Most teachers know that feeling of juggling a zillion tasks, the endless to-dos that seem to multiply faster than rabbits, and that sneaky overwhelm that creeps in right when you need it the least.

Being overwhelmed and burned out can have your productivity taking a swan dive, but that's why in this episode we are chatting with Brianne Beebe who is dropping some nuggets to lead you to your treasure map to the land of organized classrooms, stress-free planning sessions, and thriving teacher life. You know, the one where you effortlessly breeze through your tasks, leaving those to-dos in the dust while you radiate calm and confidence.

Brianne Beebe is a high school math teacher, a teacher burnout survivor, and a Teacher Productivity Mentor. As a mom to two under five, Brianne knows that school work must stay at school. This is why she equips teachers with tools to master their productivity so they can build fulfilling lives inside (and out of) the classroom.

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Introduction and Background of Guest Teacher

[0:00] Hey, Brianne, welcome to the Resilient Teacher Podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely. It is such a pleasure to have you here on the podcast.

You are such a great resource for teachers.

And I would just love for you to share a little bit about how you got into teaching, what your teaching experience has been like and how you got into sharing productivity with teachers on social media.

So I started teaching officially 11 years ago I teach geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus in New York.

I'm a mom to two. I have a soon-to-be five-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old.

I started what ended up being a teacher business as a blog, YouTube channel, and I didn't have any plans on making it into a formal business where I was really sharing anything targeted.

I just saw that a lot of teachers were sharing stuff online, but it was always elementary teachers and while they were sharing really great things, there were certain things that just don't work for high school teachers.

And so I just wanted to start sharing something so that there was something out there for high school teachers.

And over time, it just became that I help teachers with their productivity because lots of people need help with that, but teachers especially need help with mastering their productivity.

Dealing with Burnout and Setting Boundaries as a Teacher

[1:23] Yeah, teachers definitely need help with productivity. I mean, when I first started teaching, I thought that I had to do everything, and I didn't even know what everything was or when to do that, and there was no course in college for it.

So I went on to Pinterest looking for things. I'm a middle school teacher, so there was nothing for middle school teachers on how to really master that, know what to do and when to do it, and I just really wish that I'd have found your account sooner.

So even though you are a productivity master, have you ever dealt with burnout and where did that come from?

Tell us a little bit about maybe some type of experience that you've had in regards to burnout.

Yeah, so I always describe myself as a teacher burnout survivor because I think the story that we're used to hearing is teachers hit burnout and then they quit.

But I stuck with it and this was my fourth year of teaching and I always say that burnout is like this multifaceted issue. It's never just this one thing.

So that year I had a really unsupportive administrator that I had to deal with, I had difficult students which is not anything new, but it was like seven students in one class were like really big personalities.

And I couldn't just send them all to a separate corner to fix that.

[2:44] So I was dealing with that all year long. The students that I had my first year there, I got so close to them and they'd graduated the year before.

So I was just missing them and it was hard not being with them.

But for me, the big thing was that I was always working nonstop.

I would get to school early to work, and I would stay late to work, then I'd get home and have to continue working, and it was to the point where I really thought that there's no way that I can be a teacher and be a parent at the same time because I would not have time to devote to my children.

And out of all of those issues, the only one that I had any control over was how I was spending my time. So I found ways to maximize my planning time.

I started batching my lesson plans and I started setting boundaries like not staying after school, not giving up my prep time all the time because there were always students in my room.

So I started saying, you know, on Fridays during this period, I'm not available for extra help. You'll have to call them a different day.

[3:48] Oh, wow. Your story sounds so familiar to me because I also dealt with feeling like I had to do it all with an unsupportive administration.

I felt like I went through the worst year of teaching, dealing with a lot of issues like that. And so that story sounds very familiar to me. But I think a lot of teachers struggle with that. They don't know how to set those boundaries, because it's not something that they talk about in teacher prep programs, though I really wish that they would. I wish that that was like a life lesson that we all learned, you know, in school or something like that. Because.

[4:26] Boundaries are such an essential part of really taking care of yourself and being able to deal with the amount of things that we're gonna get as teachers and and setting them so that we're not overextending ourselves, So we're not.

You know, doing too much so that we can have that work-life balance that we all crave, you know what I mean? And so we're recording this at the beginning of summer, but I think this episode is going to go live before school starts. So I would love for you to share a little bit about what teachers might can do over the summer to really maximize their productivity when they return to school in the fall. Sure. So there's several things you can do. I mean.

Maximizing Productivity during Summer Break

[5:06] Definitely set a boundary around how much time you want to actually spend on school versus is just be free because it's summer and we need that and we deserve it.

So some of the things that you might be able to do from home without having to actually go to school would be cleaning up your files that you have online.

I use Google Drive. Do you use Google Drive too?

Yes, and I'm literally obsessed with organizing my Google Drive thanks to Lisa McCarg who has really opened my eyes to the power of a clean Google Drive.

So we can go through our files over the summer and make sure that they are where they should be. You just want it to be easy to find.

So you might need to rename some files so you know what it is.

You might need to put them into folders so that similar files are grouped together.

And anything that you don't need, delete it, let that go.

And another thing I like to do to get started for next year is start setting up the folders that I need. If I know what I'm teaching for the following school year, I can get those folders ready to go. Start putting things that I know I definitely want to do again into the folders. So that way it's prepared.

[6:13] Yeah, that's such a good one, because I was talking with Lisa McCarg a couple episodes back and we were talking about how, you know, even your digital clutter can really impact your stress levels and lead to burnout and all of that.

And so I don't think people realize that they have a little bit of control in their Google Drive.

You know what I mean? So like having a system for that, I think is super important, like really having a time to go in and go through those downloads, because, you know, downloads are the ones that always don't have a name, they don't have a space, and then your files get all muddy again.

