Episode 10- Taking a Break… and how to come back!

This month on Ed. Andy and Twyla sit down to discuss taking breaks. What a break is, benefits and drawbacks, and how to reenter after taking a break. All of this on Episode 10 of Ed. 

For further information about Ed. Please visit our website at www.ed.buzzsprout.com.

Ed. was produced by Andy Luster and Twyla Coy, Music Provided by Liborio Conti.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We need to take breaks even during the day. We need to take a lunch break. We need to take a walk around the office, or we need to take breaks just to enjoy and to be more productive.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

This month on Ed, Andy and Twila sit down to talk about taking a break. What it means to take breaks, and the types, benefits, and drawbacks, and re-entry after taking breaks. All of this on episode 10 of Ed. And we are here with episode 10 of Ed.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Ten already?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Ten, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Lucky number 10.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Maybe we should take a break.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

How was your break? Was it great?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Uh, it was good. It just didn't last long enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Never does.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Never does.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Never does. Well, welcome back. Welcome back. So, as you know, you know, I'm Andy and here's Twyla, and we're here to we're here just us. We were going to discuss uh a different topic. We're going to talk about speech communities. We're going to hold off on that one for a little bit uh because we have another guest that we want to bring in for that. So uh we're gonna change up things a little bit. And this month we are gonna talk about taking a break.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, not that we are taking a break, but you know, I'm really glad that we're doing this because I've been thinking about not only how tired I am from my spring break. I had a wonderful spring break. We took a trip and it was great, but how sometimes we just need to think about a break, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

So all the different types of breaks that that we might have. Um, but a break. So I think this this session, this uh episode, we're gonna talk about what what a break is and the different listeners, how it might pertain to them. So students and and faculty and staff, how uh different types of rakes might um occur in their in their lives and and what that looks like from the education standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Mm-hmm. And then also we might uh splash in a little bit about um a career break and and other than relationship breaks and things like that too. But I think it's important for us to first define what is a break.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah, for sure. So I I looked up a couple of definitions and I think it's interesting. We've got, you know, the verb the to separate or cause to separate into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain. I don't think that's the kind of break we're talking about. No, not that kind of a break, or to interrupt a sequence, course, or continuous state. That is a little bit more of what we're talking about, or a noun, an interruption of continuity or uniformity. So a break, and there's lots of different types of breaks that we are going to talk about today.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yes. And and I really like the second and the third definition, sort of that interrupting of the sequence, which is kind of what a break is. It's an interrupting of the sequence, interrupting, you know, sort of the flow of what you're doing, um, and that continuity or that uniformity that's taking place. So, yeah, as you said, lots of different types of breaks. Um, I think the one that we are probably most familiar with, and our students are most familiar with, would be uh school breaks. So the breaks that we take for spring break, we just came back from our week-long spring break. Um, we have summer breaks. You know, some people don't actually teach or, you know, actually take courses in the summer. It's crazy. Um, and then fall break. And usually the fall break is about three days for for Thanksgiving that we usually sometimes deal with.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So yeah, and and sometimes those breaks, it's really difficult to come back from those breaks. So it in some of our second and third segments, we're gonna talk about the the benefits and drawbacks. We're gonna talk about how to come back from those breaks. But but these different types of breaks, I know whenever I had uh, well, I have kids in public schools and they have breaks fairly regularly. They get a week off, it seems like every month. And so it it really is. It's like a February break and a March break, an October break. They have a week off every month, it seems. And I know that the transition from getting ready for a break and then coming back from a break, it can be really difficult. So just the time off that can be a break itself. But there's other types of breaks as well, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yes. Uh we are approaching uh the drop deadline for our for our college. Um, so dropping out, um, deciding that you're gonna take a break from school for a lot of different reasons.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Um, that would be taking a break, whether it be you take a break to do work, maybe you're not really taking a break, but maybe you're just taking a break from your studies, um, or taking a break to maybe have a family, um, possibly taking a break to uh do, you know, something, you know, life event has taken place, and you know, maybe that's taking place as well. So um that dropping out can be a break sometimes. Um, there are relationship breaks. People take breaks in relationships. It just seems very odd to me because I've never experienced that myself. Um, but it is something we we talk about periodically of people actually, you know, saying being in a relationship and needing to be away from each other uh for a period of time. Uh whether that be a if you're in a just you know in a casual romantic relationship and you just need a break from the person and maybe you need a couple days away, right? Um, or you need a couple weeks away, or maybe you can need a couple months away, right? Or it be a marriage where you have a separation where you need that break as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Um, so those take place.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

