I’m going back to school.
The good news: it’s not going to cost me a dime in tuition this time around. Books will be checked out from the library. There will be no boring lectures because my teachers will be…you!
What, you ask, is going on here?
Good question! And questions are the place to start.
About a year ago, at my friend Caroline Donahue’s suggestion, I read a book called by Barbara Sher called Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything that You Love.
Skeptical at first, I now know beyond doubt that I’m a Scanner. I throw my entire heart into projects. I love to see others succeed. As a result, I sometimes look like a dilettante because I move from project to project so quickly. I’ve been accused, at times rightly, of letting things go unfinished.
This week I decided to make a change. I’m going back to school.
From Sher’s book:
“As kids, most Scanners had been having a great time! At school no one objected to their many interests, because every hour of every student’s school day is devoted to a different subject. But at some point in high school or soon after, everyone was expected to make a choice, and that’s when Scanners ran into trouble. While some people happily narrowed down to one subject, Scanners simply couldn’t.
The conventional wisdom was overwhelming and seemed indisputable: If you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’ll always be a master of none. You’ll become a dilettante, a dabbler, a superficial person — and you’ll never have a decent career. Suddenly, a Scanner who all through school might have been seen as an enthusiastic learner had now become a failure.”
I’m going back to school because my happiest days were structured school days. I love the smell of new notebook paper. School supplies make me choke up with happiness. Even the tiny cartons of cold milk turn me on in a weird way. Teaching school in Japan, although it was much different than the American (Army) schools in which I grew up, delighted me daily. I’m not saying I loved every aspect, but overall, teaching, learning and growing get my creative juices flowing.
Over the next few months I’ll be traveling frequently to the West Coast. It’s exciting and I know it’ll be difficult to maintain a regular work schedule. Rather than throw my hands up and allow the fear, anxiety and stress take over (as it did for a few days), I’ve decided to take charge. My school schedule will run whether I’m in San Francisco, Boulder, Berlin or Yokohama (yes, all of those places are on my horizon).
I don’t consider myself “lucky” to not have a regular 9-5. I chose it. And if you ask anyone who is retired, has endless hours of unstructured time or is bed-ridden they will tell you something similar. Countless hours of unstructured time is no fun. You fill it up with things that don’t matter all that much in the long run like *cough* Twitter. (Want to get a reality check? Find out how many hours a week you’re spending on Twitter and then ask if that time might be spent doing real work. Guilty. As. Charged.)
Now, before you get on your horse about how productive you are because you have a 9-5, hold that thought. I read an article on behancemag.com recently about how “achievement should be measured by output, not by the amount of time spent on a project.” This little tidbit might not shock you: “According to a recent study by AOL and Salary.com, full-time employees work a total of three days a week, wasting the other two.” Ok, that’s so important I’m going to say it twice. The number of hours you spend on a project, at work, sitting in front of a computer, massaging that tweak in your lower back (you see what I’m saying here?) is not directly reflected in how hot the project turns out to be.
In the Four Hour Work Week Timothy Ferriss talks about getting it all done in four hours during the week. All of it. He’s had his critics (few of them, I’ll point out, from within our generation). Most of the critics say: Hard Work is The Only Way to Win. His message is a bit different. One point from his book that illustrates how to have a four hour work week? Make it a policy to only check your email twice a day. I tried it and it worked. For a few months. It’s like killing your coffee habit. You have to be ready to give up that Refresh button. And it takes self-control. I obviously have very little. Today I got a beta invite (have two left, shoot me your email if you’d like one) and am testing AwayFind, a little app that makes it a little easier to break the email habit.
Let me tell you the honest-to-goodness truth right now. I’ve found very few life models that I want to follow completely, but I’m learning to custom-build a life that makes sense to me. It’s a delicate balance and each person is different. I’m going to share with you one of my newest hacks and I welcome you to throw out what you think could use some tweakin’ and I ask you hold me to it.
The Deal
We have 168 hours in week. If I only spend four of them working, that leaves 164 to do something else. Thankfully, I don’t see an even split between “work” and “play.” I see it all as learning and growing. The happiest days of my work life were those in which I was able to teach and learn some during the day. As an elementary school teacher in Japan I was lucky to be learning Japanese and teaching English simultaneously. After one year in the elementary school system (and building the school’s English program from nothing to “99% satisfactory” according to the Board of Education—the 1% keeping me from 100% was simply not enough to keep me on for year two, but it was enough for me to lock in the hatred of the B of E) I was ready to leave.
My Back to School Schedule
Here’s what my back to school schedule looks like:
And here’s my GCal version for the more digitally-minded among you:
I get a daily email at 9 telling me what to do for the day (and one before each shift to a new project happens, but that’s going to have to stop I think). That doesn’t mean I’ll do the same thing every day. In fact, I’ve intentionally built fluidity into my schedule. Setting a container is crucial for me. When I don’t I feel aimless.
My schedule started Monday, August 25 and ends December 16 in time for Winter Break. I’m taking five subjects (more on the specifics of what I’m studying later). I checked out my school books today (ten items total from the incredible Boulder Public Library.) I’m moving into a more domestic part of my life and while that scares the shit out of me I’m convinced it doesn’t mean I’m going to lose my edge. I’m going to continue learning, growing, pushing myself, helping others. It may take a different form (supporting the people I love has always been high on my priority list) but I’m not going to let that stop me from trying new things. A school day is the perfect way for me to do that.
Why School?
One thing I’ve learned spending an intense year with the startup/tech world is that we have a lot to learn but sometimes our access to knowledge bases gets in the way of the hunger to learn. In fact, I believe it’s made us mentally lazy. We think we know everything. Why? Well, if we don’t have the answer stored in our big fat brains, we know exactly what it would take to discover an answer (or twelve). We know a blog or someone/place in our network with the answer (and if you’re anything like me, you click on the first or second result on the first page of google and call it a day). When a seemingly simple question is asked, it’s often brushed aside with a rough “you should already know how to do that.” Thinking we know it all is what holds an exceptionally intelligent and essentially fun-loving crowd back.
I think a cup that is full can’t be filled. And that the closer we can get to the question, the happier we’ll be. That’s why working with children, being in schools and around learners inspires me. What better way to get back to questioning things than to set up a schedule and go back to school?
I won’t be buying any Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers this time around (sadly), but I’m going into this with an eye and heart set on learning. May this semester, whether it be in a traditional school setting, at nights after you finish work, at home school, on a college campus or via podcast on your way to work bring you new challenges and chances for you to grow.
<3
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{By the way, I gave my school a name. Gwen’s Genki School. Genki is a Japanese word meaning, “lit. healthy: adjective that reflects health, vitality, energy. A bouncy cheerful female character is often refered to as genki.” See, you’re already learning!!}
{Side note: In October, with the help of the fabulous Denise Smith, I plan to teach moms in Denver/Boulder about starting out in blogging, social networks 101 and how to approach the web. New Media for Mommies. It’ll be an event you won’t want to miss if you’re a mom and new to all this. Details as they emerge. If you’d like to help out by speaking, spreading the word or attending, shoot gwendolynbell at gmail an email}
{Final side note, no really: If you decide to go back to school, please blog about it and let me know so I can read about it and encourage you!}
