The One-Thing Week

First, a question. What does the image above have to do with this week’s newsletter? Reply in a comment, and you will receive a shout-out in next week’s email.

Here’s a quote, a resource, a book, and an affirmation to help power you through the rest of the week.

QUOTE

"The thing I've learned is less is more. I travel as light as possible." - Chris Harrison

RESOURCE

The One-Thing Week: What If the Answer Isn’t More?

You know what teachers don’t say? “I wish I had more on my plate.”

But somehow, that’s what keeps happening. Another initiative. Another expectation. Another thing you’re supposed to squeeze into a day that was already full three obligations ago. And the advice is always the same — add a strategy, try a new tool, implement one more thing.

What if the answer this week isn’t more? What if it’s less?

The Stoics had a concept called Amor Fati — love of fate. Not love of some imagined perfect version of your life. Love of the actual, messy, imperfect reality you’re living right now. And the thing about loving your actual reality is that it requires you to be honest about what that reality can hold.

Right now, it can’t hold everything.

So here’s the practice. Pick one thing to remove this week. Not forever. Just for the next five days. One obligation. One expectation. One “should.”

Maybe it’s the Sunday planning session that takes three hours and leaves you resentful before the week even starts. Maybe it’s the daily parent communication log that nobody reads. Maybe it’s the expectation that every lesson has to be a performance.

The trick isn’t finding the courage to subtract. It’s giving yourself permission to try it for one week and see what happens. Most of the things we’re afraid to let go of aren’t load-bearing walls.

Try it this week:

• Remove one “should” from your to-do list — not delay it. Remove it. See if anyone notices.
• Leave one thing undone on purpose. Go home anyway.
• Say no to one request. Use the sentence: “I can’t take that on this week.” No explanation needed.
• Ask yourself every time something feels heavy: “What if this could be easier?”

Subtraction isn’t laziness. It’s restructuring. You’re not doing less — you’re making room for the things that actually matter to work.

BOOK

How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell — This isn’t a productivity book. It’s the opposite. Odell argues that our attention is the most precious resource we have — and we keep handing it over to systems that don’t deserve it. It won’t tell you how to be more efficient. It’ll make you question why you think you need to be more efficient in the first place. 👉 Get it on Amazon | Teacher Reset Book Recommendations

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Your purchases through these links help support this newsletter at no extra cost to you. Thank you.

WORTH YOUR TIME

✍️ “The Problem With the ‘Tech vs. Paper’ Debate in Education” — I've heard many binary arguments in my 26 years of teaching. “All tech is bad” and “all tech is good” are both wrong. The job is figuring out which is which — and that requires data, not feelings.

🎙️ “You Don’t Earn Rest. You Schedule It.” — A STRONG Teacher Pep Talk. Rest isn’t waiting at the finish line. It’s part of the race. The teachers still standing after twenty years figured that out.

📖 “How Letting Go of Perfectionism Made Me a Better Teacher” — Edutopia on shifting from performance to process. What happens when you stop trying to eliminate failure from your classroom?

📝 "I've Done This Every Day for Nine Years. It Changed My Life." — Ryan Holiday on the one-line-a-day journal. Not a morning pages practice. Not a gratitude list. One line. That's the whole thing. Subtraction applied to journaling.

AFFIRMATION

I don’t have to do everything to be enough. I can subtract and still be whole.

P.S. If you’re the teacher who keeps adding to the list because stopping feels like failing — you’re not alone. Inside The STRONG Teacher’s Lounge, we’re practicing subtraction together. Not in theory. In real classrooms, with real obligations, figuring out what we can actually let go of. Join us — STRONG Core is $79/year.