Dread the Drudgery? How to Move Beyond Your Tasks to Make an Impact

I DREAD IT EVERY YEAR

It’s the beginning of the year, and my husband and I need to sit down and do our yearly Financial Planning Summit for 2021. I have to be honest, it’s something I dread every year.

You know the feeling I’m talking about – that pit in your stomach that prompts you to do everything you can to avoid it?

Dread comes from lots of places. In our case, it’s rooted in:

Previous experience Hating the “details” (That’s me - I’m a big-picture person) Getting stuck in the weeds of details (That’s Philip, who is my exact opposite – he rocks the details, but it’s more difficult for him to see the big picture.)

However, it’s NEVER as bad as we think it’s going to be! (OK that’s a lie – it used to be. But it’s not anymore. We’ve been married long enough that we know how to “fight well.”)

HOW ABOUT YOU - DO YOU EVER EXPERIENCE DREAD?

Most of you are back in the classroom now after a much-needed winter break.

If you’re newer to teaching, you may have experienced dread about going back.

Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed in general?

With virtual learning or even in your physical classroom, you might feel like you’re recreating the wheel, especially when it comes to administrative tasks.

I’m curious – do any of those tasks inspire dread in you? For instance, tasks like grading? Filing? Record-Keeping?

ONE HUGE DREAD-BUSTER

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to minimize the dread you might have about getting all. the. things. done. In fact, it can be pretty simple to reduce it. Adopting ONE practice in your classroom organizational systems (that we'll be talking about) will:

Save you time Get rid of that dread Create more time for you to engage with your students GREAT EXPECTATIONS

If you’re like me, as a newer teacher, it was a reality check to realize there were so many things I had to do as a teacher OTHER than engaging my students. It was a little disillusioning, to be honest.

So when I said that – “Things other than engaging my students,” what popped into your head. Wherever you are, say them out loud. And pay attention to how your body feels when you say each of them.

A huge stack of papers to grade Lesson plan materials to file away Parent communication to send Lesson plans to design Grades to record Interim and report card comments to write

Which of these repetitive tasks created the most tension in your body? Tightened a knot in your stomach? Felt a contracting in you rather than an expansion? Felt like DREAD?

What is Dread, Exactly?

According to an article from Counselling Directory (I’ve included a link in my show notes,)

“Dread may be described as a sense of impending doom. An oppressive and overwhelming force; sucking the joy out of life and smothering your enthusiasm for new experiences. Dread may include being constantly on edge, imagining worst-case scenarios and screen-playing moments of imminent catastrophe in your head.” -Counselling Directory

Wow.

“Oppressive and overwhelming force sucking the joy out of life”...have you ever experienced that as a teacher? And look at that next part… "smothering your enthusiasm”. Does that description resonate with you and your administrative tasks as a teacher?

DREAD, COURTESY OF THE LITTLE THINGS

Like I talked about earlier, most of us don’t think of the administrative tasks involved in the jobs we choose. If you’re like me, you were drawn to teaching for the interaction with students. For the impact you can make.

Is the need to take care of all those administrative tasks creating an overwhelm in you? One that stands in the way of that interaction with students you desire?

How do you balance it out? The work MUST be addressed. BUT there ARE ways to make it easier on yourself.

One of those ways is to automate.

LEVERAGING AUTOMATION

What is automating? Basically, it means letting a machine do the work for you.

So what things are you doing...over and over again...that some type of software could help you with?

It doesn’t have to be super complicated. Simply starting to use a spreadsheet for grading that has a calculating cell could save you so much time.

Identify those tasks that routinely eat up your time. If they always use the same step-by step system to complete, they are a good candidate for automation.

Not sure what those might be? Check these out.

 

AUTOMATION IDEAS Grading

Simplify grading collection by choosing forms of assessment that you can grade in a streamlined way.

Grading calculation with spreadsheets or software

Communication

With families – save the emails you write. Is there something you communicate often? Use what you’ve saved to create a template, then pop the template into an email signature in your email software.

Attendance

If your school already has a learning management system, then you’re all set. If not, you can create (or find!) a simple spreadsheet to use and save time.

Lesson Planning

This is something I’m going to be talking about in the next episode, and there are some great options out there that can streamline how you link state standards to your instruction, and even help you share your planning with colleagues. One I’ve talked about before is Planbookedu

BUT WAIT A SECOND . . .

There is, however, a caveat with automation. Too often, we (or our schools or districts) adopt software or technology without a clear understanding of its use or purpose.

This is backwards!

Tech needs a specific purpose - this isn’t a chicken vs. egg scenario. The purpose always comes FIRST.

On the other hand, the opposite end of the tech-happy spectrum is resistance.

Some might balk at automation, maybe because:

They don’t feel like you have the time for the learning curve, They’re just not interested – happy with how they’re doing it Their school doesn’t have any viable options, and it takes too much time to investigate or research and present to their administration

One of the articles I’m sharing in this week’s show notes talks more about this. The author had a great insight:

“The motivation to automate one’s practices starts when a teacher comes to his own conclusion that conventional instruction is fundamentally broken and more time is needed for personalization and relationship-building.”

ACTION STEPS, ANYONE?

If you’d like to leverage the power of automation, here’s how you can get started.

Brainstorm tasks that you do daily or weekly that always have the same step by step process. Calculate the estimated amount of time it’s taking you each day or week to do those tasks manually. Choose one task to automate. Research ways you can simplify that process for yourself. Take action. It might mean Googling a solution on YouTube or approaching admin. with a software proposal. Let me know how it goes! We are often more likely to follow through if we tell someone. REPLACING DREAD WITH HOPE

If you take these small steps, you may just find that dread being replaced with a renewed hope and enthusiasm to make an impact.

Isn’t that why you started teaching in the first place?