when anything was happening. I’ve addressed many of these issues through systems that I started building in college and continued building after I graduated. I write a lot about these systems in other posts.

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ Two years ago I switched careers from being a teacher to being a trainer. What is the difference between a trainer and a teacher anyway? There isn’t much. The biggest difference seems to be in semantics, that teaching is more related to academic or personal skills, and that training is related to careers and jobs. In other words, teaching will benefit the individual, but training will provide skills that benefit an organization of some kind.

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ Teacher training is an interesting place to be in August. Right before the school year starts, teachers are a bit more relaxed and they have a natural curiosity and sense of exploration as they begin to tackle the new school year. At one school in which I taught, we were asked to analyze some articles as part of our pre-service (meaning the professional development we do before students arrive).

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ When I moved into my new house last year, there was an interesting phenomenon that I noticed. Every time I’d mention to someone that I bought a new desk or a crib for my upcoming child, I’d get the response: “I’m sure you’re super busy and I’d love to come and build it for you.” At first, I thought it was just my incredible generous friends and family offering their time to take some of the burden off of my wife and I.

I’m a huge fan of routines in general. I learned as a teacher is that routines are comforting to children and adults. It seems obvious, yet we rarely think about how we can use routines strategically. One popular way that designing a routine has become a bit more mainstream is the idea of a morning routine, or the actions we take when we rise each morning. Drink a warm glass of lemon water, do yoga, write in a journal, eat a small meal.