7 Tips to Prevent Holiday Stress (for teachers!)
The holiday season is all about peace, joy, and togetherness. Or at least, I like to think that’s what it’s about.
So wait - When the heck did this time of year become chaotic, stressful, and full of distractions?
For teachers, the holidays can be a time when a packed schedule starts to feel downright unmanageable. It can be a time where you lose even more of that limited time to take care of yourself. It can be a high-pressure time when a lot more unexpected demands come your way.
Throw in the uncertainty of 2020 and the threat of a pandemic, and the holiday season starts to seem anything BUT peaceful.
Last week, I shared a free, teacher wellness class to help you take back the holidays before the season takes you on a stressful ride on its own.
Use these 7 tips to get back in the driver’s seat of your holiday schedule, lower stress, and make more space for the true reason for the season. In this blog post you will find the full class, and then you will find an overview of each of the tips for my readers. I hope you find it helpful! If you do make sure to pass this post along to other teachers that may benefit from the tips.
View the class, “7 Tips to Prevent Holiday Stress”, here:
Overview of Each Tip
This is an outline of each tip from this class. For a full description, make sure to check out the video.
Self-Care FIRST
If our bodies and minds aren’t running optimally, then everything else becomes exponentially more difficult to do. Whenever you feel stressed out during the school year, my FIRST tip is to reprioritize self-care during your day. When our minds and bodies are working optimally, we have more energy, concentration, and creativity to get what we want done. So step one, is moving your mental and physical needs back to number 1 on your priority list. Making time for this is a sure way to lower stress during the holidays, and the rest of the school year as well.
Remember the mantra: Self-Care FIRST, Teaching SECOND.
Your Holiday Vision/Make an Intention
As they say, if you don’t know where you’re going you will never get there. Do you know what you want your holiday to look like? If you specifically know how you want the holiday to look and feel, it’s much more likely to come about that way. Create a holiday with intention with the following questions:
Write a paragraph describing your ideal (but realistic) holiday, then…
Write one phrase or sentence to describe that holiday, then…
Write 1-2 adjectives to describe how you want the holidays to feel.
At the end of this exercise, you should be able to say in a couple of words what you want the holidays to be like for you. This will come in handy when we head to step 4.
Pull a Santa - Make a List
Write down EVERYTHING that’s on your mind to get done for the holiday season. Getting all of your thoughts out of your head and visually on paper reduces uncertainty and gives you an anchor from which to plan. So start writing it all out! And if you don’t know what you want/need to do for the holiday - now’s the time to get clear. Take around 5-10 minutes to do a brain dump of everything that’s on the to-do list for the holiday season.
Just Say “Ho-Ho-NO”
Now that you have your intention and you have your list, we want them to align.
What on your list does not align with your vision for the holiday? Cross out as many items on your list that are more stress than they are worth. If unexpected requests of you come up, make sure to check in that that fits your vision. As an example, if you wanted a calm, relaxed holiday, then you may say ‘no’ to Zoom get-togethers. If you want a holiday where you want to intentionally connect with others, you may say ‘yes’ to Zoom gatherings. Start to edit out any part of your list that does not align with the vision.
And if there’s something on your list that must get done but doesn’t align with your vision, head to tip number 5.
Delegate/Teamwork/Pre-made
For those items on your list that cause you significant stress, but still need to happen, do one of the following:
Delegate - What you find stressful may not be stressful to someone else. If someone in your household loves to decorate, but it causes you stress, have them do it! And hey, if they get stressed by cooking, but you love it, you can return the favor later.
Teamwork - Now’s definitely not the time to go it alone. I repeat, you don’t need to do this alone. See if someone wants to do something with you, or work together with you. Many hands make light work, and it can be a great relationship-building activity too.
Pre-made - If something is stressing you, there’s no shame in going the easy route. Hate baking? Get Pre-made cookie dough or store-bought cookies. Get anxious about all the wrapping? Get a million gift bags? Worried about Christmas cards? Send out an automated email! Making things easier on yourself helps you save precious energy to enjoy the other parts of the holiday.
Set a Date
By tip #6, you should have a list that helps you realize your vision for the holiday. It should seem more manageable because you have edited or adapted each item to feel more doable or enjoyable. Now place each to-do in a specific place on your calendar. This reduces the stress of not knowing if everything can get done on time and not knowing when each task is happening.
A Different Kind of Year
Remind yourself that 2020 is a different year - not every year will be like this year. Consider what traditions you can still do so you can look forward to those. Is there a way you can adapt traditions so you can at least do part of them? Finally, is there a new activity you can try to add joy to this year? Anyway you can safely add joy is the way to go this challenging year.
I hope you found these tips helpful!
If you did, please pass this along to another teacher and consider joining our community with the two options below!