1.  Bodies heal when they are sleeping. Period. No sleeping - no healing.

2.  You know you hate it when your students and your colleagues come to school sick and sneeze/cough all over you, don't you? Admit it! So stay home when you're sick!

3.  You can't get good soup in the school cafeteria. No matter how great the food at your school is, when you're sick, you want something that's just right, and you are more likely to be able to fix that at home than to eat Ramen Noodles from the microwave at school.

4.  You can't wear pajamas to school (nor should you--even on pajama day!), and soft flannel or cotton pj's feels much better than "school" clothes on an achy body.

5.  Your kitties/doggies could use some extra petting, and petting them is soothing to you. Stay home. Get better.

6.  The best tissues are the "good" ones you buy for your house - not the "standard issue" that you have at school. The latter are always scratchy (because they're cheap). You need nice soft tissues.

7.  If you drink that much cough syrup at school, someone will take your car keys from you. If you're trying to teach and cough at the same time, no one is served.

8.  Stupid daytime TV is an incentive to just sleep more and feel better. Just rest.

9.  The silence of a pleasant home during daytime hours is delightful. You almost never get this time. If you're sick, just stay home and be peaceful and quiet. Enjoy.

10.  Your colleagues will appreciate you more when you return. Wouldn't it be nice to hear someone say, "We missed you!"

11.  Your students will appreciate you more, too. No matter how wonderful your sub was (and you sure hope you had a good one), you are the teacher and your students need you and learn the most from you. But when you're sick, it's better for them to have a good sub. Stay home. Get better so you can get back to teaching at 100%!

12.  If your colleagues and students had stayed home when they were sick, you probably wouldn't be sick now. Return the favor.

Lin Yutang observed that "...the most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes on himself or that civilization has imposed upon him. All nature loafs, while man alone works for a living." (in Dr. Kathleen Hall's book, Alter Your Life: Overbooked? Overworked? Overwhelmed? p. 128).

So, consider lolling about for a day when you are sick. It's lovely. It's the better part of valor, too.

Educators have the most influential positions in our society--and need every bit of support that can be mustered.  Two resources that will help increase educators' sense of peaceful, predictable productivity are Meggin's weekly emails:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips
**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay

(c) 2007 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph. D. of Productivity"

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, and consulting.