Taming the Teacher Work Week

How are you feeling, teacher?  Overworked?  Tired?  Behind?  I’m here to share with you how I tamed my teacher work week and how you can easily do the same.  There is hope!

For years, I was that teacher up at school until the sun went down and even on weekends. I thought that if I had everything prepared just so, my students would learn more, I’d feel calmer, and we’d avoid any problems.  I came early and stayed late but still felt overwhelmed and behind.  This school year, I made it my mission to make teaching doable!  I was convinced that there was a way to be a great teacher, but still work reasonable (and not completely insane) hours, even though that wasn’t my reality quite yet.

In this post, I’ll share what worked for me and offer a few tools to help you find the same success!

Step 1: LET GO

I’m not talking about letting go of planning awesome lessons or being prepared for work or being a responsible adult (however tempting).  This “letting go” has to do with dropping the expectation that you will ever feel completely prepared.  This is a myth. A fantasy!  No matter how much you plan, prep, and strategize, kids will still be kids, the internet will go down, the awesome lesson will be a flop, and your grand intentions WILL go right out the window.

I still remember a Friday afternoon not that long ago when I was working away late into the evening and co-worker popped her head in to say good-bye.  “How are you already done?” I moaned jealously.  “How are you not?” she replied.  “It will all be here on Monday. Let it go and go home.”

I honestly didn’t understand her words in that moment, but I thought about them all weekend.  And she’s right!  Teaching is a special type of job where you are never truly DONE.  There’s always something else you could be working on, preparing, improving, planning.  It’s up to you to set your limits, use your time wisely, and then LET GO!  Driving yourself to the brink of insanity isn’t going to make you a better teacher or help your students learn.  Protect your time and personal life fiercely so that you can show up feeling energized and excited to teach.

Step 2: Set Your Boundaries

Teaching is such a noble cause and it’s hard not to give it everything you have. But when you’re depleted, you can’t be your best! What are your work boundaries?

I felt so guilty at first, but I when I finally prioritized my own well-being, I know I became a better teacher all around. For me, I needed a real lunch break (no making copies or eating at my desk) and I needed to be on my way home within an hour after school ending each day so I had time to rest, reset, and live my life.

Get clear on what you’re willing to give each week and give it your all during those work hours. The rest of your day is for YOU.

Step 3: Prioritize, Plan, and Conquer!

It took me a while (let’s be honest – years) to pinpoint what was causing me to need so much time for preparation, planning, and to-do lists, while other teachers seemed to be out the door by 4 every single day.  My personal issue is that I want to DO IT ALL!  I noticed that when I sat down to write my lesson plans for the following week, I’d get distracted by a lesson idea and suddenly need to go off and research/plan/search for everything that would make that lesson perfect.  I’d get sucked down a black hole of Pinterest searches, teacher blogs, digging through old files, and searching for materials. Pretty soon, I’d have spent an hour planning one or two lessons and still not have my week’s plans complete.

The other pattern I noticed was work avoidance.  Grading is my killer!  I’d have stacks of papers that needed to be graded, but suddenly I felt the need to rearrange the desks, clean out the classroom library, or create a new math station.

If you watched me work, you’d see I was focused, busy, and doing things that really did make my classroom and teaching better.  I wasn’t WASTING time, but I definitely wasn’t using it efficiently.

My solution was to create a plan that would force me to take care of the PRIORITIES before I could work on all that other stuff.  Interestingly, when the prioritized tasks are completed, the other stuff is often not so important…

First Step: Make a list of the big tasks you need to accomplish each week – your MUST-DO’s. Mine were writing the following week’s lesson plans, prepping materials and copies, and grading.

Second Step: Look at the time you have available.  I only have my Planning Period and after school since I don’t arrive early.  (School starts at 7 and that’s early enough for me!)  Plus, we have weekly Faculty Meetings, PLC Meetings, and Team Planning. Once I added all that to my week, I could see how much time was really available.

Third Step: Make your plan for the MUST-DO’s.  Designate days and times when those things are your priority!  I added them to my week in bold and all-caps.  On those days, I force myself to ONLY focus on those tasks and do nothing else until they are completed.

I’ve also added in repeating tasks that I know will need to be done as part of the week.  For example, if you notice above, on Fridays after school, I always send out my weekly e-newsletter to parents, post my objectives for the following week, and copy the homework.

The most important (and hardest) part is to STICK TO YOUR PLAN. If I finish writing my plans on Wednesday during my Planning Period, then I might go ahead and start making copies and prepping materials.  But only if the plans are completely done!  No more work avoidance or getting distracted by planning for one single lesson.

Of course, things come up.  I’ll have a parent meeting or ARD or who-knows-what come up and throw the whole schedule off.  But so far, I’ve been able to simply shift whatever tasks get bumped to the very next free box and carry on from there.

Since I’ve started this new system, I have NOT needed to go to school on the weekend, I have NOT stayed past 4:30 once, and I have felt more relaxed and prepared for school than ever before.

I truly hope this might help some of you out there!  I’ve posted the editable template in my TPT Store as a free download so that you can make it your own.

If you’re looking for more tips on how to plan your week, check out my FREE online training!

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Feel free to share your own tips for time management and getting it all done!