Productivity Hacks to Beat Burnout with Alaina Schrader [Episode 56]

Lauren
Before we get started, I want to make sure you pause this episode in the first five seconds here and signed up for my live workshop that’s happening over the next two weeks called three practical ideas to bring your high school counseling program back to life in the new year.

Lauren
It’s completely free and it’s the kickoff to opening doors to the Clique Collaborative for round two of this school year. Save your seat for the workshop by heading to counselorclique.com/workshop I don’t want you to miss this New Year energy.

Lauren
How many of us make and break resolutions by like week two, aka now, we all know we don’t accidentally stumble into meeting goals without some purpose behind the path to getting there. This week’s episode will set you on the path to success for the new year because you’ll be hearing from Alaina from cutting edge school counseling all about the power of productivity and habits.

Lauren
Let me introduce you to Alaina. Alaina Schrader is a former school counselor, licensed therapist, mental health advocate and productivity nerd. With roots in West Virginia in Florida. Alaina now lives in Pennsylvania with her two year old daughter Piper and her husband Josh.

Lauren
The mental demands of a fast paced career in school counseling thrusted Elena into her eight year journey in the productivity and business realm, where she studied productivity research and the best practices of personal and professional knowledge and system management.

Lauren
A self proclaimed Marie Kondo for your brain, Alaina is passionate about helping educators learn the art of managing their tasks, responsibilities, thoughts, worries and personal lives, so they can avoid the dreaded burnout path. Alaina is an entrepreneur crossfitter and values authenticity and humor for tools of connection.

Lauren
I love everything about Alaina and what she stands for. When I grew up, I want to be just like her, I know you’ll feel the same. Come listen in on this week’s conversation with Alaina Schrader.

Lauren
High School Counseling conversations is the podcast where we talk about exactly that. A casual potpourri of school counseling topics intended to grow with a school counselor, but also give us space to enjoy each other’s company. I’m Lauren from counselor Clique and I’m sharing my experiences and perspectives as a high school counselor. No topic is off limits. And I’m certain we’ll cover it all.

I’m your high school counseling hype girl here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job. Whether you’re just getting your feet wet as an intern, or you’re nearing retirement, you’ll feel like you’re just popping in to catch up with your school counseling bestie. Let’s go.

Lauren
Hey, Alaina, welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited that you’re here.

Alaina
Hi, thank you so much. I’m so excited. I really appreciate the offer.

Lauren
I gave everyone a little brief intro like your bio before we started here, but tell us like in your own words, a quick background of your counseling experience, your expertise and where you recently transitioned?

Alaina
Yeah, so my journey in education has been a little all over the place as I would totally have it because I love that. I initially started out actually as a music teacher. And then I got my Master’s in Counseling and was a school counselor for about eight years, or and I have recently transitioned like just this last year to the private practice field, which is awesome and very related, and also very different.

Alaina
And it’s really one of the coolest things is that it’s given me the chance to be way more flexible with my time, which has allowed me to be able to do you know, more of this stuff, which is, you know, kind of getting in the nitty gritty of how do we help school counselors manage things in a more easy and effective way so that they can, you know, enjoy life and, and take care of themselves. So I love the ability to flex and be able to do more of this stuff.

Lauren
And you used to do a little of that when you were still in the school building. But now you have probably more brain space to think about it outside of the every day responsive services in the school building.

Alaina
Oh, gosh, definitely. Yes, for sure. It’s nice to be able to carve out a little bit more time. You need time, right? And to be able to connect with school counselors during the day when they’re, you know, are working on professional development and stuff. It’s nice to have that flexibility for sure.

Lauren
Exactly. So you kind of alluded to this, and maybe I did already but you’re really passionate about and really good at time management, tech tools, productivity, I aspire to be I am I’m not you and I can learn from people like you.

Lauren
So that’s really why I wanted to have you on the podcast, because you at least put on the illusion like you’re great at it and that you have some really good systems in place. And you’ve you’ve explored all the different pathways to do it well. So tell us how you got interested in all of that stuff.

Alaina
Well, I am so happy you asked that because I think that’s an important thing to know That one, it may appear that I have it all together and just know right off the bat, that’s never the case. My interest in what I call productivity really bloomed from a place of pure necessity.

Alaina
Meaning that not always the case. Yes. Meaning that you know, in my first maybe I’d say my second year, my first year, full time as a permanent job as a school counselor working in Florida place we both know very well.

Alaina
I just and I tell this when I speak a lot of times but I had this moment when I came in one morning an hour before our day started thinking Today’s the day I’m gonna get my life together, right? I’ve been feeling so stressed hopeful. Yep. Today’s the day y’all I said Today’s the day I’m coming in an hour early. Surely there’s no one here.

Alaina
I got in there walked in, you know, my office still a mess from the day before papers, things just everywhere. And wouldn’t you know it, there were other people in the building. And, you know, it was just one person met me right at my office door. And it was just interruption after interruption before the day has even started before the day is even started.

