How to Protect Your Planning Time (So You Can Stop Working For Free) [Episode 243]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 243 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net

Heidi 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:34
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking about how to protect your planning time and actually make it productive. Plus, we have a teacher approved tip that will save you from a Valentine’s Day panic.

Heidi 0:48
But let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. So Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:55
This week challenge yourself to look up and smile whenever a student enters the room. The idea of this comes from my favorite Toni Morrison quote, which is, “When a kid walks in the room, your child, or anybody else’s child, does your face light up? That’s what they’re looking for.”

Heidi 1:10
I love that quote so much, because even as an adult, think about the boost you feel when someone feels happy to see you. And I think that means even more to kids.

Emily 1:19
Oh for sure, and especially because for some of your kids, you might be the only person who seems happy to see them, so all it takes is a few seconds, but the impact can last all day for that kiddo.

Heidi 1:31
And if our podcast makes you light up, would you do us a huge favor and take a few seconds to leave a five star rating and review in your podcast app? Ratings and interviews are one way that new listeners find us, so every one of them really, really does help us out.

Emily 1:45
And it really makes us light up.

Heidi 1:47
It does!

Heidi 1:48
So last week we talked about protecting your energy in February, and to build on that, this week, we are following up with some practical tips for making those boundaries a regular part of your day, and we are starting big with one of the most persistent energy drains for teachers, and that’s when your prep time isn’t spent prepping.

Emily 2:07
Yeah, it seems like every day you sit down for your 25 minutes of planning, and somehow you’re answering emails, putting out fires, chatting with a colleague who stopped by, and then it’s time to go grab the kids from the library already.

Heidi 2:19
But of course, when that happens, the tasks that needed your attention didn’t just disappear. They moved into your evening or your weekend or the hour before school when you should be drinking coffee and just chill and mentally preparing for the day.

Emily 2:33
Or in my case, those tasks end up moved into going to school on the weekends to get that done.

Heidi 2:40
Oh yeah, you used to do that a lot.

Emily 2:41
I actually love going in on Saturdays, though, because that meant I didn’t have to deal with distractions, because there were no interruptions, no one’s stopping by to chat. And the best part, you don’t have to share the copier. You could be running more than one copier at one time.

Heidi 2:55
You have all of the power.

Emily 2:56
Yes, it’s bliss. But of course, that was before I had kids and I had that option then. Most people don’t have that option. And honestly, teachers shouldn’t have to go in on the weekends just to get uninterrupted work time.

Heidi 3:09
No, no, we should not. But I think that’s why this topic matters so much. We’ve heard from so many teachers who say that their planning time feels like it belongs to everyone else except them. Now there’s the coverage requests, parent emails, a colleague who needs to vent, meetings, you know, the admin just stopping by with a quick question. It all adds up.

Emily 3:30
And you can see why this happens. Teaching is collaborative, and none of us are doing this alone, but if your planning time is consistently getting hijacked, you’re essentially doing a chunk of your job for free on your own time, which you’re probably already doing plenty of your job for free, so don’t add any more to it.

Heidi 3:44
Seriously, and it’s not because you’re doing anything wrong, that is a systems problem. But unfortunately, fixing the system is outside the scope of this podcast.

Emily 3:53
It’s too bad, because we’ve got great ideas, but nobody wants to hear that.

Heidi 3:57
But since we can’t fix everything, we want to at least give you a guide for navigating all of it more productively.

Emily 4:05
So here’s how we’re thinking about this, protecting your planning time really comes down to two pillars. Pillar one is protecting the time itself, guarding it from interruptions and distractions.

Heidi 4:15
And then we have pillar two, which is about directing the time. The goal is to know exactly what you’re going to work on before you sit down.

Emily 4:23
We picked the imagery of pillars on purpose, because one pillar is just a statue. It doesn’t do you much good. You need two pillars to hold anything up. If you are setting boundaries around your planning time, but then you sit down and stare at a to do list or scroll on your phone (guilty), then the boundaries are useless.

Heidi 4:40
And on the other hand, if you have a great system so you know exactly what to work on, but your planning block keeps getting interrupted, then that system is never getting used.

Emily 4:50
So you need both. Protection without direction leads to wasted time. Ooh, that sounds so like catchy, too. Protection without direction leads to wasted time. Direction without protection collapses under constant interruptions. So let’s start with pillar one, protecting the time. And Heidi, you have a story about this.

Heidi 5:09
I do. So now this was many years ago, but I was in the work room after school, and I ran into another teacher, and I was surprised to see her, because I thought she had already gone home. I think I had gone to, like, ask her something, and her lights were off. Her door was shut. I just assumed she left for the day, but here she was. She had been in her room the whole time just working with her lights off so nobody would interrupt her.

