How Educators Can Release the Guilt and Reclaim Their Summer

How are you doing?
No, really. How are you really doing?

Not the version of the answer you’d give a colleague in the grocery store aisle. The real one. The one you whisper to yourself when no one’s around. The one that carries both the relief of summer and the weight of everything that came before it.

If you’re an educator or school leader, this season probably feels like a paradox. The world tells you to rest, but your brain is already drafting back-to-school plans. You’ve been granted a break, but your body still moves like it’s in triage mode.

So let’s pause. Let’s breathe.

And let’s talk about what it means to actually reprieve—not as an indulgence, but as an intentional act of leadership.

The moment you want to retreat is the exact moment you have to reach in.

Jessica Cabeen

I wrote that in a piece for Edutopia a few years ago during the height of the pandemic. The world was noisy and uncertain, and school leaders were navigating decisions no one had been trained for. What I didn’t know then was how that message would carry forward into so many seasons that followed.

Right now, many of us are entering July not with joy, but with guilt:

• I should be planning.
• I should be checking email.
• I should be doing more.

Here’s the truth: You don’t need to earn your reprieve. You already have.

Redefining Reprieve

Google defines reprieve as “temporary relief from punishment.” And while I’d never say summer is a punishment, I would argue that too many educators carry a misplaced sense of guilt, like we need to keep working to prove our worth.

Let’s flip that script.
This summer, reprieve means:

• Rest that restores
• Time that’s yours
• Stepping back without falling behind

Shift from Guilt to Goals

You don’t need to fill every day with productivity to justify taking time off. But you can use this season to realign gently. In Balance Like a Pirate, we talk about setting goals across four quadrants: Personal, Positional, Professional, and Passion. Your summer reprieve is a perfect time to reflect on these areas and ask:

• What energizes me?
• What have I neglected this year?
• What do I want to feel more of this fall?
  

Feel free to use the Balance Quadrant Framework Below to help guide your reflections.
Use this as your weekly check-in—no pressure, just perspective.

Protecting Your Peace (Especially from Email)

If you haven’t already, read my article for Edutopia on email boundaries. Educators deserve space between the ding of an inbox and the rhythm of their day.

Here’s a challenge for this week:

• Set an “away” message—even if you’re home.
• Check email twice a week, max (if you are back to work-try twice a day-you can do it!).
• Let silence be strategic. Not everything needs an immediate reply.

Creating space doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you care enough to recharge.

Jessica Cabeen

Bonus Tip: Create a Reprieve Ritual

Whether it’s 30 minutes of reading, a morning walk, journaling, or screen-free dinners—rituals restore, what’s one small thing you can count on to recenter each day this summer?

Mine? An extra-long walk with Herman during the summer. No phone. No rush. Just space.

You Are Doing Enough

If no one’s told you yet this month:

• You are doing enough.
• You are enough.

 And rest is not something to feel guilty for—it’s something to be grateful for.

This school year will come. And when it does, we’ll need you ready and rested to lead with courage, clarity, and calm.

Until then…
Take the reprieve. You’ve earned it.

Continue to Live Well to Lead Well (and have a life this summer),

Jessica

Stay Connected

Want more simple tools to protect your time, energy, and focus?

Grab your copy of Principal in Balance here → Principal in Balance

Want to go deeper? My self-paced course, Master Your Schedule, offers a complete system to help you build a calendar—and a life—you don’t need a break from. →Master Your Schedule *and use Friends25 for 25% off the course for the summer only!