Alaina
And I remember that, that day that I said, today’s the day I get my life together, I remember it being 130. And I hadn’t even gotten like my lunch out from the bag yet or, like done those morning things that you do to get set up for the day. Everything was just in piles. And I was just so overwhelmed, I had finally a minute to sit down and start.

Alaina
And I was just so paralyzed really by overwhelm that I just didn’t even know where to begin. And I took a picture of that day and that moment on my phone. And so now I look back to that sometimes. But that is like the moment in time in which I remember thinking to myself, there has to be a better way. And I have to figure it out or like I cannot I cannot keep doing this.

Lauren
I’m sure a lot of people have found themselves in that same situation or have had some of the similar thoughts.

Alaina
Definitely, definitely, I think everyone can relate to those days when you don’t even get a moment to do any of the planned activities because you’re so busy with the responsive in the you know, impromptu things that pop up. Yeah, but I went home later that day. And I don’t even know what led me down this trail.

Alaina
But I eventually started searching, you know, productivity time management, like I’m gonna figure out the secret. And it led me on just like this really curious journey of listening to all the podcasts reading all the books about productivity, and it ended up kind of taking me down this journey that I’ve been on for, I don’t know, probably nine to 10 years now at this point.

Alaina
And you know, I found some common threads throughout. And so really, this was born out of a place of necessity, gotta figure out a better way to manage it all and not to do everything perfectly and not to do at all because we can’t do that. But, to find a way a better way to manage things so that I could feel okay at the end of the day and really not let my work life bleed into my mental health. And that’s kind of how this journey began.

Lauren
Yeah. You mentioned kind of going and starting your research. Were there any books or websites or people who were very influential, or whose ideas you kind of pull from into these practices?

Alaina
Yeah, definitely, I would say, you know, as I started listening to a lot of the productivity podcasts, or a lot of good ones out there. Let’s see, I started really listening to the 5am Miracle, I’m a morning person by default. And I know that’s going to repulse a lot of people that’s just like, the way I am I my brain basically shuts off by like 6pm.

Lauren
So you get your best thinking done in the morning anyway, you’re just up and ready to go.

Alaina
And I’m not always happy about it. But that’s definitely when my brain works the best. But anyways, I started with the 5am Miracle podcast, it’s a good one he has a book too. Really the important thing to note, though, is that a lot of the pot, podcast books and materials about productivity, lead back to a few common threads.

Alaina
One of them being one of the most like well known books and methodologies of productivity, which is called Getting Things Done by David Allen. And anyone who’s ever followed me on Instagram was like, oh, geez, here she goes.

Lauren
Oh, I was gonna say I’ve heard you. I’ve remember that one. I’ve heard you talk about that one.

Alaina
Yes. And it’s a little dry in the sense that it’s a book written for business people about their time, but the things in that book, they’re basically like thought strategies for managing the information, overwhelm and the thought that is involved in our work. He talks in that book about how you know, back in the old days work was mostly manual labor, right?

Alaina
People worked at factories and the jobs were fairly clear cut, right? I come in at seven o’clock I move this from this place to this place. I push this red button I push this green button right I clock out I go home, I’m with my family, and jobs nowadays, especially the jobs of the school counselor, they’re not as manual labor as they were then right? It’s a lot more of what he calls thought work. And knowledge work, right?

Alaina
The task isn’t really defined, it has to be, you know, the task isn’t given, it has to be defined by you. Right. So that’s what a lot of the strategies in there surround is that idea of how do we manage the information? And how do we manage the invisible nature of a lot of the work that we do. And so that is for sure what I needed. And the biggest area for me, people would probably say, I’ve been an organized person my whole life. But I’ve never been free from the agony of

Alaina
the thoughts that come with it.

Alaina
Never feeling enough, right? Like that sense of just not being able to do enough. And, and so this really gave me for the first time like strategies that rid me of that feeling of like, always something I’m neglecting right? What am I forgetting today? What am I neglecting? What am I behind on?

Alaina
So that’s kind of one of the biggest threads that you’ll find throughout all of the productivity research. But I’d say there are a few good podcasts and books and things out there. Another one is the productivity show. It’s pretty simple. It’s not much in the way of like flair, but it is a good one with some nice, like quick tips.

Lauren
Well, I always find that even though you’re saying like, Oh, it’s so straightforward, are so dry. But you walk away from hearing those things. You’re like, why didn’t I think of that? Of course, that would be so much easier, or my life would be easier if I did that.

Lauren
Okay, now I gotta take some action, I have to actually do it. But just because it’s dry or simple, doesn’t mean we can’t take something from it.

Lauren
Okay, tell me when you said, you know, you learned all this information, you started doing this research? What was one of the first things that you changed or that you wanted to implement in your school counseling practice?

Alaina
Great question. Definitely, I can remember exactly what it was. Another thing I’ll say, too, is that that book, Getting Things Done by David Allen, almost all the stuff that I present and share from that book comes from his first two chapters of the book.

