Do you feel confident at the end of your workday that you’ve spent your time wisely? How do you know that you focused on the most important tasks and moved closer to your big picture goals? How do you determine when you’ve done “enough” and can step away from your desk? I’ve got some strong opinions about work life balance, so let’s explore this topic together.
Work Life Balance Tips
We’re all searching for the magic formula to achieve work life balance, right?
When I really lean into what work life balance would feel like if and when I achieved it, I realize what I actually want is to feel good when I step away from my desk at the end of the day.
I want to feel like I’ve done enough.
While I know the work won’t ever be done (there will always be more to do) I want to feel confident that I spent my day moving closer to my current goal. I also want to feel confident that my goals are on track.
Since we can’t achieve a feeling until we know what feeling we’re trying to achieve, I think this clarity is key before trying out a list of generic work life balance tips you find online.
Work Life Balance For Teachers Is A Unique Challenge
I love working with teachers and former teachers because they likely never had the opportunity to achieve work life balance when they were in the classroom. They’ve probably accepted that working around the clock is just the way it is.
Teachers have so little control and choice when it comes to their daily schedule, that it’s really tricky for them to transition into the world of online business where the whole schedule is wide open. They go from having 0 choice to 100 percent choice and that can be an alarming transition.
Having no control over your schedule makes it hard to get things done – that’s a struggle that many teachers can relate to I’m sure.
But having total control over your schedule can be paralyzing in it’s own way. There are few firm deadlines involved when you start your own business so many new business owners sit down at their desk to greet a blank slate of a day. . . and that can be terrifying.
Will I make the right choices? Will I work on the right things? Where is the roadmap to running a successful business?
In those early days teacher business owners often fill the day with busy work to control the nervous energy or even run away from the big decisions by saying Yes to an extra lunch date with a friend, pushing the big, scary decisions off to another day.
Work Life Balance When Working From Home
While trying to accomplish work tasks in a room setup with student learning as a focus isn’t a walk in the park, working from home brings a whole new set of challenges.
It can be challenging to focus on work tasks when you see chores and family to-dos in your peripheral vision. It might be tough to keep your space clean, especially if it is a space that others share access to. The sounds of hoverboards and video games and dance parties can make focusing on a work task challenging, even if your office space has the luxury of a door that closes.
Teacher business owners are my favorite humans to work with so the work life balance of teachers will always be near and dear to my heart. I understand their unique struggles and love helping them create schedules and systems that help them make a big impact in the world of education. If you want to clock out with confidence, you’re in the right place.
Work Life Balance As A Business Owner
If your business schedule is ready for a reset, I think you’ll love diving into the scheduling module of my course. Who knows if we’ll ever achieve true work life balance, but I think time spent getting closer to a schedule that feels good is time well spent. My project management tool shows me that every task that I wish I could do right now has a home on my calendar. While I don’t have the energy to do them all today, I can clock out with confidence knowing that all of those important tasks will get done and that my deadlines are on track. I can’t wait for you to have that feeling at the end of your work day, too.
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Read the transcript:
Janice Cook 0:00 Do you feel confident at the end of your workday that you’ve spent your time wisely? How do you know that you focused on the most important tasks and moved closer to your big picture goals? How do you determine when you’ve done enough and can step away from your desk? I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s explore this topic together.
Janice Cook 0:23 You’re listening to Your Win-Win Teacher Business, a podcast for teacher authors who want to make a big impact in the world for teachers and students, and have fun doing it. I’m your host, Janice Cook, here with a pep talk to start your week off strong. Some seasons of running a business feel hard and sticky, but it shouldn’t feel like that all the time. Let’s make your business a win-win together.
Janice Cook 0:49 Turning off my brain at the end of the work day has always been a struggle for me. If we’re being honest, it was a struggle for me as a teacher too. I love my business, and my brain is buzzing with ideas all day and night. And while that isn’t a bad thing once in a while, it isn’t sustainable long term. I don’t want my business to run my life. I want my business to be a part of my life. I want my brain to be available and present for my personal life outside of office hours. Easier said than done, right?
