When you finally get comfortable in your day to day job routine, would you consider that a success or a problem?

For context, you can take a look at my day to day teaching schedule here! I detail what a week in the life of my virtual school days look like.

So let me tell you how me getting comfortable in my PE teaching job routine was both a success workload wise, while physically problematic for me at the same time.

Virtual Teaching

If you have read my Teaching Update you’ll see that I only am virtual teaching Monday-Wednesday and the rest of my week is spent doing back work and house cleaning type work.

So obviously I get excited when I am on Google Meet with the kids because I’m moving and having fun. It’s what I thrive on. Getting kids physically active every day so they can live long healthy productive lives.

I look forward to my Monday-Wednesday sessions, because that’s also when I get my midday workouts in. I tell my students that I wouldn’t make them do something I wouldn’t do so I am actively participating in every movement we do. So those three days I spend being engaged with every class and feeling great by the time I go home after work. (Yes we are a completely remote school, but the staff still has to go into the building every day).

You’re probably wondering how this could be a problem? Well starting off it wasn’t. But I started to be really proficient with my work, making my day to day easier, which in turned made me a little more comfortable with what and how I was teaching.

Change of Location

Now that I’m getting more comfortable with my remote teaching, instead of working out in my gym like normal, I started working out of my gym office in the building. It’s secluded, and I made it comfortable. I was over moving from the gym to my office when I was doing busy work vs. teaching live.

Once I changed my location, I was still doing the workouts with the students, but I wasn’t giving 100% effort. It’s a smaller space so I have to be mindful of my surroundings so I don’t hurt myself. Well with this cozy small atmosphere I started doing the workouts while sitting in my chair. To the students I look engaged…and I am…just a different way.

The Problem

My blog is all about PE teaching and fitness. So the problem becomes personal to my own life, because now I am slacking on my workouts. This last Tuesday when I had grades 3-5 and I remember ending the day thinking “wow I barely moved today”. I’m a PE teacher so I’m pushing 10,000-20,000 steps per day when I teach in person.

With getting comfortable that means I’m feeling successful with the back end workload, but the physical work is starting to cause some issues with my body. It doesn’t feel as great.

I’ve gone from a physically demanding job where I am on my feet the entire day, to sitting behind a computer for 8 hours a day. And then I started slacking on the 3 days where I did have an opportunity to be physically active and I’m not liking the way I feel leaving my job site.

What My Students See

The good part of this, is that my kids can’t tell the difference. When I’m not jumping around or dancing with them I’m giving encouragement, because I keep my microphone on the entire class period. I will also give feedback or correct form. To my students who are working hard, they don’t even notice what I am doing.

It also allows me to get more students engaged with the lesson. I can see who’s laying in bed or not participating. Giving feedback to those students in an uplifting way is a must if we want the kids to get anything out of our online PE class.

Fixing the Problem

Alright, so I got myself into this sedentary work life, and it’s time to get myself out of it. In one of my previous posts about goal setting, I talk about how we need to be honest with ourselves about our starting points, and where do we want to end up.

In my case, I have just been slacking on my Monday-Wednesday workouts with the students. My goal is to move back out into my gym and be 100% engaged with the workouts. The only way I can get back on track is if I make a conscious effort to do so.

This wont effect my back end work in any way. That’s because the more time that passes and I adapt to virtual teaching, the better I get at organizing and prioritizing my work. I’ve become proficient at my job. But now I need to keep that feeling of success with my job routine, AND give my K-8 classes full energy while moving through their activities with them.

How Has Your Job Routine Success Effected Some Other Part of your Life?

In my case, becoming successful with my workload became problematic with my physical activity levels.

That may not be the case for you.

Of course you want to be more efficient at your job in every way possible to reduce stress and to create a positive work environment. But can getting too comfortable be a bad thing? What can you do to keep your brain on its toes? Or in my case what can I do to keep my body literally on my toes?

Think about how you perform at your current job site. Whether it’s in person or remote. How has the changes to our world effected our day to day, and what can we do to get out of the ruts we may be in.

Small and big changes to our daily routine might be needed in order to enjoy all aspects of our lives.

What will your changes look like?

Detroit PE Youtube:

If you’re looking for short and quick workouts, check out my Detroit PE YouTube channel below where I take 15-60 second workouts and turn them into full body, calorie shredding workouts:

• YouTube