5 Helpful Ways to Overcome Teacher Decision-Fatigue

Teachers make so many decisions each and every day. Some say that teachers make more decisions in a day than a brain surgeon. With teachers wearing many different hats and needing to make split-second decisions, it can easily lead to decision fatigue.

I can think of one year in particular--my fifth year of teaching that led to burnout. After a full day of teaching, I just wanted to come home and lie on the couch. Between being in a new school and learning the ropes of new systems with a co-teacher, it was a tough year.

There will always be unexpected events during a day of teaching--a student gets sick, the fire alarm goes off, or a parent email comes in that you need to address. But there are plenty of predictable moments during the day that can be used to your advantage. If you are feeling decision fatigue, here are a few ideas to help make things a little easier.

Make the Decision Once

There are some tasks or decisions that we can make once and never make again. For example, in my personal life, I got tired of trying to come up with a new dinner idea every time friends or family came over. Instead, I made the decision once that when guests come over, we will always have homemade pizza. That is now what I make every time someone comes over. I can customize the pizzas for dietary needs and personal preferences. It's made my life so much easier because my husband also knows when he invites friends over that we're making pizza.

You can do the same thing with school-related decisions, too. For example, take the decision-making out of what you are going to wear to work each week. Choose to wear school colors or your school mascot shirt every Friday. Have a favorite outfit? Wear that favorite sweater or dress on Monday, and repeat every week. No one really cares that you wear the same outfit again, and personally, I'd much rather feel confident and comfortable in clothes that I like wearing. And it just saves so much time in the morning when you're getting ready.

Create a Weekly List & Desk List

What are tasks that you can do over and over again each and every day or week? The more that you can complete regular tasks in the same way and at the same time, the more likely you are to get into a routine or flow state.

You might not realize all the tasks that you do on a daily or weekly basis. Start by writing down all (yes, all) of the tasks you do each day for one week. This will take a little bit of time, but this inventory will allow you to see what things you do daily to create a weekly routine. You'll probably also notice unnecessary things in your week that eat up your precious time. Now you can create a checklist of regular tasks that can be repeated over and over. Make your list in the order in which you will complete the tasks each day, and then laminate it!

Next, create a desk list. For a long time, when I entered my classroom in the morning, I felt scattered and would end up wasting the little bit of time I had before the first bell rang. So I decided that at the end of the school day, I would write myself a list of small tasks that I needed to complete the next morning. Each day, I left a new list on my desk. In the morning, I just walked into my classroom, looked at the list, and immediately got started on the tasks for the day. This tremendously helped me stay focused on what was really important. I was less likely to get pulled into doing tasks that could wait until later or didn't make sense to start when I only had a limited amount of prep time. Plus, this helped me focus better if I was still downing my morning cup of coffee.

Create an After-School Routine to Be Less Forgetful

At the end of the school day, I had a specific routine. I would do the same set of tasks at the same time and way each day. For example, I would immediately erase the board and change the date. I would set out my folder of lessons and paperwork for the next day and grab any of the books or manipulatives that I needed for my upcoming lessons. Getting into this routine saved me time and also helped me be less forgetful! It also gave me a sense of peace at the end of the day. I've also come to learn that multitasking is a myth. It really is! It's easier to focus on one task at a time and get it done than to try to do a bunch of things all at once.

Set Time Limits

I don't know about you, but I can sit down at the computer and time will just whiz on by! If you are finding that you are taking more than 10 minutes to create your morning slides, or that grading papers is spanning hours into your evening, try setting a timer. A game-changer for me was learning about a study that concluded a person created the same quality of work whether they spent 20 minutes or 45 minutes on the task. The findings showed that the person who spent more time on the task just fiddled with little things that didn't really make any significant improvements to the quality. Knowing this information helped me release the need to become perfectionistic or overthink the small decisions.

Avoid Unnecessary Decisions

Too often teachers are doing too much and adding more than is necessary. You don't have to design a full room transformation to have an effective science lesson. You don't have to decorate your classroom for the changing seasons. You don't have to reinvent the wheel and create every lesson from scratch.

Let's take birthdays as an example. My first year of teaching, birthdays always seemed to come up, and I was just unprepared. So the next year, I created a simple birthday chart. I decided at the beginning of the school year what would happen on birthdays and stuck with it. All students would get to choose a special coupon and a fun pencil. They could bring in a special snack. I made the intentional decision that I wasn't going to make a bunch of extra work for myself. I wanted my students to feel special and recognized, and I could do that while not adding more to my plate. I created a set of coupons, which you can grab here and customize for your class. I printed and cut them out ahead of time and bought packs of fun pencils that I placed in a special birthday box. Voila! Even in times when I forgot about an upcoming birthday, I easily had my supply handy. This is just one example of how I avoided making unnecessary decisions by making a decision one time and sticking with it.

What other time-saving and decision-making suggestions would add? Comment below?