Showing posts with label Quality Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quality Time. Show all posts

Monday, November 19, 2018

Two Years Focusing on Gratitude

A picture I took this fall on a run, thankful for the gorgeous fall colors.
For over two years I have recorded three things a day for which I'm thankful. I first started this habit after attending a workshop that stressed the importance on focusing on the good things in our lives. This was emphasized as a way to not let negative events dictate our mood, our outlook and affect our interactions with others. The highlights and gratitudes I record are often events of the day, highlights, interactions with my family and others, or sometimes just something memorable I don't want to forget. I'm finding that the older I get, the more important it is to record these things! Research has found that we tend to remember negative things more than positive, which is yet another reason to record these.

Two years ago when I first wrote about this my wife and four kids participated by recording their own gratitudes daily for three weeks. We incorporated this as part of our time with one another at dinner. We found this to be a great conversation starter and way to get everyone to reflect upon their day, share highlights, and appreciate the good things that happen in our lives. It's also a great way to help our kids practice listening, taking turns, being polite, and builds relationship with one another as we learn more about each person. We did all of this without technology in use during our meal and believe in being where our feet are, something we still strive to do not just at the dinner table but also at other times, too, such as in the car and when hanging out with one another.

With Thanksgiving this week in the United States, many of us will have a day off to spend time with our family and friends and reflect on things for which we are grateful. I encourage you to extend this practice beyond the day and incorporate gratitude as part of your daily routine. I believe I'm a better person after two years of this practice. On a related note, as educators it can be helpful to remind ourselves of the good things happening around us so we don't burn out focusing on the negatives--thanks to my colleague and Tech Coach Rachel Studnicka for pointing out this article about that.

 Many other posts I've made related to having a healthy balance in our lives around our use of technology can help you spend more time in gratitude and relationship with family and friends. Check them out:

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Monday, January 1, 2018

New Year's Resolution: Spend Quality, Influential Time in Relationships

Weeks of influence in a child's life before high school graduation.

Happy New Year!

I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions since I was a kid. Most of the time, I follow through with them and have implemented changes that have stuck for the long term. Years ago I would write them down on a sheet of paper or Post It Note. More recently I have been keeping the list on my phone. Sometimes I’ll even add to this list of resolutions to be considered for the following year. Maybe that’s extreme, but I guess I share this to simply point out that I take resolutions seriously. Last year I had five, and have done each fairly well for the past year that I've made the changes into habits.

For this year, one of my resolutions is to focus on spending quality time in my relationships with others. I'm not intending to simply increase time spent with others, but focusing on making it quality. First and foremost, I am thinking of my own family. As our oldest daughter is now a senior in high school, we are faced with the reality of how little time we have left with her under our roof as part of our daily interactions as a family. I know people say time flies, but it’s hard to imagine that when you have a toddler or younger kids. Now as our daughter decides on a college and her future, I not only want to spend more quality time with her before she’s gone but focus on doing the same with our other three kids and my wife, too.

Recently at church the youth leaders had a display of marbles in a jar representing four different aged kids (see photo above). Each marble equaled how many weeks of influence we have on our kids before high school graduation. It really struck me seeing this limited time represented visually. I think the display was extra meaningful as three out of the four sample jars of marbles displayed were the exact ages of my own children. As I reflect on spending quality time with others, I'm thinking about making it influential time. Not that every moment has to be memorable, but I hope by making the effort to spend more time, make it quality, and be focused on our time together it will be meaningful.

I'm resolving to spend more quality time in my relationships with others beyond my family, too. I hope to strengthen relationships with friends and co-workers, making more effort to spend time together, even scheduling it. As part of making this happen with both friends and family, I will continue my efforts to limit digital distractions that I've written about in the past, such as my 2015 Resolutions: 3 Ways to Cut Back on Digital Distractions. Over the past years I've shared those tips often and have had so many people tell me they, too, have found this advice so beneficial. If you haven't done so yourself, please try it!

Many other posts I've made related to having a healthy balance in our lives around our use of technology can be good New Year's Resolutions, too. Check them out:
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Monday, December 25, 2017

#DeviceFreeDinner: Will Ferrell PSAs on Common Sense Media

Common Sense Media's PSA about #DeviceFreeDinner
Winter Break is a great time for families to to be together, hang out, relax, and get reenergized for the second half of the school year. This week all of our students and teachers are off, spending time with family and friends. With schedules that likely aren't as busy, hopefully families will have more time to be together at the dinner table, too. In the past I've written about the importance of tech free family dinners focused on gratitude and being where your feet are as well as the importance of being a Digital Mentor for kids. 
Common Sense Media launched a great campaign about a year ago related to these topics called #DeviceFreeDinner. If you haven't taken a look at their tips and suggestions, please do so. Kudos to them for spending time and energy on this campaign to bring it to the attention of a wider audience. Recently they added some celebrity presence to this message by creating public service announcements with Will Ferrell. There are four short public service announcements you can watch on their site.

 Hopefully you aren't reading this at the dinner table with your family! Since you are reading, take a moment to reflect on you own use of tech while around others. If you are on someone who is on a device during meals with family and/or friends, make a New Year's Resolution to change this habit. Reflect on modeling this tech etiquette both for those you know as well as being a digital mentor and role model for strangers seeing you interact with (or be distracted from) others. 

Many other posts I've made related to having a healthy balance in our lives around our use of technology can be good New Year's Resolutions, too. Check them out:
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