The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new challenge in time management for teachers. Because of remote and hybrid learning, significant changes occurred in the way teachers work.
They need to adjust to the new normal by adopting new teaching methods. Besides, they often struggle with school, work and family responsibilities.
In this post, you’ll learn how to keep your teaching career on track by managing time in this digital age. Also, know about teachers’ time management problems and the importance of time management for them.
Let’s get started.
Time management problems for teachers
Besides regular duties, teachers are currently handling more tasks than ever. They manage online platforms, communicate with parents and students, and create engaging content. As a result, they have little time for themselves. Here are some common problems teachers face while doing their day-to-day activities.
- Limited time for planning: Teachers often get little time for planning. It results in rushed lesson planning and ineffective instructional materials.
- Administrative tasks: Teachers must do various administrative tasks – grading, record keeping, communicating with parents, etc. These tasks take up a significant time of the day.
- Interruptions and distractions: Unexpected events such as students’ behavioral problems, parents’ meetings, and technology failure often interrupt a teacher from properly performing duties.
- Poor classroom management: If a teacher fails to manage a classroom correctly, it can result in disturbance for instruction and a waste of time.
- Lack of support: Teachers who fail to get appropriate help from school authorities and colleagues find managing their workload and time challenging.
- Poor work-life balance: When teachers struggle to balance their personal and professional lives because of increased workload, family responsibilities, and other commitments, they feel burnout and frustration. It results in poor work outcomes.
To overcome these challenges, teachers can learn practical time management skills and develop strategies to maximize their time. In later sections, we’ll learn more about this.
Importance of time management for teachers
As time is finite and every minute counts in a day, teachers must know how to manage time well. Because it substantially impacts their efficiency.
By managing time correctly, they can balance classroom responsibilities and personal lives. Here are a few benefits of time management for educators:
- More time for teaching: By effectively managing time, a teacher can utilize instructional time correctly. Instead of wasting time dealing with disruptions and unnecessary materials, you can spend more time teaching and ensuring that learning objectives have been met. By properly planning time, you can use the time for student engagement and collaboration and cover more materials.
- Better work-life balance: Sometimes, teaching becomes stressful and demanding. Many people face burnout and frustration. Effective time management can help teachers avoid being overwhelmed and reduce stress. They can find a balance between personal and professional life and experience significant improvement in overall well-being.
- Increase Productivity: With effective time management, as a teacher, you will know the importance of prioritizing tasks and using your time efficiently. It will help you manage your workload, complete essential tasks first and get things done quickly. Your overall performance will improve, and productivity will increase.
- Enhance professional development: Effective time management allows teachers to pursue professional development opportunities. They can manage time to attend workshops, conferences, and other professional development activities. Therefore, they can improve their teaching skills and remain updated with the latest educational trends.
- Gain job satisfaction: Time management empowers teachers to accomplish more and improve their performance and students’ lives. They feel more confident and organized. This feeling leads to greater job satisfaction.
Effective time management makes a teacher more efficient and improves student outcomes.
Time Management hacks for teachers
Lesson planning, grading assignments, and administrative tasks with a never-ending to-do list require more time to complete everything on time. Time management is a challenging skill for a teacher. However, you can manage your workload, reduce stress, and improve productivity by adopting time management hacks. By following these hacks, you can provide quality education to your students while balancing your professional and personal life.
1. Make a realistic to-do list
Although it sounds like simple advice, unfortunately, few use it effectively. To create a practical and effective to-do list, note all the tasks that come to mind. Then prioritize tasks following the Eisenhower matrix and break down large projects into small, manageable tasks. Avoid overloading the to-do list with too many duties. Limit daily to-do list to three to five tasks. And be flexible to adjust the list as needed.
2. Set goals and priorities
To make the most of your time, you should set a goal. It will help you identify essential tasks related to the plan and allocate time to accomplish them. Also, it will be easier for you to prioritize tasks. You will give more attention, time, and energy to the essential things and avoid getting stuck with less critical activities.
3. Use a planner
With a planner, you can schedule your tasks, prepare a routine and plan your weekly activities. A planner is more than just a note-taking book. In a planner, you can write down important dates and events. It will help you plan your days according to the events. There are various teacher planners available, including space for lesson plans and other teaching-related features. Sometimes they become helpful to your colleagues when you are on sick leave.
4. Consider day theming and task batching
These two effective time management strategies are widely used in the time-blocking technique. Day theming means dedicating a day to a particular task – Monday for lesson planning, Tuesday to prepare materials, and Wednesday for grading. It is a great way to do one job at a time and get things done easily. On the other hand, task batching is doing similar tasks at once, for example, sending and replying to emails at once instead of checking inbox several times a day.
