Teachers are busy. They rush, photocopy, staple, make tea, eat lunch in a frenzy, photocopy, talk, hypothesise, talk, photocopy and make (more) tea. They rise early, work late, work through lunch, work through recess and take on numerous extra curricular activities. Teachers seem very busy, but if I asked you to take a step back from the busyness could it be that you feel busy because you are actually unproductive with your time?
Could it be that you are tired because you don’t take breaks, switch off or because you don’t each your lunch? If I had read this in the first few years of my teaching career, I would have said ‘He obviously doesn’t know MY situation.” Stay with me…
I am not saying that are you being wasteful with your time. I am suggesting, however, that every now and again you need to stop, think about and plan your commitments. Ever year or so I reread two books, Insanely Simple by Ken Segall and Getting Things Done by David Allen (I interviewed him here). These two books help me to gain perspective and help me to make sure that I manage my time and energy effectively so that I can teach my students to the best of my ability. I am also quite obsessed with trying new productivity tools, tricks and apps.
Just because you are busy, doesn’t mean that you are being productive. Being tired, looking like death and staying back at work isn’t a badge of honour it is a poor example your students and to your family.
So how can you structure your week in a way that reduces busyness and increases productivity?
Move slowly and consciously. So often we rush from one thing to the next. This has been one the biggest things I have had to work through. If we are rushing, multitasking and juggling too much we end up doing lots of things badly.
Pause before you say yes. We all get caught in saying yes to too many things. Before we know it we are sitting in on that meeting or we are running the Oz-Tag competition. Next time someone asks you to do that thing, notice your desire to commit and then politely say, ‘Can I get back to you?’
Have a few clear goals for the day. I try and have only two or three significant goals for the day. They may be to return that email, to send that letter out to parents or it may to finish my students’ assessments. Everything else gets put in the non-urgent section of my diary.
Revisit your goals throughout the day. Despite all your intentions, the school day never quite goes to plan. That teacher is away and your have to cover a duty (that was your maths planning time!) or your class is having an off day and your wonderful lesson in tessellations doesn’t quite get off the ground. It is precisely for these reasons that you need to revisit and adjust your goals throughout the day.
Remember, just because you are busy doesn’t mean you are productive. In fact, busyness is quite often a nice disguise for our inability to prioritise tasks or organise ourselves. Tiredness and stress is not a badge of pride, it robs you of job satisfaction and it robs your students of getting the best from their teacher.