Emily 5:31
Oh, that’s so smart.

Heidi 5:32
I was amazed. I was like, Oh, you could just do that? Like it never crossed my mind that I could make myself less available.

Emily 5:40
Yeah, but that would have been hard in your room. It was, see, I could totally hide in my room because of the way the door was. There was a section of the room that was not visible from the door, so I could be back there, and I didn’t have to, like, worry about lights on or lights off, because I had a wall of windows. So that’s where I would hide if I didn’t want people to find me. But you had no windows in your classroom.

Heidi 6:00
Yeah, yeah. Lights off in a windowless room is not super practical.

Emily 6:05
You could have a headlamp.

Heidi 6:08
But that conversation really shifted something for me. Just because it was convenient for someone to pop in and ask me a question didn’t mean that it was a good use of my time to help them right then.

Emily 6:19
Exactly. So that’s our first suggestion for protecting your planning time. Use physical and visual boundaries. This might look like closing your door or even just partially closing it, maybe turning off or dimming your lights. If you’re lucky enough to have windows like me.

Heidi 6:33
Rub it in.

Emily 6:34
Or positioning yourself away from the doorway, if you have a good hiding spot like I did. Even a simple sign that says, Planning! Back at 4:15! can work wonders.

Heidi 6:43
The goal is to prevent interruptions before they happen, because interruptions may seem harmless, but they’re really not. They’re not just stealing your time, they’re also stealing your focus. It can take several minutes to get your brain back into what you were doing, even after a short interruption.

Emily 7:00
And I know some teachers worry that making yourself less available feels rude or unfriendly. Most of us really value relationships, and it’s important to us to be helpful, but setting boundaries during your planning time is not anti team. It’s pro sustainability. You can’t be available to everyone and also be productive in 25 minutes. Something’s got to give.

Heidi 7:20
And honestly, your relationships with your colleagues will probably be better when you’re not running on empty all the time. Planning time is not relationship building time. It’s work time. And you know what? That’s okay.

Emily 7:32
And if you have to put a sign on your door, I think you can soften the blow a little by going funny. I’ve seen some of these just in, like, people’s work cubicles online. I’ve seen this where it’s just like, don’t talk to me, I’m too easily distracted! Or like, you know, I’ll never get back to work, please don’t talk to me! I’m an eager puppy, or whatever. Just so I think you can, you can make a joke out of it, of just like, I’m in, I’m in timeout, don’t talk to me, if you’re worried about how it might come across. So those are physical boundaries. Heidi, what’s the second piece of protecting your time?

Heidi 8:03
Well, this one might be even harder, but no email during planning time and no phone either. I know that hurts, but hear us out. Planning time is often, you know, what, 20 minutes, 30 if you’re lucky? And one parent email with a complaint or concern can completely derail that entire block. I have been there more than once.

Emily 8:26
Oh, yeah, and ruin the rest of your day. And it’s not just the time it takes to read and respond, but the mental and emotional energy it takes to process it. So when you open your inbox, you’re basically saying to someone, tell me how to use my time. You’re going to let other people’s priorities jump ahead of your own.

Heidi 8:41
And it’s also a good idea to pay attention to how much time your phone is stealing. You think you’re just going to check a text, and then you see a reminder about a dentist appointment you need to reschedule, and then you’re thinking about your kids’ schedule, and then somehow you’re scrolling Instagram and five minutes have finished.

Emily 8:57
That’s why this boundary is important. Your phone pulls your brain out of work mode and into life mode. And once you’re in life mode, it’s so hard to switch back with only 15 minutes left in your planning time.

Heidi 9:07
So set a rule during planning time. Do what you can to limit email, work chat and personal messages. Unless something is genuinely urgent, and most things aren’t, it can wait.

Emily 9:18
Okay, one more piece of protecting your time, and this one is more practical, make sure you start on time. It might not seem like a big deal, but let’s look at some numbers. If you have a 25 minute planning period and it starts five minutes late, you’ve lost 20% of your time.

Heidi 9:32
So it’s really important that you have your students ready for planning time the second it starts. That means taking that last five minutes before your prep starts to transition your students, you know, set an alarm if you need to, so that you aren’t losing any of that time.

Emily 9:46
And this might be hard, but if your planning time is consistently getting cut short because of coverage issues or schedule problems, that is worth advocating for. Maybe the teacher ahead of you is always late picking up their class, so you drop your class off at art and then have to watch her kids in the hall until she gets there.

Heidi 10:02
Oh, yeah, I have been there, but you know, to be honest, I’ve also been the teacher who was late picking up her kids a time or two.