So a lot of these are these are breaks. They're again going back to that definition, it is it's a an interruption. It's an interruption of continuity. So when we're thinking about school or when we're thinking about work, we think of it as a continuous state, right? So we've always thought of when we're in school, we're in school continuously. But I want to make sure that we understand that just because we take a break from school, that doesn't mean that we're never going to be back in school again. Correct. Yeah. Right. So when I have a conversation with students sometimes about perhaps the dropping of a class, maybe it's my class, maybe it's another class, or in other times it's focusing on school and taking a break from their part-time or their overloaded schedule of work, taking a break from some of those hours. It's not that they're quitting, it's not that they are never going to be a student or never going to work again. It's they are having an interruption of continuity. It's simply a break. So I want to encourage those students or perhaps those people who are are considering those different things with a withdrawal coming up or something like that. It doesn't mean that you're that's never gonna happen again.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

And it doesn't mean that there's like a social stigma attached to it either. I think that's another thing that I think it's important to put out there.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Taking a break from college is not a bad thing. I I honestly wish I had taken a break because I think I would be less high strung now if I had taken, and and we call them, and there's even people who call them break semesters or break break, you know, take a break year.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

You know, and and people go out and you know go backpacking in Europe.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Like that's not what I plan, you know. That you know was never in my you know, dreams or intentions.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

But that is not, it's not a bad thing to just take some time off from what you're doing.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Especially if it's if continuing is gonna be detrimental to you.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Absolutely. Yeah, it's all about reframing and and reflecting and figuring out what it is that you want at that particular point in your life. There was a situation in a particular time in my life whenever I was starting a family. Um, we know we talked about a career break. And um, we as a family, my husband and I decided I wanted to pause work for a time and be a stay-at-home mom. And that was our priority. And then we knew that it wasn't a I was going to be stopping forever because I loved teaching. I love, you know, uh helping the community and and everything like that. But it was a break, right? It was a career pause. So um, it's not a forever thing. And so I just want to encourage those students who are considering a pause or a break that it's not necessarily forever.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

And that it's not a bad thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

It's not a bad thing to do. And then the last one is kind of a just an easy one. It's just breaks from activities, sports, games. Sometimes we need to step away from something to enjoy the thing more. Right. I think that's important. Um, I think, you know, especially, you know, if you're involved in, you know, athletics, you're involved in sports and things like that, you are constantly in a competition state. Competitive, competitive, competitive, competitive. When you've done that for a long time, you can get burnt out.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

And I think taking a step back from that for, you know, just you know, maybe a couple of, you know, couple of games or just a couple of, you know, whatever uh meets or whatever it ends up being can really recharge you to be better later on.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah, absolutely. And so a lot of these are a little bit longer breaks, but some I want to I want to go even a little more micro. We need to take breaks even during the day. We we need to take a lunch break. We need to take a walk around the the office, or we need to take breaks just to enjoy and and to be more productive. And I know in our next segment, we're gonna talk about some of the the benefits and the drawbacks because there are different things that we can do during our breaks that will be beneficial or perhaps detrimental to the what happens next after that break.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Absolutely. And with that, I think we're gonna take a break. Sounds good. And get ready for segment two. We will see you uh shortly. And we are back, and we are going to talk about the benefits of taking a break. And did we benefit from that little short break we just had? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

It wasn't that it wasn't that long. It really wasn't that long. I mean, in the world of radio and the world of podcasting, when we say we take a break, it's really I press a button and then I press the button again. So I guess it really wasn't that much of a break. Um, but it it it you know, it we're gonna talk about benefits. We'll talk about some drawbacks too, because yeah, there are actually drawbacks to taking a break. Um, and I I think it's you have to think a little bit outside the box to think about some of these things, but I think they do uh warrant a discussion.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

