6 Hacks to take back 2020

When last did you have a 40-hour workweek? Actually, have you ever had a 40-hour workweek? Chances are that if you are a teacher, the answer is a resounding NO. Don’t get me wrong, working long hours is not unique to teaching, recent research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that since 2001 South Africa has consistently had one of the longest workweeks in the world. But teaching tends to be a very “leaky” job; it oozes outside the confines of your

workday and before you know it your job has taken over your weekend, your kitchen table and eventually your life.

But just because it has always been that way does not mean you cannot change it. The start of a new year is always a time to contemplate, reassess and set new resolutions for yourself. Here are six hacks to take back your time.

Saying No According to James Clear, the ultimate productivity hack is saying no. The truth is that we say yes to a lot of things that we don’t want to do and often don’t need to do. At the root of this is the fact that we treat ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as carrying equal weight – which should actually have a completely different effect on your life.

When you say no, you are only saying no to one option, but when you say yes to one option, you are effectively saying no to all other options. The fact is that we can only do one thing at a time. So when you say yes to attend that meeting this afternoon, you say no to the extra research you wanted to do for tomorrow’s classes, you say no to the activity you wanted to plan for next week, you say no to having some quiet me-time after school.

When you say yes to take on extra responsibility at school, you say no to spending that time on your own professional development, or your family.

As Pedro Sorrentino put it, “If you don’t guard your time, people will steal it from you.”

Track your time Tracking your time might be a scary idea, but you can’t start to use your time more effectively if you don’t know what you are spending your time on. I would suggest every teacher keep track of what they spend their time on for a couple of weeks. The easiest way to do this is to download a time tracking app like Toggl; you will be surprised at what’s really filling up your day. Once you know what is taking up your time, you can decide where changes need to be made.

Cut the leash Technology has made communication and flexible working so much easier, but it also means that you tend to work 24/7. Both parents and colleagues expect your attention all hours of the day. Ideally, this problem should be addressed on a whole school level, but there are also a few things you can do on your own to cut the electronic leash.

changing the way we communicate. And yes, the convenience of using Whatsapp for work can save you lots of time, but it comes at a price, a very steep price. The nature of Whatapp is that it demands your immediate attention, no matter where you are and what you are doing. Even if you decide not to respond to a message immediately, the fact that you saw it already took you out of the moment you were in.

And then I am not even talking about the time you spend scrolling through posts on Whatsapp groups that do not even pertain to you. Groups might be an easy way to keep everybody in the loop, but in the long term, it is an ineffective way of communicating. Not only do you receive a lot of messages that do not involve you, but essential information gets buried underneath all those messages, making it difficult to find when you may need it.

Thanks to smartphones, emails are not necessarily a better option to keep your job contained to office hours. But at least you have the option to keep your work and private emails separate. And unless there is a reason you need to be contacted 24/7 don’t ever allow your school email to push through to your phone. It might be convenient to read your emails in the queue at Checkers, but it is not worth it. You might even want to go as far as setting an automated reply on your school email informing parents that you will attend to their email the next day at school.

Set up systems Somebody once told me that resolutions fail, but systems last. Spend a bit of time at the start of the year to create systems that will save you time. Having an effective filing system in your class and on your computer ends up saving you hours of searching for things that you know should be there. The same applies to checking books, marking tests, photocopying and most other time-consuming tasks.

When creating time-saving systems, I find checklists super valuable. Most of us have a to-do list we use to keep track of everything we still need to do - but checklists can go so much further. We spend hours of precious time trying to remember what needs to be done, where a

checklist could solve the problem. For example, have a checklist of everything that needs to be done at the end of each term. Or a checklist of everything you need to do when you set an exam paper. This will eliminate the time wasted by trying to remember what needs to be done and cleaning up the mess caused by the things you forgot.

Batch tasks When I started blogging, I learned all about batching. Since then, I have saved hours by using batching with my school work. Batching is based on the principle that doing similar aspects of different tasks together takes less time than doing a task from start to finish. Just think about it, doing all the photocopying for the next week or term is a lot more efficient than running down to the photocopier for every class or activity you plan.

For example, when you plan lessons for the next week, the first batch would be to plan all the activities while making a list of everything you will need to create, photocopy or get ready for the activities. But don’t get distracted by actually creating these resources - that would be the

next batch. Now that you know what you need to create, you can focus solely on finding and creating what you need. The last batch would be to do the photocopying or posting of the tasks. This way you can prepare for 5 - 10 lessons in the time it would have taken you to prepare one.

Divide and conquer. It is unlikely that you are the only teacher at your school, and even if you are, social media makes it very easy to link up with teachers all over the country. Spend a bit of time in 2020 to join or create a Professional Learning Network (PLN) of awesome teachers with whom you can share ideas, resources, and collaborate.

Collaboration starts with your colleagues at school. Set up systems - yes, we are back to that - that enable you and your colleagues to share your planning and resources quickly and easily.

Teaching will never be a nine-to-five job, but by implementing these six hacks, you may just find that you are able to keep your job from taking over the whole of 2020.

Renate Rohrs