Contrary to popular belief, teachers don’t finish work at 3pm, or spend the entire summer holiday period at the beach. You get up early, set up your classroom, spend all day with children – which isn’t everyone’s idea of fun – then you tidy up, go to meetings, do your marking, plan your lessons for the next day, oh, and try to have some sort of home life too. If a work-life balance is vital to corporate wellness, then teachers need a helping hand more than most!
Prioritise – Write down everything that’s important to you, including your family life, interests and, yes, work. Decide when you’re going to dedicate your time to each thing. That way, you’ll be able to see if it’s more vital that you take your kids to see a film, or whether you need to spend more time on your lesson planning for that monitored session.
Be firm – If you don’t have time or the ability to do something at work, tell people politely and firmly. It can be hard to say no, but once you do it one time it gets easier (and you can always offer to help out on another occasion.)
Set aside Me Time – You’re not just a teacher, a parent or a friend; you’re you! As an individual, you need to fight for your time just to be you, so schedule it in! This could mean meditating, reading your book, sitting outside and watching the clouds go by, or even going for a run to get those wellbeing-boosting endorphins pumping.
Change your internal monologue – If you’re the kind of person who stresses “If I don’t get this marking done, I won’t be able to see my friends this weekend,” rearrange your perspective. Try saying, “I’ll just finish this marking and then I’ll contact my friends.” Negative colleagues can breed negative thoughts, so try not to get involved in too much ranting and venting behaviour. Sometimes you need to let off steam, but the perpetual moaners will bring you down. In a similar vein, don’t spend your time fretting about future problems or “what ifs”; the problems that you know already exist are the only ones you can influence.