Many of us as busy teachers are so overwhelmed with the workload, we need to find ways to simplify our teacher life in an effort to cope with the demands of the job. Read to find 7 simple things to do to help in your life!
To help simplify your teacher life, the key is to automate as many things as you can. Then these things will need minimal input from you and eventually run themselves.
The easiest ways I’ve found to simplify your life as a busy teacher starts at HOME.
Here are seven ideas I’ve implemented that have made my life a whole lot simpler and I hope they can help you with yours too.
1. Slow down and stop doing so many things
This is the first thing you need to do in your life to help simplify it.
Our world is busy.
Everyone you talk to is busy.
But often, when you think about it, WE are the makers of our own busyness.
If you want to truly put on the breaks in your life and slow down – to ultimately help cut the teacher-overwhelm, YOU need to be very intentional about how much you do.
Related Article: Stop the Overwhelm: Tips for Teachers
You might think this is an impossible task.
Where to Start?
I firstly started with my kids.
When my kids were younger, they were involved in SO many activities.
And don’t get me wrong, that’s ok. Especially if you feel that a caring parent needs to provide your children with opportunities. But sometimes, there can be too much too often.
I eventually realised I couldn’t cope with it all.
The kids were tired. I was tired and I was the instigator of their busyness!
It was time to make a change!
Here are some ideas that I did to cut my kid’s busyness:
- I stopped saying ‘yes’ to all the sleep-overs with friends and made this a special holiday event instead. (They appreciated this time so much more.)
- We cut back on the things they were doing. (My daughter had piano lessons and ballet lessons, plus other things). So I asked them what their favourites were and they chose just one, instead of multiples.
- On the school holidays, I told my kids I wasn’t going to take them to a new activity each day. They were quite capable of making their own fun. (Not with technology – I remember banning powered items for a whole week one time, but that’s another story). I think it’s about making your family’s life less crazy and realising it’s ok to be home and resting. You don’t need to feel guilty about it either. Kids need downtime too!
- And for you, you might need to say ‘No’ to doing some things. FOMO won’t kill you, because it will make you feel much better just to finally have some free to rest at home. This might also allow you some time for much-needed personal self-care too.
Related Article: How to Set Boundaries as a Teacher and Why It’s So Important
These few changes I made with the kids reduced the time I was running them around in the car and ultimately helped simplify my life.
ii) Another decision I made with my family was to delegate all the household tasks – each person had their jobs to be responsible for.
- the kids had a roster for their jobs, so they knew when each of them emptied the dishwasher and fed the pets etc. Then, I didn’t have to continually ask them to help out. (A jobs chart works well on the wall, for reminders and stops the arguments too). They obviously were responsible for the tidying of their own rooms too.
- Saturday mornings were for the whole family to have a general clean and tidy up the house, after a busy week. This worked well and if you put on some music it can make it a fun way of working together.
- Dad had his jobs too – like emptying the bins, mowing, taking the bins out and changing the towels each week. I also gave him the task of cooking family meals on alternating nights with me. That was such an awesome thing to start. I’d thoroughly recommend it.
I suppose a lot of these recommendations are all about working together as a family team and sharing the work-load. Even the little kids can join in too!
If you’re interested in how I kept all this managed, I had a huge whiteboard in the home office. This is where I drew up the list of everyone’s jobs and the days they needed to be done. It helped so much with the automation of it too.
2. Create a morning and evening routine to follow
Having simple routines in your life is where you can make it a whole lot more automated.
Morning and evenings are often the craziest times in the life of a family, so it helps to have a set routine. Then everyone knows what to do.
Some of the easiest routines you can set up as a family are for these times.
N.B. An evening routine is the key to a calmer start to the next day.
Evening Routine Ideas:
- make the school lunches
- plan meals for the next day
- get your kids and your work clothes ready for the next day
- pack the school bags
- clean up from the evening meal
- put the kids to bed
- have some quality time to talk with your partner
- bed-time routine
Morning Routine Ideas:
- Get up earlier than the kids (this allows a bit of breathing space for a quiet coffee or a walk).
