In this episode, we break down why teacher planning time so often gets wasted and what actually helps protect it. We share a simple two-pillar framework focused on guarding your prep from interruptions and directing it with intention, so you know exactly what to work on when you sit down. From setting boundaries to choosing tasks that make the rest of your week smoother, this conversation is all about making planning time more productive and sustainable.

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/teacher-planning-time-strategies/

Resources:

1. Join the Teacher Approved Club!
2. February Teacher Survival Kit
3. Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow.
4. Shop our teacher-approved resources.
5. Join our Facebook group, Teacher Approved
6. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
7. Leave a comment or rating on Spotify.

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

1. Episode 169. Our Best Teacher Tips for Finding Pockets of Prep Time to Get Ahead for January
2. Episode 91. Start Your Day Strong: Top Tips for Maximizing Your Morning Work
3. Episode 181. How to Get Ahead on Your Teacher Tasks for a Stress-Free Spring Break

Mentioned in this episode:

Try the Teacher Approved Club free for 10 days and get one perfectly timed, research-backed strategy each month—plus support from Heidi and Emily to help you actually use it when it matters most. Start your free trial at https://secondstorywindow.net/trial

This is episode 243 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we are talking about how to protect your planning

time and actually make it productive. Plus, we have a

teacher approved tip that will save you from a Valentine's Day

panic.

But let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we share

a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. So

Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

This week challenge yourself to look up and smile

whenever a student enters the room. The idea of this comes

from my favorite Toni Morrison quote, which is, "When a kid

walks in the room, your child, or anybody else's child, does

your face light up? That's what they're looking for."

I love that quote so much, because even as an adult,

think about the boost you feel when someone feels happy to see

you. And I think that means even more to kids.

Oh for sure, and especially because for some of

your kids, you might be the only person who seems happy to see

them, so all it takes is a few seconds, but the impact can last

all day for that kiddo.

And if our podcast makes you light up, would you do us a

huge favor and take a few seconds to leave a five star

rating and review in your podcast app? Ratings and

interviews are one way that new listeners find us, so every one

of them really, really does help us out.

And it really makes us light up.

It does!

So last week we talked about protecting your energy in

February, and to build on that, this week, we are following up

with some practical tips for making those boundaries a

regular part of your day, and we are starting big with one of the

most persistent energy drains for teachers, and that's when

your prep time isn't spent prepping.

Yeah, it seems like every day you sit down for your 25

minutes of planning, and somehow you're answering emails, putting

out fires, chatting with a colleague who stopped by, and

then it's time to go grab the kids from the library already.

But of course, when that happens, the tasks that needed

your attention didn't just disappear. They moved into your

evening or your weekend or the hour before school when you

should be drinking coffee and just chill and mentally

preparing for the day.

Or in my case, those tasks end up moved into going to

school on the weekends to get that done.

Oh yeah, you used to do that a lot.

I actually love going in on Saturdays, though, because

that meant I didn't have to deal with distractions, because there

were no interruptions, no one's stopping by to chat. And the

best part, you don't have to share the copier. You could be

running more than one copier at one time.

You have all of the power.

Yes, it's bliss. But of course, that was before I had

kids and I had that option then. Most people don't have that

option. And honestly, teachers shouldn't have to go in on the

weekends just to get uninterrupted work time.

No, no, we should not. But I think that's why this

topic matters so much. We've heard from so many teachers who

say that their planning time feels like it belongs to

everyone else except them. Now there's the coverage requests,

parent emails, a colleague who needs to vent, meetings, you

know, the admin just stopping by with a quick question. It all

adds up.

And you can see why this happens. Teaching is

collaborative, and none of us are doing this alone, but if

your planning time is consistently getting hijacked,

you're essentially doing a chunk of your job for free on your own

time, which you're probably already doing plenty of your job

for free, so don't add any more to it.

