Practical Self-Care for Teachers: Simplifying Routines and Protecting Your Time
Practical self-care for teachers is paramount in fostering a conducive educational environment, and this episode elucidates the significance of establishing structured routines and safeguarding one’s time. We delve into the intricacies of simplifying daily tasks and organizing our physical spaces, thereby alleviating the burdens of decision fatigue and enhancing overall productivity. By implementing systematic approaches to grading and classroom management, we not only streamline our responsibilities but also create an atmosphere that promotes mental clarity and focus. Furthermore, we emphasize the necessity of asserting boundaries to protect our time from the encroachment of unproductive commitments, ensuring that we reserve ample opportunity for both professional obligations and personal connections. Ultimately, this discourse aims to empower educators to prioritize their well-being, thereby enabling them to concentrate on the most meaningful aspect of their vocation: fostering genuine connections with their students.
The significance of practical self-care for educators emerges as a pivotal theme in this podcast episode, wherein we examine the intricacies of simplifying routines and protecting one's time. The speaker posits that the alleviation of decision fatigue can be achieved through the establishment of consistent routines, an assertion that resonates profoundly with the challenges faced by educators. By implementing orderly procedures, both in the classroom and in personal affairs, one can markedly enhance efficiency and diminish the stressors that accompany a chaotic lifestyle. This segment elucidates the dual benefit of structured routines: they not only bolster the educator's capacity to teach effectively but also contribute to their personal well-being, allowing for a more balanced life.
In addition to the emphasis on routines, the discourse transitions to the necessity of organizing one's workspace. The speaker astutely observes that a cluttered environment can mirror a cluttered mind, thereby recommending that educators engage in regular tidying and systematic organization of materials. This practice, as articulated, is instrumental in fostering a productive atmosphere conducive to both teaching and learning. The episode further advocates for proactive planning, such as preparing instructional materials in advance, which serves to streamline daily operations and mitigate the stress associated with last-minute preparations. Such foresight not only enhances the teaching experience but also liberates time for personal endeavors, thus enriching the educator's quality of life.
As the episode draws to a close, the speaker poignantly highlights the imperative of safeguarding one's time from the relentless demands of the educational landscape. The crux of this discussion centers on the importance of establishing boundaries and the courage to decline commitments that do not serve one's overarching goals. Educators are encouraged to be selective in their engagements, focusing on those that align with their values and foster a sense of purpose. This aspect of self-care is crucial, as it empowers educators to maintain their enthusiasm and dedication to their profession while simultaneously nurturing their personal lives. Ultimately, this episode serves as a vital reminder of the interconnectedness of self-care and professional effectiveness, advocating for a balanced approach to the demanding vocation of teaching.
Takeaways:
- Practical self-care for teachers involves establishing consistent routines to alleviate decision fatigue.
- Organizing one's workspace significantly contributes to mental clarity and reduces stress levels.
- It is essential to protect your time by setting boundaries against unproductive meetings and tasks.
- Streamlining grading processes through batching assignments can lead to increased efficiency and time savings.
- Creating systems and procedures in both classroom and personal environments enhances focus and overall productivity.
- Engaging in practical self-care allows educators to concentrate on their primary mission: nurturing and connecting with students.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness.
Speaker A:Makes you feel good like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach you hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:He'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Welcome back everyone.
Speaker B:Today's episode is practical self care for teachers, simplifying routines and protecting your time.
Speaker B:That's what we are going to be focusing on.
Speaker B:But before we get into it, I want to talk about three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:First thing I'm thankful for is getting to watch my daughter at her Powderpuff football game last night.
Speaker B:I'm thankful for the chance to watch her have fun with just playing in this game.
Speaker B:And it's not really just about the game.
Speaker B:It's it's about seeing her laugh, enjoy friends and create some memories in high school.
Speaker B:I I really enjoyed getting to see that last night.
Speaker B:Second thing I'm thankful for, getting a chance to pick up the garage.
Speaker B:It's it just that simple act of cleaning and organizing the garage for about an hour.
Speaker B:It putting things in order brought some calmness to me.
Speaker B:It made me made to feel fake the space that that out in the garage feel lighter or some tools that needed to be picked up and some other items.