They do. And it again, it depends on what kind of a break we're talking about. Because if we're talking about the break from school, right? If we're talking about withdrawing from a class or taking a semester off, or if we're talking about something like that, it is going to benefit you to do different things during that, let's say, semester off or whatever. Um, if we're talking about taking a break in between getting off from work and before you start your family time, it's gonna, you know, you're gonna have different activities or different things that you're gonna be doing during that break that are beneficial. So I think it's important for us to identify the fact that it is important to take the right kind of break.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Absolutely. Let's start with the little little tiny breaks we take throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

So when we take those little breaks, you're taking like we we get done, we teach two classes back to back pretty much every day. You come back to the office, gotta take a break for a second. So, what what does that do for you like to move forward with the rest of the day?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Well, let me tell you what is a as a terrible idea that sometimes I do, but I'll tell you it's this bad idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I'll tell you that it's a bad idea for me to come into my office and just sit down and scroll on my phone. It's a bad idea because it's an energy sap for me.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

I know that that is not filling up my energy. I'm an extrovert, so I know that I get my energy from other people. And so the best form of a break for me after teaching class and and is not to go and sit into my office and just scroll on my phone. It's not gonna work for me to to re-energize me. The best thing for me to do is to go outside or to be around other people and not just sit down and and do nothing. It's gonna be better for me to go into another space where I'm not trying to multitask and eat at the same time. It's gonna be better for me to do that, but to be intentional about my break.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Intentional. That's a great word.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

You if you're gonna take a break, you need to take a break. A break does not involve checking your emails. A break does not involve doom scrolling. Because doom scrolling, I mean, while it is not doing something that's work-related, it is still not gonna help you.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Um, a break is supposed to be something that is supposed to be rejuvenating. It's supposed to be rejuvenating experience. Right. The little mini breaks that we're taking are supposed to be rejuvenating experiences. So at the end of the day, it should boost your performance. Like you should have boosted performance, you should have more creativity. Um, and I bet going outside and talking to people and you know, being around people increases that creative juices, increases those ideas. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

It doesn't, and it doesn't have to be very long. And you certainly shouldn't feel guilty at the end of your break.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And shifting from teaching, which is what we do, to even just us sitting and talking about this, our podcast. Sometimes that's a break.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

That is a that is a shift away from what our work is to something that is sort of an outside activity that we both enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

So interruption. It is an interruption, exactly. So and it's creative, and we build these we created this particular episode in 15 minutes before we came on the episode. And yes, we got research and everything else that goes along with that. But it is, you know, it came out of just us sitting and talking after we finished class. So you get, you know, some of that, some of those, you know, creative juices start to flow. You get more performance, you get, you know, boosted performance, you get more energy that comes out of that. Um, and a couple of other things. So you you've got um the well-being thesis, uh, that is a website. Um, and they have a few other things that they also say that you get from taking a break. You get reduced stress and burnout. So when you step away from doing your daily work, when you step away from, you know, having all of that stress put onto you and things like that from that, it relieves that. Oh my gosh, really? Oh, it does. Surprise. It gets away. Um, you start to get, you know, able to manage those stress levels a little bit more because you're able to reduce those periodically throughout the day. So that's a good thing. Um, it makes us more healthy. It actually improves our physical health. It actually makes us have less, which is weird because I don't feel that right now. Um, muscle fatigue and you know, muscular, you know, musculoskeletal issues um that we get from sedentary work sometimes. So, you know, getting up, moving around, things like that, which I got an ankle, it's bum right now, so it's hard to do that, but um, it improves our physical health. And then it also really makes us have a stronger mental capacity.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

