From Burnout to Balance: Tips to Simplify Your Teaching Workflow to Stop Working Nights and Weekends
- Arica Brown
- Nov 25, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 14
Feeling burnt out from working nights and weekends as a teacher? You’re not alone. Like so many educators, I used to spend my evenings and weekends drowning in emails, IEPs, and lesson planning—until I discovered a better way. By applying program management principles to my teaching, I reclaimed my nights, weekends, and peace of mind. Keep reading to learn how!
I stopped working nights and weekends.
No really – I did – and you can, too!
After 10 years in the classroom, I was burnt out and tired of teaching and managing a caseload all day, just to come home and write emails, IEPs, and do more work. If I wasn’t doing work, I was thinking about doing work, worried that I’d missed a deadline or distracted from enjoying vacations or time with my family because I knew I had an IEP to write.
Sound familiar? If you’re an educator of any kind (yes, that includes administrators and district staff), you can relate.
When I returned to the classroom this year, I decided to change my mindset about being a teacher. I decided to let teaching be my profession – but not my life. I decided I was going to leave work at work and enjoy my time outside of work hours. No more running myself into the ground.
During my break from the classroom, I worked outside education and gained valuable skills as a program manager. These skills opened my eyes to the power of optimization, automation, and streamlined workflows—tools that professionals in other industries use daily to manage tasks efficiently. When I returned to teaching, I realized these same strategies could revolutionize my role as an educator, allowing me to reclaim my time and energy.
You can start implementing these strategies today to streamline your schooldays and take back your nights and weekends:
Automate Scheduling Use a tool like Calendly to manage meetings with parents, students, or colleagues. Automating your scheduling eliminates the back-and-forth emails, saving you time and stress. Want step-by-step guidance? Check out my FREE School Scheduling Made Simple Micro-Course!
Prioritize Your Day Begin each day by identifying your top 3–5 tasks. Tools like Trello, Google Keep, or even a handwritten list can help you focus on what matters most. By tackling high-priority tasks first, you’ll feel accomplished and stay on track.
Use Templates for Repetitive Tasks Stop reinventing the wheel. Create templates for tasks like IEPs, newsletters, lesson plans, or meeting agendas. A pre-made template not only saves time but also ensures consistency across your work.
Set Boundaries with Auto-Reply Emails An auto-reply email is a game-changer for managing expectations and reducing burnout. It lets students, parents, and colleagues know when they can expect a response without you having to constantly monitor your inbox. Need ideas? Download my FREE Festive Out-of-Office Templates!
I got my nights and weekends back, and I want the same for you! Ready to dive deeper? Join the waitlist for my digital course, Simplified Schooldays, and take the first step toward a more balanced life.
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