How Can I Add More Time for Work? 8 solid tips for performance boost

Do you claim for more hours a day to get things done?  As teachers, time is our most precious resource for productivity. The worth of time is never lost when we are taking our jobs seriously. As a priceless treasure, how can I add more time for work? Time management has been a challenge for us teachers. And managing our time wisely is a prerequisite to becoming successful.

using a time timer

Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash

As teachers, to be more effective in our work, we need to enhance our time management skills to boost our productivity. As Dr. Radhika Kapur mentioned in his study, “Time management is considered to be a skill that should be mastered by all individuals at all levels and in all walks of life.”

The more we spend our time wisely, the more worthwhile our efforts are in giving quality education to the students. Increasing student performance and accomplishing tons of paperwork in a day can be best achieved through our excellent time management skills.

Now, if you keep on asking yourself, “How can I add more time for work?”, it just means that you are demonstrating perseverance and sincerity for your work. Hence, you really deserve to own those extra hours.

Here are some effective tips for adding more hours to your day. I know that a great teacher like you has so much on your plate that you earnestly budget your time wisely so not a second is ever wasted.

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How can I add more time for work?

Seize 8 solid tips for performance boost

1. Stay organized

To unlock the best opportunities for you and your students, you need to let go of yourself from the claws of being disorderly and have your desk, literally organized. Aptly label storage boxes on your table and shelves so you won’t consume an hour while looking for your supplies and teaching materials.  In particular, get rid of rubbish to increase the visibility of materials that are often used.

This applies, likewise, to how you organize your files on your desktop computer or laptop. By creating folders and labeling each properly makes it easier for you to locate the needed files. Thus, you save a lot of time.  Well-organized storage of files prevents you from getting stressed which ultimately kicks burnout.

Similarly, achieving your daily goals in a productive manner needs the proper organization of things and tasks to be accomplished.  Don’t allow tasks to overlap. If you really want to sustain productivity, then you should enforce your excellent organizational skills. It’s more rewarding to accomplish a single task with efficiency rather than doing multiple tasks half-baked.

Remember, your test of productivity can’t be measured on how fast you finish your tasks but how efficient you are in getting them done. Your superpower to do this is your amazing organizational skills. Try doing it and you’ll save more time for other important tasks.

2. Use a time timer in your classroom

Having decluttered your table, put your laptop or desktop computer on the spacious surface, and don’t forget to include your clock. Time is essential. Hence, keeping track of it matters.

Practically, a time timer is a great teaching tool that helps teachers keep track of time. At times, when discussions become so interesting that your talk goes on and on, you miss the time frame of your planned activities and other subject areas will be affected.

Using a time timer in the classroom prevents you from consuming the time allotted for other subject areas. In a sense, by being mindful of your time frame, you are also dishing out the same thing to your students. When students are aware of the time, they sustain concentration on the activities at hand.

3. Learn to prioritize

Prioritizing sometimes causes confusion especially when your plate is overcrowded. In order to earn extra hours for the day, you should know how to prioritize important tasks.

When deadlines are coming, sometimes, you tend to lose focus and get confused about what to do first. Grading papers or preparing instructional materials? Both may have the same weight of importance but with careful analysis, one is more urgent than the other.

Your daily encounter with your students needs the solid support of your engaging instructional materials. On the other hand, you need to grade papers to know if your assessment or instructional activities have been effective. But, there’s no reason for you to get confused because you have been doing these things. You are accustomed to these tasks already.

4. Prepare a to-do list

To avoid doing poor quality work, you should prepare a to-do list and stick to what’s posted as much as possible. Make it visible in your workplace and it should be in your journal. Tick the things you’ve already accomplished and always look forward to doing all that’s in there.

Your to-do list is the product of tip #3. After you list down all tasks and prioritize, you get ready with your aligned to-do list. You need this.  Be sure! By following your to-do list, you won’t be rushing off your feet to get things haphazardly done.

Adhering to your to-do list means nuts and bolts. Crafting a to-do list can make a difference as you seize the day.

making a to-do list

Photo by Emma Matthews

5. Never procrastinate

Don’t compromise your productivity by saying “I’ll do this later” or “This can wait”. If tasks become overwhelming, we tend to skip them or put them off for some time. Then, in the end, we realize that we lost valuable time and the chance for being productive.

Do it now. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine. Procrastination is the cause of sloppy work. Just imagine preparing your lesson plans and student report cards hastily. Do you think you will come up with accurate grades for your students?

My fellow teachers, I have been there and have experienced its domino effect. I commit not to do it again. Clearly, putting off tasks can never help you enjoy the fruits of your labor. It is always helpful doing the scheduled things right now and if there’s time left, you should know how to use it intelligently.

Never procrastinate just because you want to relax for the moment. Likewise, don’t be lured by its temporary comfort because it’s deceitful. Just get started immediately because no one will do it for you.

6. Keep your schedule

How well do you master your schedule? If after a few months, you are still looking to it from time to time, then maybe you should sit down for a while and get to know your schedule very well.

I know we have been there. Due to our busy days, we tend to forget at times that we have different schedules for MWF or TTh. And, worst, if we happen to miss our class because we forgot that it’s Wednesday and we were supposed to be in that class.  As a result, we lost instructional time and deprived our students of learning opportunities for that specific day.

Did this happen to you? Well, if it did, make a promise not to do it again. By keeping keen on our schedule by writing it down in our journal, conference notebook, or print it on a special paper and put it right on your table.

Let’s just commit ourselves to all the responsibilities we have and follow the schedule given by the school administrator prudently. This can help you save time, earn more minutes, and enjoy more hours.

7. Make a plan

Plan ahead and do it to succeed. Completing our tasks efficiently can be done if we make a plan.  Although there might be necessary interruptions along the way, at least you won’t be caught off guard by the situation.

Making a plan rewards us with a stress-free working environment. Equally important, the clear plan you prepare guides you to accomplishing tasks systematically; thus, freeing you from anxiety and failures. As Benjamin Franklin puts it, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

Making a clear plan is key. And making a well-thought-out plan for the week or for the day helps you make the best of time available and gain additional hours to become more productive.

8. Say “No” to distractions

You should be decisive enough to adopt this effective tip.  Have you tried not opening your Facebook account on another tab while doing your work and research on your desktop computer? It can be very tempting to scroll your FB wall or reply to messages on messenger but not doing so while doing your task can help you save time and boost your productivity.

You have to learn to say no to unnecessary things.  It doesn’t only increase your focus but will also make you finish your task ahead of time. Hence, you can add more time for work.

Conclusion

Being productive is primarily your choice. Also, adding more time to your workday means accomplishing more tasks. This typically shows that time management is indeed very important. With proper time management, you can sleep better and reduce anxiety.

As teachers, we are very prone to burnout and stress especially if time constraints have become constant. Tick them off from your patterns and improve your performance as a teacher. Practically, to achieve this,  you need a valuable chunk of time.

Keeping up with time might be a challenge but the above-mentioned tips can help you complete your work with utmost efficiency. Best of all, you should have a strong interest to change your ways and accommodate a positive mindset of making time your most valuable support.

In the ballpark, maximize your time by spending it wisely and possess the virtue of self-discipline to accomplish more. Grab more opportunities and be happier.

How do you add more time for work? Leave your thoughts below.