Alaina
So even if you don’t want to read the whole thing, and you want to like read two chapters, it’s worth it. Yes, a lot of good nuggets in there, the first thing I implemented was what he calls the two minute rule, which is, when you’re thinking about those two dues that pop up in your brain, if the thing that pops up the to do that pops up takes less than two minutes, you should do it right away, like right now, rather than writing it down. And then, you know, having it on a list and then having to go back to the list and then do it

Lauren
and then thinking about it all day. And yes, dreading having to do it.

Alaina
So that was one really easy. I’m using air quotes everyone, the one easy, right? Because you are changing a pattern of behavior, which is never easy, right? But that was a good quick thing to put into action that had a really big payoff for me, if you can do it, less than two minutes do it right away.

Lauren
What advice would you give to someone who is scared to change their ways? You just mentioned that maybe someone who’s resistant to changing systems or adding something new or taking something away?

Alaina
I think, you know, as school counselors, we’re always advocating for kids, and how hard it is for them to change, right? I hear school counselors talking a lot about like teachers expecting them to air quotes, again, “fix kids” in two sessions or whatever, we have to apply that same grace and compassion to ourselves and know that it does take time and effort and we have to be ready and open to change.

Alaina
But you know, if you think about it, from the brain standpoint, I always go back to the brains, I love the brain like that neurons that wire together, fire together. And what we’re trying to do is essentially, repeat the behavior enough that it becomes automatic. And the the bad side about that is it doesn’t feel very rewarding or good at first.

Alaina
So I think my advice would be that when you’re starting behavior change, commit to doing it, even if it doesn’t feel rewarding, because that’s literally the point, right? Like, we’re, we’re not going to hit that plateau of it feeling rewarding, until we’ve kind of created that neural pathway in our mind. So if you can push through that, that part that’s just not very rewarding at the at the beginning, you’re you’ll see the good effects on the other side.

Lauren
Are there times when these actions turn into habits like how can you describe to us like how long do we need to try something out for it to become a habit? Or when can we throw it throw in the towel and say this is not the habit that I want to partake in anymore because it’s not working for me like how much time should we give ourselves?

Alaina
That’s a good question. I think it would be important to clearly define the purpose of the habit. I find like especially in my work with adults now in private practice that if you don’t know exactly what the function of what you’re doing is it can be really hard to commit to. And it can be really hard to assess, like use asked if it’s working or not.

Lauren
If you don’t, if you haven’t defined like the goal you don’t know, like where you are on their timeline, I guess.

Alaina
For example, if we talk about self care, like reading, right, if I say I’m going to create a habit of reading every night to wind down, I need to know why I’m reading, am I reading because I want to learn something Am I reading because it helps me relax and get sleepy and fall asleep? Am I reading because I enjoy it? Right, those things are going to play a role in our ability to assess if it’s working, if it’s doing the thing we need to do.

Alaina
And I would say that, you know, habits aren’t always fun to build, but we should be able to see some positive outcome, if we’re doing them the right way. You know, we should get some kickback from from most of our habits that and we should have some flexibility to be able to change them. I’m a big fan of, you know, being able to change your habits, routines, and rhythms with the seasons.

Alaina
And with your time, your seasons of life, the literal seasons of the year, I’m a different person in the summer than I am the winter, summer me is can really just wing it and just be very flexible and take care of herself very well. Winter, me better just stick to the plan. You know, so I don’t know about yourself.

Alaina
Yeah, you have to know kind of what the function of what behaviors you’re trying to do what you know, so that you’re not kind of beating a dead horse, right? Like, you’re not trying to force a, I don’t know, what’s that saying? A round peg into a square hole, we want to make sure we’re getting what, what we need out of the habits, and then we’re not just doing them for the sake of you know, somebody told me this is healthy habit, or this is a, you know, a productive habit.

Lauren
I think you might have been the one who shared and introduced me to Haley Win Designs. Okay, I will link her in the show notes. Because I have learned a lot from her as someone who was not like her at all. I have taken a lot of her rhythms and routines and tried to incorporate them into my life.

Lauren
And I remember something that she says a lot is, if that habit or rhythm or routine is not serving you anymore, stop and pause and look at it and ask why it’s not and then give yourself grace to change it or to get rid of it. And I think that’s kind of what you were saying depending on the season, the physical season of the year, your season of life, and that could be work or home.

Alaina
Yes, that’s so key. It’s really important that we don’t want to use a routine, whether they’re school counseling related or self care related to like punish ourselves and to weaponize against our own selves. That’s definitely not only one and on along the lines of what you said, Haley wind designs is an amazing she’s a former teacher, turned kind of mom lifestyle blogger. But she shares a lot about that.

Alaina
But yeah, I totally agree that like for me, I have a list of things I do every Sunday, or I just call it a weekend I do it at some point during the weekend to get ready for the week. Hashtag boring self care. And on the weeks I’m traveling or something, I don’t do the list. And it’s I like the feeling knowing you don’t die like you just know, don’t do it that week.

Alaina
Yeah, one of the things is I refill my soap containers. I know riveting content here, I refill my soap containers. But like, I know that really they don’t need done every week, they really need probably done about every two weeks. So if I’m traveling and the weekend is crazy, then I just like knowing that it will be there when I get back to it and cycle back to it the next week.

