Looking for ways to have a better balance between teaching and your family? Does it feel like you’re struggling to stay afloat in the different areas of your life… teaching, parenting, marriage, self-care? If you try to get things together in one area the other areas suffer. One way to try and gain some balance is to find ways to save more time.
I’m no expert in the area of balancing everything in my life. I don’t think we need to strive for perfect balance in our lives. I honestly don’t know if I will ever have it together. But in reality, does anyone have it all together?
Instead of striving for perfection, we can find strategies that help us feel a little more in control. Below are some time savers I’ve discovered that have helped save some of my sanity as a teacher mom.
Teacher mom time savers to help you juggle teaching and motherhood
Teaching and motherhood are often difficult to balance. As teachers, our work often comes home with us. From grading papers in preparation of report cards to dealing with the emotions that come with working with students. It impacts our lives at home.
Currently, many of us are having to try and figure out a new balance. We are teaching from our homes because we are under stay-at-home orders due to coronavirus. It can feel like our jobs have fully invaded our home lives. Now we need to balance caring and teaching our own children while doing the same for our students through online learning.
This is clearly new territory for all of us. It’s going to be messy and we’re going to have days when we need to just celebrate the fact that we made it through the day (and so did our kids). 🙂 Remember tomorrow is always a day made fresh, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
Download this teacher mom time saver: Stress Less Teacher Mom Checklists
My goal with these tips is to help you discover something that helps make your life a little easier.
Tip # 1: Use A Checklist or To-Do List
I know this sounds super simple but writing out a to-do list ends up being a huge time saver. The key is finding a system that works for you.
There are many great virtual tools that you can use to keep track of your to-do list. I use Google Keep, to keep up on my to-do list. I like it because I can access it at school on my computer, but I can also access it on my phone at home. Some other tools I’ve used with success are Trello and Airtable. All are free online resources that can be used on a desktop or mobile device.
While digital tools can be handy there are also times where I find them easier to ignore or forget about. When I need to really focus on a to-do list, I tend to fall back on tried and true paper ones. I keep a stack of post-it notes on hand for just this purpose. However, I’ve also created a to-do list I can use each week to help me stay on track. I found when things get crazy, this helps me stay grounded.
Since this to-do list has helped me during crazy times I wanted to share it with you. You can download it and more with the Stress Less Teacher Mom Checklists.
The biggest thing I’ve learned about to-do lists is that it’s ok if you don’t get to everything. Prioritize 1-3 items at a time. This will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed and give you a sense of accomplishment. I still struggle with keeping up on my to-do lists. But, once I started to focus on only three items at a time I’ve noticed a huge improvement.
Tip #2: Set Aside Time Blocks
Another teacher mom time saver is to set aside separate time blocks for different areas in our life. This can seem super simple. Do work while at work and leave it there. Yea that’d be nice, right. That’s easy to say, but as teachers, we often bring our work home. We bring home papers to grade, write lesson plans on the weekends, and create curriculum. On top of that, we also bring home our concerns for each of our students.
It can seem impossible to separate work and home. Some days it will be harder and we will bring stuff home. We should still, for our sanity, try to create separate time blocks. The best way to do this is to have a set time to leave school. It could be you get to school early and then leave as soon as you can. Or you could stay for an hour or so after school. The key to this working is using your to-do list to prioritize what you work on during those times.
Keeping set time blocks can be even more difficult when having to do distance learning. Extended school closures due to the coronavirus keep you from leaving work at work. You’re always at home. This is where time blocking becomes vital.
Once you figure out your new work hours for distance learning you should also schedule in other time blocks. It may seem silly to schedule personal time out. But if you don’t schedule times for self-care, household maintenance, family time, etc. they could get overtaken by your work.
It’s important to protect your personal time. If we don’t take care of ourselves and our family we won’t be able to serve our students to our fullest ability. It also saves us time, because we can focus on a specific task during each time block. This helps us be more efficient with our time.
Tip #3: Get Better at Saying “No”
When I first started teaching I said “YES” to everything. I coached a Girls on the Run team, joined a variety of committees, and participated in any extra-curricular activity that we offered in our buildings. I spent hours after school decorating for literacy night or setting up for a school play I got voluntold to direct. 🙂 These were all fun experiences, but they also took a lot of my personal time.
In our district, part of our evaluation is a document called “Above & Beyond.” We are to record all the ways we go above and beyond in our job. I was desperate to fill my Above & Beyond Log with as many activities as possible to impress my administrator. As the years went on, even before I became pregnant with our first child, I was beginning to get burnt out.
Sound familiar? Does it often feel like you spend more time at school than at home? Then one of the best teacher mom time savers is to start getting better about saying, “No.”
Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad thing to be heavily involved in your school. If coaching your school’s Science Olympiad team brings you joy than stick with it. If you love planning and executing family night events run with it. But find other things that don’t fulfill you and pass them on to new teachers or take on a more advisory role.
Another time saver is to start allowing your students to do more things. Does your whiteboard look neat and tidy when you write the date and schedule up…of course! But could you say “No” to doing that task and pass it to a student? Yep.
Our plan time is already limited, so instead of using it to put papers in student mailboxes assign it as a class job. Giving over control can be hard. Saying “No” to doing everything in your classroom yourself will not only save you time. It will also give your students more responsibility.
If you’re now in the middle of distance learning with your students it can be hard to separate work and home life. I’ve already caught myself answering parent messages as soon as they pop up on my phone. Even if I’m in the middle of playing outside with my daughter. :-/ I’m having to tell myself “No” and remember to work within my set time blocks.
Now instead of answering everything right away. I read over the notification and only respond outside of my “work hours” if it requires immediate attention. If we’re giving students and their families the freedom to work when it fits their schedule. We need to do the same for ourselves and our families.
Related Post: Extended School Closings: Tips for Teacher Moms
A few More Quick TIps
- Be a little anti-social. Too often I know I get caught up in socializing during plan time or after school and lose all my precious work time. Turn on some music, shut your classroom door, and get to work.
- Finish lesson plans before the weekend. Lesson planning can be a black-hole of time. I’ve found if I set myself a deadline of Friday before I leave school I use my time more efficiently. It also allows you to enter your weekend with a weight off your mind.
- Meal Plan. The last thing you want to do when you get done working all day is to try and come up with a plan for dinner. I’ve found that if we meal plan for a least the week ahead. I have one less thing I have to worry about when I return home from work. Which saves time and frustration.
- Imperfect is Ok. It can be easy to get caught up in trying to make things perfect. The more time I’ve been a mom the more I realize that I want my kids to see that I’m not perfect. I have imperfections and that’s ok. Instead, I focus on trying to model a growth mindset.
Each new day is a day made fresh. Continue to search out teacher mom time savers. Find tricks and tips that help you live a more calm and fulfilling life, but you don’t need to strive for perfection. If you leave your classroom with piles on your desk it will be ok. A kitchen counter covered in papers shows a busy family. A laundry basket left sitting out in the living room signals you washed clothes for you and your family. Celebrate the small wins. The fact you are spending time wondering how to be a better teacher, mom, wife, partner, etc. shows you are doing a pretty darn good job!
Which teacher mom time saver are you going to try? Do you have something that could save your fellow teacher moms time? Comment below!
