What Teachers Should Stop Doing: 10 Time Wasters in the Classroom
Published: | by Hannah Sparling
Teachers are not afraid of hard work. They show up early, stay late, and work on weekends. They’ll re-imagine a lesson plan until they get it just right and spend hours finding a specific solution for a struggling student.
It’s important work, and it can be life-changing for students and families.
But… is all of it necessary? Are there some areas where teachers could cut back and save time without impacting student learning or results?
Below are 10 common time wasters in the classroom, along with what teachers could do differently to restore work-life balance and well-being.
1. Creating Every Resource from Scratch
One of the best parts about teaching is the community, and that community has created countless resources over the years — lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, project outlines, and more. Before you start making a new resource, spend a few minutes seeing what already exists.
You could buy a resource on TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers), but there’s plenty available for free as well. You could even go next door to your neighbor teacher’s classroom and see what she has to offer.
If you can tweak or customize an existing resource rather than starting from a blank page, you could save yourself a lot of time.
2. Over-Planning or Over-Customizing Lessons
Detailed lesson plans are helpful, but you do not need to script every single minute of every single day. Excessive detail rarely gets used, and you also run the risk of over-complicating the lesson, making it more difficult for students to grasp key concepts.
Instead, stick to the basics when outlining your daily instruction. Focus on the core learning objectives and allow time for creativity and exploration during the class period. This gives your students freedom to ask questions and take the discussion in exciting new directions.
3. Differentiating Manually
Student differentiation is crucial to ensure you reach every learner. However, rewriting the same lesson plan for five different learning levels does not have to be a painstaking, manual process.
Instead, use artificial intelligence to help you differentiate your lesson plans quickly. Even if this is a new skill for you, and it takes you a little time to learn a new AI tool, you are investing a small amount of time now to save a much larger amount later.
Caveat: You are still the expert, and you will always review and adjust the AI output to ensure it is pedagogically sound, fits your needs, etc.
4. Grading Every Single Assignment
Some teachers feel a strong obligation to put a red pen to every single activity and homework assignment. This can quickly lead to a pile of ungraded papers and lost weekend hours.
Instead, try selective grading, where you only grade specific, high-impact assignments. You could also use quick completion checks for daily practice work or set up peer review sessions. Peer reviews can be a win-win, since they lighten your workload and allow students to experience the material in a different way, deepening their understanding.
5. Responding Immediately to Every Email
Ding, ding, ding. The familiar ping of an incoming email can easily disrupt your focus. And sure, it only takes a few seconds to check your inbox. And sure, it’s only another minute or two to respond right away. But if you’re constantly being pulled away for a minute or two at a time, it’s hard to get deep work done.
Instead of keeping your inbox open all day, try turning off notifications and setting aside a block of time to batch respond to emails. It could be 20 minutes in the morning and another 20 minutes at the end of the day, whatever works for you and your schedule.
This method can greatly lessen your email anxiety, and it also helps set realistic boundaries on your availability and how quickly parents or students expect you to respond.
6. Starting from Scratch with Every Email
Along the same lines, don’t waste time repeatedly writing the same email. Students and parents are going to have some frequently asked questions; you don’t have to draft a fresh response each time.
Instead, as you start to see patterns emerge in your inbox, create simple email templates. You can use these to quickly provide answers or point people to common resources like the class syllabus, the school calendar, etc. You can use these templates year after year.
7. Signing Up for Every Optional PD
Professional development is wonderful. Being a lifelong learner is one of the greatest joys of teaching, and everyone has areas in which they can grow and improve.
That said, not every teacher needs help in every single area, and there are some PD opportunities that simply won’t make sense for you. Maybe a session is too low-level, and you won’t learn anything new. Maybe it’s too advanced, and you need an introductory course first. When you have a choice, make sure your PD aligns with your goals and growth areas so it functions as a valuable investment of your time.
8. Working in a Silo
Trying to do everything on your own is lonely. And it’s a waste of time! There are teachers all around who understand exactly what you’re going through. They have solutions, strategies, and ideas that could help solve your problems. They’re a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on, and a sounding board. All you have to do is ask.
Again, community is one of the best parts of teaching. Take full advantage.
9. Worrying About Things Outside Your Control
You’re a teacher. You’re not a doctor, a therapist, or a social worker. As difficult as it can be to see your students struggle with outside issues, try to remember your specific role and the areas you are responsible for.
Worrying endlessly about situations you can’t control or impact doesn’t do anyone any good. Instead, focus your energy on providing a safe, welcoming, and highly educational environment within the four walls of your classroom.
10. Holding Yourself to an Impossible Standard
You are going to make mistakes. A lesson will flop, you’ll forget to print a worksheet, or you’ll miss a deadline from your admin. Mistakes are part of the growth process, and you deserve the same level of grace you give your students.
Perfectionism is perhaps the biggest time waster of all. As long as you’re trying your best, as long as you’re getting a little bit better every day, let the rest go.
Want to save even more time? Download our infographic 19 Teacher Time Wasters. You’ll get more ideas for where you might cut back, do less, and regain some time in your day.
