Click play to hear how to have a productive planning period:
How are we supposed to have a work/life balance when we have a million things to do on a daily basis and a 45 minute (or 90 minute if you’re lucky!) planning time to get them all done? Finding ways to have the most productive planning period possible is essential to working only your contracted hours and having a life outside of work. If you’re not sure where to start, I’m sharing my 5 best tips for optimizing your planning period so work can stay at work.
At one point, I was working about 60 hours a week. 60 hours! Once I figured out how to maximize the effectiveness of my planning period, I was able to cut down my working hours to only my contracted time and finally have the work/life balance I needed.
If you’re ready to take control of your planning period and use the little time you have to the fullest, I have some tips for you! I am giving you 5 specific things you can do TODAY to maximize the effectiveness of your planning period. I am sharing how to shut out external distractions, what to do to avoid wasting this time on things that will throw off your focus, how to force yourself to focus on what needs to be done, and what to do to ensure you are getting everything that needs to be done, done. These tips are super easy to implement and can help you be more productive right away!
If you find that you are still struggling with having a productive planning period, be sure to listen to next week’s episode. I’ll be interviewing an ADHD life coach who is sharing amazing wisdom on teaching with ADHD and how to serve our students with ADHD. Make sure you subscribe to the Secondary Science Simplified podcast so you don’t miss this or any future episodes!
Topics Discussed in This Episode About Having a Productive Planning Period:
- How to effectively shut out all external distractions during your planning period
- Two things to avoid doing to ensure you don’t lose your focus on what needs to be done
- How to use time blocking to make the best use of your planning period
- The simple way you can ensure you are getting everything done that needs to be done each week
Resources Mentioned:
- Join the Secondary Science Simplified virtual professional development course waitlist
- Weekly Planning Note Pad
- Send me a DM on Instagram: @its.not.rocket.science
- Send me an email: rebecca@itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com
- Grab your FREE Classroom Reset Challenge!
- Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts.
Related Episodes and Blog Posts:
- Productive Planning Period: 5 Ways to Instantly Increase your Productivity
- How to be a Great Teacher – and Only Work 40 Hours a Week
- 4 Things to Stop Doing to Simplify Your Teacher Life
- How to Balance Multiple Preps as a High School Science Teacher
- Best Practices for Lesson Planning in High School Science
- Episode 35. Competency, Classroom Management, Teaching Chemistry and MORE with Guest Zach Matson
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.
