AN ODE TO ORGANISATION
Do you really plan ahead?
I have always been one to plan ahead. A planner, if you will.
Maybe it’s a trait I learnt from my uber organised parents, possibly it’s down to having Saturn (how/where you create boundaries) in Pisces (sensitive/creative style) in my sixth house of work and organisation, or perhaps it’s a control thing.
It is definitely a control thing.
My planning nature has, of course, been affected by a few things over the years. Most notably:
The mode through which I make plans.
My reasons for making plans in the first place.
Paperback school diaries with sticky notes and highlighter marks morphed into my ‘I can’t live without you list’ of online organisational tools: notion.co; iCal; and Planoly.
The situations I was planning for shifted too, from determining my upcoming social calendar - which included one school disco every few months and trips to the cinema to see the newest Disney flick - to deciding what kind of yoga practices I wanted to share with the students in my upcoming classes.
It was clear that I was never going to be that teacher that didn’t have their class plan mapped out ahead of time. Even if said sequence was (often) forgotten on the spot or thrown in the trash as soon I was greeted with a class of students with various ailments and ranging levels of experience.
But especially when I was just starting out, I knew that having a class sequence to work from that I had thought through, researched, maybe rehearsed in my own body a few times, was going to keep my plan-driven soul happy, and my nerves under control.
However, as much of an organisational nerd as I am, getting in the headspace to plan my yoga classes can still be tricky even to this day.
In this blog post I solved this problem for all you yoga teachers out there struggling to get your head in the game. I pulled together my top secret tips for helping yoga teachers gain a little more focus when it comes to class prep time (batching and setting the mooOOood are my highlights).
Let me know which ones you try, which work, which don’t, and any other suggestions you have for getting in the class planning zone?
Happy planning!
This week’s recs
Seeing your face talk on zoom is weird enough. Watching replays of yourself teaching a yoga class via the internet? Eeeep. Still working through some stuff, but at least this article helped me understand why I felt so ick seeing myself on the big(ish) screen.
Once after a few G+Ts, I was found at 3AM by my housemate laying on my bed, fully clothed and glued to my phone. "What are you doing, go to sleep!?" I had a problem (and not a fun one). I honestly couldn't fall asleep unless I'd meticulously planned out, hour by hour, the next week of my life. Pre-lockdown, the addiction to my Apple Calendar was real, friends. So having nothing to pencil in for months on end? Now THAT was a challenge.
Metaperception? … *mind blown*. I am a big culprit of allowing my imagination to RUN WILD when it comes to how I think other people - especially my students - see me. In all honesty, I still can't quiiiiiite get my ahead around how this concept works, but it most certainly resonates.
My sacred space is getting an upgrade with these altar suggestions. Intersecting healing practices, self-acceptance, witchy-ness and astrology? Sold.
Yes, learning is awesome. But do you ever wonder if any of the knowledge is actually sinking in? Or are you just mindlessly skimming over *insert type of content* and not actually gaining anything? This pod, from yoga/meditation teacher and friend of The Fig, Maddi, highlights the importance of striking a balance between your input (content you consume) vs your output (content you create) to avoid education overload.