Alaina
So honestly, I know it’s so funny because people who may follow me on instagram may have that perception that I’m like very, you know, like organized and on it. But I’m actually like one of the most free spirited wild people you’ll ever meet. I needed the habits and routines so that I could be free from them if that makes any sense.

Lauren
Yeah, no, I totally. That has been the change for me too, is adding the rhythms and routines gives me the structure that I didn’t have before so that I can enjoy my time away from work or when I’m with my kids, I’m mentally with my kids like I can enjoy all of these separate pockets without having to worry about the other things I need to do because they’re going to get done when I batch those tasks at the time that I’ve allowed myself to do that.

Alaina
Yeah, there’s a plan right and when you cycle back to your plans continuously, you don’t need to be so meticulous about being perfect and getting everything done all the time because you know that there’s a plan and you return to the plan regularly.

Lauren
If you’re looking for relevant professional development to reignite your high school counseling flame, I have the solution for you. The clique collaborative my high school counseling membership is opening its doors on January 18.

Lauren
This only happens two times a year so I want to make sure it’s on your radar, this membership is all about action and ideas. One member Teresa said her favorite part of the clique collaborative membership is getting my mind out of my office for a moment to see other possibilities that I can do within my job.

Lauren
We think bigger, and we make big changes together. Stay tuned for details. Now back to the show. Let’s talk about tech tools for productivity in school counseling are their tech tools that you would recommend maybe for beginner, intermediate advanced, give us some places to start.

Alaina
That’s a good one, I had to think about this and jot a couple down. There are so many good things out there. And I know that people probably need different things based on what they’re into, I would say probably have to be at the top of my list. One that my dear friend Danielle Schultz over Dr. Daniel Schultz over at school underscore counselor shared with me and taught me a lot about was Canva.

Alaina
I know people know about it probably by now. But Goodness gracious. If you’re not using does everything, it does literally everything. And you basically just take yourself to the next level with like, branding of your school counseling, program, marketing, sharing materials, just bringing visibility of yourself and who you are to your program, right with your flyers with your right every time you making a small group and you want to have a cohesive little thing like Canva just does so many Gosh, darn things, you just have to have it. And it’s a free, like premium account with school email address.

Lauren
yes, and I feel like you can be a beginner and do so much with Canva. Because they have a lot of templates in there. Like you can fake your way into tech tool central by using Canva. Even if you’ve never touched it before,

Alaina
For sure, it’s one of the easiest things that’s just give you so much bang for your buck.

Lauren
bang for your buck, because it’s free!

Alaina
Exactly but I mean, even from a time standpoint, right? Like, you can go in there and create yourself a little flyer and not have to be fiddling around with PowerPoint and borders and clipart. Like, save yourself. Canva will do literally all that for you in an instant. And it will look like a professional did it. So that’s definitely has to be at the top of my list.

Alaina
Another one. You know, one of my favorite things to talk about, as far as tech tools is this idea of like automation. You know, basically it’s nothing fancy, it sounds way fancier than it is. But we’re trying I know us a lot about automation as well. But like we’re trying to figure out ways to save ourselves time labor, and increase our accuracy.

Alaina
That’s essentially what I think of as automation, right, you’re saving ourselves time saving ourselves energy or increasing our accuracy. So there are so many tools that are great for automation for school counselors, you know, I’m talking like, a quick way to produce a really nice meeting agenda. If you are a person who is eating produce like a set of certificates, using like a Google Sheets add on or a mail merge program to pull from a big Excel sheet right into boom, there’s your 100 different certificates, right?

Alaina
Like, those are just things that you know, the old school way of writing every student’s name into that little blank or even typing it in right? Typing a student’s name, print, erase type, print, erase. Those are types of things that are really good to save time with automation tools. One of my absolute favorite automation tools is called Text Expander.

Alaina
Oh, I don’t know this. Tell me about it.

Alaina
Now I will say, it is a paid tool. So if and I totally understand people should not have to be spending their own money for tools they need for work totally agree. TextExpander is something you can use not only in your work, but outside of work.

Alaina
But it’s essentially like basically takes like these building blocks of text. So say you have like different little blurbs or paragraphs that you use regularly. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to them. And then basically it doesn’t matter what program you’re in. So say you’re in email, or you’re writing a newsletter, maybe yes, anything.

Alaina
Yep, any place you are on your computer, including even your cell phone. If you download the app, you can just use a keyboard shortcut and and that little block of text goes up and expands and just fills in the space.

Lauren
you know what I’m thinking for high school counselors where I would use that I would give the blurb about you not being able to change your schedule for these reasons. Like it’s the same conversation you have over and over and over again.

Lauren
And you’re not necessarily putting it out in an email blast all the time. Everyone needs that individual response in an email to them. Yeah, so give that almost canned response and then tweak it or you know, add the things that are needed for the station.

Alaina
Definitely. When you’re when you’re thinking of email so you know if you work in a school that has Google sweet. So you have Gmail, you can do the canned responses within Gmail, which is super. So if you if you’re not doing that that’s a great free place to start because the canned responses are very time saving, essentially,

Lauren
is that template in Gmail is Yeah, yeah, yes.

