#9. My Top Tips for a Smooth Back-to-School Transition
Episode Shownotes:
As a mom and a busy SLP, you know the transition from summer to back-to-school season is never easy. It's a juggling act that demands patience, grace, and above all, strategic time management. In today's episode, I'm sharing my favorite tips to help make the start of the school year smoother for everyone. I'm covering everything from tips for adjusting sleep schedules, to prepping for the school year, to setting boundaries in your work, home, and personal life.
Plus, listen to the end of the episode for a fun announcement you won't want to miss!!
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp, and as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome back to another episode. I have stopped numbering them, although this one might have a number on the title in your podcast platform. I've stopped numbering them on the show or saying the number out loud because of the rebrand issue. For those of you that have been here for a while, you have heard, and if you're new, you haven't heard about the rebrand. I went through a rebrand in February and this is the new podcast name that was relaunched just about a month ago. Maybe, actually, it was almost two months ago. Now that by the time this episode is going to be released, I'm still, for whatever reason, getting used to saying the name of the podcast, which is why the new name of the podcast, which is why I don't always say it. I usually would start out each episode saying the podcast number. I feel like I can't do that anymore because all of the previous episodes had to come down, but anyway, and I'll also add as you might know, I batch many of these episodes and batching is a fabulous time management strategy for me. However, it means that there are less periods of time where I'm sitting down in podcast mode recording episodes. The amount of time in between recording days can be kind of long. By the time I record two or three, and then by the next time that I sit down and record, it could have been two, three, four, sometimes weeks that have passed. It's like I'm starting all over again. I think it's my Dory brain, or maybe my mom brain, I don't know. But anyway, thank you for being here today.
I'm going to talk about something that is very timely. In fact, for some of you who are listening, this might actually be a little bit late. I might be a little late to the game, but I have been preparing for the back to school transition. My kids go back at the end of August…the very end of August. I know, depending upon where you're listening from, your kids may already be back in school, or you might not even be listening to this live during the time that it was released. Who knows where you're at in terms of seasons, but we all have been there, those of us who are parents trying to navigate that transition from being in summer mode to now getting up earlier, having more responsibilities, those time pressures of having to get out the door by a certain time. “Did you remember this, that, and the other?” It can feel, even though we do it every year, it can feel painful every year. I'm recording this episode selfishly, if I'm being honest. This was really something that I've been thinking about. I'm recording it for myself in many ways, but really I know that this is information that is helpful for you as well. Many of you are going to…as you're listening to this episode…a lot of this isn't going to necessarily be new information, although hopefully there will be some new insights that I share today that you hadn't thought of. But most of it's going to be familiar and that's okay. We need to hear this over and over to help our brains start getting into that, back to school mode. That's the topic for today.
I think the first piece of this that's really helpful is to remember that you need to give yourself and your family a little bit more grace and compassion as we are transitioning out of the summer season, because it's hard for us as adults right, and we I think for most of us it's difficult and we have the benefit of, you know, forethought and planning and sort of mentally preparing, because we are always sort of aware of how much time is left, right? We kind of have that, that sort of mental clock or mental calendar, whereas kids, depending upon their age, it could be and could feel very abrupt and can feel very difficult because they haven't sort of had this runway that we have had as adults in preparing for this transition. And even with the mental and physical prep that we might be doing, it's still hard for us as adults, this is still difficult. So I really would encourage you to give yourselves some grace and compassion, and the same thing for your children as well, because I know—trust me—I know how difficult it is trying to navigate challenging behaviors from young children, especially during challenging transitions. However, they're having a hard time too right, they're going through a difficult, many kids are going through a difficult time as summer is ending and now all the expectations and demands have changed and really have increased. So just wanted to put that out there from the start, and I think that's a great segue into what I like to do which is prepare in advance as best you can. So I like to think about you know the sleep schedules, for example, and if you are like our family, I'm going to bet that you've been out later than you normally would be out, maybe during the school year, and maybe your kids have been waking up at inconsistent times or later times than they would normally wake up during the school year. So we need to sort of ease our way into that adjusted sleep schedule. So start adjusting the schedule. I like to do this gradually. You know, a little bit earlier every day. So if the kids have been waking up like 45 minutes later than what you're going to have to do during the school year, I might start waking them up like 15 minutes earlier a couple weeks out and then wake them up 30 minutes earlier. So you're gradually increasing that time and it's not a shock to the system. I also like to, when I can, try