time management for teachers - Practical Guide

Importance Of Time Management For Teachers

Teaching may be a challenging job for you while managing a huge pile of personal and professional responsibilities on a daily basis. You may be out of energy by the weekend.

Until you do not pay attention to how time management for teachers is important to your personal life, you will be that teacher who dimmed the lights of students from the beginning of the class.

Additionally, it’s no surprise that interruptions and “time sucks” sneak out every corner of your room. 

Does all this sound center to you? Without a doubt, time is the most valuable object in teaching and plays a huge role in the success of both students’ life as well as in teachers’ life.

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Having a good sense of time management is the key to saving your life as a teacher while making progress in your students’ lives.

I have listed the topics below that I discuss in this post. Feel free to jump straight to the one you are interested in.

Why is time management important for teachers?

Usually, teachers face time management issues every day. On this occasion, tips on time management for teachers will be a good combatant on the threats of teachers’ time.

Time management helps teachers to meet the demands of their job and build a work-life balance by successfully controlling a workday. 

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1. To work Smarter not Harder

“I will do it later” – This is an excuse that we all have made at some time. The meaning of time allocation for teachers is not just about doing more in less time.

Applying good tips on time management enables you as a successful teacher to work smarter rather than harder. 

2. To manage the stress 

Tips for time management for teachers will save your time without turning down the quality of your teaching and lead you to less stress and anxiety.

Teachers may feel more stressed due to too much work on their plates. This can hamper your productivity and also ring a ding-dong on your health as excessive stress causes heart diseases, depression, and obesity. 

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We have seen plenty of teachers who blow off their stress over the students. Knowing what to do every time reduces unnecessary stress and tensions from your life and makes your students’ lives easier.

When you manage your time properly, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your abilities. 

3. To boost the confidence 

Simple ways of time administration for teachers will help to boost confidence with zero complaints by the students. Teachers, ask yourself, back when you had time for yourselves? Are you doing things that you enjoy rather than working? Maybe you can’t remember, right?

Fortunately, with good tips on time management for teachers, you will get more free time in your day, to do a thing that makes you happy. So it is crystal clear that tips on time management will add a bright light to your life.

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How do you manage teaching duties efficiently?

Great teachers leave a lasting impression on students’ lives. To become that kind of a teacher, you should manage teaching duties efficiently. Time management for teachers holds the foundation for this.  

1. Use time management strategies 

As a teacher, you can develop strategies for your time management. Without a framework and efficient time management strategies, teachers can easily feel overworked and undervalued.

Time-poor conditions for the teachers can lead to stress and anxiety easily. Technology in the contemporary world makes all the tasks easier. So teachers should embrace smart technological tools.

Technology has become the keystone of education practice, so if teachers practice on the use of devices, platforms, and data it will deliver efficient outcomes. 

2. Early preparation 

You can manage teaching duties efficiently by early preparations. You should know the course material and you have to work well with the topics that you will be teaching.

Plan the material that can be more effective in demonstrating a clear picture to students and design a strategy, charts, diagrams, handouts, or other aids. Don’t wait until the morning of the class! Always try to be active. 

3. Be mindful

Make your students think more. Unless they are actively using the concepts you are teaching, most students will remember only a small fraction of what you teach. A lecture will be efficient when you provide students with enduring knowledge and social skills

To manage the teaching duties effectively, practice being mindful of what you do and enjoy what you’re doing at the moment. Always concentrate on your teaching and how you are feeling about the students.

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Remind yourself that the effectiveness of your teaching duties relates to your goals and it will meet your students’ goals too.

What are the time management skills of a good teacher?

Time management for teachers consists of various skills that will help you manage your time well. I have listed some of the skills with a short description below. 

1. Organization  

The first skill to mention is ‘Organization’. This will help you to maintain a perfect view of what you should do and when to do it.

Organizing comes from maintaining an updating calendar, well keeping certain documents, and taking detailed, diligent notes, etc. Also organized workspace helps you to save time and unnecessary stress. 

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2. Prioritization 

As a teacher, it will be great to live a stress-free lifestyle to deliver effective teaching results. ‘Prioritization’ is another time management skill you should develop as a teacher.

Through prioritization, you can assign a level of importance to different tasks. And this will ensure that higher importance tasks are accomplished before the lower importance tasks. This needs a clear understanding of the time, how long it will take to finish a certain task. 

Becoming skilled at prioritizing your responsibilities will also allow you to complete your essential tasks more efficiently. This skill will immensely help with time management for teachers.