Alaina
It used to be called canned responses. I just can’t get that out of my head. But yeah, I think called templates now. But then, yeah, Text Expander is similar to that. It’s just you can do like a lot more building blocks.

Alaina
For example, like anywhere I am on my computer, if I’m wanting to put the date, I just do a lowercase A and a capital D. And whatever today’s date is expands into time. If when I was a school counselor, and I would be doing emails with parents, like I would be having like these little blurbs of, you know, these are the referral options for your kid or Hey, or you have that delicate way that you’re presenting some of those referral options that is really probably thought

Lauren
and hard to write it delicately the first time. So you don’t need to use the brain space to do that. Again, you’re like, No, I’ve already written it perfectly. And it went over well, let me use the same response.

Alaina
Exactly. So and you might be suggesting more than one thing, right. And so I remember emails to parents, where I’d be suggesting, like our Student Assistance Program, or and hey, have you heard about our mentoring programs? Also, let me connect you with this system principle for the attendance concern, right?

Alaina
Like, and all of those little building blocks are just like one little keyboard shortcut away. And so it does take some, a little bit of a learning curve, right? Because you have to kind of remember those and get used to using them. But my gosh, they are such a time saver.

Alaina
You know, I’m thinking to as a high school counselor, you know, if you’re writing letters of recommendation, if you have some kind of like little blurbs about different personality types, that you are different little phrases or sentences you might find yourself using frequently, but not for everyone.

Lauren
That’s a great idea. Or like you’re opening and closing are very similar. Like you kind of say the same thing in every opening closing before you get into the meat of who they are. So that’s a great idea. Yeah,

Alaina
Text Expander is absolutely amazing. It’s, I can’t even begin to say the number of ways I’ve, I’ve used it, you can also embed links and stuff in there. So you know, for that, it’s really good because you’re not going to necessarily have the links readily available and formatted the way you want in other ways. So TextExpander is another big one.

Alaina
Last two I jotted down would be one if you don’t have a software, which I don’t know if this is really an app. But for recording videos, I’m a big fan of loom. I love loom for recording little screencasts. And I just found that so helpful for helping teachers with things I often was, you know, helping people around school with different things. And it was nice to be like, oh, here, I recorded a video of how to do that. Right? I don’t need to come down, just watch this video

Lauren
Screencast O Matic does that that’s I use that a lot. And then have you seen Canva does it too, so you don’t even have to leave Canva. And you can do that now?

Alaina
Oh my gosh, that Canva they just do it all!

Lauren
I know, they’re always having updates and thinking of everything. I mean, it’s like they’re trying to be competitive, but they’re free for us. So it’s like, how do I use anything else I should probably cancel my, Screencast O Matic subscription.

Alaina
That’s awesome. Yeah, you just really cannot be Canva they are the best. The other one I put was a task manager. A lot of folks don’t even know really what I mean when I say Task Manager. But basically, if you’re, if you’re a sticky note kind of person, and you’re out there, right, and you’re all your to dues and your sticky notes, that’s fine. You know, from a productivity lens, we want to have the most consistent, possible option.

Alaina
So if you’re a sticky note, writer, you gotta have those sticky notes with you everywhere you go all the time. And you got to keep them all in the same place. It’s sticky notes everywhere that, you know, defeats the purpose a little bit. But that was one area I finally did have to go fully digital with and so a task manager of any kind like, I don’t know this Google, I think it’s Google Tasks. Now it used to be Google keep theirs to do-ist, which is a personal favorite of mine. Asana. What else?

Lauren
There are so many Trello Yeah, Monday, air table. I mean, everyone has their own preference.

Alaina
And there’s some simple ones, even like the Notes app on your iPhone, if you have one, it’s really a great thing to think about and to consider that whatever tool you choose for your tasks needs to be something that is really portable, and that you can really commit to returning to every day as quickly as possible.

Alaina
When I was a counselor, I literally my teammates would make fun of me because I they call it my crisis purse. But I have like a mail room looking bag like a little like a little fanny pack kind of situation. And I would have that on me at all times. And my phone would be in there. And so if somebody stopped me in the hall and said, Hey, can you follow up on so and so’s absence? I would say, Hold right there and I would get on my phone and I would put it in right away.

Lauren
And then it was probably already in your app which is on your computer and the screen is already open when you get back there.

Alaina
Exactly. And I have terrible memory. So there’d be no chance that I can make it back to the room. And remember that, especially if you’re stopped another three or four times. So surely the more consistently, you can put things in the same place.

Alaina
And as quickly as you can add it in there is is a really good thing. So Task Manager, if you don’t have something that’s working for you, I think, is one of the most productive things a school counselor can master.

Lauren
Yeah, that’s how I felt about Trello is the one I use the most, because I feel like I can be kind of unorganized and like, throw all my stuff up there, kind of like sticky notes, and then get rid of it as I need it gone. Like I just have lists of brain dumps on there.

