This time of year can feel a little bit daunting. We have so much to do, exciting things ahead of us, and new ventures to begin. One thing that often escapes us now we are back in the swing of work is time. So, to kick the year off...

Let's talk about time

It can be common to feel like there is always something to do and never enough time. As the year begins, this can happen much faster than we like. We long to feel calm, organised, and prepared, but somehow these feelings can escape us and by February we feel like we haven't had a break at all.

This year, I want you to start the year thinking a little differently about time.

Some of what I say here may be hard to hear, but hang in there, you need to know this...

As educators, we have a considerable amount of time where we have a lot of choice over how we spend it. Noncontact time, time before and after school, and term breaks (AKA school holidays).

These moments often exist for us to work on whatever we need, but come with very little structure or guidance.

We also have a lot of flexibility and opportunities to spend time as needed. This actually gives us a significant amount of autonomy in how we design our day.

When we don't have meetings, many of us can leave when we choose, allowing us to work off-site or do something else like exercise and then work in the evening or early the next day. We often have non-contact time to work on things we decide to be most important. We can use term breaks to work from home, meet with our team when and where we choose, or work from a holiday destination. We can also use term breaks as a rest period if we do all that's needed for the next term before these breaks begin.

With so much unstructured, unguided time, we need to get really good at mastering how we spend the time we have.

This requires 3 things:

1. Knowing where your time to work exists (you can do this through a time audit).

2. Learning when you work best e.g. mornings, after school hours, in the evenings.

3. Time blocking - building your own schedule and structure rather than getting to these moments of time and wondering what to do (this is often when time is wasted).

These are not things that just happen, they take planning, require intentional decision-making and action, and commitment.

Want to know more about how to do this well?

Join us inside THE TEACHER WELLBEING MEMBERSHIP.