Seriously, and it's not because you're doing anything

wrong, that is a systems problem. But unfortunately,

fixing the system is outside the scope of this podcast.

It's too bad, because we've got great ideas, but

nobody wants to hear that.

But since we can't fix everything, we want to at least

give you a guide for navigating all of it more productively.

So here's how we're thinking about this, protecting

your planning time really comes down to two pillars. Pillar one

is protecting the time itself, guarding it from interruptions

and distractions.

And then we have pillar two, which is about directing

the time. The goal is to know exactly what you're going to

work on before you sit down.

We picked the imagery of pillars on purpose, because one

pillar is just a statue. It doesn't do you much good. You

need two pillars to hold anything up. If you are setting

boundaries around your planning time, but then you sit down and

stare at a to do list or scroll on your phone (guilty), then the

boundaries are useless.

And on the other hand, if you have a great system so you

know exactly what to work on, but your planning block keeps

getting interrupted, then that system is never getting used.

So you need both. Protection without direction

leads to wasted time. Ooh, that sounds so like catchy, too.

Protection without direction leads to wasted time. Direction

without protection collapses under constant interruptions. So

let's start with pillar one, protecting the time. And Heidi,

you have a story about this.

I do. So now this was many years ago, but I was in the

work room after school, and I ran into another teacher, and I

was surprised to see her, because I thought she had

already gone home. I think I had gone to, like, ask her

something, and her lights were off. Her door was shut. I just

assumed she left for the day, but here she was. She had been

in her room the whole time just working with her lights off so

nobody would interrupt her.

Oh, that's so smart.

I was amazed. I was like, Oh, you could just do that? Like

it never crossed my mind that I could make myself less

available.

Yeah, but that would have been hard in your room. It was,

see, I could totally hide in my room because of the way the door

was. There was a section of the room that was not visible from

the door, so I could be back there, and I didn't have to,

like, worry about lights on or lights off, because I had a wall

of windows. So that's where I would hide if I didn't want

people to find me. But you had no windows in your classroom.

Yeah, yeah. Lights off in a windowless room is not super

practical.

You could have a headlamp.

But that conversation really shifted something for me.

Just because it was convenient for someone to pop in and ask me

a question didn't mean that it was a good use of my time to

help them right then.

Exactly. So that's our first suggestion for protecting

your planning time. Use physical and visual boundaries. This

might look like closing your door or even just partially

closing it, maybe turning off or dimming your lights. If you're

lucky enough to have windows like me.

Rub it in.

Or positioning yourself away from the doorway, if you

have a good hiding spot like I did. Even a simple sign that

says, Planning! Back at 4:15! can work wonders.

The goal is to prevent interruptions before they

happen, because interruptions may seem harmless, but they're

really not. They're not just stealing your time, they're also

stealing your focus. It can take several minutes to get your

brain back into what you were doing, even after a short

interruption.

And I know some teachers worry that making yourself less

available feels rude or unfriendly. Most of us really

value relationships, and it's important to us to be helpful,

but setting boundaries during your planning time is not anti

team. It's pro sustainability. You can't be available to

everyone and also be productive in 25 minutes. Something's got

to give.

And honestly, your relationships with your

colleagues will probably be better when you're not running

on empty all the time. Planning time is not relationship

building time. It's work time. And you know what? That's okay.

And if you have to put a sign on your door, I think you

can soften the blow a little by going funny. I've seen some of

these just in, like, people's work cubicles online. I've seen

this where it's just like, don't talk to me, I'm too easily

distracted! Or like, you know, I'll never get back to work,

please don't talk to me! I'm an eager puppy, or whatever. Just

so I think you can, you can make a joke out of it, of just like,

I'm in, I'm in timeout, don't talk to me, if you're worried

about how it might come across. So those are physical

boundaries. Heidi, what's the second piece of protecting your

time?