And I I want to, I want to speak to the fact that sometimes when we are crazy busy, like right now, you know, this is airing in April. Right now, it's the busiest time of the semester for teachers, for students, it is so difficult to schedule those breaks. It's really hard for us to get out of our office and to just go on that five or 10 minute walk or to just go and talk to a colleague. I acknowledge that, but the benefits are huge. Huge. They are they're so great. And and if you just do it and then you recognize that, oh wow, I am so much more productive if I can just escape for a few minutes, do the thing, and and then you you really do see those those benefits. Um, I love the book Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, and it talks about the lost art of accomplishment without burnout. And it talks about deep work and doing fewer things. Now, again, sometimes we feel like we can't do fewer things, but if we can at least take the break and focus on those things that are really important, um, then we can, you know, we feel those benefits of the break without the burnout.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Absolutely. So we sort of uh branched this off into some benefits that relate to, I would say, you know, the work school break, you know, I think, you know, those all those all of those benefits help with that. Um, I think that helps with, you know, sort of the the breaks that we take throughout the day, the breaks, you know, maybe from activities. We already talked about some benefits of that too earlier. Um, but the only things that I we haven't really talked about are like, what are some benefits from say taking a relationship break?

unknown 18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So that's a really good question. And it's a funny story because my uh whenever I was dating my now husband, um, he broke up with me my senior year. Yeah. What? He broke up with me. He broke up with me my senior year of high school uh just before Valentine's Day. And uh I'm convinced now, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, but I'm convinced now that he was he was taking a break so he didn't have to buy me a Valentine's Day gift. But he broke up with me just before Valentine's Day uh for about a week or two. And um, he was taking a break. He didn't really tell me why. I think it's so that he didn't have to buy me a Valentine's Day gift. But I think it's also to reflect on what's important, right? Exactly. Uh to reflect on is this what we really want? Is this uh luckily it was because then I had a prom date for senior year, right? So that was important. And it and then to re-establish the connections that we have. So maybe that's a reason that you you might take a break to re-establish the connections, to re-evaluate your priorities.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

So uh some reasons, and I'm gonna talk about some reasons that um some research says to take a break in a relationship. Uh near constant arguing, disagreements, um, really not aligned with what the next steps are, which you what you said. Um, relationship can become unbalanced. So one person's sort of doing all of the work in the relationship, the other person's not. Um, and that creates resentment. So you want to try to avoid that resentment maybe by taking a break. Um, and then maybe neither of you is really unsure if you want to continue the relationship. So maybe you need some time of that separation again to sort of, you know, look over that and say, hmm, you know, is this something that we really need to do? And that they say that taking a break really does work. It has there are there are some healthy benefits. Um, you get to get some soul searching, you get self-care, self-reflection, which you don't sometimes get when you're in a relationship. When you're in a relationship, you're kind of trying to take care of the other person. Um, and you get now time to really take care of yourself and really get that time with yourself. Um, and so I really like this article that really talks about um these, which is uh by Liz Talago. Um, she is a couples and marriage therapist and it's been clinically reviewed. So um I don't have a website or anything like that from where it's from.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

But it is, yeah, it is really interesting to think about the fact that uh again, it's it's not necessarily the end of the world. It's not the end of the relationship all the time. Um, but it does allow for both partners to reflect on the relationship and the the outcomes that both parties want.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Now, if we're gonna talk about some drawbacks, I'm gonna move to some drawbacks of that. And I'm gonna start with the relationship because that's where we're at right now. Um, it does sort of also give you a chance to avoid.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Gives you a chance to avoid some of the issues. It gives you sort of a way to step back. And we always talk about you should really meet conflict head on. And yeah, when you don't meet conflict head on, that creates, you know, a lot of a lot of resentment for both people. Yeah. And uncertainty. And uncertainty. Um, and taking ambiguous breaks creates a limbo period too. That's like, you know, what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen. Um, so that you know, can be very kind of an unhealthy way of dealing with that. Um, but also I will say, like, I think when you get to this point, you know, it's also important to recognize that not all relationships should stay together either.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