Emily 10:09
Yeah, we all have days where the copier’s being slow or we weren’t watching the clock, but if it’s becoming a consistent problem, it’s worth speaking up about.

Heidi 10:18
And I know it’s tough when you feel like you’re making a big deal about something that seems minor, but this is not that minor, if you look at the big picture.

Emily 10:27
Yeah. Because when your planning time disappears, the work doesn’t, it just moves into unpaid hours.

Heidi 10:32
Yeah, that adds up to basically a whole planning time that you’ve lost. So it’s definitely worth speaking up if you have got an ongoing problem with this situation.

Emily 10:41
And you’ve got to advocate for yourself, because nobody else will.

Emily 10:45
Okay. So that’s pillar one, protect the time, physical boundaries, no email or phone, start on time, and know what you actually need.

Heidi 10:52
Now let’s talk about pillar two, directing the time, because even if you successfully guard your planning period from every interruption, you still need to know what to do with it.

Emily 11:02
And this is where a lot of teachers struggle. You sit down, you look at your giant to do list, and you think, Where do I even start? So you grab your phone just to check something, because that at least feels productive. And now it’s time to get your class.

Heidi 11:15
It’s a trap, and the way you avoid that trap is to decide what you’re doing before planning time starts. Think of this as kind of choosing your lane. Before the week begins, assign each of your planning blocks a category of work. Maybe Monday’s planning time is for lesson plans, Tuesday is for copies, Wednesday is for grading, Thursday for data, Friday is prepping for the week ahead.

Emily 11:36
The goal is to ensure that you’re not sitting down and asking yourself, okay, what should I work on, every day. When you sit down, you should already know what lane you’re in. You’re not standing at a crossroads trying to figure out which direction to go.

Heidi 11:49
What I love about this is how accessible it is. You don’t need any complicated systems or materials. You just need a plan and maybe a sticky note to write it on. The simpler the better. So assign each day’s planning time its own tasks, and then try it out.

Emily 12:04
And you’ll probably have to tweak it a bit until you find the right setup for your needs, but it’s such a low effort way to have high impact on your productivity. Every minute you spend deciding what to work on is a minute you’re not actually working. Choosing your lane keeps you from swerving all over the road during a 25 minute planning period.

Heidi 12:22
And then once you know your lane for the day, the next question is, what is the one task that will make the road ahead smoother? This might mean addressing the most time sensitive task, or it might mean knocking out a task that will make three other tasks easier.

Emily 12:37
Sometimes the most urgent task and the most impactful task are the same thing, but often they’re not. The most urgent task might be responding to that parent email, but the task that smooths the road ahead might be setting up your slides for tomorrow so your morning doesn’t start chaotic.

Heidi 12:51
Or copying a whole week’s worth of math papers at once, instead of scrambling each morning, or creating a template for your weekly newsletter so you’re not reinventing it every Friday. These tasks require a little more upfront work and planning, but they do pay off fast. Think of it like filling potholes, fixing one gap makes the whole drive easier.

Emily 13:12
One more thing that can help with directing your time is to categorize your tasks by size. So keep a running list. It can be just, you know, in a notebook or on a sticky note, where tasks are tagged based on the time they’ll take. So when you finish your planning tasks for the day and you’ve still got five minutes left, you can pull a five minute task off your list.

Heidi 13:29
This is one of my favorite productivity hacks. I use this all the time, even just in my own life.

Emily 13:35
Yeah, it’s so smart. It saves you from a lot of decision fatigue, because I tend to just be like, Oh, I don’t know what to do, so I won’t do anything.

Heidi 13:42
Or, yeah, I’ve only got a few minutes if there’s not anything I can get done in that time.

Emily 13:46
Yeah, so then you’re not wasting time wondering what you can realistically accomplish in the time that you have. So, you know we love maximizing our pockets of prep, and organizing tasks by the time they take is one of the best ways to use pockets of prep.

Heidi 14:00
Okay, one last suggestion for directing your time, use timers and batching. Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, work on one thing, and the timer goes off, stop even if you’re not done.

Emily 14:12
And this might feel counterintuitive, but it works because it’s something called Parkinson’s Law, which basically says that work expands to fill the time you give it.

Heidi 14:20
This is something our mom said all the time when we were growing up. If you tell yourself you have 25 minutes to grade papers, somehow it’s going to take 25 minutes. But if you tell yourself you have 12 minutes, you will be surprised by how much you can actually get done.

Emily 14:34
And if you can’t finish something in one planning block, that’s okay. If you don’t need it for tomorrow, batch it across days. Do 10 minutes of grading Monday, 10 minutes Tuesday, 10 minutes Wednesday, it’ll all still get done.

