Show Notes
After a brief check-in, the main part of today’s episode is a re-air from 2024. I hope it is helpful as we approach the spring season!
The episode opens with a discussion of the idea of planner page as “outside observer” and how seeing her day laid out in physical form can help alleviate stress and provide some helpful objectivity.
In the main portion of the show, I provide a step by step planning guide for your Quintile 2, or spring season (fall for our Southern Hemisphere listeners!). From end-of-the-academic year activities to spring cleaning energy, there are lots of (hopefully) useful prompts to think about, followed by encouragement to conduct a thorough review of your annual and Season 1 goals. Happy spring planning!!
Checking In
I feel like my post-arrhythmia life has kind of played out in weeks:
Week 1: Initial incident/shock of it all, week spent in the hospital, a million tests/procedures, lots of questions and slowly getting answers. I felt weak / tired / out of it.
Week 2: Last week, first week at home. I had a lot of post-op pain to contend with so that really dominated. Started to deal with practical things (setting up appointments, etc). Still plenty of fatigue, but able to do one thing most days (record some podcasts, or go watch a kid’s sports event) as long as I rested afterwards.
I wish I could say I spent the time reading / watching great TV but honestly I was too down and in pain to do that. I scrolled and wallowed and stared into space. Sunday (yesterday) was the first time I could really read again and focus, which was a good sign. (I am reading this – nice and light, my SIL brought it to the hospital!).
Week 3: Where I am now. Physically things are not perfect, but they are better! I am no longer distracted by pain too much. I can generally move my left arm in the ways that I need to. I’m continuing to wait on further testing, but everything is in process or has been sent, and my follow ups are pretty set. I feel like maybe I have entered the beginning of a rebuilding sort of phase (rebuilding what, I’m not sure. My new life? In a way, maybe?).
Week 4: Hopefully will be ready for full re-entry, just with a dialed down intensity. I will have 3 clinical days and 2 days to recover/not do too much. I *do* have G’s 1:1 day scheduled that week (put on the calendar before all of this happened). I very much hope I can do it justice though it may be more like a half day of stuff and a half day of chilling together on the couch.
Don’t worry, I don’t have any big ambitious goals for the week. I do hope to gradually clear up the mess that collected over the last 2+ weeks (email etc), but key word is gradual – no marathon email sessions and I won’t try to do everything in one day. I do not plan to do any formal exercise until someone with expertise in my condition tells me what is okay, but I might start a practice of just going out for short walks, just to be outside for ~10 minutes or so.
It will surprise no one that I’m switching planners. Ha! I just . . . need a different way of looking at my days right now. I ordered a Full Focus (timing is perfect since 12 weeks takes me straight into Quintile 3!) and a vertical weekly (this, I know not everyone is a fan of amazon now but I was happy to get it so quickly) to take the place of my beautiful-but-filled-with-frustrating-reminders-Hobonichi Cousin. FF (the classic, not the wellness) has one of my favorite daily layouts and I love using it when I really want to zoom in, which is how I feel right now.
I am teaching Planning By Season in a few minutes but will spend the rest of the day mostly resting and getting a few calm odds and ends finished.
9 Comments
Thank you for the update! I have read your blog and listened to both of your podcasts for quite a while, but am not much of a commenter. I wanted to pop in to say that I’m so sorry about your current challenges. Sending you all the well wishes and positive thoughts!
Wow Sarah, you are admirable. You are still teaching despite your being in recovery. You are a true professional.
Thankfully these sessions are mostly fun for me (vs hard) and honestly since I have taught them before (2024) they are not stressful but rather feel like leading a conversation with friends. Trust me if it felt like too much I would have postponed!
Sounds like things are progressing well. Great idea to get that new planner- I agree you need a fresh start and a fresh way of looking at things. I listened to this episode and you’ve inspired me- I’m going to do a quintile 2 planning session on Wednesday!
Thank you for the update Sarah and I really hope you continue to improve. Thanks for this reminder as well
I really enjoyed this re-air and would not have listened to it otherwise so thank you for that as well. I love your more recent content (I have listened to every podcast you do!) but it’s really cool to listen to some of the older ones, and I feel it’s probably a super treat now as I imagine a lot of this is taught in your planning courses so I am extra lucky to get to listen to the podcast instead.
Thank you and I hope the pain continues to improve and that you are able to get a nice 1:1 day or half day.
I mean’t thanks for the reminder to take things gradually and not do everything on one day. 🙂
Hi Sarah, I’ve been listening to your podcast for a few years and always look forward to it! (Im also a gymnastics mom!) I am thinking of you during your recovery and recalibration during your health challenge. I imagine you’ll do it with grace and find a new routine that brings you the same sense of purpose and fulfillment (if not more!) . Sending support from Brooklyn, NY!
I actually didn’t realize that you’re having a rebirth after The Event this March, Dr. Sarah Hart-Unger.
I don’t think I’ve ever personified my daily planner pages. What happens is that every day, I write down one item that I need to get done that day. But, I’ve never put these items together into 1 notebook. I think I’ll put them together on 1 notebook first before I can tell how I think of it. And yes, that would be my paper notebook. My time-tracking sheets are what go onto my Excel spreadsheets.
I do think that the plans for summer does not happen in summer – it happens before summer, and that we can say the same for the other 3 seasons.
I listened to today’s BOBW episode, and I’ll write my comments about that episode in your future blog posts.
[…] in the cafe drinking tea and working on various projects- today, I was inspired by Sarah’s latest podcast episode about planning for Quintile 2. (Quintile 2 goes from the beginning of spring break until the end […]