to have those days leading up and really like even a week or if you could get two weeks, that'd be great…but I mean, I can't even say it without laughing because I think it's for many people, many families, it's very unrealistic to expect this: but if you can get them on the schedule of the…you know… the wake up, bedtime, and wake up time a week or two even before school starts, and just adjust to that schedule, like have start that schedule one or two weeks out, so that by the time they get to the school year They've already been on that sleep schedule for at least a week. Okay, doesn't always go that way, I get it, but in theory I think it's a great strategy. And what we like to do is I have a dry erase board, a dry erase calendar that's in our kitchen. I wish that I could fit on our wall, I wish I could fit a three month calendar upstairs, because in the kitchen… I say upstairs but it's because where I record this it's in the basement in my office. But in our kitchen we have this family calendar. I wish it were three months. I can only fit one month and so I like to fill that out, sometimes even in the month ahead, like the…maybe the week leading up, so that I can see the dates and see the events of what's happening, and it just makes it easier for my kids as well, now that the girls are reading and they're able to, you know, take a look at the calendar and see exactly what's on the schedule. So I think I love the idea of creating some sort of a family calendar where everyone who can, who needs to see it or who would benefit from seeing it, can see it.
And that's not the only calendar I have. My husband and I, we have a shared Google calendar that we use as well, because, you know, obviously we're not always in the kitchen to be able to check and see what's scheduled. So we started doing the Google calendar a while ago and that is a system that works well for us. You have to figure out something that works well for you, okay, but as long as there's some sort of central location or agreed upon location of where you're gonna be scheduling those events, like all of the back to school events that are happening, you know, thinking about doctor's appointments, physicals, thinking about back to school night or parent teacher conferences. You know all the afterschool sports and classes, all those things that are now filling up the calendar, they need to be accessible for all family members so they can gauge what is happening when. Okay, so having that plan ahead, having that calendar done in advance, having the sleep schedules adjusted in advance, can sort of help you start to, I guess, approach the runway or you know if you're taxiing on the runway—I have flights on the brain right now, so that's why that's why I guess I'm going with this analogy—but now I feel compelled to stick with it. So here we are. So those are sort of planning ahead type things, and I think you can, when it comes to planning ahead, I think you can get even more micro with this. So what I mean by that is what are the other things, the smaller things that you can plan for ahead of time to make your routines easier?
So I'm thinking now about morning routines, which I don't know about you, but those aren't really the smoothest or easiest times of day in our house, even with prep, but preparing whatever you can the night before. So knowing what the kids are gonna wear, having their backpacks packed, having lunches made I know for some people, I know some clients who make their kids' lunches in the morning and they do that. That works well. That's not a problem for them, then that's great. For us—for me personally—I couldn't make all four lunches in the morning. I'd have to get up really early. It wouldn't work well for our kind of lifestyle and the way that I like my morning routine to go. So you gotta do what works for you. But knowing when you're gonna be making lunches, knowing what you're gonna be making for lunches, can be really really helpful. And I think the sooner, the earlier you can get that done, the better, right? I just I find that it eliminates a lot of that early morning rush and sense of urgency because all of those things are already complete, right. And then if you can try to have some sort of a morning routine for the kids that's predictable, that's manageable, that sort of helps them come to know what to expect and ease their way in. And so you know, I've had to do this in different ways for the kids in different sort of stages. Some get up easier than others, some are more willing to cooperate in the morning than others. So for a while we would have a checklist in the morning where it had each of the things that they needed to do in the morning. Then they could kind of take ownership over that and check it off the list. They at one point thought that was really fun and exciting. You know, with anything the novelty wears off and we don't have to do that or we didn't have to do that all the time. But I think you also need to kind of keep an open mind, right?Like what worked well last year might not necessarily work well this year. I know that the checklist in the past was something that were helpful and then they weren't, so we didn't do that anymore. Then we had the issue of the kids…one in particular, who shall remain nameless… would drag her feet getting downstairs every morning, and so we had to kind of implement a rule of okay, by seven o'clock everyone needs to be downstairs for breakfast, and if that happens four out of five mornings a week, then they earn movie night on Friday night. So some sort of buy in for them to get them moving and get them downstairs. You have to sort of float around different options, try out different things depending upon what the pain points are. But starting to have that morning routine even in advance if you can, sort of easing them into that even before school starts, but if school has already started. There's nothing wrong with implementing a new routine or starting something that you haven't done before. You can start this anytime. It doesn't mean that it's too late. I just think that predictability can go such a long way for kids.
