Can you name a single teacher who doesn’t wish they could spend less time planning?
Yeah… I didn’t think so. Honestly, who wants to be spending their free time working when they could be enjoying their hobbies, family, or friends? No one!
I get it, and I am all about working smarter, not harder. So today, I want to share a strategy with you that TOTALLY shifted the way I think about managing my time. Truly, it has been a game-changer for me, and I know it will help you, too.
Last week, our team member, Kara, challenged Jessica and I to do an audit on our time. Essentially, she asked us to track exactly how much time we were spending on each task we worked on throughout the day.
It was so simple, and yet, I found that tracking my time had two powerful effects on my productivity and efficiency. First, tracking my time kept me focused. I was much less likely to jump around from task to task when I was actively trying to record numbers on how long I spent on each element of my work. This yielded powerful results. Focusing on one thing at a time, improved my efficiency tremendously. I was able to get in the zone with one particular task rather than jumping from a Facebook group, to an email, to Instagram, and then back to Facebook again.
Second, tracking my time helped me clearly see where I was spending my time. And I know that sounds pretty obvious, but until I took this time audit seriously, I truly wasn’t aware that some tasks were a total time suck and other, very important elements of my work, were being rushed and crowded out of my day.
The value here is in understanding where you can improve your efficiency. You might be surprised by the areas in your planning or grading where you are actually spending the most time. And while there is no doubt that lesson planning is a creative process that can’t always be rushed, there is always a way to use time more efficiently.
Listen in to this week’s episode to hear some practical tips for how to manage your time more effectively by performing your own time audit. And, if this post has you excited to streamline your planning and take back your time, join the waitlist for the EB Teacher’s Club and learn more about our FREE live training on simple strategies to create more engaging lessons.
Today you will hear:
- [01:05] The inspiration for this episode
- [02:35] How my own time audit applies to your teaching day
- [02:50] How a time audit can keep you focused
- [04:42] How a time audit can help you improve your systems and efficiency
- [06:10] Simple time-saving tips you can implement today
- [13:55] How to begin auditing your own time
- [17:00] How you can join us for our FREE live training on February 20th
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