Lauren
But the app on your phone looks very similar. And so I think that’s important. When I’m working on something on my computer, I don’t want to have to really learn something brand new on my phone, I want it to look very similar. So I find myself using the most Trello.

Lauren
But I also have Google Keep, I also write notes on my iPhone, I also send text messages to myself, I’m like where was that one note that I wrote down somewhere. So Trello is the place I try and stay and be. But I find myself other places, too.

Alaina
It’s so tricky. It’s so tricky. To do-ist has been my longtime number one fan, because it’s very simple. And it’s super fast to get in there. I think for me, it’s got to be something really quick that I can access in a few taps, right before I’m just going to be resistant to doing it.

Alaina
So to do-ist has been mine, that just seems to be the most clear and I have the least resistance to but you know, it’s all work in progress. I’m definitely not perfect at that either. And the more quickly you capture your ideas, the more ideas that you have. And so it is always a work in progress.

Lauren
Exactly. Okay, you kind of touched on this at the beginning, or Yeah, in the beginning, when we talked about what you do on the weekends to get ready for the week, how has honing in on your productivity overflowed into other areas of your life? So home versus work, motherhood, all of those kinds of things? Because I know that’s been a big transition for you since having your daughter and transitioning to private practice to

Alaina
oh, gosh, yeah, I don’t even know where to start. There’s so much. I would say, you know, for me, I don’t know if any listeners who have followed me on Instagram, remember our discussion about spaghetti brain versus waffle brain a couple of summers ago?

Lauren
Yes, I feel like people really resonated with that. But for those who didn’t see it, tell us what you’re talking about.

Alaina
So spaghetti brain people, and I will say I am a spaghetti brainer, are just very integrated brains in the sense that everything feels linked together. And so for me, that means that I’m a very slow processor. So if you know something happens in my personal life, I can’t just like take it in stride. Like, I gotta really think through how it fits into my worldview, I mean, I’m going deep like, and I’m not moving forward until I really like figure out the meaning of what has just happened and how to process it fully.

Alaina
So for me, you know, I’m very spaghetti brain by nature. And in contrast, waffle brain, people are more compartmentalized by nature. So in the context of this conversation, you know, I have never been one to separate work from personal much at all, it’s always felt very spaghetti-like, for me.

Alaina
I mean, I’ve been passionate about my job. So you know, for me, especially before I had a child, you know, it wasn’t a problem for me to be up at nine o’clock, researching fun lessons for school, because it was like self care, and, you know, creativity, and work kind of all wrapped into one,

Lauren
You enjoyed it. And it wasn’t taking a toll on you at that point.

Alaina
And that’s why I’m very big about the function of behavior, right? Like that, at that time. That was those were, I was serving me and, you know, several important key components in my life. And, you know, it wasn’t a big deal to me that I have things separated all the time, you know.

Alaina
Whereas I know there are other people that just function better, like they would never have their personal events like in the same place that they house like their work events, I’ve always been very integrated in the sense that it’s always felt all together.

Alaina
And that’s probably why I felt the pressure to figure this out air quotes again, figure this out, because, you know, I was getting easily overwhelmed by everything on my mind all the time. So, you know, I have always been very integrated in the sense that it’s just one big blob for me.

Lauren
To put it in a really scientific sense. Yeah,

Alaina
it’s just there’s like one big blob in there and it’s just all really loud. But you know, things changed a lot for me after becoming a mom, because your resources you know, at least I’ll speak for myself my resources change just so drastically so quickly.

Lauren
I’ll agree with you. There’s not that extra brain space. I have negative brain space in there.

Alaina
Oh, yeah. Like we’re in the hole y’all like there’s, it’s you know, I also didn’t really realize how much preventative self care I require as a person. I always say I’m so low maintenance, because when I get ready in the morning, it takes me like seven minutes. I’m like, just really low maintenance.

Lauren
But no, I’ve seen you, you plan out your outfits for the week and plan your daughter’s outfits for the week, like you’ve got it down to a science so that it doesn’t have to bear a big weight on your brain.

Alaina
Yeah, well, that’s true. I try to, yeah the outfits. For me, I have a lot of decision fatigue. I’m not like into fashion. So that saves me a lot of brain fatigue, doing that ahead of time. But I used to say, I’m always so low maintenance. And then when I had a child, I realized like, oh, no, I’m actually quite high maintenance.

Alaina
Like, if you’ve ever seen that meme that says, you know, I just require like five to six hours of alone time at the start of the day. And I’m fine. That’s exactly me. All I need. That’s it. Yeah. So, you know, when my resources were trimmed so drastically, so quickly, I realized, like, I have to be very strategic here, or I am not gonna be okay, like, I have to be more strategic.

Alaina
And so, you know, having a good system comes into play, then because the real benefit of having an organized productivity system, right tasks, to dues projects, being on top of and not done with everything, but on top of it, like in control is, the real benefit of that is that you can feel confident about what you’re not doing. Right.

Alaina
So I can sit with my daughter and do playdough and be like, That stuff’s all over there where it belongs. And when it’s time for that, I’ll get back to it. And you know, I’m still overwhelmed at times just like everyone else’s.

