6 Ways to Prioritize Busy Times of the Year

Kirsten 0:00

This is The Social Studies Teacher Podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten of The Southern Teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies. I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Kirsten 0:47

Hi there, and welcome to another episode of The Social Studies Teacher Podcast. I'm so glad you are here. As always today, we are going to be talking about six ways to prioritize during the busy times of the year, Ready or not, the holiday season is here, whether we like it or not. In this whirlwind of upcoming Black Friday sales and family gatherings and potlucks and themed days and gifting, it can get pretty overwhelming for teachers, and you even may find yourself being stretched too thin in your work life or your personal life. Prioritizing your time and optimizing and improving your daily schedule can always alleviate some of those pain points. So today we're going to be talking about six tips of optimizing your time during those busy seasons, and I'll share with you my experience with prioritizing tasks and how it's helped me in general. Here are six small ways to optimize your time during this busy time of year, in order to avoid stress, burnout and biting off more than you can chew.

Kirsten 1:53

Tip number one is to pinpoint your must do. Make a written to do list on what your day needs to be done on your written list rank the most important tasks that absolutely need to be completed. And then from there, you can pick one important must do each day. It could be something as simple as cleaning the kitchen or as big as taking a Sunday to meal prep for the upcoming week.

Kirsten 2:23

Tip number two, it's okay to say no. I know that this can be hard because, like, especially if you're a people pleaser, I am definitely one. But before you know it, if you keep saying yes a lot to a lot of people, it can end up being too much, and you might end up with too many things on your plate, and this can be a recipe for a high level of stress. Maybe you don't feel comfortable traveling during the holidays. Maybe your in laws are pressuring you to travel with three kids and join in the festivities, and you're like that does not sound like very much fun to get them all together and do that, and you can always work something out. But if you're already feeling overwhelmed, it is okay to say no in a kind way most people will generally understand. Even the grandparents, at least my in laws and my parents, are more than willing to come visit us at our place if we are just too overwhelmed.

Kirsten 3:25

Tip number three, keep track of time. Utilize a planner calendar to keep track of daily tasks, appointments, or conferences and meetings. You can use an alarm or a timer for when you're leaving for work, when you're leaving work, and if you're a teacher, any transition you have with your students, such as for lunch and recess. This was my saving grace, to be honest. I had a timer for literally everything. I had a timer for attendance. I had a timer for five minutes before lunch in it and I had to go pick up the students. I had a timer when recess was ending. I had a timer when we were going to specials, I had a timer, and it helped so much. And even now, I have a timer of so that I'm like being able to leave at a reasonable time to pick up my kids from school.

Kirsten 4:14

Tip number four, keep school work at school. You know, when you're in a rush, you tell yourself, I'll just take some papers home to grade, but I highly recommend that you try as hard as you can to keep those papers at school. Try not to work past your contracted hours, or you can choose one or two days to get work done before or after school, your health and your needs come first. Everything else comes after. This was my workaround, especially after my first kid and I was still in the classroom, I would actually specifically pick, usually a Tuesday or a Wednesday, one workday to stay after contracted hours, stay an extra hour to actually get those thing done so that I didn't have to take graded papers home, or I can just kind of catch up on things, and I tried not to do it every day. This is in contrast with the very first couple of years of teaching where, I mean, I was not married yet, I didn't have any kids, and I loved to stay until 430 or five to get my room ready, or do other, you know, all these different things - I can see that leading to burnout if that's something that people do year after year, it gets really, really hard to maintain, especially when your lives change and you're in different seasons of life. So just thinking about that, your health, your needs, come first, and everything else comes after.

Kirsten 5:42

Tip number five, recharge and reset. Find time in your day to rest and not do anything business or schoolwork related. This is something I still have to remind myself. Doing something you enjoy, like getting a massage, having a spa day, gardening, binge watch your favorite shows, get a workout in, or do a run, or just not doing anything at all. Sometimes we need those days. This is something I try to do, like I try to do it, especially if all my kids are at school, which is usually a couple times a week, I try to get a workout in before I go and start working, but I in the classroom, maybe after work or before work, I would go out and get my workout in, and even just in the evenings, just after school, after dinner, just sit and binge watch my Netflix shows. I think I was at a time where I was binge watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother. That was one of my favorite shows, and I still like to rewatch each season from time to time.

Kirsten 6:47

Now, if you are a teacher, you're itching for more ways you could optimize your time, especially in the classroom, I do have a resource I created this while I was in the thick of it, 20 time management strategies, and you can check that out, and if you're interested, you can purchase that in my TPT store. All right, that is it. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.