It is true that the most difficult and the most important aspect of reflective practice is finding the time to do it. If you don't stand back and look at what you are doing or have done and evaluate and review it in some way then you're not gaining as much as you could do from the experience. However this is easy to say as sometimes there is not the opportunity and also sometimes you don't want to or need to spend time or energy going back over things to see what you should have done or could have done differently. It has got to have a positive outcome - there have been plenty of occasions when I have thought ' that didn't go well, I won't do that again' but hopefully I have realised what I would change in the future. On a positive note there have been projects and activities that have gone well and they have succeeded because of detailed planning and also from having some experience in a similar situation and knowing what the pitfalls are going to be. There have also been instances when things have gone well due to luck, good fortune and seizing the initiative at the time.
For me personally I know that I have to sometimes take time out to either reflect or just not think at all. But I don't do it on a regular basis, I do it when I recognise the need and as time goes on it becomes easier to know when to do it. Sometimes I can't do it as I'm too wrapped up in what's happening and too impatient to move it forward.
Blog writing is a good way for me to reflect because I prefer words to sounds - I like the look of the words on the page or screen - text is easier for thinking than audio for me. I don't use a particular structure I just try to report on what's happening and how well it is going so I can look back at it and evaluate it.
The other thing that I do when I need to step out of a project or activity is to do something techie or geeky e.g. experiment with QR codes, create a webpage, 'play' with the interactive whiteboard and create a resource. It works for me.
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