Time Management Tips: Your "To Do" List

To master time management you should have lists/goals of what you want to accomplish for each school year, and then monthly, weekly, and daily goals. What tasks in your teaching job yield the greatest results?

My first step in effective time management as a teacher was to identify the three most important job tasks that I have. The three are: Planning Instruction, Delivering Instruction, and Assessing Instruction.

These of course encompass many other tasks but I try to stay focused on these three. This is what will have the greatest impact on the learning of my students. All my tasks will eventually lead back to these three critical tasks.

Tips for Making Your To Do List

Tracy also recommends the A,B,C,D, E strategy for your "To Do" list. Look at the items on your list and then code them as follows:

A = something you must do. This is a very important task and there are serious consequences for not getting it done.

B = something you should do. You may annoy or inconvenience someone by not getting it done, but there are not dire consequences. You should not work on this task if you have "A" tasks unfinished.

C = something that would be nice to do. Getting in touch with a friend, or completing personal business are "C" level tasks.

D = something that you can delegate to someone else. These are low value tasks that do not require your expertise and can be handled by someone else. For teachers these are the many routine tasks that take up much of our time every day. There are a few ways you can outsource many of your tasks.

E = something you can eliminate altogether from your list.

Remember, you always want to focus on your key result areas. Now take action! Today! Start making a focused "To Do" list that reflects your goals and the most important aspects of your teaching job.

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