If you are in a constant state of argumentation and you try to come back together and It stays that way, maybe that should end. Right. Maybe it should be over. And it shouldn't be temporary at that point. But I do think that there are, you know, those still those kind of little tiny drawbacks that come from that.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yeah, for sure. And there's drawbacks to other breaks as well. So in addition to relationships, there's drawbacks to taking a break for any number of things. Like let let's say we're talking about that school break again, right? So when you take a break from school, let's say you either take a semester off, or let's say you take a, you know, you drop a class or whatever, it can be really difficult to re-enroll. It can be really difficult if you have decided to work and not go to school to realize, oh, I'm not gonna have the money if I am no longer working. And so it can be, it can be difficult to retransition back into school if you if you've done that.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

So But I will say go go speak to a counselor. Don't of course don't take those decisions and reflect on them too long by yourself because that's when you start to tell yourself, oh I'm not gonna go back.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

I'm not going to go back. And that's don't do that to yourself. Yeah. Talk to a counselor and see what your options are.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

There are always options out there. And I think too many times people tell themselves that I can't do this, I can't go back. I can't, I can't, I mean, I just I've spent too much time away. You've never spent too much time away. No, there's always there's there's always a chance.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

There's always a chance. But but that is one of the drawbacks, is that that people get it in their head that that that's the way.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Some other drawbacks. Some other drawbacks. Workflow interruption. So when we think about, you know, when take those little mini breaks, you get a little bit of workflow interruption. If it's not well timed, like I can't take a break in the middle of my class teaching.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

That's probably not a good idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Um push back a little bit just for just for a moment because you are a person, Andy. So you you are a person. Wow. You know what? And I I say that in jest, but you are because sometimes we don't think that we can take a break. But I um, you know, if I need to take a break, if I'm gonna run down the hall and refill my water bottle, or if I if I need to take a a break. In in the past, I used to think, no, I can't because I can't leave my students. Remember, I I used to teach in public school. So I couldn't take a break. Like I I joked that I have a teacher bladder, right? So I I literally wouldn't allow myself to take a physical needs break. And we are humans. We need to, if we need to take a sick day as a break, if we need to take a restroom break, if and I need to tell my students this as well. If you need to take care of your business, take care of your business. But we joke about the fact that, you know, we we laugh at the fact that if we need to take a break, but we need to realize that a lot of our students, a lot of us even will disregard our humanity and not take the breaks that we need to take.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

And I think, you know, that's great advice. And I probably I think about the fact that I'm sitting here right now uh with a cane next to me because I've twisted my ankle and thinking, if I had uh stayed home from school today, everything would be more behind, everything would be there. Right. And I just think to myself, who at the end of the day does it really matter if everything's behind?

SPEAKER_04 25:33

Right. Sometimes, sometimes a breaking.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

I know, I know. That workflow interruption's hard. It's it's hard, it's hard to deal with to think about and to mess with.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So it is it is hard to to come back from that. Sometimes there are drawbacks, but our humanity is important as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

You talked about something earlier. You talked about not being able to go to your office and sort of do scrolling at the end. And then it actually is a thing. It's digital fatigue. Um, when you switch to sort of moving from work to a social media or digital browsing or internet browsing, it actually leads to more increased fatigue, being a feeling a loss of self-control. That's from Northern Illinois University. So getting, you know, that loss of control, that guess that fatigue not only saps your energy, which you you said that it does, but it also leads to a feeling a loss of control, too.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

So I'm not I'm I'm for real.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

You're for real here. Exactly. Uh and then the last one I that we have is ineffective recovery. Like if you're going, if you're going on a break, take a break. Don't look at your email. Don't you need to detach. If you're going on vacation, detach.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Oh, I'm guilty.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

I am too. So am I. I I you know practice what I say, not what I do. But yeah, we need to, it doesn't give us that mental reset that we need. Um, and that's from the American Psychological Association. So when you when you take a break, take a break.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Okay. Well, let's take a break.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, let's take a break. When we come back, we will talk about uh how to re-enter after taking a break. And we're back, and we actually took a little break there. Uh so we're uh last going to talk about how to re-enter after taking a break. Because I think that's just as important as it is talking about taking a break.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

It is, and I think this was the the part of the podcast that I thought was the most difficult for me. I think it's a it's really difficult for a lot of people, is is coming back from a break.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

It it's been difficult for me for this last week. Like I came back on Monday and I I was a zombie. Like I got came, I got to work, I sat in my car for an hour, closed my eyes for an hour, came inside and sat in my desk and really just didn't know how to proceed.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Um, eventually, I think I've gotten a little bit more back in the groove. I'm still not completely there yet.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Um, after this break. But yeah, it is something that is difficult to re-enter after you just went on a very long vacation.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

You just went on a nice vacation to a nice place, you know, a destination. Um, and you just came back. How do you come back from that?