- Plan your day with a to-do list. This might also include a short deep breathing routine or visualising your desired life.
Then it’s just a matter of having breakfast, getting dressed and out the door.
Read here about ideas for a morning routine that will help give your day a much calmer start.
3. Make time for self-care
Taking care of yourself as a mum, partner and a busy teacher should be a priority.
You’ll find that if you don’t find the time to care for yourself, you won’t be able to keep up with your the demands of your life and your wellbeing will end up suffering.
If you struggle to make time for yourself, I find a clever way to incorporate it into your day is to make an appointment with yourself. By this, I mean adding self-care activities to your to-do list and then attend to them like any other appointment.
These self-care appointments are important aspects of your health and encompass the physical, spiritual, emotional and mental parts of your being.
Don’t forget to add some from each category to feel like you are not neglecting yourself.
If you need to be more intentional about self-care, 50+ Self-Care Tips for Teachers, by Teachers and download the FREE Weekly Self-care Planner that is offered.
Related Article: How to Make a Self-Care Kit for Tired Teachers
4. Plan your meals in advance
I’ve made planning meals an automated activity that I can quickly do each week ahead of the regular grocery shop.
To get this happening you’ll need a meal planner set up for the week. This will save you lots of overwhelm and ultimately money in the shop. It also helps avoids all the takeaways when you’re feeling too tired to think about what to cook.
If you’re interested in how I easily manage my meals, read the article below for details to save you heaps of time.
Related Article: The Secret to Meal Planning for Busy Teachers
This post may contain affiliate links. IF you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
5. Buy a pressure cooker/slow cooker (multi-cooker)
Just by purchasing and using a pressure cooker in the preparation of my family’s meals has felt like a godsend to me.
It has saved me so much time in cooking. Plus, it’s also added much more variety and choice of meals on a school/weekday night that are far more interesting and enjoyable.
Instead of cooking meals like; casseroles, curries, corned beef, and the like on the weekend. I’m now able to whip up these family favourites in no time at all.
For example, a Red Thai Beef Curry cooks in 15 minutes instead of 1.5 hours in the oven, or Corned Beef takes 45 minutes in my multicooker instead of 1.5/2 hours on the stove. Yes, you heard me correctly!
N. B. This is the one I use. It’s a Philips brand multicooker (there are other great brands like Instant Pot that do the same things – pressure cooking, frying and slow-cooking).
If you don’t try any of the other tips I suggest, try this one. Do yourself a favour and have yourself wondering why you’ve never had this amazing appliance in your life. Trust me. It will change your life!
6. Use a family planning calendar for all important dates
Using a family calendar in a prominent space in your home helps you to coordinate everyone’s schedule. (and I don’t mean you, necessarily).
The use and management of the family planner can be delegated to your partner to look after. This will then keep them in the loop, so they feel like they’re part of the solution to a simpler life.
Print out a monthly calendar and stick up so that everyone has access to and can see it – on the fridge or notice board, and then you can add events as they arise.
This is a clever way to manage your life, help stops you missing important appointments, and get the whole family involved in this task.
7. Teach Part-time
I know this isn’t possible for everyone, but this was the only way that I was able to cut the overwhelm and help simplify my life.
Teaching has become a massive job. Sometimes I think it has become something more than one person can manage.
I initially reduced my week by one day and worked 4 days.
This was like heaven.
I then was able to find time to do all the household jobs and appointments, which freed up time on the weekends. I then didn’t feel like I had so much to do.
Later, when my health was suffering, I cut back to 3 days per week and it helped a great deal. Even though I did use one of the days to plan for the next week, plus do some marking, it allowed me to gain my weekends back completely.
This is where I truly felt some work-life balance in the job.
Related Article: A Clever Work-Life Balance Tip: Teach Part-Time
In Closing
I hope these ideas get you thinking about being more intentional with how you simplify your teacher life. It might take some effort and planning, but it will be worth it.
PIN THIS FOR LATER!
Take Care, my friend
Michelle x
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