Oops I did it again!
Okay, be honest...do you ever take on more than you can handle?
Do you ever say yes and think why?
Do you ever find yourself doing a Brittany?
This year has been a bizarre one for me, yet one that I am so incredibly grateful for. I discovered Twitter and then I made some phenomenal friends. I created a few hashtags 🤣 and then started a podcast in August. I now have a blog and a website and recently launched #TinyVoiceTalks - Book Salon and all this whilst being a full-time classroom teacher.
Why? Because my core mission has been to give the smaller voices in education a platform so that they can be heard and supported. This mission started at the beginning of 2020 and has grown and grown as the year and Covid-19 has increased!
So why did I start with 'do you ever take on more than you can handle'? Because I have done just that. I set myself a target originally to reply to everyone on the #TinyVoiceTuesdayUnites thread every week and on the whole I have done it, but to the detriment of my family. I get up at 4:30am,get dressed and go online. I then stay there until 7:30am when I go into work. At 5:30pm when I finish work, I come home and go online again until I have responded to everyone on the thread. According to my usage - I spend about 7-8 hours online every Tuesday. That means I don't get to see much of my husband or 14 year old daughter. In fact, truth be told, I have shooed her away before now on a Tuesday - telling her I need to reply to everyone.
Why you might wonder is this coming up now. It is because I started looking at my phone usage following a good friend's suggestion. Do you know, the week that he suggested it, I had spent 36 hours of the week on my phone and 24 of those were on Twitter. Twitter for me can be rather like falling down a rabbit hole...
I start and then before I know it, I am getting deeper and deeper and deeper!
Anyway, I had a shock! 24 hours on Twitter in a week - one whole day!!! No way.
So since then I have tried to reduce my time and show up for my family more. They need mum! They have really appreciated it and I have realised that as much as I love all of you - and I do - I have to prioritise my family.
So, that being said I am going to try something new. As of this week, on Tuesdays, I am going to be on the #TinyVoiceTuesdayUnites thread from 5:30am - 7:30am but I won't be popping in and out afterwards that day, just in case I fall down that hole again. These are the times when the thread is busiest and people are around most, so I am hopeful that I will see most of you. But, just in case I miss you, you will hopefully understand why. I will of course be around and about on Twitter but just need to ensure that I am not spending 7 hours on there on a Tuesday!
I am genuinely scared though, that if I am not there a voice may go unheard. So, I have to remind myself that that is why the #TVTTagTeam exist. They are there to catch the unheard voices on the Tuesday thread and ensure that the questions are answered. They are part of the team that makes sure that every voice is listened to and no one feels that they are talking into a void.
Three amazing members of the #TVTTagTeam have come forward and agreed to help me with tagging in team members with questions just in case I miss them too. I am so grateful to Holly, Emma and Jo for helping me with this as I believe that we will be stronger together.
It isn't easy saying 'Oops I did it again' and I genuinely don't think I would worry about spending hours with all of you if it didn't impact on my family, but it does. Thank you for your understanding and I really hope that you are able to pop on the thread to say hi and thank you #TVTTagTeam for helping every voice on there to be heard!