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Yeah, you know, it's it's all about, I think it's all about the mindset. But I love the quote, James Clear from Atomics Habits, he has a quote that says, never miss twice. So we're talking about an intentional break. We're talking about a scheduled spring break, but sometimes our breaks are are not even intentional and or they're like if you miss class or if you if you're out for sick days or something like that, never miss twice. And it's talking about being intentional about your your return to to work, your return to class, your return to I don't know, I always think about it whenever I'm going to the gym. Like don't don't miss more than than one time because then it's a habit to to miss or whatever. But whenever I am coming back, so we went to Colorado, we drove, we had a wonderful time, but we were exhausted. Oh yeah. But when we came back, we we planned to come back on Saturday so that we had the weekend to kind of buffer, um, which is I think an important part. We want to strategize, plan, and prioritize the the the buffer when we're coming back and prioritize slowly reintegrating. Um, and I think that's important. So when my husband comes back from a vacation, he always plans a half day, he blocks the first half of the day to just work through emails. Like if you can block off that first half day to not have any meetings, not have any anything like that, so that you can prioritize the the just the reintegration part.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

As the Be Well website likes to call it, a buffer day.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Um to catch up on emails, uh, organization, life.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Uh before diving really into the high pressure types of things that you're gonna be having to deal with at work. And I think that, you know, the other thing was I the other thing was uh prioritizing tasks. Um, and it's funny, like that's what I was doing. Like when I when I came back on Monday, my priority was are my lectures ready for my classes? Okay, that's all that needs to happen. All I gotta do is go in there and lecture and get through those, and then that's the day.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Like that's all I have to do. So being able to do that and sort of they say gradual re-entries, you know, that 10 to 20% capacity. That was my 10 to 20% capacity on the first day. And then, you know, the next couple of days, get more things done.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Right. And and we don't always have control over that, but if we can, if we can plan ahead, like if it like I said, if it is a planned break, if we can plan ahead. So before spring break, I I did as much as I could to make sure that whenever I came back, all the things that I could have done ahead of time were done. And and that made it just a little bit easier to to re-enter. Um, but if not, then you know, give yourself a little grace. Give yourself that extra time, that extra capacity that you that you have to to just re-enter gradually. But evaluate, make a plan and just say, you know, Monday's gonna be really hard, and I'm gonna just accept that and know that I'm not alone, right? Everybody that came back from spring break on Monday was having been a real struggle.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Everybody was struggling. We've talked about it all the way around the office. Um, and that's you know, it just and and and get back in your routine, rebuild your habits and get that ritual back into place, get the ritual back into place, get your sleep habits back into place. May have stayed up late, you know, having a good time during those breaks, but now you got to come back, you know, get your sleep habits back into place before um you start. You really want to get them back, you know, Saturday if you're on Saturday, Sunday before, so that you're really, you know, energized and ready to go. Um, even though sometimes you do that and it still doesn't work, but yeah. So that's how we return from spring break and those types of breaks, you know, vacations, things like that. How do you return from a career break?

SPEAKER_01 32:31

That's a that's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

You've experienced this.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

I have.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

So how did you return? What was the return like?

