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stress reduction
Nothing in the classroom is worth added stress in your life. Nothing. I know so many band directors (and other teachers as well, but mostly band directors) who get so incredibly worked up over their jobs that they lose their health, marriage, youthful
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This may well be the first time I have written about my teaching life without really setting out a solution or providing much helpful information. Let me know what you think. Last Friday, the other band director I work with had a mile stroke. He is recovering
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This past Tuesday, I took a day off of school. This is not normal for me, and I even had to fight my urge to go up to school and make sure things were running smoothly. I even drove up to the school and chose not to get out of the car. Why? Because I
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As I mentioned yesterday, westerners generally have too much stuff. That is the result of an extravagant lifestyle that television and popular media promote. The idea is that we shouldn’t be satisfied with what we have. That’s the whole underlying
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My name is Joel. I have too much stuff. Most people in the western world have way more stuff than we know what to do with. The thriving success of self storage units is a testimony to this fact. Possessions add clutter We spent all last week looking at
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I got an email from one of our secretaries yesterday asking me to call one of the other administrative assistants. The message left no indication of why I should call her. I have not yet called her and I don’t intend to do so. I have a problem with
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One of the biggest drains on my energy is paper clutter. One of the biggest drains on the environment is trash. For these reasons, I try to do everything I can digitally rather than with paper. I am so used to having so much paperwork, that I forget what
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If we’ve been following the stress reductions tips so far, we now have a clean desk at work, a clean computer desktop at work and home, we have begun to organize our email habits, and our house is beginning to look nicer. All of those things can
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Well, this is one of my weakest areas. I have my work environment very organized and neat, but my home is not. Part of my problem is that I know what to do and how to do it, I just don’t seem to find the energy after working 11-16 hour days to come
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This is perhaps my most favorite tip of them all! I haven’t regularly watched television since I was in 11th grade, but I have watched quite a bit of it. When I read “The 4-Hour Workweek,” Timothy Ferriss suggests a low-information diet.
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Now that you have eliminated junk foods from your diet, it’s time to replace them. So what kinds of foods should you replace them with? Well, I guess it all depends on what your goals are. I personally try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as
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Junk Food. We hear the term tossed around all the time. What is junk food? Basically, it’s any food that lacks substantial nutritional value. White flour is a perfect example. They take something healthy (wheat flour), bleach it, and kill any nutrients
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I used to wake up every morning about an hour before I wanted to be at school. I try to get there by 7:20, so that meant waking up around 6:20. That resulted in an extremely rushed morning. Plus the traffic at my new school is way heavier than the traffic
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I used to drink sodas all the time. I drank Dr. Pepper numerous times daily while I was in junior high and high school. I “became smart” and started drinking Diet Coke when I got to college. Still, daily. I cut out caffeine from my diet last
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