TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

How to Have The Most Productive Summer: 5 Tips for Teachers

28 June 2020/ By Zineb DJOUB

After a jolly hard work here is summertime. For teachers, this may not imply travelling or relaxing but rather taking professional development programmes, doing household tasks, looking for more educational resources to use in their classrooms, etc. But trying to do everything before fall can stress teachers out and make them feel overwhelmed instead of having rest and rejuvenating their spirits and souls. So, how can teachers have the most productive summer,i.e., get their tasks done while having enough rest to start next year more energized? Here are 5 tips to consider.

1. Reflect on your previous summer experience

Making such a reflection will help you learn from your previous experience and identify the missing gap, i.e., what you should do and how to make your summer more productive. It will also motivate you to plan more effectively to experience the great feeling of self-accomplishment. Here are some of the questions to reflect on :

1. How did you spend last summer? What were you doing most of the time?
2. What did you wish to do during that summer that you could not do? Why
3. How did you feel when that summer was over?

 

2. Identify the outcome or what you want to achieve by the end of this summer

It is necessary to have the intention of making this summer different and unique from the previous ones in terms of productivity. But what is more important is having a clear vision of what you want to get. So, what experiences and accomplishments do you want this summer? Why do these matter to you?
To answer these questions :

• Clarify your life and career priorities: Focusing on particular goals or intended outcomes is required to bring about attention and commitment to achieve the tasks. For instance, if you are thinking about a particular professional development course or a household task, ask yourself: Do you need to do it? Does it make a difference if you do it this summer?

• Do not allot an entire summer to one goal: Seek an outcome that is richer in terms of personal and professional gain. This is likely to motivate you to work more.

• Do not focus on what others are doing (how your colleagues, friends, or relatives are spending their holiday): This is likely to distract your attention, making you less or not productive. Concentrate on YOURSELF, and think about the change this summer would bring to your life if you use it productively.

3. Set your ‘only to-do list’ for a productive summer

After identifying your life and career goals, it is time to think about a to-do list. This list contains only the actions that support you in achieving the goals related to this summer holiday. It is thus different from your daily to-dos. To make your only to-do list a better productive tool :

• Avoid a long list of tasks: A lot of items are likely to add pressure on you, so think about the most important tasks that you need to get done each day.

• Prioritize: Putting your items in order of priority will clarify what important actions you need to undertake, making you more focused on what is more relevant to your personal life and career.

• Estimate how long each task will take:  This will support you in managing time more effectively.

• Separate your home tasks from your work tasks: Having a list that includes both home and work tasks can be confusing to work through.

• Use different categories for your list: Grouping tasks into categories can save you a lot of time and energy in the execution phase (An example of such kind of list is provided below but there is a need to specify more those tasks, i.e., the title of the book or even its chapter, the professional development task, the type of materials to look for, etc).

• Add a bit of pep to your day: Do not forget enjoyable to-dos to unwind and recharge your batteries.

An Only to-do-list for summer

 

4. Put your ‘only to-do list on your calendar

To put effectively your only to-do list into action, there is a need for planning. Planning, in this case, involves aligning this kind of list with your daily to-do list, thereby integrating both lists in your calendar. But how to make this alignment? Before answering the ‘how’, let’s first deal with the question ‘when to plan’.

Schedule your time for planning once a week. Weekly planning can help you stay focused more on your daily tasks and track progress at the end of each week. Take time to think about your plan. This will support getting things done more effectively and efficiently. So, select the day and time when you are free to handle the following process more thoroughly :

1. Look at your daily to-do list :
   Decide which items you can get out of doing (cross them) and which items to put off (reschedule). Then prioritize the items that are in your daily to-list and put them into categories such as 1) my health including, for instance, going to the doctor, 2) my family: attending a family event, 3) home-related tasks: cleaning up, and purchasing products.
2. Divide your day into blocks of time for each category in both lists ’the only to-do-list and daily to-do list’ :
   This depends on the priority you give to each one, the nature, and the estimated time of each task within. You can start with easy-to-finish tasks and then move to those that are hard and time-consuming. Or you can decide to balance between both lists’ tasks, selecting a variety of tasks to do from both lists every day. Another alternative is devoting the entire day to doing certain tasks about one of the lists and then switching your focus to the other list’s tasks the next day. Find a way that works for you!
3. Use Google Calendar: You can decide to use a notebook, smartphone, or tablet to keep your to-do list. However, using Google Calendar can help you get more organized. To learn more check out: How to Put Your To-Do List In Your Calendar (And Have Everything in One Place !).

 

5. Review your progress

It is important to review your progress regularly. You can do it daily, asking yourself: What have I done/achieved today?

At the end of each week, you can review all what you have achieved during this week and what you could not, you can ask yourself: How can I make next week more productive than this one?

This will support you to rethink your list to do, your plan, and your commitment towards achieving your goals, thus planning more effectively the week ahead. The aim of reviewing is to make you more proactive (not reactive) and develop more flexibility in making your planned tasks fit into your everyday schedule.

Further suggestions

• While planning, match your list to your time and energy.
• Say no to everything that is not aligned with your priorities.
• Do not get anxious if you cannot achieve a scheduled task. Think about the ‘Why’ and plan for it again.
• Think why you have put off the items in your to-do list.
• Build useful habits like getting up early in the morning, not checking emails constantly, taking at least one day off of digital leashes per week, etc.
• Do not forget to schedule time at the end of the day to think creatively and relax.
• Use commitment devices, i.e., things you do to commit yourself to your goals. These can include, for instance, putting your alarm clock on the other side of the room, staying away from your TV, and scheduling a specific time per day for social media. etc.
• Use a daily not-to-do list, this will help you figure out what you need to ignore.

Having a productive summer is all about aligning your goals with everyday needs. So, make your plan, commit yourself to its achievement, and review it regularly. You can make this summer THE MOST PRODUCTIVE SUMMER YOU HAVE EVER HAD!