Transform time-sucking problems into time-saving solutions

As teachers we always stay late, go in early or  take work home on the weekends (or some combination of all three).  We do this without thinking. We do this because education seems to perpetuate a culture of give, give, give without question.

As one of my friends says, you don’t have to set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.   And that’s what I’m here to offer you in this free guide. The ability to not work yourself into overwhelm and burnout, so that you can be your best both inside and outside the classroom.

In college, we weren’t really taught how to juggle all of the things that would be thrown at us as teachers.  We were taught content, pedagogy, and the lesson planning. Perhaps a class or two on classroom management was thrown in there, but there was never a class on how to create an efficient work day.

I know as an English teacher, it was almost a rite of passage that I would be grading papers late at night and throughout my weekends.  If I didn’t do that (I thought) I was either lazy or not doing my job correctly.

After years of just accepting these truths to be the way things were going to be,  I started learning about efficiency and habit building. I realized that there was a whole world of knowledge that I knew little about in regard to how to actually maximize my time.  I found that some of these basic principles could be applied to a classroom as easily as a business.   

Now if  you are a first  year teacher (or within your first few years) it might be inevitable that you will take work home. There just is a learning curve that may take more than 40 hours a week.  However, if you are a new teacher, identifying these time-sucking problems right from the start and coming up with a time-saving solution from the start may drastically reduce how long you work 40 hours+ and it may also lessen some of the stress and burnout that is often a shared teacher experience.

If you’re a veteran teacher, I urge you to check out this list and try to identify your biggest time-sucking problems.  This is my plan for the year. I’m going to be diligent in recognizing the time sucking problems that surface in my schedule.  From there I’m going to apply a time saving solution.  

Try identifying these time-sucking problems and then try applying a time-saving solutions…

If you are trying to work less and more efficiently…here are some time- sucking problems that may be taking time away from you.  Focus on these areas first to find some extra time.

*Grading

*Extra tasks beyond teaching

*Never ending to do lists

*Difficulty saying no to additional responsibilities and tasks beyond what is feasible for your schedule.

Once you take a look at these problem areas, pay attention to any changes you can make.

If you are looking to save even more time and want some real actionable, time saving solutions to these time sucking problems , check out Teaching Well’s FREE Course “4 Solutions to a 40 Hour Work Week for a Balanced Teacher Life.”

If you want to check out my weekly check-ins throughout the school year, please check out Teaching Well’s Facebook Group We are Teaching Well.  I will be checking in on the last day of each work week to report how all of the strategies I have been promoting are working for me in real time.