How to Create an Effective Schedule as a Teacher

hello there and welcome back to my channel if you are new here my name is michelle emerson and love helping teachers with all things technology organization and productivity in today's video we are talking about schedules not schedules for your students but schedules for you as teacher time is our most valuable resource and we want to make sure we are utilizing it effectively five minutes ahead of schedule right on schedule so in today's video i'm gonna share step-by-step process that will help you create schedule that works for you allows you to make the most out of the time that you do have and alleviate stress because you know what to expect before share this step-by-step process let's talk just little bit about what makes schedule effective for me schedule that is effective is realistic meaning you can actually follow it it's going to allow you to prioritize both your work life and your personal life and it's going to include contingency time for those unexpected events that come up which as teacher happens very often i'm going to walk you through the steps to create an effective schedule and to help you out do have free template you can grab using the link in the description box it's going to open up google drive folder that has pdf which you can print or download directly to your computer and it has google sheets when you open up the google sheets it's going to show as view only but if you go to file and then make copy you can save an editable copy to your google drive within the template you will notice there is daily weekly and monthly you don't have to create all three i'm gonna be modeling how to create weekly schedule and think that's the best place to start if you're doing this for the first time i'm going to walk you through how to create the schedule digitally but you can always just do rough draft on paper and then convert it to digital using some of the tools will share later on in the video do recommend color coding your schedule that way you can see which areas of your life are dominating your time and when you're scheduling recommend allowing more time rather than less so am in the google sheets template i'm going to go ahead and switch over to the weekly schedule step number one is to add non-flexible tasks these are tasks that have set date and time that are completely outside of your control things like meetings practices and classes now i'm not creating my actual schedule i'm just creating kind of an example one but let's say every monday at 9am have collaborative planning meeting so i'm going to type in meeting and i'm going to color code this red that way in my mind these are the tasks that have no control over they have to stay at that time now let's say also have meetings at the same time on wednesday and friday i'm just copying the cell clicking where want it to go and then pasting it let's say on tuesdays and thursdays also have grad school class after school from four to six i'm going to actually highlight both of these cells and i'm going to merge them and i'm going to type in grad school class let's make this red as well and then i'm just adding an outline but that's not necessary i'm also bolding it oops pasted bolded okay i'm gonna paste this same time on thursday now obviously there are certain hours of the day that am teaching and those are set in stone i'm going to add those as well so let's say teach during this time again i'm going to merge the cells put teaching let's bold it make it red and outline it okay so we'll add that there we'll have the same time here and here so again i'm just copying and pasting which is one of the benefits if you are doing this digitally let's say on thursdays don't have planning time so i'm going to actually make that little bit longer there there and there okay so have added all of those events and tasks that have to complete at certain time on certain date step number two is to add essential tasks these are not your priorities those are coming don't worry these are actually the tasks that are essential for you living so things like sleeping eating commuting to work getting ready at the beginning of the day these are those tasks that you have to do day in and day out just to stay alive to either die or to survive the choice is yours and obviously depending on your situation you may have more or less essential tasks maybe you have short commute or long commute if you're mom maybe you have time where you have to pump or if you're parent maybe you have time where you have to give your kids bath so this is going to look unique to you and your situation okay i'm going to start with sleep let's say on mondays sleep in until seven do not like to wake up in the early in the morning so this is very accurate for me all right we're gonna make this sleeping and i'm gonna color code it orange just because that comes after red and i'm going to paste this on each of the days of the week and then let's say on saturday maybe sleep in an hour later and same thing on sunday okay sleeping is in there then let's add my commute slash get ready time i'm just going to call it get ready but that would include like doing my hair doing my makeup leaving for work eating breakfast all of that would be included in that time so let's make this get ready gonna bold outline and we're gonna make it orange as well okay we're gonna put these all of these days and maybe saturday don't get ready and on sunday just remembered another task that need to add to sunday so typically