You may know from reading some previous posts that I have been seeing a speech therapist this month. She is bomb diggity. Three sessions in and I have some work to do to change my behavior. Old dog, new tricks.
This week we talked about fitting so many tasks into so little time. A visual for you:
This is how many things I have to do.
This is how much time I have.
So the idea of piggybacking tasks is not foreign to me. I do it all the time. Right now, while I am writing this post, my hair is drying. If I was a better multi-tasker, I'd have a load of laundry going and the lawn sprinkler on.
SIPPING WATER One of the behavior changes she asked of me is to sip water all day in place of clearing my throat. Clearing my throat constantly is damaging to the vocal chords and will only make my voice worse. I am not a big water drinker but I got myself a container and started consciously sipping water all day, especially when I feel like clearing my throat. It works. When I told her how successful that task has been, she said it gave her goose bumps. My thinking has been ... why go to therapy if I don't take her suggestions? It would be a total waste of her time, my time, and money.
BREATHING TECHNIQUES I am struggling with the assignment for belly breathing vs. shoulder breathing. I think once I am retired, I will be able to focus on this whole heartedly. Right now, the job I hold has me putting out fires all day long on the phone and in person. When I'm talking to people, especially on the phone, it is difficult to pause and take a deep belly breath. I'm not good at it ... yet.
SPEAK IN SHORTER SENTENCES and AVOID SPEAKING WHEN THERE IS BACKGROUND NOISE This has been easy to accomplish. Quite frankly, I've been talking my entire working career and I am ready to give it a rest. I don't do a lot of talking outside of work but when I do, I now need to think about what I'm going to say and try to say it in shorter sentences. Or, if I am going to have a long dissertation about the topic, I'll need to use my pause/breath/pause behavior. Trying to talk over other people or noise (read: in a noisy restaurant, in the car with radio blasting, social gatherings with several peeps, etc.) is a thing of my past.
NECK STRETCHES My therapist brought to my attention that I carry my stress in my neck, and my shoulders become earrings by the end of the day. She is not wrong about this. Taking this topic to piggybacking, we came up with different times of the day where I will do some neck stretches to coincide with a task. For examples: Stretch first thing in the morning while I'll in front of my S.A.D. light, stretch when stopped at stop lights, stretch when I'm throwing the ball for my dog, stretch when I set my alarm clock. All these daily things I already do become a trigger for doing the stretch. And, you know what? This idea of piggybacking freakin' works!
Lastly ...
PREPARE BULLET POINTS FOR TRAINING I will be spending the next month training a new person to take over my job. It will require a lot of talking. We came up with a plan where I will try to type up some bullet points and written material for support of what I'm teaching. Brilliant in theory. Now, just need to make the time to implement.
POST IT NOTES The last thing I'll share here is that I will be putting up some post it notes around my house, car, and temporarily at work to remind myself to pause, breath, stretch, shorter sentences, and sip that water.
I hope there is something here that might help you in piggybacking a task, chore, or behavior that you've had difficulty with. How could you use these ideas with something you need to change in your behavior? If you have any tips for me, I hope you'll leave a comment.
love, susan
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