Sanity Savers -Tips that make work life easier
1. Treat your time like a budget….which essentially is making a schedule and sticking to it. Schedule work time, family time, down time (if it’s not in the budget, you won’t have enough money…errr..time for it). It’s also important for me to give myself a little flexibility in this area. In budgeting money you can have a spot for a “blow fund” meaning if you know you’re going to blow your money, you may as well have it in the budget. Same with time, if you know you need to waste some time on Facebook, Instagram, watching T.V. etc, you certainly can…just put it in your schedule 🙂
Here are some great FREE teacher planner resources:
2. Balance feels best. Doing things we enjoy outside of our career makes us happier, well-rounded individuals. If you value family, incorporate more family time…you love sailing?? Be sure to get out and do that. All work and no play is not good for anyone.
3. Work Smarter not Harder – Don’t try to reinvent the wheel (at least not the whole wheel 😉 ) These days with Pinterest and TpT etc there’s almost an overwhelming amount of resources on any given topic. These resources are there to make our lives a little easier…don’t feel like you always have to be coming up with something new to be a good teacher. Focus your energy on interactions with the kids or another area that you feel will make a lasting difference. Find your “most important thing” and do it.
4. Find your purpose/passion and use it as fuel. Sometimes it’s easy to lose focus on your “why” when you’re neck deep in paper work, staff meetings, professional development, disgruntled parents or kids etc… Think back to your motivation when you became and teacher. Was it to invest in leaders for tomorrow? Was it to help poor and impoverished children have a chance to make sometime of themselves? Was it simply to pour love into the life of a child? To give an excellent year of education to students at your school? Whatever it was, bring it back to the surface. Post it where you can see it every day and use it on the days you are feeling down and out.
5. Get Organized at the beginning (a Sunday well spent brings a week of content). The more time I spend at the beginning of the year organizing my yearly plans, goals, classroom set-up, management systems etc. undoubtedly pays dividends during the year. The same is true for planning time spent for the next week. I looooooovveeee to get to the “fun” part of projects, the crafty part or action of setting up the room. When I dive in without a plan I usually end-up with a headache and more work for myself. Put the time in at the beginning of the year and week to plan and you won’t regret it.
6. Surround yourself with positive uplifting people. This post is about keeping your sanity in your work. I feel like negativity and insanity are words that could almost be used interchangeably on some levels. Find those people in your life that lift you up and spend the majority of your time with them. By the way, you become who you hang out with, so make sure you’re someone that’s lifting up others too.
What are some ways you make work life easier?