have meeting with bridget know this is just an example schedule but i'm gonna add it in anyway and we meet for two hours so i'm gonna merge outline and i'm gonna make this red because that is non-flexible time okay let's go ahead and add lunch i'm repeating lot of the same steps but can now paste that on each of these days and let's say just for consistency eat lunch at the same time on the weekends after school let's say eat at 7 p.m so we'll do dinner and again for consistency we'll keep that at the same time each of the days of the week i'm gonna put like get ready in the evening time as well which really means like my evening routine the things do to get ready for bed go to bed late so i'm going to put this at the 11 o'clock hour and again just for consistency i'm going to paste this on each of the days okay have added my non-flexible tasks and i've added my essential tasks step number three is to add one to two non-negotiable tasks life lesson some tasks are not worth doing these would be the tasks that are like your utmost priority the things that you have to get done during that time and you're not willing to budge on do want you to limit it to just one or two but these could include things for work but also things for your personal life for example for work maybe lesson planning is priority because don't want to stay super late after school that could be one of my non-negotiables and then in my personal life maybe have fitness goals that i'm working towards so going to the gym is another non-negotiable for me so if you're unsure with this or you're struggling to limit it to just one or two would say pick one for your work life and one for your personal life and move on from there so for me personally i'm gonna do lesson planning and the gym always had planning time in the morning so i'm gonna put planning oops turned off all caps unacceptable didn't turn it on okay there we go and once again bold and i'm gonna make this yellow so only had planning four days week did not have planning on thursday so i'm not gonna have it on those days the gym would typically go in the afternoon so this like five to six hour gym and make it yellow okay so let's say on tuesdays and thursdays don't go to the gym because have grad school class so i'm gonna paste it wednesday friday maybe saturdays would do it in the morning and let's add breakfast into this time maybe every saturday make breakfast and that's like an essential task so we're gonna outline bold and we'll make that orange okay and then on sundays let's say would go during this time and then we'll also have breakfast during that 10 a.m hour okay so i've added my non-negotiables again it's only one or two tasks it's not all of my priorities because that would be way too many it's just those tasks that i'm not willing to budge on but that leads us into step four which is to now add three to four priorities so these are those tasks that you really want to get done but they're not quite as important as your non-negotiables these are going to be tasks that are maybe little bit more flexible like they don't have to get done that day but they do have to get done eventually so within the teaching realm this could include grading because it's little bit more flexible right like you don't have to grade assignments on that day but maybe it's like by the end of the week it needs to be done also things like answering emails obviously some emails are more important than others but that tends to be one of those tasks that can get pushed to the side if it has to in your personal life this may include things like going to the gym maybe for you that's priority not non-negotiable like if you have to skip the gym it's not the end of the world personally i'd have mental breakdown so it's non-negotiable for me you look like you're getting good workout maybe you also have side hustle that you're working on and if you have time for it great but at the end of the day if it doesn't get done it's not huge deal once again if you are unsure suggest picking two priorities for work and two priorities for your personal life okay so for work i'm gonna do grading and answering emails so i'm going to put grading in these two chunks on tuesday and thursday so bold outline and i'm gonna make it green okay and then let's do emails feel like emails you don't need that much time even though each of these time slots is an hour it probably would take me less but that's okay i'm gonna put emails and i'm gonna put that on the monday wednesday friday that way it's like you know what tuesday thursday have grad school if don't get to it not the end of the world now for my personal life because the gym is actually non-negotiable for me i'm gonna have my priorities be date night which we would typically do on friday night so i'm gonna block out these three hours for date night we'll make it green as well following our color code and then maybe it's my side hustle that's going to be my other priority so if get to it great but if don't it's not the end of the world maybe work on that during this time i'm was always late night worker with that type of stuff so make it green bold and side hustle and maybe do that all of these days mean don't have to but maybe do and then saturday maybe work on it after the gym before lunch and maybe work on it in the afternoon on sunday again you don't have to put it every day it's really just what you want based on your goals step five is my favorite step five is adding what's called contingency time that is time slot that