Skip Navigation
We use cookies to offer you a better browsing experience, provide ads, analyze site traffic, and personalize content. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies.
Advice

5 Tips to Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Published: September 1, 2018

Balancing my career as a teacher and my life as a wife and mother hasn’t always been easy. As most teachers know, taking work home is a common practice. Answering parent emails on the weekend, grading papers at night, and lesson planning in the early morning hours are things most teachers can admit to. Sometimes, taking work home with you is inevitable. However, it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between all that work and your personal life.

As a veteran teacher of 15 years, I’ve learned there is no such thing as a perfect work-life balance. With the ebbs and flows of life and teaching, there are bound to be some turbulent times now and then. However, it pays off to take time and work on staying balanced between the two.  

Here are a few guidelines I set for myself to ensure a healthy balance:

Set Boundaries for Work

Juggling all of your responsibilities can seem impossible for teachers at times. I like to stay extremely organized and set a schedule for when I will get all my work done. With a schedule, I am able to set boundaries for myself for when I will take work home or stay late at school. If I break my routine I can hold myself accountable and readjust my workload so the next week I am on track to complete work as planned.

Learn to Work Efficiently

Over the years I have gotten better at working efficiently, but when I first started as a teacher I struggled with it. Small changes like planning your lessons online and making to-do lists can increase efficiency exponentially. Prioritizing your to-do list and sticking with the list is also crucial to work efficiently.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

Try not to worry if not everything is just as you imagined it would be. Learning that not everything will get done in the way you want it to and at your ideal time is a very valuable lesson. A teacher's to-do list can be never ending.Instead of stressing over what you can’t do, use that time to plan when you’ll get done what is left.

Have a positive attitude

Choose to look on the bright side of things and try your best to have a good attitude. When you maintain a positive mentality in times of stress, you set an example for your students to do the same.

Set aside time for yourself

To be the best teacher you can be, you need to be the best version of yourself. Whether it’s going for a run, meditating or reading your favorite book, taking time for yourself will you give you some necessary personal time to recharge.

When teachers are exhausted due to a lack of a healthy work-life balance, they become less effective in the classroom. It is possible to keep up with your teaching career, the needs of your students, and your life at home. However, there is no one-size fits all solution when it comes to achieving the ideal balance. Find a method that works for you and work to maintain the work-life balance you’ve built for yourself.

 

Get more from

We're here to help you succeed in your career, advocate for public school students, and stay up to date on the latest education news. Sign up to stay informed.
National Education Association

Great public schools for every student

The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.