Heidi 14:46
It’s easy to feel like 20 minutes isn’t enough time to accomplish anything meaningful, and honestly it isn’t, if you don’t manage those 20 minutes like they matter.

Emily 14:55
Short planning time doesn’t have to mean ineffective planning, but it does require being intentional. So let’s do a quick recap. Protecting your planning time comes down to two pillars. Pillar one is protecting the time, no email or phone and starting on time.

Heidi 15:10
And pillar two is directing the time. Choose your lane before you sit down, identify the task that will smooth the road ahead, categorize tasks by size, and use timers to stay focused.

Emily 15:21
Now, of course, we are human. Not every planning time can be a master class in efficiency and productivity. You’re a real person who is just doing their best in a difficult job. So it’s important to be aware of what you need during that time. Sometimes more than making copies, what you need is time to go to the bathroom, eat something, rest your feet or just breathe.

Heidi 15:44
This is especially true if you didn’t sleep well, or you weathered a student meltdown earlier in the day, or your hormones are making everything more difficult. Sometimes the most important thing you can do during planning time is to take care of yourself.

Emily 15:57
Yeah, you need to be able to function for the rest of the afternoon, so give yourself permission to check in. What do you actually need from this time? If it’s five minutes to eat a granola bar and stare at the wall, that is valid, take the five minutes and then get back to work.

Heidi 16:10
Protecting your planning time isn’t about squeezing more productivity out of yourself. It’s about creating a sustainable way to do your job without giving away all of your personal time.

Emily 16:20
If this is the kind of thing you want to dig into more, we are talking more about strategies like this in the Teacher Approved club. It is our membership for teachers who want that ongoing support and community to make their teaching lives a little easier. We have a link to that in the show notes if you want to check it out.

Heidi 16:36
And we would love to hear your tips for how you protect your planning time, what works for you, what boundaries have you set. Come share with us in the Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily 16:46
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s Teacher Approved Tip is just a friendly reminder that if you’re planning to give Valentines to your students, you want to buy them now.

Heidi 16:59
Yeah, Valentines are one of those things that can sneak up on you. You think you have plenty of time, and then suddenly it’s February 10, and the store shelves are already picked over, and then you’re stuck with, like, weird off brand Valentines with, you know, Happy Valentine’s Day from Steve the snake. Who’s Steve the snake? Nobody knows, but he’s all that’s left.

Emily 17:20
I always liked giving something that was a little more memorable but still affordable, so maybe a card with a fun pencil or cute paper airplanes that the kids can fold and actually play with. But that usually meant ordering online, because most of what you can find in store is candy based.

Heidi 17:35
Now, obviously, there’s nothing wrong with candy. Kids love candy, but if you want something that feels special, you need to figure that out now. Some of our favorite places to order Valentines from are Oriental Trading, MindWare, Paper Source and, of course, Amazon, they all have unique and interesting options at good prices.

Emily 17:53
And a tip on Oriental Trading and MindWare specifically, make sure you’re signed up for their emails so you can snag a coupon code. That can save you a ton, especially on shipping.

Heidi 18:02
And if you are able, you might want to consider buying one or two extra boxes of Valentines. Because of cultural differences or family finances, it’s not uncommon for kids to arrive on February 14 without anything to hand out, and you don’t want them to feel left out or sad. It’s it’s really heartbreaking if you’ve been the teacher in that situation.

Emily 18:19
Yes, having a backup stash means you can quietly slip them some Valentines to share without making a big deal of it, and they don’t need to be fancy, just a couple boxes from the Dollar Store can do the trick.

Heidi 18:30
And also keep this in mind if you were expecting students to arrive with boxes that they have decorated at home. If a student shows up without one, don’t assume it’s because they weren’t interested. Sometimes it’s just not within a child’s control to manage all of these extras. Be ready with a backup, even just a bag that they can decorate quickly, or a simple container that you keep on hand.

Emily 18:51
That’s why I always preferred to decorate Valentine’s bags in class. Then I knew everyone was covered, plus I ate up some time on a day that was not going to be productive in the least.

Heidi 19:01
Yeah, I don’t understand why every teacher doesn’t do that. It’s such a nice time filler on Valentine’s Day.

Emily 19:05
Yeah.

Heidi 19:06
Now these things aren’t big things, but they can make a big difference for a kid who might otherwise feel embarrassed or left out.

Emily 19:13
So buy your Valentines now, order online for the best options, and grab some extras for any students who might need them.

