It’s been a bit of a difficult last month or so, so thought I would share some brief thoughts in the hope that writing things down and sharing may help. First of all there was BETT-lag. The end of March included the BETT conference which for me was a very busy series of days, of attending panel discussions, visiting stands, meetings and catching up with many EdTech friends. So, it was useful and enjoyable but also very tiring especially when you factor in the long travel times from Somerset to the Excel in London. Thankfully the end of BETT coincided with the end of term so I had high hopes for being able to recover over the Easter break.
Around the same time my fitness efforts and running had hit a bit of a roadblock with limited distance covered in both March and April. The fact I couldn’t get into a routine and regular running habit was depressing and with each opportunity for running missed it made me feel all the more negative. Additionally, my reading habit had also taken a nosedive partially through a lack of motivation, similar to my running, but also through a lack of interest in the book I am currently reading but combined with a reluctance to just put the book down, to give up, and move on to another book.
March had also seen me take on a number of projects including creating some webinar content and recording a regular weekly podcast among other things. It was good to be busy and led me to feeling a sense of achievement, however it meant that by the end of the month, and the BETT conference, I was already tired and the event, plus the post-event BETT-Lag were still to come. And then there was the void left once the activities had been concluded and no longer occupied my time.
And next was the kicker, when initially I started feeling a bit of a cold part way through the Easter break, the time I planned to use to try and relax and recover. Getting hold of a covid test, I decided to test and low and behold it came back positive. What followed wasn’t that much worse than a cold however I found myself lacking in any real energy which led me to achieving very little in terms of the long list of things I wanted to get done. The tiredness, lack of achievement, lack of running or reading, all left me feeling negative and downright depressed at times.
Mental health isn’t a simple thing. It isn’t something which can be solved by a simple “wellbeing activity”. It is about physical fitness and activity, about mental activity, about feeling a sense of achievement, feeling well, feeling suitably challenged but not feeling stressed or over worked or overly tired. It’s a delicate balance and one which I don’t think I have sufficiently managed over the last few months. My hope is I can use the new term as a new start and better address the need for balance. But for now am just going to relax and enjoy the weekend before the new term begins.
Technology and Learning