It’s important to make sure the time you spend working is time spent effectively and efficiently. Being able to manage your time can significantly help this. When surveyed, 50% of music teachers listed not having enough time and having issues with time management as cause for their lack of balance.
When working to maximize your time, it helps to first know where you are spending time. Take a week and keep track of every minute, writing it down in a journal. How long do you spend:
Getting ready for work?
Checking email?
Scrolling through social media?
Standing in the copy room?
Lesson planning?
Responding to email?
The list goes on.
Once you’ve established where you are spending your time, start thinking about where you can be more efficient. Did you walk to the copy machine 5 times one day and spend 5 minutes there each time? Could you combine those trips and only spend 10 minutes total? Did you find your “quick” check of social media was actually taking 15 minutes? Could you find pre-determined times to check social media and only allow yourself to look during those times?
Knowing how you use your time can help you identify where it’s being wasted and help you use that time more effectively.
Leaving Work at Work
Many people argue they have so much work to do, it’s impossible to complete everything while at school. As a result, they frequently bring work home with them. This can quickly lead to a lack of balance between work life and personal life.
An alternative is to only complete work while at school. Doing this not only helps you separate work life and home life, but it also forces you to complete everything during the school day and potentially eliminate tasks that don’t really need to get done.
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