Episode 31: Future You Will Thank You

Description: This week Tina invites you to write yourself a short, encouraging note and schedule it to arrive in your inbox in about a week. Think of it as a little love note from past you to future you—something to lift your spirits, celebrate your wins, and remind you that you’re doing an amazing job.

Resources: How to schedule an email in Gmail. How to schedule an email in Outlook. How to schedule send a text on iPhone. How to schedule send a text on Android.

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Transcription: Hi and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 31 and this week's invitation, I hope, feels kind of fun. Here's what it is. It's what I'm going to call the future you favor. The future you favor. And here's what I'm going to encourage you to do. I want you to take some time this week and I want you to write a short, encouraging little note to yourself, and I want you to schedule it as an email to arrive to you in about a week.

Right? How fun is that? Super, super simple. Just a little surprise, little love note to yourself. So you can go right into your email. You know how to schedule an email. I know you know how to do this. If I can do this, you can do this. If you don't know how to do this, here's what I always say, ask someone younger than you to help you, but I'm certain you know how to do this.

Can you do this with text? I don't know. I haven't figured that out. I know how to do this on email. So I want you to just write a little note to yourself. And it can be super simple, like, hey, you're doing a great job, or I'm cheering so hard for you, or look at you crushing it this week, or man, you look amazing today.Something as simple as that. Or you can get really, really specific and write like a letter to yourself of all the things that you are proud of or all the wins that you have had. I mean, you can take this and go in a gazillion different directions. And my invitation is to schedule it so that it comes in about a week, but think of all the ways that you can turn the dial as I always say up on this, right? 

Maybe you send multiple notes to yourself, you know as we start inching our way towards the end of the school year, this can be a hard time. I always say that stretch between spring break and the end of the school year can feel like a slog in some ways. And so maybe you schedule multiple little email pep talks to yourself that arrive once every week between now and the end of the school year. 

Maybe you do it every single day if you feel like you need a real boost. Think about what time it would be helpful for that to arrive. Do you need your little boost to arrive first thing in the morning? Do you need it to arrive in the afternoon right at the end of the workday? Do you check your email before third period and you know it would be really great for that to pop up right at that exact moment? Do you check your email in the evening and it would be really nice to get a little pep talk from yourself then? All sorts of considerations here. 

Think about what day of the week it might be nice to arrive. Do you need that little note to show up in your inbox on Wednesday, right? Halfway through the week. Do you need it on Friday Junior, as I like to call it so that you can get that little pep talk to carry you from Thursday into Friday. I mean, there's no wrong way to do this. There's a gazillion ways to do this.

And I really want this to focus on sending a pep talk to you. We've talked a lot in the past about sending a note to other people and you know I'm a huge fan of that. I love little love notes and reminders and texts and getting the good word and the good juices out to other people. But I want this specific invitation to be an invitation that you utilize for you.

So again, I want you to think about what is a short little tiny, itty bitty encouraging note that you can send to yourself that you can schedule as an email that can arrive to you in about a week or make it your own as I said. And maybe you do it multiple days. 

Maybe you need this little note to arrive tomorrow. Maybe you need it to arrive later today. Maybe you need whatever. Maybe you need it to be super specific encouragement coming up right before an important event. Or something that's coming up that you're a little bit nervous about. That would be really nice to get that little boost of like, You've got this. Remember you've got this. You're prepared. You're ready for this. I don't know. I don't know what's going on, but it can be really nice to be our own best cheerleader and our own biggest fan and supporter. 

So that's what I want you to do this week. I want you to think about how you can do yourself a favor in the future. We're going to call this the future you favor. I'm going to do this alongside you. I think this is going to be fun. Let's play around with the future you favor this week. 

Make it a great week. You guys. I'm cheering so hard for you as always. We're going to make it take a nice deep breath and cheer for yourself because you're awesome. You know who else is awesome? Adrienne is awesome. So is Solution Tree, so is Marzano Resources, and so are you, my badass self care squad. You are incredible, you're wonderful, and cheering so hard for you. Make it an amazing week. I love you.