Making 100 Minutes a Habit

Recently, I read a blogpost by Brad Currie titled 100 Minutes a Week. In it Mr. Currie succinctly discussed how 100 minutes a week, or 20 minutes a day, would be greatly beneficial for educators in their professional development. Time is a tricky thing to bring up with any educator probably, but making PD a priority is the utmost importance for the sake of the students and forward progress. There are certainly other priorities that should take precedence such as faith, family, or whatever floats your boat.

What caught my eyes over and over were the specific examples Mr. Currie provided in order that readers could gain insight into the endless opportunities we educators have and the variety of input possible when developing. 

I now consider how these ideas could be driven and lived out as habits since reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. The habit loop below presents the science. 

http://tinyurl.com/pau64t6

There is a cue before every habit. If you want the routine of PD to start without much thought, let there be a cue you create beforehand. My first thought is the Twitter chat that many of us take part in. For example, when the 5:30am alarm goes off, the #BFC530 crew hops onto Twitter for 15 minutes. Others such as #sunchat know that the beautiful habit of collaboration happens every Sunday from 9-10am ET. I do not think only these chats but other resources have extraordinary impacts within the habits as well. Look into what helps you best as an educator, and tailor it to your best capability. PD doesn't need to look the same every time or for every person.

The rewards for such habits are worthwhile.

growth, more resources, creativity, ideas, information, reflection, encouragement, challenges, ______________...

http://tinyurl.com/kb66oet

What good habits do you have as an educator set for improvement? 

What cues do you have before the habits happen? 

What rewards do you feel or receive afterwards (and during)?