Hey there! Thank you for joining me. I’m Charlotte from Colourful Teaching For You. Today we’re going to talk about how to set boundaries as a teacher to enjoy work life balance.
We as teachers continue to give of ourselves to a point where many of us are feeling physically and emotionally drained of energy.
To be the best teacher that you can be for your students, you need to take care of yourself. In order for that to happen, you need to set some firm boundaries for yourself.
The following three steps will help you find some work-life balance, so that you can avoid burnout, overwhelm and stress. It will also provide you with some time to really focus on taking care of yourself.
Before we continue, today’s episode is sponsored by The Colourful Teaching Club where we’ll ideas, such today’s topic and break it down into super actionable steps so that you get started right away. You’ll enjoy a hands-on approach with a step-by-step format to help you with long-term planning, self-care, rediscovering yourself beyond the classroom and forming deep connections with other teachers. If you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed or burnout as a teacher, then my friend, The Colourful Teaching Club is for you.
Setting boundaries is also important because…
Now that we’ve looked at the importance of setting boundaries in your professional life, let’s get into the actionable steps right away.
Actionable Steps:
1. Plan Ahead
Create a plan at least a week ahead- not just a day ahead. Print and photocopy everything that you need or make a note the day before to do it the following day.
#2. Limit Your Time
Set a time limit on how long you plan to work before and after school. For me, I get I work for about 40 minutes before school and about 1-2 hours after school maximum. At times, this will change depending on if I have meetings, report cards and so forth. However, I don’t make it a habit to stay too long as it takes away from my family time and drains my energy.
Now it’s your turn! What’s your time limit?
#3. Prioritize Your Time
When you’re looking to limit your working time, you’ll need to really focus on what needs your attention, what can be completed later, and what you can delegate.
As things come up, I write it down, and then sort it into one of those three group. I complete what needs to done to be done right away. Anything that can be moved to later, I schedule it into my calendar so that it’s not forgotten. If it needs to be delegated, I talk to the right people and get it sorted out.
Recap:
Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:
- We talked about the relevance of boundaries in the lives of teachers.
- We looked at three actionable steps that you can take right away to set boundaries within your teaching practice: plan ahead, limit your time and prioritize your time.
Additional Thoughts:
Setting boundaries is essential to your mental, physical and emotional health. I sincerely hope you implement the aforementioned three steps and attain a type of work-life balance that works for you and your family.
If in the mean time, if you’re still feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and burnout, then I encourage you to check out the following:
Next Steps:
If you’d like additional resources for your classroom here are the three ways you can access them: 1) Free Resource Library; 2) At my store; 3) Systematic Plan to Super Passionate; 4) The Colourful Teaching Club.
If you found this video beneficial, would you do me a favour? Share this with your family, your friends, your loved ones, your co-workers or someone who you think could benefit from this. Thank you!
Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.
Take care,
Charlotte
