How do you know what to do first when setting priorities, when you have a million things on your list? I struggle with this a lot with effective time management and end up doing lots of different things, but finishing none of them. I had to change up this mentality because I was working many hours, but seeing no reward. Below are some tips and tricks that I have adopted in order to use my time more effectively, have more of a work life balance and actually cross off things on my to-do list.

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Write your to-do list down on paper

Get some paper or your laptop if you rather. Jot down everything that you can think of that you need to do. My current list looks a little bit like this:

• Change seating plan.
• Plan for writing lessons.
• Create/locate resources for Science lessons.
• Prep meals for next week.
• Print and laminate resources for display.
• Correct English copies.
• Create morning challenges.
• Edit blog posts.
• Go to the gym.
• Organise my wardrobe.

I have to write my lists in a diary (see below) each week. I always choose one that has enough space to write lists weekly or even daily. It’s beyond satisfying to be able to cross off an item, hence my need to improve my time management to stop me half doing lots of jobs and prioritising them first.

Now that you have written out everything that needs to be done for the week, it’s time to prioritise! I am all about doing what needs to be done and leaving the rest. Time management is key to a healthy work/life balance, so here’s how I do it.

I’ll categorise my list into three sections:

1. Urgent- due today.
2. Important- due soon.
3. Non-urgent- would like to finish this week.

This way, by time is managed much more effectively, meaning more of my “jobs” are completed and I have more time to do things for me!

I’ve also seen some teachers use this kind of template with post-it notes, which would work too. It’s just a bit confusing to my eye.

Delegation

Now that you have prioritised what needs to be done when, you should now think about the possibility of anyone helping with this workload. Take a look at my list again. Things like going to the gym and planning a lesson, I cannot delegate to anyone else. However, correcting children’s work can be delegated to the children!

The benefits of self and peer assessment are huge. The children can:

1. Learn to edit and spot errors.
2. Develop new ideas from others.
3. Understand where they went wrong and how to improve.

It’s a proven fact that children retain 90% of the information that they’ve taught someone else- thus peer assessment is great for that. Give them a chance to be the teacher! I even give children these stamps too, which engage them that small bit more!

Resourcing your lessons- don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to! Use sites like MrsMactivity, The Teach Hub and TpT to see if they have what you need. I know some people are against purchasing resources and that’s perfectly fine. But if you have a subscription to these sites, then search there first to save you even more of your precious time! (Use code REBECCA for 10% off- it’s an AF code).

There may be very few items on your to-do list that you can delegate, but it’s definitely something to consider and maybe even add to your to-do list template.

Think of anymore ways to prioritise/organise your week? Please let me know in the comments below.