Janice Cook 1:31 The first place I started making adjustments was my physical space. When the letter T fell off my MacBook Pro and the quote to fix it was a Heck No, I actually found that I liked no longer having a laptop in the mix. Ergonomically speaking, it was much better for me not to work on the couch and not to work in bed. And once my old lady eyes got used to having two giant monitors at my desk, working on my 15 inch single screen device started to feel much less appealing.
Janice Cook 2:09 I work in our finished basement, and my kids have some time slots in the day where that space is theirs, so I clear out and give them their privacy. That helps me stick to my office hours, and I’m pretty grateful for that boundary. While a laptop would allow me to finish up a few tasks in another room, usually by that time of day, if we’re really being honest, my brain is spent. Would I really be doing my best work? Or would that time be better spent recharging my batteries? Deep down, we all know the answer to that question. So I said goodbye to my laptop, and I have to tell you, I do not miss it. Work tasks now happen in one place – at my desk. And they happen during predetermined hours.
Janice Cook 3:05 Many of my colleagues use a candle at their desk as a cue to tell their brain when it’s working time and when it’s not. I’m not a candle girlie. No to smelly candles. No to candle warmers. No to those LED flames. I’m really just not a fan of candles at all. But the idea of lighting a cozy candle when it’s time to start a focus task and blowing out the candle when they step away for a recharging pause, that made a lot of sense. If you’ve followed me on Instagram for a while, you’ve probably met my office assistant: Focus Toast. Head to the show notes for episode five on my website, cookfamilyresources.com, to see a cutie patootie picture and grab a link to where you can get your very own focused toast. He’s a cute little toaster lamp that lives on my desk. I press the toaster handle, and the toast lights up. I press the handle again, and the toast light turns off. Same effect, less fire risk, and it makes me smile when I step into my office each morning.
Janice Cook 4:20 Your physical space matters. I wonder what small adjustments you could make to your physical space to help you focus and make the most of the time you’ve set aside for work. Is there a cue you could add to provide a signal to your brain that it’s time to stop thinking about your business until the following day? How would it feel to be able to turn off those racing thoughts?
Janice Cook 4:48 Updates to your physical space can offer a small boost in the right direction, but the biggest transformation for me came from adopting a proper project management tool inside my business.
Janice Cook 5:00 When I got crystal clear on my quarterly and annual goals and worked backwards to break those goals into small steps, the clarity really lifted a weight off of my shoulders. It became easier to say YES to opportunities that aligned with those goals and NO THANK YOU to shiny objects that weren’t related to my current focus. For example, if my current focus is adding 12 impactful blog posts to my website, I don’t need to purchase the new shiny tool to help me data mine and optimize my TPT resources. I can say NO when that cart opens and wait until the timing aligns with my goals in the future. If my current focus is visibility and list growth, then an in-person, conference or podcast guesting opportunity is a clear YES. But during seasons, when I need to stay heads down in creation mode, it is okay to pass on those opportunities and trust that they’ll come up again when the timing is a win-win.
Janice Cook 6:06 My project management tool keeps my current focus right in front of my face each and every day, I take the big goal, break it into small baby steps, and add them to my calendar. I block off the time I need to achieve that goal. When I’m honest with myself about how long each of those tasks take, and I reflect on the best time of day to tackle them, I can map out a schedule for myself that gives me a strong chance of achieving the goal. My capacity is so clearly marked inside my Asana workspace that when new opportunities come my way, I can clearly see two important pieces of information. Does this new opportunity align to the goal I am currently focused on? And is there a place to add this opportunity to my calendar right now before saying YES to it?
Janice Cook 7:06 That might be a dose of tough love today, but if it’s not helping me reach my goal and I don’t have a place for it on my calendar, then the timing isn’t right.