Alaina
But that definitely increased my ability to be able to switch from one thing to the other, which was hugely helpful when I became a parent because I don’t know what I would have done without some baseline skill set and not ability, because you are just so limited for resources. As a parent, at least I am.

Lauren
Me too. And I would say for those waffle brain, people who can compartmentalize things, they are walking away from work and not worrying about it. But for the spaghetti brain, people who, you know, I could say, Don’t worry about your to do list, it’s going to be there. When you get back like that my words don’t matter. They’re like they’re worrying about it.

Lauren
And they need to come up with their own systems, and ways to manage those tasks so that they can feel okay, about maybe not necessarily separating work, but knowing that list will still be there it is okay, no one else, you know, the person, the student that I’m serving is not laying awake at night, because this hasn’t happened yet.

Lauren
If it wasn’t on a time crunch, you know, we put these time barriers on ourself and say, Hey, here’s our deadline, when it’s not even coming from anyone else. And so the mix of that or recognizing who you are, whether your spaghetti or waffle or a combination of them or a different one at different seasons, that’s so important to look inward, and to figure out which one you are.

Alaina
Definitely. And you know, when I, before I had a child, and it was four o’clock, and my spaghetti brain went home, and my self care was, you know, pinterest-ing new lessons. My, and then I had a child and my spaghetti brain was like, oh, no, like, my work can’t cause play as my self care anymore. I have one hour to do it all. Like I’m gonna have to pick shower, sleep, and exercise now.

Lauren
Right almost feel like a failure. But that’s not what you should feel like at all. It’s a changing of seasons, a changing of rhythms and routines. That’s okay. Because what you enjoyed before might not be bringing you the same self care as it as it needs to now.

Alaina
Sure. And if there were unlimited supply of hours, which I’m not saying anyone here has, because I know that’s not the case, right?

Lauren
Tell me if you if you have found that because I’d love to know,

Alaina
yeah, please hit a sister up. But, you know, you can spread things around a little bit, right? Like you can, you can spend more, there can be more overlap. But you know, I did have to get more resourceful with that. And so that was, you know, a chance to be able to really calibrate, like, doing more, not the bare minimum, but more of “done is better than perfect”. And, you know, I gotta get this done within this amount of time like this can’t expand and overfilled the amount of time and energy I have allotted for it in the ways that it could have in the past and that’s okay. I mean, both are okay, as long as you’re well, right?

Lauren
Yeah. And I live by that kind of motto like especially at a high school counselor, like you can’t get everything done during the day. It just doesn’t happen and so done is better than perfect is a great motto to live by. And I just hope that someone can be encouraged by that. because I can just imagine the person with just high anxiety around work stuff that saying, like, No, it has to be perfect, I cannot.

Lauren
But I’m like, you cannot live that way for a long time, like you will burn out in the sense of, you know, in your work life or in your home life or in both if you can’t find that balance, so being able to stop and pause, and there might be a season where Done is better than perfect. And that’s what you need to embrace right now.

Alaina
For sure, and I think what you’ll find is that, you know, with perfect, you lose a lot of time that you could spread to more things that are really just great.

Lauren
You can spread your impact and you can Yeah, have more fun at your job and see more students and, and use more resources and do more of the things that you want to do that do bring you life instead of getting shoved and trapped in all the to dues that don’t bring you life.

Lauren
Okay, as we near the end, I want to hear a little bit about your transition to private practice. I know that’s not the focus of this. And I did just interview a friend about private practice in like, like two episodes ago or a couple episodes ago. And I want to hear what that’s been like for you. And if there’s been anything surprising along the way.

Alaina
Yeah, it’s been, it’s been a really interesting journey, I would say, I’m surprised at how home it feels like not more home than school counseling, but just a similar home. The, you know, as far as the helping nature, like I feel like your brains and your helping hearts are just so, so resilient. And you know, that was a fairly easy switch, right?

Alaina
Your empathy is the key of your helping relationships. And so I found that fairly easy to apply to working with people in the private practice setting. I work with both kids and adults, actually more adults than kids. Now, for a lot of reasons we probably won’t get into now. But I love it, it’s really been natural and easy for me to transition my empathy in this way.

Alaina
Working in schools has given me a lot of insight to helping you know, people in private practice, I’d say, there are certainly some differences. And they are exactly what you would expect them to be dealing with insurance is literally the worst. Not a fun time. And I’m so blessed that the owner of my practice, I’m not the owner of the practice, helps and takes care of a lot of that. So I don’t even have to deal with in the major agonies of it.

Alaina
But it’s just really hard to see people who need care be limited by their insurance or prohibited altogether from finding care. And that just stinks. And that’s just not fun to watch. That’s a big, a big downer. But honestly, you know, when I saw in the notes that you asked about kind of like identity and what that has been like transitioning, I would say that for me, the year leading up to when I announced that I was resigning and switching private practice was really agonizing, agonizing, and I really was going through it from the identity standpoint,

Lauren
As you were trying to decide, do I say a school counselor? Or do I go to private practice? What does this mean for me and my family and my role? And how they’ll change?