Well, this one might be even harder, but no email during

planning time and no phone either. I know that hurts, but

hear us out. Planning time is often, you know, what, 20

minutes, 30 if you're lucky? And one parent email with a

complaint or concern can completely derail that entire

block. I have been there more than once.

Oh, yeah, and ruin the rest of your day. And it's not

just the time it takes to read and respond, but the mental and

emotional energy it takes to process it. So when you open

your inbox, you're basically saying to someone, tell me how

to use my time. You're going to let other people's priorities

jump ahead of your own.

And it's also a good idea to pay attention to how much

time your phone is stealing. You think you're just going to check

a text, and then you see a reminder about a dentist

appointment you need to reschedule, and then you're

thinking about your kids' schedule, and then somehow

you're scrolling Instagram and five minutes have finished.

That's why this boundary is important. Your phone pulls

your brain out of work mode and into life mode. And once you're

in life mode, it's so hard to switch back with only 15 minutes

left in your planning time.

So set a rule during planning time. Do what you can

to limit email, work chat and personal messages. Unless

something is genuinely urgent, and most things aren't, it can

wait.

Okay, one more piece of protecting your time, and this

one is more practical, make sure you start on time. It might not

seem like a big deal, but let's look at some numbers. If you

have a 25 minute planning period and it starts five minutes late,

you've lost 20% of your time.

So it's really important that you have your students

ready for planning time the second it starts. That means

taking that last five minutes before your prep starts to

transition your students, you know, set an alarm if you need

to, so that you aren't losing any of that time.

And this might be hard, but if your planning time is

consistently getting cut short because of coverage issues or

schedule problems, that is worth advocating for. Maybe the

teacher ahead of you is always late picking up their class, so

you drop your class off at art and then have to watch her kids

in the hall until she gets there.

Oh, yeah, I have been there, but you know, to be

honest, I've also been the teacher who was late picking up

her kids a time or two.

Yeah, we all have days where the copier's being slow or

we weren't watching the clock, but if it's becoming a

consistent problem, it's worth speaking up about.

And I know it's tough when you feel like you're making

a big deal about something that seems minor, but this is not

that minor, if you look at the big picture.

Yeah. Because when your planning time disappears, the

work doesn't, it just moves into unpaid hours.

Yeah, that adds up to basically a whole planning time

that you've lost. So it's definitely worth speaking up if

you have got an ongoing problem with this situation.

And you've got to advocate for yourself, because

nobody else will.

Okay. So that's pillar one, protect the time, physical

boundaries, no email or phone, start on time, and know what you

actually need.

Now let's talk about pillar two, directing the time,

because even if you successfully guard your planning period from

every interruption, you still need to know what to do with it.

And this is where a lot of teachers struggle. You sit

down, you look at your giant to do list, and you think, Where do

I even start? So you grab your phone just to check something,

because that at least feels productive. And now it's time to

It's a trap, and the way you avoid that trap is to decide

get your class.

what you're doing before planning time starts. Think of

this as kind of choosing your lane. Before the week begins,

assign each of your planning blocks a category of work. Maybe

Monday's planning time is for lesson plans, Tuesday is for

copies, Wednesday is for grading, Thursday for data,

Friday is prepping for the week ahead.

The goal is to ensure that you're not sitting down and

asking yourself, okay, what should I work on, every day.

When you sit down, you should already know what lane you're

What I love about this is how accessible it is. You don't

in. You're not standing at a crossroads trying to figure out

which direction to go.

need any complicated systems or materials. You just need a plan

and maybe a sticky note to write it on. The simpler the better.

So assign each day's planning time its own tasks, and then try

it out.

And you'll probably have to tweak it a bit until you find

the right setup for your needs, but it's such a low effort way

to have high impact on your productivity. Every minute you

spend deciding what to work on is a minute you're not actually

working. Choosing your lane keeps you from swerving all over

the road during a 25 minute planning period.