Janice Cook 7:19 Asana operates like the main office secretary that keeps parents and vendors out of your classroom when you’re trying to teach. Asana knows what my priorities are and saves me from hours of waffling about every little decision.
Janice Cook 7:35 You might be wondering how that project management tool helps me clock out with confidence. When I sit down to work for the day, my first step is not deciding what task I’m in the mood to start first. Asana tells me exactly what today’s priorities are. My menu of choices is small, and that’s very positive for me. My tasks for the day have already been aligned with the real life amount of time that I have to work and I’ve considered the realistic amount of time each of those tasks should take. All the bits and pieces that I need to do the task have already been gathered into that one space on the calendar square, and I just need to trust the plan and execute. And that is where my paper planner fell short all those years.
Janice Cook 8:29 When my workday comes to a close, I can clearly see that my goals are on track. I accomplished what was on my desk for today, the other tasks all have a spot saved on my calendar, and the big picture goal is on track to be accomplished. I can clock out with confidence. I know that I had a good day in the office, moving the needle on the most impactful tasks that will help me achieve my current goals.
Janice Cook 8:55 And while there is always more that I could do, I no longer feel like I need to try to do it all today. All of those tasks have a home, and I’ll get to them when it is their turn for my attention. I can clock out with confidence.
Janice Cook 9:14 And if I wake up with a stomach bug and need to shift my schedule, I can pick up those digital tasks and move them to a flex space on my calendar so that the project remains on track and I can rest and give my body what it needs. I’ll take five minutes of digital reprioritization time over writing sub plans any day. And because my project management tool is digital, I can make these adjustments on the app from my bed, if needed, and I don’t need to feel all the feels that come with crossing out and making a paper planner layout look messy. I can take the day off with confidence.
Janice Cook 9:56 And if tech glitches make a task simply not possible to tackle today or a colleague needs to reschedule, I always have the freedom to swap two tasks on my calendar that are a similar size. If I saved two hours for Task A today, it’s okay to move that to next week and bring Task B to my desk today instead. If it’s also about two hours in length, that’s a win-win. While I didn’t stick to my original plan, I still clock out with confidence, because I can see a clear visual that my most important goals are still on track.
Janice Cook 10:34 If that feeling is missing inside your teacher business, I’m so glad this podcast has connected us. Get curious about what’s working about your current systems and what is feeling sticky. This is the year we get things cleaned up for you once and for all, so you too can clock out with confidence and ensure your business feels like a win-win each and every day.
Janice Cook 11:00 I know you didn’t start this business to work 24/7. Turning your business brain off is so challenging, but it’s a critical skill if we’re going to make it as a teacher business owner for the long haul.
Janice Cook 11:14 I’d love to hear about your workday. Wind down routine. Stop by Apple podcast to leave a review for the show and share your tips to help others get one step closer to clocking out with confidence. I’m so grateful that you’re a part of our podcasting community.
Janice Cook 11:32 If you’re listening to this episode in real time, this is the final episode in our launch series, so it’s time to head to the show notes and find the details for my launch giveaway. All entries need to be in by midnight EST on January 14, 2025.
Janice Cook 11:50 You can expect a new episode of Your Win-Win Teacher Business every Monday. As we settle back into our offices and start to look at our goals for the new year, it’s time to explore the concept of capacity. So that’s the topic for our next cozy chat.
Janice Cook 12:07 Thanks for making this podcast a part of your day. I’d love to help you find clarity with your next step in business. Go to cookfamilyresources.com/hiring-guide. I’ll also leave that link in the show notes for you. This guide is packed with good news for those days when you feel like you can’t possibly do it all. It might be time for you to invest in paid support, but the truth is, there are a lot of free steps to explore first. After you dive into that guide, I’ll be in your inbox every Monday morning with more actionable tips to help you enjoy running your business again. See you in the next episode.