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yeah, so slow and steady. I think that's really an important thing to to address is that you can't necessarily force yourself to jump 100% in like you were uh beforehand because things are different, right? Um, and especially in my case, I was talking about coming back after having kiddos. So um, you know, I had I had children and and everything is different then, right? Um, so I actually returned in a different job in a different capacity. And so just uh re-establishing boundaries, um, going in slowly and trying to figure out what is the new normal. Um so easing in, uh establishing those boundaries and and making new connections with people because sometimes it's important to understand what it is that you expect of yourself, but then also making sure that other people understand what you're expecting of of the situation.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

And I think if you've been away from a career for a little bit of time too, I think it's also important to refresh your skills. Um, refresh, you know, some of those idea things that you may not remember or new. Um, there might be new uh tasks or new things you need to know.

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Um, so taking, you know, some courses or or, you know, attending workshops and going to conferences and things like that, I think helps to sort of build those skills back up a little bit too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

I think that applies to our students who have been out of college for a while as well, because I know I have a lot of students who have maybe taken a break for a while from not necessarily just work, but from school. And the technology has changed a lot over the time that they have been out. And so they are kind of doing what you're mentioning. They're refreshing their technology skills, they're taking it slower than they might have in the past, where maybe they haven't decided that they're going to go in with a full load. They're instead going to go a little bit slower so that they can re-establish those priorities and boundaries and kind of ease in again so that they can be successful.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Absolutely. And if you take those little mini breaks, you need to re-enter, you're gonna come back. So you just need to and just remember that it is supposed to be a stoppage, but that stoppage is supposed to restart. So when you stop, don't just continue doing the thing. Go get off from doing that thing and go back to doing the thing, which is your job.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Um, and I think that's you know, really important to do, but but it is still important to take those breaks. Take your lunch break. Right. Um, take, you know, take 15 minutes to just, you know, sort of reconnect your thoughts and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 35:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Um, and then just remember it's 15 minutes. Set yourself a timer, you know, be able to re-enter back into what you're doing and get back in that flow so that it's it the continuity continues.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah. You know, I was looking at a book called The Gift of Leadership by Andrew Birchfield. And it talks about, so as a leader, we could we should really encourage those who are not necessarily just our subordinates, because we can be a leader even if we we don't have uh people that we're managing, but we should really encourage those with the gift of time. So whether it's encouraging them to take the breaks that they need to or uh, you know, giving them the time to reflect and figure out what they need uh from not only from us, but uh just empowering them to do that. Um and so I I really liked that, the the gift of time in the gift of leadership.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Absolutely. Yeah. So when we think about re-entering a relationship too, and I think that's sort of our last connection, uh, I think that the most important thing about coming back, you know, after maybe being away, you know, a period of time is really communication. You really need to sit and talk to each other and sort of take that reflection period as a way to then branch that into the relationship and say, okay, we've been away for this period of time, we've taken a break for this period of time. A, why are we reconnecting? Or if we are reconnecting, why are we reconnecting and why is it going to be different than it was before?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah. Yeah. Communication is is so important. Whether it's intra-personal communication when we're talking to ourselves about the break that we've just had doing the task or the the whatever we're we're doing, communication and reflection are so important in all of these different types of breaks and communicating with our family and our workplace colleagues or our relationship partners, all of these different things, um, talking about those breaks and and how valuable they are and making sure that we do them. So because breaks are valuable. Um and I hope that as we look forward to our upcoming summer breaks um and uh all the breaks that are in the future. Hey, I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

What's the summer break you speak of? I don't I don't know what the summer break is that you speak of.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Whatever breaks you're looking forward to in the future, uh, I hope that you are intentional um about your breaks and reflective during them.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

And if you aren't taking a break, take a break.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Yeah, take the mini breaks, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Don't, yeah, don't, don't let, don't let stress and and everything else come after you. Take a break. Take take a relaxation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Look at you, Handy. Take a break.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Take 40 minutes and take a break and listen to this podcast. That's what you should do. Have a good one. All right, thank you so much, and we will see you next month. This has been Ed, a frank discussion about topics that matter in education. The views expressed in this episode are those of the host, co-host, and any guests. They do not reflect the views or values of Lone Star College. For further information about Ed, please visit our website at www.ed.buzzsproute.com. Next month on Ed, a discussion on transitions. Ed was produced by Andy Luster and Twy LaCoy, music provided by Laborio Conti.