5. Plan Homework Strategically
Homework is essential to keep students engaged in their studies. Often it takes too much time to check and grade. If checking student work takes too much of your instructional time or leads to too much work at home, you must rethink your homework strategy. Consider alternatives in assigning homework to students. You can consider a weekly homework option or a solution that does not involve rigorous checking.
6. Allow students to help you
Consider assigning some tasks to the students that a student could handle. You can use students to maintain the classroom, collect and pass out essential papers, and put files into portfolios. Have a student do clean-up checks or manage playground equipment. When you give these responsibilities to students, they will feel ownership of their classroom and gain practical knowledge.
7. Use parent volunteers
Many parents are interested in being a volunteer. They can help you save time and reduce your workload. For example, you can include them in field trips. Planning and executing a field trip is time-consuming, but they are essential to most curricula. Parent volunteers can help you by supervising students, organizing transportation, and ensuring everyone is safe. By utilizing parent volunteers, you can free up time to focus on teaching and providing quality education for students.
8. Embrace technology
Numerous apps and tools are available for teachers. They can assist you in remaining organized and productive. They can be a great way to manage your workload and save time. These tools aid in time management, setting reminders, creating a to-do list, and grade and lesson planning. Once you learn to navigate these tools, you can streamline your work process and save much time in the long run.
Learn more about time management tools for teachers in the following section.
9. Learn to say No
When you have so many things on your plate, saying No to additional responsibilities is essential. Although it is difficult to say no, this will help you in many ways. By learning to say no, you can avoid overcommitting yourself and have more time to focus on your core responsibilities.
10. Delegate tasks
A crucial skill for effective time management, regardless of profession. As a teacher, consider delegating tasks to your assistant, class monitor, students, or parent volunteer whenever you sense an increased workload. Make sure they have the right to do the job you are delegating and are knowledgeable to handle the tasks. Also, always ask for the help of your colleagues whenever needed.
11. Take breaks
When you have so many things on your plate, it can be easy to let your profession take over every minute of your day. But, it is essential to take breaks to avoid burnout. Hence, schedule some breaks throughout the day. You are doing your brain a favor by stepping away from your work for a few minutes. You’ll return to your work feeling refreshed, recharged, and clear-headed.
12. Keep your personal life balanced
Besides teaching and professional development, a healthy work-life balance is essential for teachers. You can’t overlook your personal responsibilities and commitments. Hence, you must care for your mental and physical health, spend time with your loved ones, and do things that make you happy. When prioritizing your well-being, you can bring your best self to the classroom and provide quality education. In addition, overall well-being will result in job satisfaction and improved performance.
Time Management Tools for Teachers
In today’s digital age, many time management tools and resources are available to help teachers manage their workload effectively. Using these tools, you can streamline your work, improve productivity, be organized, and stay on top of tasks. Here are some worth considering tools listed below.
1. Online Calendars
They are pretty handy for teachers to schedule their tasks, set reminders, keep track of deadlines and share their schedule with colleagues. Two popular online calendars are – Google Calendar and Outlook.
2. Classroom Management Apps
With the help of a classroom management app, teachers can streamline communication with parents and students, Manage classroom activities, and track attendance, assignment, and grades. Two example tools are Google Classroom and ClassDojo.
3. Time-tracking Apps
These apps allow teachers to monitor the time spent on different tasks throughout the day. This data can help them identify time-wasting activities and the areas where they can improve their productivity. Two popular time-tracking apps are RescueTime and Toggl.
4. Productivity apps
They are widely used to stay focused and avoid distractions during work hours. Two popular apps are Focus@will and Forest. With the help of a productivity app, you can minimize distractions and improve productivity. These apps work best when you are working from home and have a lot of computer-based work to do.
5. Note-taking Apps
These apps are handy for keeping track of ideas, research, and lesson plans. Using these apps, you can take notes, create to-do lists, and store information in a single location. In addition, you can take notes in various formats such as text, image, and audio recording. You can access the information from any device and share information with your colleagues and students. Three popular note-taking apps are Evernote, OneNote, and Google Keep.
Resources on Time Management for Teachers
Here we’ve got some resources that will help you improve your skill on time management.
1. Time Management Books for Teachers
2. Planners for Teachers
Another popular planner is Erin Condren’s Teacher Lesson Planner
3. Time Management Course for Teachers
Conclusion
Time management is critical for teachers, especially now that remote and hybrid learning has increased workloads. Teachers must have practical time management skills to succeed in the new normal. You can be more productive, reduce stress and burnout, and provide quality education to your students by practicing this skill. However, keep in mind that each person’s situation is unique. Thus, find a time management strategy that works for you.
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