If you didn’t know it-my first job after college I was a teacher. I clearly remember those last weeks before summer break I would make all of these lofty plans of all the things I would get done during the summer since I was so incredibly busy during the school year.  I got a sudden case of what I call the This Summers.  You know it well-its that state of mind we get when we have a long amount of time free and make very ambitious goals and plans:

“This summer I am going to get my daughter potty trained”

“This summer I am going to get organized!”

“This summer I am going to clean out my closet”

“This summer I am going to (finally) get my house clean -because school keeps me so busy, I don’t have time during the school year.”

“This summer my son and I are going to get his reading up to grade level.”

“This summer I am going to get my __________closet cleaned and organized.”

“This summer I am going finally learn to meal prep.”

But almost every year I did that-you know what ended up happening?  Nothing…..absolutely nothing.  I would start off with great intentions and then lose my steam after one or two weeks.  So I would go back to school and my closet would still be a mess and I never learned to meal prep…

Now if your school year was anything like mine-it was a doozy!  It was really tough.  I don’t want you to look back on your summer in August or September and realize that you did not get any of what you wanted done.  Here are a few things you can do now to keep that from happening.

1. Take some time off.  It is important that you take some time off-I mean really off—do nothing.  Consider taking the first 1-2 (or 3 weeks off).  I think totally doing nothing is very much called for.  So whatever ‘doing nothing’  looks like to you then that what you should do.  It may be taking a vacation or a staycation (with these airline prices!!!), it may look like you going to the beach or the mountains for a little while.  It may look like exploring your city and taking yourself or your family out to lunch every day or catching up on your favorite television shows on Netflix or HBOMax!  This also goes for your kids especially if they are school aged.  Except for the HBO Max part-don’t let your school aged child watch HBO.
2. Answer one question: By the end of the summer what do you want to say you have done/accomplished/completed?  I don’t recommend you pick too many things. Pick one or two things.  You can always add another if you get the original ones done.
3. Break it down into steps and try to get one step done each week or day.  For example- if your goal is to get your child talking more than he is now-you want to grab my book “30 Days to Get Your Toddler Talking”  (ohhhh I know that was a shameless plug) and complete one ‘lesson’ per day.  If it’s cleaning out your closet.  Literally you want to list the step out and schedule them.  It may look like this:
   
   1. Buy 2 sets of new hangers and storage containers
   2. Separate clothes into ‘keep’ ‘give’ and “maybe” piles.
   3. Bag up clothes to give away and call my friend at church to see of she wants them or drop them at good will
   4. Sort through clothes in “maybe’ pile and figure out which ones I am keeping
   5. Hang up all clothes (I am keeping)
   6. Take all remaining clothes to Goodwill
      
4. Decide when you will complete the task.  You may want to do a little bit everyday until the job is done or you may want to make time on Tuesday from 9-10 to work on that closet space.
5. Celebrate your success and readjust when you are struggling.  If you finish your task-hooray!  Have a celebratory pop-tart!  If you begin to feel like you may have gotten off track a bit-readjust.  You may want to pay someone to complete it or do it all in one day or find another time to do it.  

All of us at SpeechBuilders hope you have a wonderful summer!  Do not hesitate to call us to schedule any appointments or ask any questions: www.speechbuilders.org. You can pick up my book here.