Then the next thing I want to offer, when it comes to this sort of transition to back to school, is really being mindful of the value of your time. So, for those of you who are parents, and especially those of you who maybe are working for yourselves, I think that it's really important to recognize how precious and valuable the kid-free time is when they're at school, because that is your time. If you're like me and many of the clients that I work with, that's your time to get stuff done, and so being laser focused on what it is that you want to do, even if that is nothing, even if it's like, okay, this is my time to rest or to relax or take a nap or whatever, pouring back into yourself looks like. Even if that's what you want to do, fine, great, fantastic. So recognize the precious sort of commodity that time is and being really intentional with how you're gonna spend it, because we all know that those days go fast. I feel like, for me. I drop the kids off by the time I get home and sort of get cleaned up from the morning hustle and then settle into work. I think I have four solid hours, maybe five, five if I'm really pushing it. Five solid hours of work time. So I can't afford, I don't want to spend time trying to figure out how to spend my time. If that makes sense, right, you need to know ahead of time what it is that you're going to be working on and when you're going to be working on it. And it doesn't mean that you can't change the plan, it doesn't mean that things won't go differently than you imagined, but just having some sort of intention behind what you're spending your time on, because I could easily squander time scrolling and checking email and going down rabbit holes on websites and all sorts of things like that. So being very intentional and prioritizing what has to get done during this time, this sort of most sacred time of my work day, so to speak right, and utilizing the kid free time for the things that require the most amounts of focus, the least interruption.
You know, I like to really think about, and I did a podcast episode about this once, about what the number one question that I ask myself when I'm planning is “Can I do this when my kids are here, and do I want to do this when my kids are here?” And that question has always guided me in deciding what's going to get done when. So that's something to consider is just for those of you that have kids really thinking about okay, is this something I can do when the kids are here, or is this something that I really need to get done now and then prioritize that? Focus on that, okay?
And then, of course, we can always delegate as much as possible to others. I was talking with somebody about this recently. I don't remember who it was. Maybe it was on a coffee chat, at a coffee chat, or maybe it was in a coaching session, but we were talking about household managers and this, this role that exists. I don't have one, but I really want one. These people that come to your house. You hire them to come, and they will cut your veggies, you know, chop up your veggies, prep your meals, you know, do your laundry, tidy up or organize a cabinet or a closet like sort of the household tasks that most of us do ourselves is what they are paid to do, and I'm like, oh my gosh, get me one of those! That sounds amazing, sign me up. But for those of you who don't, that's not in the cards for you. We have family members, right. We have spouses and children. We have people that we can delegate certain things to. We also have technology to delegate things to. So I have Amazon, a subscribe and save that I use for basically everything. I instacart a lot of my groceries and you know the kind of staples that we need, so that those are all things I consider that delegation. It's me not doing it, they're all things that I said it, I forget it, I don't have to take care of it again, and it's really, really helpful for me from a time perspective, but also from a, you know, mind perspective, like one less thing to think about, right? So anything you can delegate, delegate, do it and so kind of.
On the topic of household tasks, I think it's also important to mention what I encourage and what I try to do myself. What I encourage my coaching clients to do is to set some sort of a boundary when it comes to work time versus family time versus household tasks time, because these are the different buckets, so to speak. If you've heard me talk before about the Time Buckets, you know this is something that I use to describe the categories of things that we spend our time on, and we have these different buckets, right? Your work would be one bucket, your house would be another bucket. So work would be all of your work tasks that you spend time on, and home would be all of the household tasks that you spend time on. Personal bucket would be all of the personal things that you like to do for yourself and want to do for yourself. So we have these different buckets in when we're sort of, I was going to say easing our way back into school. But I don't think many of us are doing it with ease although hopefully, after you hear these podcast episodes, it's a little bit more smooth, but it can feel like a juggling act. It can feel like you're juggling all of these buckets and they're spilling over and they're dropping and things are getting really messy and you're tired and you know whatever you can do to sort of set boundaries for when you're working on what can be very helpful because it eliminates some of that decision fatigue and it eliminates some of the mindset shifts that need to happen when you're going, say, from a work task to, you know, cleaning a bathroom in your house, right? So I think it's more efficient and it's more productive if you're able to set those boundaries and figure out which category of tasks you're doing, when, for the most part. None of these things, by the way, none of these tips are all or nothing, so you do what works for you. There's definitely a lot of gray area down the middle, and so I don't wanna imply that all of these things are you have to do them. You have to do them all the time and you have to do them perfectly. Definitely not. These are just sort of things to sprinkle in as they work for you.
