In the last nine months, so much has changed, not the least of which is our personal schedule and how we manage our time. Add to that changes in protocols around COVID behavior, adjustments to operating hours for businesses, and cancellations or amendments to established routines, such as sports, doctor appointments, or travel, and you have a whopping lesson in some basic executive functioning skills!

One of the valuable skills children learn in school is “chunking” their work, a process in which they break down assignments into manageable “chunks,” based on an understanding of their personal needs, the time they have, and the amount of work that needs to be completed. The productivity and efficiency students experience from learning to chunk their work empowers them and, ultimately, rewards them with success in school.

One of the best survival tools for me during this ever-changing period of living in a pandemic has been an intuitive sense of the need to chunk. What does this look like for a seasoned adult who has been living a full-scheduled life? 

• For athletes, time builds stamina. As a cyclist, the more I ride and increase time in the saddle, the stronger and longer I can go. But the “longer” is not as available as it used to be. I don’t have the ability to leave home for two to three hours at a time anymore; I appreciate what I can get, which makes the effort to go out, even for 45 minutes, totally worth it. 

• No longer gathering with large groups of friends, I have learned to accept seeing friends individually. I connect with them one at a time and maybe only once a week. But at the end of each connection, whether it’s a phone call, walk, or Zoom call, I feel invigorated and reconnected.

• How many days a week do we have time or energy to devote to fully preparing a meal? How many times are we ordering delivery or take-out? In an effort to support small businesses, reduce shopping trips, and ease stressors, our eating habits may change and actually be chunked. If you’ve ever taken a cleanse with Bridget, you learn the ins and outs of when to eat what and why, and you also learn to prep ahead of time! Chunking is embedded in the Ayurvedic routine.

• I have always chunked my workload when it comes to prepping and grading for school, but the skill is more critical now than ever. In the morning, I check my own schedule and align it with my children’s. If I am teaching from home, I determine when we have common free time and make sure that I don’t commit myself to something that requires space or quiet. If I am teaching in person, I make efforts to complete work at school before coming home, relinquishing any guilt I might have about skimping on one or the other of my roles. The practice of consciously chunking is very helpful for this.

• With a long-standing yoga asana practice, I quickly discovered last spring that I could not attend a class that was longer than 60 minutes, and I was lucky if I could even make that work. Many of us don’t have ideal physical space, and more of us don’t have ideal personal time. Recognizing and accepting this is critical to finding any space at all. I take 20-minute breaks during the day to roll out my mat and move; it’s energizing and, in this new context, pretty darn fulfilling.

I know I am not alone when I admit that I sign up for a virtual yoga class at Breathe Together Yoga on a given day and then determine how to find the time to watch that recording over the next 48 hours. We need this flexibility, and it has been given to us. 

The world is chunking along with us, affording us the opportunity to stay engaged. Offerings from businesses, schools, doctors, restaurants, etc. are all coming in the form of short and simple contributions that are more manageable for our varying schedules and with our far-ranging needs. (For instance, did you know that BTY is offering 30-minute classes during the 60-Day Challenge?!)

Our lives are made up of an ornate collection of pieces. We have the choice to try and multitask, which can result in exhaustion, frustration, and giving up, or to focus on one thing at a time and use discernment to decide which activity or task (or homework assignment) we should tackle, how much of it, and when. As I reflect on my use of chunking, I realize I am, like my students, more productive and efficient when I chunk, feeling more in balance on the whole. It’s a survival tool!