Alaina
Definitely, yeah, I was really grieving much in advance of actually making the decision and really doing the transition. So that was just purely agonizing, agonizing for me, going through that grief process, and making that decision, and all the things that you would, you know, expect with coming to terms of leaving your students and just the accepting some of the major flaws of the system.

Alaina
And I will say, you know, anytime we talk about this, like, it’s always important for me to note that I don’t see, I mean, there are certainly flaws in the bigger educational system that I would love to advocate for and call out at appropriate times. But I don’t see it as doomed. And I don’t want anyone to think I see it as doomed or that I, you know, think school counseling is doomed or anything like that. That’s so not the case. It’s quite the opposite.

Alaina
Actually, you know, I think that there’s a lot of hope for some of the big shifts and paradigm shifts we’re seeing around the world with, with these different things. So I was going through a lot of identity change, kind of wrestling with all of that, in the time leading up to it, but But honestly, once I, you know, I had been working in private practice on the side.

Alaina
So I really knew what to expect as far as that and, you know, was just excited to be able to free myself from some of those demands of my time and be able to get into it. But yeah, definitely the identity crisis took place for me in the months leading up to that and the process of actually walked out that door was really, really tough.

Lauren
And think about it at that time. When you’re going through all those identity shifts as you’re anticipating them. You were doing three jobs you are in part Haven’t practice you were a school counselor and your mom and a wife like, for like you doing?

Lauren
How did your brain hold all those things as we’re talking about to do lists and stuff, it was like on overdrive, and then processing the emotions and expectations and anticipations of what was to come, I’m sure that was a lot.

Alaina
It definitely was, I did a lot of journaling to get my thoughts out and a lot of like letter writing to myself and people around me and just, you know, restorative things, just really clarifying for myself like that. I was doing what, you know, I felt like I needed to do and, yeah, so I did a lot of processing and a lot of caretaking in that time, for sure.

Alaina
But I you know, I’m happy with the choice definitely. And it is hard, you know, I think we talk about to school counselors about identity, it’s, it’s such an important job, and you put so much of yourself into it, it does become a huge part of your identity. And here I am, you know, this person who is almost a decade into this Instagram and meeting all these people.

Alaina
And just, you know, this is one of the best communities of school counselors online that read, I’ve ever I didn’t even know, this was like a thing to find your people in this way. And so it was hard. I had thoughts. I’m like, alright, you know, is anyone gonna want to talk to me, still, I’m not gonna be doing this thing, you know?

Lauren
Well, you still have so many good things to share. It’s just in a different space. Now, you know, you’re not younger students, but you’re working, you’re still working with students and adults and running into new things and new problems to solve, I’m sure but still getting to help people and be in a helping profession, whether that is professionally as a counselor or still in like Instagram counselors, social media world, I know that you have been a big help there.

Lauren
So just because you’ve left the brick and mortar school building does not mean you’re not still serving and helping people. So there’s your pep talk, you remember that because what you have to share is valuable. So I’m so glad that you got to join me on the podcast to talk about some of those things.

Alaina
Thank you. Yeah, it’s it’s I school counselors need to be out doing the thing. And then we also need advocates of school counseling all around every community, you know, voicing the power that school counselors have and, and what they can provide if they’re just given the resources and the you know, support that they need. So that’s something that you know, that’s really important to me now in this next chapter.

Lauren
Say louder for the people in the fat. Okay, Elena, tell us where we can find you on social media. If people aren’t following you already? How can they connect with you after the show?

Alaina
Yeah, so on Instagram, I am cutting edge school counseling and also have a new account but it’s kind of geared at sharing a little bit more about the brain because like, I’ve always been a really big brain nerd and, and polyvagal theory of counseling, which can definitely be used in all different fields, and that is the brain bestie on Instagram. And then on Twitter, I am Alaina underscore, Schrader.

Lauren
Okay, we’ll link all of those in the show notes. And we’re so excited to have this out on the podcast come January for New Year New Beginnings. And I’m excited for people to dig into productivity tech tools and all the hacks.

Alaina
Thank you so much.

Lauren
So what now? Are you kicking your empty resolutions to the curb for more established habits? I know I am. They’re powerful.

Lauren
Join me at the upcoming workshop where we’ll talk more in depth about starting this year with a renewed energy and confidence through your outlook, your systems and your program. Show up live and you’ll even get an exclusive planning bonus and editable High School Counseling curriculum map that you cannot get anywhere else. I cannot think of a reason why you wouldn’t be there.

Lauren
Counselorclique.com/workshop Oh, and if you’re following along on our reset for success challenge, the code word for this week’s episode is snowflake. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Join us as we reset for success for second semester and be entered to win in a killer giveaway. Counselorclique.com/reset is where you’ll get your gameboard, and you’ll fill in the code word snowflake for today’s episode. I’ll see you here next week.

Lauren
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of high school counseling conversations. All of the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram, send me a DM @counselorclique. That’s C-L-I-Q-U-E. Thanks so much for hanging out with me. I’ll see you next time.