Teaching is a fantastic and incredibly rewarding career, but it can easily take over every single aspect of your life…if you let it. There comes a time when a teacher has enough experience to realise that they will not complete everything that needs to be done and they shouldn’t need to punish themselves for that by giving up dinner, sleep or family time.
Here are my top 5 tips to help you manage teacher workload and avoid burn-out:
1. To-do lists: Create a to-do list but be honest when creating it. There’s no way you can possibly teach a full day, go on duty, prepare for tomorrow, data drop for all 5 years, plan an after-school club, organise a domestic trip and an international one, mark all of those books that have been piling up and not to mention those assessments all before 6pm the same day and still have the time and energy to go home and be ‘there’ for your family or yourself. It’s just not possible to maintain this level of work/life balance and this is what leads to burn out. Once you’ve got your list sorted, consider prioritising the tasks. What needs to be done and what would be nice if you could get it done?
2. Know when to say no: As a NQT you will feel like you have to say yes to every single opportunity or task thrown your way but if you do this you will find yourself swamped. Be prepared to say no if you feel like you’re struggling. Tell people you’ll look at your diary before committing yourself to anything.
3. Set yourself a ‘home-time’: We’ve all been guilty of arriving before the sun’s up and leaving long after it’s gone, only to return home to continue working, burning the midnight oil and then heading to bed to repeat it all over again. Try to give yourself a set time to head home everyday. For example, let’s say 5.30pm is your ‘home time’. Complete as much as possible of your to-do list up until that time and then switch off and head home.
4. Switch off: This is huge and extremely difficult to do. When you get home…stay at ‘home’! Try not to get drawn into replying to ‘that’ email at 10.30pm, try not to mark beyond a certain time at home. It’s really tough to switch off and sometimes, due to deadlines, almost impossible but it has to happen to allow you time to mentally recover before going again.
5. Organise yourself: There’s always that one teacher whose desk looks like a war-zone and they are forever throwing paper around looking for that memo from the Head with all of the deadlines on it. Don’t be that teacher! Try to keep yourself organised. Use your diary to keep track of lessons, meetings, duty, when to plan and when to mark. Keep your desk as tidy as possible…and that includes the draws! Keep that daily to-do list close by so you can see it and enjoy the feeling of crossing off those all important tasks.
Try the above and see if you feel better about the amount of work/life balance. It’s not a one-size fits all but they help me!
If you’ve got any other tricks or tips that could help manage teacher workload, please send me a direct message on Twitter @historyguy7292.
Happy teaching!