Ready or not, here comes the fall! Before you plunge back into the frenetic reality of the new school year, here are five tips to help you prepare yourself to thrive in your return to the classroom:

1. Limit your exposure to news and social media. While it is important to stay informed, just 14 minutes of news can cause a significant jump in sadness, anxiety, and depression. This can quickly overload your mental and emotional well-being.
2. Simplify. Before you return to the classroom, remove the things in your living space that you don’t truly need. Doing so, provides you with a relaxing and organized space to decompress after a busy school day. Here is a great four-step process to help you do this in your whole life.
3. Streamline what you are doing by creating tiny habits that alter unhelpful behaviors without unnecessary added stress.
4. Multiply your time by reframing how you prioritize what you do right now. Reflecting on how you allocate your time can help you strategically plan your days to achieve personal and professional goals.
5. Protect regular rest and renewal. As counterintuitive as it sounds, creating a norm of turning off your “work self” at a certain time each day and giving your mind time to completely renew will make you more productive and resilient, not less.

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth aims to transform lives and communities — one moment, one choice, one connection at a time. As a teacher, these tips can help you build habits to thrive and remain energized throughout the school year, as you transform the lives of your students.

About TLC

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC) is a social enterprise company serving the Greater Philadelphia Area. Founded in 1970 by a behavioral health hospital, TLC is an entrepreneurial nonprofit providing innovative education, coaching, and counseling services to individuals and families, as well as grant writing and management services for school districts and universities. TLC’s mission is to promote positive choices and cultivate meaningful connections through education, counseling, coaching, and consulting. To learn more, visit TheLincolnCenter.com

About the Author

MaryJo Burchard (Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership) is co-founder and principal of Concord Solutions, a Virginia-based consultancy firm focused on helping leaders and organizations thrive while facing major disruption. Concord Solutions offers consulting, coaching, training, research, and keynote speaking surrounding trauma-informed leadership and assessing and building change readiness, trust, and belonging.