3. Goal Setting

The “Goal-setting” should be included in the skill set of time management for teachers as this is the first step to becoming a good time manager, which leads you to become a successful teacher.

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Goal-setting allows you to clearly understand your end goal and what exactly you need to do to accomplish it. 

Setting both short and long-term goals can lead to success in your career as a teacher. It is noteworthy that your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. 

4. Stress Management 

As the final skill hereby I add ‘Stress management skill’ that helps teachers to manage their time. If you want to be good at time management, you should focus on your mental health. 

Positively handling stress can help you stay motivated and perform well when going through your teaching schedule. 

Make your day with small breaks or by rewarding yourself in small ways when you accomplish a simple task. These simple time management skills show you the way to become a good teacher.

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Best time management tips for teachers

Borrowing school work from school to home, grading papers on sleepless nights, giving up your weekends to missed classes or work can make your work-life balance just a dream.

Also, this is the reason why teachers are often stressed. But Yes, You can be a very busy teacher while taking care of yourself!

1. Smart Lesson Planning 

Tips on time management for teachers will give you a greater sense of control over your working load. As a teacher, you should be ‘Smart about lesson planning.’ Many teachers complain about the amount of time they spend planning their lessons. 

Sometimes the fancy PowerPoint presentation that took you three hours to make will not be effective as a small classroom exercise. So when you are planning the lesson, always pay attention to the input and output ratio of your teaching.

There are plenty of lesson materials freely available to take a printout and use, so keep an eye on relevant accounts that post links to downloadable teaching materials. 

2. Learn to Say “NO” 

It is important to keep in mind that ‘Saying No’ is an essential tip on time management for teachers. Do it smartly. Some of us find it difficult to say ‘No’.

But, if you find yourself constantly involved in school extra-curricular activities, which is taking your time and making you stressed, then learn to say ‘No’ immediately.

Participate in the things you like and respectfully say ‘No’ to others. This is one of the best coping skills you can practice.

3. Take Breaks 

When working for a long day, stop for a while and ‘Take breaks’. Taking a break allows your brain to work more efficiently and effectively.

That’s when your brain is the freshest and move on to a better outcome! 

4. Reasonable Homework

‘Use Common Sense when assigning homework’ is another tip on time management for teachers. It is really important to think about an assignment before ending your class.

Suppose homework has complex instructions and covers material that hasn’t been touched in the classroom. In that case, you risk the chance of spending a considerable amount of time on the next day to cover it.

It will cause unnecessary workload and waste of time on unnecessary work for you and your students. 

5. Visible Timetable

Always try to ‘maintain a visible schedule’. Because it can be very helpful to have a visible schedule with time slots set up in your classroom for students to refer to throughout the day. So, students know what to prepare for. 

This can also prevent you from spending time answering questions like “What time will we have an art period?” or “Do we have a sports period today” etc. As a suggestion, Whiteboards work well for visible schedules since they can be easily erased and updated daily. 

6. Don’t Get Distracted 

It is important to ‘Eliminate Distractions while you are working.’ Frequently this happens to young teachers. Distractions are one of the biggest productivity killers. Social media sites and smartphones can distract you from your priorities and derail your schedule. 

Try to leave your smartphone during the day, or use a browser extension to block the websites that are most distracting to you. 

7. Rule of Golden Hours 

As a successful teacher, you should have a better understanding of your ‘highest productivity hours.’ Usually, our day is driven by cycles that affect how motivated we are.

For example, you might be at your highest brain capacity, with your best focus and attention, in the morning, and slow down in the evening. So try to manage your “golden hours” effectively. 

8. Misbehaving Track Sheets

And it is important to mention ‘Misbehaving students and time management for teachers’. As a teacher, one of the biggest challenges you face is uncooperative students.

Students who misbehave can waste the teacher’s time. Maintain a tracking sheet and share it with those students and their parents. This will help to work with misbehaving students

These simple tips on time management for teachers will save a lot of time and make you successful in your teaching career.

Conclusion – Time Management for Teachers

Teachers require time management skills to balance their classroom goals and their personal goals. Time plays a crucial role in teachers’ lives and tips for time management for teachers help for combating the biggest threats to teachers’ time. 

Effective usage of time management tips for teachers will provide you with stress relief and greater job satisfaction at the end of the day. And obviously, it will increase your efficiency and effectiveness in the classroom and ordinary life.

This will automatically create a friendlier relation with students. And helps you to give more time and improve the quality of your lessons and to do what you love. 

If you follow the above tips on time management for teachers, don’t panic; you are already on the game!

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