Managing your time

Everyone from time to time feels bogged down by their work – with so much to do that they don’t know where to start. This doesn’t make you a disorganised person or somebody who ‘can’t take the pressure’; it makes you human. Below are some very simple things we could all do to make life easier on ourselves – it’s just a case of finding the time to make these logical changes to the way we work. 

Helpful tips on managing your time

• draw up a time-management matrix to categorise your workload
• schedule in specific slots for the tasks you have classified as ‘important but not urgent’. Try not to let them be eroded by the ‘urgent’
• always be explicit – with yourself and with others - about the time you have available for certain activities. This will only aid efficiency
• re-evaluate your priorities at the start of each day – and then start with the highest ones!
• cut out unnecessary tasks – this is hard, but be firm with yourself. But never classify a lunch break or a bit of fresh air as ‘unnecessary’!
• categorise your workload into ‘delegatable’ and ‘non-delegatable’: the results might surprise you
• don’t put off a job because it seems too big – break it down into smaller chunks and get started!
• try to get as much as possible out of the way ahead of the main busy periods in the school year
• make sure nobody is reinventing the wheel. Can you share lesson plans (or even use last year’s)? And what about sharing out the marking?
• not a morning person? Don’t work well after 5pm? You know yourself best, so plan your most demanding work for when you are at your peak
• compartmentalise your day into ‘work’ and ‘non-work’ periods and keep them very separate (lock your work away in ‘non-work’ hours!). If you don’t enjoy some strictly work-free time, you will never be fully efficient when working
• say ‘no’ to additional tasks that you can’t take on – it’s better to say this now than later
• encourage a full review of staff roles in your school so as to bring workload inconsistencies, problems and overlaps to light

More information and support on staff wellbeing can be found on the HFL Education HR Services portal (accessible for subscribing schools and academies)