Teaching Tip #32

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #32

Find the time vs. make the time

Have you ever known anyone who seems to get so much done?  Whether it’s reading or correcting or speaking or planning or presenting?

I see some of my colleagues and wonder if they don’t have more hours in their days than I do.

But that’s not it.  Not at all.

The key to getting more done is simple: you have to make the time.

The myth is that incredibly productive people find extra time.  That’s not true at all.

The reality is that they make the time.

Case in point: over the spring and summer months I make time to get up early (around 5 am) and run.  Somehow, though, in the fall and winter months I just can’t find the time.  But the truth is that I am just lazier in those months.  I lose my motivation to make the extra time that I did from April through September.

So if you find yourself wishing that you had more time to lesson plan, grade papers, work out, read more . . . whatever, just remember that it’s not about finding the time.

It’s all about making the time to get things done.

Now the easiest way to make the extra time is to either get less sleep or to quit some other things that hog your time.  For the spring and summer months, I don’t watch TV.  However, once fall hits, I’m addicted to football.  I catch Monday night football, and Thursday night football and then college all day on Saturday and the NFL all day on Sunday.  That is at least 30 hours of football that I make time for.  I consciously choose to put other things on the back burner to watch football.

But the key is that it’s easy to sit on the couch and watch football.  It’s not hard to make time for that.

Getting up at 5 am and running four miles, though?  Now that’s not easy to make time for.  But it’s vital.

So the next time you look at someone who seems to be super productive, don’t ask them how they find the time.  Instead, ask them what they do extra to make the time to get all of that stuff done.