August Goals

    The plus side of not writing this post until August 8th is that I've already got started on lots of these goals! August is always a big month of transition for our family. Joel's starting a new semester of grad school and TA-ing, and it's the start of a new school year for me. Back to school looks very different with Covid. Both of us are starting the year virtually, and so I'm trying to think creatively about ways to connect with a new group of students and families. This year Avi's starting at daycare too! It's the first time she's ever been cared for outside of our home, but so far we've been really happy with her teachers and the set up. I think she will love being around other kiddos too. 

    Given all these big changes, and the air of uncertainty that comes with back to school this year, I tried to focus on goals that would support overall well-being without being too ambitious. My biggest goal for the month is to give ourselves time and compassion as we adjust to the new routine. I'm hoping to build in time to take a walk with Avi and play with her before leaving for work. I think even this half an hour of quality time will make it easier to adjust to being away from her for more of the day. 

    The weekly household check-ins are for me and Joel to go over any scheduling changes and review who's handling what household work in the coming week. We're trying out a variation of the system described in the book Fair Play by Eve Rodsky. I had mixed feelings on the book itself, but the concept has been very helpful. The basic premise is laying out all the "cards" of household tasks and dividing them up in a way that feels equitable to both partners. It's a pretty simple concept, but it's helped us to be more clear about who's doing what and prevents miscommunications about shared tasks. So far, I've found that it's made me a lot more relaxed about household work and freed up head space to focus on other things. 

    I'm thinking through creating a design challenge to have students brainstorm different methods and systems for being connected as a class community, even when we are physically apart. I have some ideas about this, but I bet that they will have lots of great ideas and perspectives about what meaningful connection would look like in this strange time.

    I think the rest of the goals are pretty self-explanatory. I want to continue habits of reading and engaging with anti-racism work, but I wanted to make the goals concrete and doable to give myself some grace and wiggle room as we shift to back to school mode. At the bottom, I wrote a big idea I want to return to this month: "Creativity thrives on constraints." I'm reminding myself that there will be a variety of constraints this month in terms of time and social distancing. As much as possible, I want to approach these constraints with curiosity and creativity rather than being frustrated that this back to school season is so different from other years. 

    Does anyone else make monthly goals? What are you looking forward to this month?