Click below to hear about leaving work at work:
What are your worst work habits? Have you ever experienced the joy of actually leaving work at work? This month, I’m getting open and honest about all the bad work habits I established during my first few years in the classroom.
The good news is, habits can be changed! In my case, experience, making lots of mistakes, and leaning on the wisdom of my co-workers taught me how to correct these habits over the years. My hope is that you will learn from my mistakes and avoid falling into the same bad habits I did.
If you’re like I was and you’ve already established some of these habits in your own teacher life, it’s not too late to change those habits and re-create new, healthier habits. In episode 25, I shared a bad habit I had around communicating with parents and how important it is to be proactive as a teacher.
In today’s episode, I’ll share what I believe is the absolute worst habit I formed as a new teacher…regularly working way more than 40 hours a week and having poor work-life boundaries.
Thankfully, I learned how to begin leaving work at work, and it made me a much better teacher and led to a happier, less anxious personal life. I’m sharing with you what I would tell myself if I could go back in time: “You work so that you can live, you don’t live so that you can work.” I’ll share the reasons why this is one of the worst habits teachers can form and why it is one of the easiest to slip into.
I’ll also share what I did to break this habit and what happened the first year I actually achieved a healthy work-life balance. Believe it or not, you can achieve a work-life balance, too, and I hope this episode encourages you to start reaching for that goal.
If you find yourself feeling stressed on lab days and wishing there was a way you could enjoy them as much as your students do, I invite you to attend my FREE one-hour mini professional development training, 3 Secrets to Stress-Free Lab Days. This lesson comes from the larger PD course I offer called Secondary Science Simplified Virtual PD.
During this mini-course, you’ll get to experience my teaching style and the kind of training that is included in the comprehensive course. You’ll receive a one-hour professional development certificate you can use for recertification hours wherever you live.
Be sure to register for this FREE mini-course here. The doors will be opening soon for Secondary Science Simplified PD Course, and you can get on the waitlist here so you don’t miss out!
Topics Discussed on Leaving Work at Work:
- 3 reasons teachers fall into unhealthy work habits
- 5 practical decisions I made to create healthy work-life boundaries, such as leaving work at work
- Importance of recognizing our work as teachers as a job and not as our life
- Proof that treating teaching like a job instead of as my life made me a better teacher and a better version of myself
- Info about the Secondary Science Simplified Course and how it can help you achieve work-life balance
Resources Mentioned:
- Reserve your spot for the FREE workshop: 3 Secrets to Stress-Free Lab Days
- Join the Secondary Science Simplified Course Waitlist
- Grab the FREE Classroom Reset Challenge
- Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts!
Related Episodes and Blog Posts:
- Episode 25, The Importance of Proactivity
- Episode 10, Balancing Multiple Preps: How to Manage Grading
- Why You Shouldn’t Bring Work Home and How to Accomplish That
Connect with Rebecca:
- Join the list
- Follow me on Instagram
- Like us on Facebook
- Join the Secondary Science Simplified Course Waitlist
- Shop my TpT Store
More about Secondary Science Simplified:
Secondary Science Simplified is a podcast specifically for high school science teachers that will help you to engage your students AND simplify your life as a secondary science educator. Each week Rebecca, from It’s Not Rocket Science, and her guests will share practical and easy-to-implement strategies for decreasing your workload so that you can stop working overtime and start focusing your energy doing what you love – actually teaching!
Teaching doesn’t have to be rocket science, and you’ll learn exactly what you need to do to simplify your secondary science teaching life so that you can enjoy your life outside of school even more. Head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your FREE Classroom Reset Challenge.