Speaker B:And I appreciated having that time to just about an hour before after getting home from the football game I appreciated that opportunity to pick up that space.
Speaker B:Third thing I'm thankful for is productive meetings.
Speaker B:Thankful for for meetings that actually move things forward.
Speaker B:When people show up ready, respectful, efficient, the work gets done and the stress can go down.
Speaker B:We had a really great grade level meeting yesterday that I'm just really thankful for.
Speaker B:It was extremely productive and as I reflect on yesterday, I'm just so thankful for for a productive meeting like that.
Speaker B:All right, so let's get into it now.
Speaker B:So we are looking at practical self care for teachers, simplifying routines and protecting your time.
Speaker B:First things first, let's talk about simplifying routines Now I encourage you to reduce decision fatigue for one of the ways by.
Speaker B:How do I want to say this?
Speaker B:Reduce decision fatigue by setting up constant routines.
Speaker B:You've heard me say this on an episode.
Speaker B:Setting up routines, procedures in our classrooms, right?
Speaker B:And we as individuals, as human beings function when we have some good routines, procedures and systems in place.
Speaker B:Not just we know that our students perform better, we also perform a whole lot better.
Speaker B:Especially when we're on a day to day grind where things are busy, there's a lot going on when we have systems in place.
Speaker B:It takes away that decision fatigue, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:So I would encourage you.
Speaker B:I mean if it just like from the moment you wake up and there's no systems in place or procedures in place and it's kind of a free for all from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed and there's no, no systems or procedures, it's going to weigh in you more.
Speaker B:And so I almost recommend even creating a checklist for common tasks to avoid mental overload until you just get used to it if you want.
Speaker B:I've done that before.
Speaker B:I've done that actually with different workout routines.
Speaker B:Even where things I want to make sure I address or if there's a list like my nighttime routine, making sure certain things get done.
Speaker B:Especially like if I'm doing some like micro, micro habits I'm trying to develop some checklists are, are really important to have in place.
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:They kind of almost like visible like in the mirror even.
Speaker B:I've had them on the mirror checklist.
Speaker B:One thing that was, is really important to me that actually was part of a checklist was making sure that, that I'm tucking my kids in at night and giving them a kiss good night.
Speaker B:Because sometimes if I get busy or if I'm working on something and like especially the older ones, I don't care if they're older.
Speaker B:I don't care if they're in high school I'd go to.
Speaker B:Every night I go and tell my kids good night, even if they're sleeping.
Speaker B:I tuck them in, I, you know, I, I give them a kiss on the head and tell them good night, whether they're awake or sleep.
Speaker B:That's important for me to do and that's part of my routine.
Speaker B:And then making sure that like, you know, the house is locked up and different things like that.
Speaker B:Going through the, going through that nightly routine, just like brushing your teeth.
Speaker B:There are certain things that have to get done before I go to bed or I can't Go to bed comfortably.
Speaker B:So it's really important that I. I think about.
Speaker B:I mean, and when we think about our whole entire day, even like streamlining grading, if you have certain grading that you do, streamline that.
Speaker B:Batching similar assignments instead of like, I. I think we can waste a whole lot of time on grading.
Speaker B:And maybe I need to have a whole nother episode of, hey, how can we be successful with.
Speaker B:With grading and incorporating.
Speaker B:Dealing with.
Speaker B:With our time around grading.
Speaker B:But boy, streamlining that where we could be most productive with our time and save a lot of time.
Speaker B:I've.
Speaker B:I've saved hours by different systems.
Speaker B:I'm put in place with grading, with organizing my grading.
Speaker B:And then if I know, hey, I have this half hour, I had this hour to get as much grading then as possible, and they kind of get in the grade book, and boy, I just kind of tackle it, I'm much more likely to be successful rather than doing a little bit of grading here, a little bit of grading there, and it just kind of gets kind of sloppy.
Speaker B:So that's just an example of like, hey, try to streamline your grading system, whatever that looks like.
Speaker B:The second thing, the second big idea, y', all, is to organize your space.
Speaker B:A cluttered classroom really can translate very easily to a cluttered mind.
Speaker B:It's small habits like tidying up desks or setting up materials the night before can definitely help reduce stress.
