6 Practical Ways to Lower Your Teacher Stress Level

You love your students and care deeply about their success. But lately, you might notice your patience wearing thin by around third period. Or maybe your stomach hurts every Sunday as you prep for the week ahead.

It’s completely normal to feel stretched too thin when you’re managing lesson plans, grading, parent communication, and the emotional needs of a classroom full of children. Teaching is incredibly rewarding, but the endless demands can push anyone to exhaustion.

Step 1 is to recognize what’s going on and that something needs to change.

Step 2 is to do something about it. Below are 6 ideas.

Lightening Your Physical Workload

It might seem like every item on your to-do list is essential. But is that really true? Here are 2 ideas to help lighten your teacher workload.

1. Simplify Your Grading Process

Providing detailed feedback on every assignment and activity is a fast track to teacher burnout. Instead, look for opportunities to share the load. Try:

• Completion checks on daily practice work
• Using an AI tool to help you grade work that is objectively right or wrong
• Peer review (This can be a win-win, since reviewing each other’s work and explaining why it’s right or wrong can help your students understand the material on a deeper level.)

2. Rethink Your Lesson Prep

Creating original lesson plans and beautiful presentations from scratch is great — unless it’s driving you to burnout. Try being a little more selective in when you create new materials and when you repurpose or adapt an existing resource (think: stock templates, provided curriculum materials, a worksheet from a teacher friend, etc.).

You can also look at how much detail you’re including in your lesson plans. Are you creating a solid framework, or are you scripting every class down to the minute? If it’s the latter, consider scaling back.

Lightening Your Mental Load

Sometimes it’s less the physical workload of teaching and more the mental load of remembering, worrying, planning, and more. Strategies 3, 4, and 5 are about clearing some space in your brain.

3. Protect Your Lunch Break

You’ve probably heard this tip before, but did you listen? It’s so tempting to use your lunch break to answer emails, grade papers, or draft a lesson plan. But it’s a lunch break.

You can start small. Commit to eating lunch away from your desk two days a week. Leave your grading behind and sit in the staff room or even outside under a tree for a few moments of true peace and quiet. Your brain and body need rest to function at their best.

4. Try a ‘Worry Timer’

When you’re dealing with a challenging situation at school (and honestly, when aren’t you dealing with a challenging situation at school?), it’s easy to let that anxiety consume your entire evening. But worrying on its own, especially for something outside your control — it just doesn’t help.

To prevent work worries from consuming your limited personal time, try setting a “worry timer.” Give yourself 10 minutes to actively stress about a specific issue. Write down your frustrations, brainstorm potential solutions, or vent to a loved one. When the timer goes off, consciously decide to move on.

5. Build a ‘Could-Do’ List

Take a hard look at your to-do list and separate the truly urgent items from those that are more aspirational. Move the less essential tasks to a separate “could-do” list to give yourself some mental breathing room. If you have extra time and energy on a Friday afternoon, you can tackle a “could-do” item. If not, you can leave for the weekend knowing your core responsibilities are handled.

Prioritize Fun

Just one more strategy to try, and this one’s a lot of fun! Seriously, that’s it. One of the most effective ways to fight burnout is to get out and have some fun.

6. Pick a Fun Activity

Now, go do the fun activity! Go kayaking with your friends, have a picnic, let your inner rockstar rock at a concert. Do you ever feel like you lost a part of yourself when you became a teacher? Go get it back.

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If you found the above strategies useful, download our Burnout Prevention Workbook for more.

Inside the workbook, you’ll find a burnout status check, guided activities to help you lighten your physical and mental workloads, and a customizable action plan to help restore your well-being and work-life balance.