But what's another system that you have that's like your go-to system for productivity?

[6:57] So for systems, anything that you do repeatedly, you can create a system around.

So it's kind of hard to limit it to just certain things, but everything.

You can systematize everything that you do repeatedly. The key is to be really intentional on how you set up your system so that you're creating a system that serves you rather than one that's going to drain you or cause more issues.

Sometimes we end up creating a system without putting any thought into it and even without even realizing it, things just fall into place and they can get really messy and really hard to manage and just make things harder on ourselves.

So I love to teach teachers how to create systems that actually work and help you boost, productivity. My favorite systems are having routines for beginning and ending the day so things are set up for the next school day when you leave and for how you start everything up, when you come in the next morning. I also love having a system for to-do lists so that your to-do list is not going to be never-ending but just having a system for knowing what to do on which day and where your priorities are. That saves so much time. I also have systems for lesson planning, for grading, and for handling all the paperwork.

So you mentioned specific days for specific tests. So do you do like grading on Tuesdays and lesson plans on Wednesdays? Or what does that look like for you?

[8:22] For me, like my big, big system isn't lesson planning. I batch my lesson plans.

And that's kind of turned into like on Monday, we do this, on Tuesday, we do that. So I'll start with my plans that go into my lesson planning template on Monday. I create the notes for, all of my classes. Tuesday is a day of creating assessments. Wednesday is answer keys. Thursday is like copies. And if I need to make any files for like smart notebook or something like that, i'll make those and then friday is like scheduling everything into google classroom.

[8:56] I really like the way that you've systemized that because every classroom is going to look different, right?

We all have different needs and things that we have to do because some people don't have to make copies because they're all digital or things like that.

For me, as a special educator, I always had Mondays for progress monitoring and then Tuesdays were for IEP meetings, Wednesdays were for going through the progress monitoring or checking on data, and then Thursdays, again, were for IEP meetings or for doing paperwork and things like that.

And then Fridays were always communication days, like where we focused as a class on any missing assignments and really like tying that all together.

So I really like how you have different days for different things.

Even mentioning just the different days for different things, I use that same concept like at home because we have, laundry was a huge issue for me.

So laundry, I started doing specific days of laundry, like work clothes Wednesday, things like that. You know what I mean?

Make it kind of fun and a little bit more exciting.

Debunking Productivity Myths and Finding Balance

So what are some of the like biggest myths that you have heard teachers say about productivity?

I think one of the big things is people assume that like you're either naturally productive or you're not, but it's a skill.

So anyone can learn how to be productive. It's not this defined personality trait where you either got it or you don't.

Another one is that people think being productive means working all the time.

They'll get that boost in productivity. They'll start saving time.

They'll get things done faster. So they end up with this extra time.

The goal is to have extra time, but then people start filling it with more work.

Right. When we're at school, you kind of have to keep working.

If you do find those pockets of time where you're like, oh, I got all my stuff done, then that'd be a great time to change out your bulletin board or do those things you normally don't get time to do.

But the ultimate goal is to be home and not have to do anything for school.

Right. Because when you're at home, you've got other stuff to do. I've been trying out some new time blocking techniques over the summer and things like that with my family because, it's really full over here with so many kids. So trying to really find ways to be productive.

Time Blocking Techniques for Teachers

And I know that you do that with teachers in the classroom and time blocking your days as a teacher. Can you share a little bit about like maybe the steps on how teachers can go about time blocking, maybe their planning time or just their day in general? I think just don't over think it. And teachers, like we have built in schedules, like our blocks are built out for us.

We really don't have a lot of choice in the matter. So anytime that you have a planning period, like that's your time to like block out for whatever it is that you need to do. If you come in early so you can have extra time, then that would be another time block. And if, you know your choices to stay late that would be a time block as well but just.

Yeah, I'm definitely a morning person. I have more creative juices going on in the morning. I feel more productive in the morning. Is that you too?

Yes. Yes, yes, definitely.

I was going to say, you have to be a morning person because I have watched your stories on Instagram and you're always so put together in the mornings. You share a little bit about your day. I really enjoy watching your stories in the morning. Before I let you go, I would love for you to share just one last piece of advice for any educator who's out there who's struggling with productivity. What is the one thing you would want them to take away from this?

From Brain Dump to Effective To-Do List System

And that's why we complain like we have this to-do list that's overwhelming and never ending because you literally just wrote everything down onto a piece of paper.

Of your brain dump, of course, but then take your priority and put it on a Post-it note.

So you're focused on that one really important thing instead of looking at everything else that you need to get done.

But in reality, I was just creating that brain dump versus a to-do list. So really differentiating between the two I I know is going to help so many other educators as well.

So thank you for that.

But I would absolutely love for you to share a little bit more about where teachers can learn more from you, where you're most active on social media.

Just share where they can find you so they can learn more about how to be a productive teacher.

Yes. So you can find me on YouTube if you search Busy Miss Bebe.

You can find my website, busymissbebe.com. My last name is B-E-E-B-E.

And I'm also on Instagram at busymissbebe.

So you can follow me there. I don't have all the details ironed out yet, but I do an organized teacher challenge every summer and every winter.

And this year, I'm going to actually expand it and do an organized teacher summer school with just free live workshops scheduled throughout the summer.

And I'll go over just organizing different things and just kind of preparing for back to school for it to be more productive.

Yeah, so I'll put all of that and so much more in the links in the show notes for everybody to go grab your freebies and learn more from you.

Even go into like the session that you did at the Summer Self-Care Conference because it was phenomenal.

I learned so much and I know so many other educators really resonated with what you talked about and so I'll put a little blurb about that as well.

But thank you so much, Breanne, for coming onto the show. I love talking productivity and systems with you. It was just a blast.

Thank you for having me.