Heidi 19:20
Okay, to wrap up the show, we’re sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 19:25
I’m giving extra credit to the most recent season of The Traitors. I have already given this extra credit before, but I don’t care. I love it so much. Like, if you’re not watching The Traitors, what are you doing with your life? It is, it’s just so delightful. And I always just assume everybody knows about The Traitors, but then you talk to people who are just like, it’s just not been on their radar at all. So it’s basically like playing the game that we called mafia growing up, where everybody, and it’s usually celebrities, which I much prefer. There were some of the past seasons had real people, and I didn’t like them as much, because then you feel bad for the people who get kicked off.

Heidi 20:01
Because they need the money for their mom’s surgery or whatever.

Emily 20:06
Yeah, for celebrities, I don’t feel bad at all. So they go to this castle in the Scottish Highlands. Of course, Alan Cummings and his very over the top Scottish brogue for this role, and his over the top fashion as the host. And they are all trying to figure out who among them is a traitor. So secretly, a few of them have been designated as traitors, and they are trying to be undetected in this game. And the faithfuls are trying to figure out who they are. And it just…

Heidi 20:35
Because the traders are going around at night, killing people.

Emily 20:37
Yes, exactly. And at the end, if they get to the end and only faithfuls are left, then they split the money. But if there’s even one traitor left, the traitor gets all the money. So it’s a big challenge of trying to figure out, like, who do you trust? Like, who’s being, who’s being the sneaky traitor behind your back, and who’s, who’s a traitor, but not very good at it, and so they get caught really fast? Sometimes that happens.

Heidi 21:01
Yeah, they play their hands. They overplay their hands.

Emily 21:03
It’s such a hoot. And honestly, I don’t watch a ton of reality shows. So for the most part, I don’t even know these celebrities. Like, there’s always a handful of Real Housewives, and I don’t watch any of those, and there’ll be like, Love Island.

Heidi 21:16
Big brother.

Emily 21:17
Yeah, big brother, Survivor. I don’t watch any of those shows. So mostly I don’t even know these celebrities, but I don’t care, like you get to know them, and it’s fun. And usually there’s at least a few people, like this time, there’s a comedian Ron Funches that I love, a comedian and actor, and Mark Ballas from Dancing with the Stars.

Heidi 21:33
Oh, that’s fun.

Emily 21:34
And a few other people that I do know, but for the most part, it’s people I don’t know, but I don’t care. It’s still fun. So if you’re not watching it, you should be watching it. It’s on peacock.

Heidi 21:42
I haven’t started this season yet. I’m waiting for it to build up episodes, because of course, they only drop one a week.

Emily 21:47
No, they, but to start, they dropped like three the first week and then two. So I’ve already watched five.

Heidi 21:51
Okay, that’s good. I’ve been catching up on the, because on Peacock, you can see the UK Traitors.

Emily 21:57
Yes, which are also good.

Heidi 21:59
So that’s been really fun.

Emily 22:00
Yes, they’re at the same castle. They do it at the same castle, but it’s a different host, and the vibes are a little different, but it’s fun too. I like the British ones too. It’s a good watch.

Heidi 22:08
Definitely.

Emily 22:09
What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 22:11
Well, I’m giving extra credit to everyone who helped with our Teacher Winter Talk Summit that ended a couple weeks ago. This took months and months and months of careful planning and so many hours of work. Emily deserves all of the bonus points, all of the gold stars, all of the extra credit.

Emily 22:27
Where’s my crown? I will accept it.

Heidi 22:29
Seriously, or a couple days off of work.

Emily 22:31
Yeah, I would take that too.

Heidi 22:35
But the event was awesome, and Melanie and Sara and Mari and Kate and so many other people worked behind the scenes to make sure that all of the pieces work together. You have no idea how many tiny little pieces all have to come together to make this event work.

Emily 22:49
Oh, yeah, yes. And then our amazing presenters, too.

Heidi 22:52
Extra extra credit to everyone who presented. They did such amazing sessions. I got great takeaways. Hopefully all of you did too. And extra credit to everyone who signed up, who listened to the sessions, who joined for the live calls.

Emily 23:05
Oh, those were so fun.

Heidi 23:06
It was so fun to get to see some of you, and you know everyone who worked hard on their bingo boards. That was a commitment.

Emily 23:11
Yes.

Heidi 23:12
It really was a fantastic weekend, and I’m already getting excited about the Summer Summit. Emily has picked out a really fun theme.

Emily 23:19
You guys, it’s gonna be so good!

Heidi 23:23
Well, that is it for today’s episode. Try out our two pillar framework for protecting your planning time, and don’t forget to grab those Valentines before they are gone.

Heidi 23:34
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 23:38
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 23:45
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 23:51
Bye.