Recently, I had the chance to read an advance copy of James Clear’s new book, Atomic Habits. Here’s the thing: I’m not huge into the literature on habits these days. I’ve been fascinated by it before, but I’ve kind of moved on. So when I sat down to read Atomic Habits, it wasn’t because I was intrigued […]
Inner Work
The Secret Skills of Master Teachers: Batching Busy (or Shallow) Work for the Sake of Deep Work
“We got to the moon and built the pyramids without email and Facebook. You can go a couple of hours without checking them.” — Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong I get a lot of email, as I’m sure you do, […]
The Secret Skills of Master Teachers: Predictable Time Off
Every week, I take Sundays off from school work. More and more frequently, I’m taking Saturdays off, too. It hasn’t always been this way, and once in a while it stops being that way (like during the weeks leading up to the manuscript submission deadline for These 6 Things, or during the final weeks before AP […]
The Secrets Skills of Master Teachers: Managing Your Mood
This past summer, I had a whole day set aside for just writing and research. I was so excited. I went to one of my writing hideouts with a stack of books, and I already knew the first article I was going to write. I fired up my computer, opened up my website editor, and […]
The Secret Skills of Master Teachers: Working Hard (and Smart)
There’s a pretty straightforward skill that master teachers — and maybe I shouldn’t call them that, maybe instead I should say “good and sane” teachers — tend to have that I’ve not treated yet — the way that they work. It’s both hard and smart. They’re constantly pushing at the edges of their expertise but also […]