Even the best laid time management plans can fall short if we don’t have the energy to execute them. A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast on time management and was reminded of the idea of energy management (thanks, Time Tamers! Check out episode 21 Time Tamers Podcast). The concept of energy management is that you plan tasks that require more energy during your naturally energized times in the day. Simple enough, right… For example, you look at your to-do list and decide when you will do which item based on the amount of energy it will take and the amount of energy you have to give. So, let’s say you have a cognitively demanding task (maybe writing a final exam or planning a unit of study) you would do that when you know you will have the most energy.
To make the most of energy management you need to do two things. One, have a list of what needs to get done and two, have a general idea of when your personal high energy times are. For me, my energy and focus are best from 7 to 11 am, so that is when I would want to get high focus tasks done. For people that are able to plan their own schedules, this is great. Block out a few hours in the morning and push through the work that you need to get done. As a teacher, I don’t have a lot of control over my schedule, and you may not either, so I have to get a little creative about how to make the most of these high-energy times. Because I don’t have large blocks of time (I'm teaching most of the day), I had to get creative. Here’s what I tried:
I checked my to-do list for the upcoming week. The usual suspects were there: grade tests, create lessons, make copies, fill out progress reports, complete a survey for my administrator, submit my weekly certified attendance log, etc. Then I starred the items that require the most energy to focus. For me, that was grading tests and filling out progress reports.
Then I looked at my weekly schedule and what times I would have space to focus (aka: when I am not teaching/supervising students). My times without students are usually 7:30 to 8:00 am and then 2:00 to 3:00 pm. I KNOW my energy slips in the afternoon, and I know I would not be most effective in that afternoon hour.
I do have the time from 7:30 am-8:00 am in my classroom alone before students come in. With a little advanced planning, I decided to use two of these morning blocks to grade the test that was waiting for me, and the other three morning blocks to fill out progress reports. The other tasks could be done in the afternoon when I didn’t need as must mental clarity (I could fill out the survey as I was waiting for the copy machine to run my papers.)
Energy Management
If you want to try to use energy management to your advantage:
You need to be self-aware of when your peak energy times are during the day
You need to plan ahead to make the most use of these times
After a few weeks of super boosting my time management plans with energy management, I found I was able to get more done during those focus times. I was still dragging a little during the afternoon, but instead of taking two hours to grade tests in the afternoon, I could get it done in one hour in the mornings.
Side note and be on the lookout: I’m a total time management junkie. I love planners, trackers, timers, and whatever I can use to organize my “time”. This past year I’ve been thinking of how to apply what I’ve learned about time management to teaching and sharing my strategies for streamlining the teaching load with these techniques. I can seriously nerd out on this stuff. My new motto for teaching is, “be effective and efficient”. Without streamlining our work we educators are doomed to burnout. I’ve been playing with different time management strategies in my teaching life, and sharing a few along the way with other teachers. I’m working on compiling an “effective and efficient” playbook for teachers, but until then I felt this energy management tip was too good to hold onto and I had to share. Here’s to riding the energy wave!