Speaker B:Have it.
Speaker B:What I'm really big on is trying to make my copies for the school year.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:And it makes for a couple longer evenings of getting those copies in place where I don't want to have to be fighting with the copy machine.
Speaker B:I. I do not like fighting for time at the copy machine or not literally fighting, but you know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Like, like other people are trying to get in this.
Speaker B:Use a copy machine.
Speaker B:If I'm trying to get in the copy.
Speaker B:Use a copy machine, there's limited time that's so stressful for me, versus making the copies up front, kind of mapping out the year, having those copies made, especially with the core curriculum, of course, there's things that come up that aren't necessarily.
Speaker B:You might need to make one off copies here and there.
Speaker B:But like, if you're.
Speaker B:If you use like a core curricular resource in your classroom that you know, you use copies for, what's wrong with making copies of that and having those ready and in place so you're not running all around making copies?
Speaker B:And, you know, if you have a copy quota in your disc or a copy, like, where you cap out on how many copies you can make.
Speaker B:That's worth a conversation with your administrator.
Speaker B:If you kind of explain, hey, I'm making copies up front for the year and here's what's going on and here's, here's the reason why I'm doing that.
Speaker B:That can make a big difference.
Speaker B:So that's one thing for organizing my space.
Speaker B:The copies is probably my biggest go to.
Speaker B:That has taken so much stress off of my plate.
Speaker B:It's been very helpful to have those things in place.
Speaker B:It's kind of stressful early on in the school year when you have to stay several extra nights or come in extra early to get those copies made.
Speaker B:Yeah, I get that that's a little bit of extra stress.
Speaker B:But once you have that in place, boy does it make make life a whole lot easier.
Speaker B:I think about organizing your space being like, it's like cleaning the garage.
Speaker B:Order creates calm and frees up focus.
Speaker B:Anytime we can do create systems procedures in the classroom or outside of the classroom, it will help free up focus.
Speaker B:And, and so part of, of having, cleaning up or creating systems is that that by doing that you are organizing your space.
Speaker B:And the third thing is to protect your time.
Speaker B:Protect it.
Speaker B:Practical self care means learning to say no to what drains you.
Speaker B:There's things that drain you that you don't have to do.
Speaker B:Then say no.
Speaker B:Black off time for planning and for family, not just school demands.
Speaker B:Because we can get so caught up in the demands of school where we can, we can, we can get lost and, and that time just vaporizes and then we don't have any time left for our families.
Speaker B:Really productive be, you know, think about like productive meetings.
Speaker B:Productive meetings are a gift.
Speaker B:But setting boundaries for unproductive meetings is, is self care.
Speaker B:And so like if there's like a wasteful meeting or a meeting that's not being productive, what boundaries?
Speaker B:Do you have a place for that?
Speaker B:Do you, can you advocate even saying, hey, this was a very productive.
Speaker B:We as a team need to do better, must do better.
Speaker B:And sometimes some of those candid conversations as busy educators, we have to protect our time.
Speaker B:We, we have to protect that, that space we're in with our time when we're at school and when we're outside of school.
Speaker B:And part of it, once again they go back to saying no to certain things.
Speaker B:I don't, I don't want to say, hey, let's say no all the time though, because there are some really cool things that we can do that, that we can be a heck yes to.
Speaker B:We could say yes to because they're meaningful, purposeful and they are impactful.
Speaker B:I would just argue we need to be selective to what we say yes to and be purposeful when we say no and stand by that as a teacher, leader, decision maker, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:Those are things that we have to do as educators and so just things to think about.
Speaker B:So as we do some final takeaways here, some as I reflect on things and share some final reflective takeaways.
Speaker B:Practical Self Care is about the everyday systems that make life lighter, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:Simplify, organize and protect your time to keep stress low and energy higher.
Speaker B:So key takeaway here.
Speaker B:Practical Self Care creates a margin so you can focus on what really matters the most.
Speaker B:I hope you found value in what I shared in this Practical Self Care episode.
Speaker B:If you found value in it, jump on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker B:Give me a five star review.
Speaker B:Let me know what you thought and remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah, yeah, yeah.