And then the last thing that I want to mention when it comes to the routines and it comes to the time that you are spending on the different tasks, right, so you know your household stuff versus your work stuff versus your whatever. On that note, I think it's really, really helpful if you can set out your day with an awareness of what would be in those buckets, in other words, what are the things that need to get done from each of those categories, and I like to do, typically, like one or two things from each bucket per day. This is gonna vary depending upon the season, but, you know, having those buckets clear, sort of top of mind is what is the word I'm trying to say, the phrase I'm trying to say. Having those buckets top of mind can help you to make sure that you are getting something accomplished in the various areas of your life as needed, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket, putting all your time and energy and focus on one thing only to mean that these other things that had to get done didn't. Okay. And as we are making these shifts and transitioning back into the fall, the fall schedule, I started this episode with reminding you to have grace and compassion and I wanna end this episode with reminding you to take care of yourself, because this is a very it's a very easy trap to fall into, where we just get so consumed by the busyness and the chaos and the rush and the hustle that we feel those signs of burnout quicker, sooner, more easily, especially because we're already sort of starting off some of us, at a deficit, like we're already sort of starting, you know, feeling like we had this really busy summer and we're exhausted, and then we go into this whole new season of the year not feeling our best, and then the demands are so high that it's even easier for us to start feeling burnout, especially because we haven't been running at this level, you know, firing on all cylinders, so to speak, for the past two, three months. So be kind to yourself, make sure that you're taking care of yourself. Build in time for you, and that can look like little micro moments throughout the day. That might look like pausing and taking a deep breath. That might look like, you know, walking out of a very noisy room and being in a quiet room for five minutes and doing breathing exercises. Or doing a meditation, a five-minute meditation in the car. Or you know waking up 10 minutes earlier and reading a chapter of your favorite book, or going to bed 15 minutes earlier and getting a little extra sleep. Maybe it's lighting a candle, maybe it's, you know, taking a longer shower or putting on, you know, a lotion that smells really good that you normally wouldn't use. Just something that sort of is purely for you, something out of your normal self-care routine to just sprinkle in throughout the craziness of this season so that you are feeling your best as best as possible. Right, you're not going to feel like a million bucks every day, obviously, but the little things that we can do for you to take care of yourself so that you can help take care of others, those little things can go a long way. They add up. So be easy on yourself, go easy on yourself, take care of yourself and ask yourself. My favorite question to ask myself is “what do I need right now?” And just sort of pausing and checking in with myself and asking, okay, what is it that I need right now? And then listening. So sometimes it's, you know, a moment of silence, sometimes it's a glass of wine on the couch, sometimes it's a nap. Can't always do what it is that I need, but if I look at different moments like little pockets of time that I can sneak that in, even if it's not right away, that can provide a sense of relief and just sort of be the thing that I need to help me going through what feels like a really difficult day.
Alright, so I threw out a lot at you, lots of tips for easing back into transitions, into the fall, into back to school routine. I would love to continue the conversation in the Facebook group Time Management for the busy SLP, so come and join us. The link is in the show notes and I've got something super exciting that's coming up in, let's see, probably about two months from when this episode is being released. I'm not quite sure, but end of October. End of October is, if you haven't heard, is going to be my one day planning event. I'm so excited about this. So definitely, if you aren't in the Facebook group, you want to get in the Facebook group, because that's where I'm sharing all of the updates and you'll want to be updated when tickets go on sale for that planning event. So I'm busy working on things behind the scenes. I'm looking forward to it and if you are anything like me and you like to plan, plan, you know, goals and set goals for your year ahead, you don't want to miss this, so mark your calendar. It's going to be Friday, October 27th. Okay, live virtual planning day. Mark it down, save the date. Stay tuned for more details. That is all I have for this week's episode. I will talk to you all next week.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.