is not dedicated to any specific task but it can be filled with some of those unexpected things that come up now obviously some unexpected tasks are more flexible maybe they just have to be done by the end of the week so you could fit it into that day or even the next day's contingency time but we all know there are unexpected tasks that come up that have to be dealt with immediately do it now for example maybe your kid is sick and you have to take them to the doctor you can't necessarily put that to the side you have to deal with it then however when that happens even though you're not getting it done during your actual contingency time maybe your contingency time is in the afternoon whatever tasks you miss because you're taking care of that unexpected task can then get moved to your contingency time and it even can get moved to your contingency time over the next few days if that's what it takes to get back on track so personally love to have an hour of contingency time every single day of the week so let's start with wednesday because wednesday only has one time slot left so i'm just gonna put contingency did spell that correctly think so and i'm gonna outline it and we're gonna make this pretty light blue color awesome okay i'm going to now find another hour time slot on the other days where maybe there's more flexibility just saw monday also only has one time block left so i'm going to add that in there and just for consistency let's keep it the same on tuesday and thursday it looks like do not have it on friday which isn't huge deal if needed to could always cut my gym time short or maybe my date night time short so it's fine not the end of the world am now fully domesticated moving on to sunday maybe my contingency time yeah we'll keep it the same like consistency consistency for my contingency the sixth and final step is to now add in your extra tasks these are those tasks that are nice to have done but at the end of the day they really are not necessary or they can be delegated to other people or other services to get done if you can't handle it on your plate for example maybe at work you love to spend time organizing your classroom guilty as charged that was always me however at the end of the day if that doesn't get done the world is not going to fall apart in your personal life this may include grocery shopping or cleaning with grocery shopping obviously you gotta eat right but worst come to worst maybe you could have groceries delivered or someone else in your family could go and do the grocery shopping when it comes to cleaning obviously you could hire someone i've never done that because it's very expensive but if you don't get to cleaning your house one week or even one month it's not the end of the world now there are probably ton of small extra tasks and you're like don't have enough little time blocks to be able to fill them in it's okay just to list it as extra on your schedule and then during that time you can do any of those little tasks that you know have to get done it is helpful to keep almost like checklist maybe in your phone or on google keep where you can know what tasks you can work toward during that time so personally always love to go grocery shopping on sundays even though it's mad house so i'm gonna add that during this time groceries and let's bold it and let's go purple just to you know finish out the rainbow and also would like to do cleaning on saturday so maybe i'm going to block out three hours to be able to clean and let's bold outline and purple okay maybe during the rest of these time slots i'm just gonna put extras that way it's nice and simple purple i'm gonna copy and paste that i'm gonna paste it here and then i'm going to merge it put that there there and there now decided just to fill out the entire schedule even though some of those times are little bit more flexible like the extras if want to just watch netflix show during that time can but if you personally want to leave some time blocks open that's perfectly fine or if self-care is going to be one of your non-negotiables you can schedule that time in obviously once you create this schedule and start implementing it you may need to make some changes or if you enter into new season in life you may need to create new schedule and that's okay this is something you can always come back and revisit but it at least gives you starting point did mention at the beginning of this video was going to share some tools obviously you have this printable template and digital template that am sharing with you using the link in the description box which you can always use and then just bookmark on your computer or even print out if that's helpful but you also can use regular paper calendars or desk calendars or paper planner or digital planner to be able to store your schedule and of course there are tons of digital options as well most phones come with calendar tool already on it but personally love using google calendar do have full tutorial video coming so make sure that you are subscribed so you don't miss it but that is going to be it for this video hope that walking you through the steps and giving you some examples allows you to create an effective schedule that will help you make the most of your time if you enjoyed this video please give it thumbs up hit the subscribe button and notification bell so you do not miss any future videos as always thank you for watching love you so much don't forget to put your positive pants on and will catch you in the next one you