Ways to improve your work-life balance as a teacher

Set time aside for marking and planning

Teachers tend to work long hours. From late night marking, to using your weekends to plan lessons, there is always work to be done. It’s important to keep some time for yourself. One way to do this is to try and limit the amount of work you bring home. Many teachers take their marking home with them, but if you stay at your school or college for a set amount of time and get as much marking done as you can in that time, when you go home, you will be able to switch off from the day. Of course, this will not always be possible with varying workloads. However, if you try to stick to this where possible, you will be able to find a better work-life balance.

Have a cut-off time for your emails

Thanks to technology, we are all contactable (pretty much) all the time. This can be great, but it can also make it hard to switch off from work when you have emails coming through late at night. It’s important to remember that you are not expected to respond immediately to emails that are sent throughout the evening. On most occasions, students and parents send emails in the evening because it is when they have time to do so. Most would not expect a response straight away. So, to help you switch off from work, switch off your email notifications at a time that suits you in the evening and pick up the emails in the morning.

Share the load

There is no shortage of extra jobs to do around a school or college. From chaperoning field trips to supervising extra-curricular activities, it’s easy to get roped into further responsibilities. Of course, all teachers need to do their extra bit for their institute, but you don’t have to do it all! Try to choose extra responsibilities that can fit into your life. It shouldn’t fall to a handful of staff to always pick up the extra responsibilities, so if the task doesn’t suit you, let someone else pick it up.

Have some down-time

Everyone needs some time to do something they enjoy. Without it, one can get into a cycle of work, eat, sleep, repeat. Living like this is unsustainable in the long term and can lead to burn out. To break the cycle, make sure you have time set aside for yourself. Whether it’s having ‘chill-time’ at home or going to a regular fitness class, have time each week that is just for you.

We hope you find this article useful. Read more education-related articles from T15 International.