And then once you know your lane for the day, the next

question is, what is the one task that will make the road

ahead smoother? This might mean addressing the most time

sensitive task, or it might mean knocking out a task that will

make three other tasks easier.

Sometimes the most urgent task and the most impactful task

are the same thing, but often they're not. The most urgent

task might be responding to that parent email, but the task that

smooths the road ahead might be setting up your slides for

tomorrow so your morning doesn't start chaotic.

Or copying a whole week's worth of math papers at once,

instead of scrambling each morning, or creating a template

for your weekly newsletter so you're not reinventing it every

Friday. These tasks require a little more upfront work and

planning, but they do pay off fast. Think of it like filling

potholes, fixing one gap makes the whole drive easier.

One more thing that can help with directing your time is

to categorize your tasks by size. So keep a running list. It

can be just, you know, in a notebook or on a sticky note,

where tasks are tagged based on the time they'll take. So when

you finish your planning tasks for the day and you've still got

five minutes left, you can pull a five minute task off your

list.

This is one of my favorite productivity hacks. I

use this all the time, even just in my own life.

Yeah, it's so smart. It saves you from a lot of decision

fatigue, because I tend to just be like, Oh, I don't know what

to do, so I won't do anything.

Or, yeah, I've only got a few minutes if there's not

anything I can get done in that time.

Yeah, so then you're not wasting time wondering what you

can realistically accomplish in the time that you have. So, you

know we love maximizing our pockets of prep, and organizing

tasks by the time they take is one of the best ways to use

pockets of prep.

Okay, one last suggestion for directing your time, use

timers and batching. Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, work on

one thing, and the timer goes off, stop even if you're not

done.

And this might feel counterintuitive, but it works

because it's something called Parkinson's Law, which basically

says that work expands to fill the time you give it.

This is something our mom said all the time when we were

growing up. If you tell yourself you have 25 minutes to grade

papers, somehow it's going to take 25 minutes. But if you tell

yourself you have 12 minutes, you will be surprised by how

much you can actually get done.

And if you can't finish something in one planning block,

that's okay. If you don't need it for tomorrow, batch it across

days. Do 10 minutes of grading Monday, 10 minutes Tuesday, 10

minutes Wednesday, it'll all still get done.

It's easy to feel like 20 minutes isn't enough time to

accomplish anything meaningful, and honestly it isn't, if you

don't manage those 20 minutes like they matter.

Short planning time doesn't have to mean ineffective

planning, but it does require being intentional. So let's do a

quick recap. Protecting your planning time comes down to two

pillars. Pillar one is protecting the time, no email or

phone and starting on time.

And pillar two is directing the time. Choose your

lane before you sit down, identify the task that will

smooth the road ahead, categorize tasks by size, and

use timers to stay focused.

Now, of course, we are human. Not every planning time

can be a master class in efficiency and productivity.

You're a real person who is just doing their best in a difficult

job. So it's important to be aware of what you need during

that time. Sometimes more than making copies, what you need is

time to go to the bathroom, eat something, rest your feet or

just breathe.

This is especially true if you didn't sleep well, or you

weathered a student meltdown earlier in the day, or your

hormones are making everything more difficult. Sometimes the

most important thing you can do during planning time is to take

care of yourself.

Yeah, you need to be able to function for the rest of the

afternoon, so give yourself permission to check in. What do

you actually need from this time? If it's five minutes to

eat a granola bar and stare at the wall, that is valid, take

the five minutes and then get back to work.

Protecting your planning time isn't about squeezing more

productivity out of yourself. It's about creating a

sustainable way to do your job without giving away all of your

personal time.

If this is the kind of thing you want to dig into more,

we are talking more about strategies like this in the

Teacher Approved club. It is our membership for teachers who want

that ongoing support and community to make their teaching

lives a little easier. We have a link to that in the show notes

if you want to check it out.

And we would love to hear your tips for how you protect

your planning time, what works for you, what boundaries have

you set. Come share with us in the Teacher Approved Facebook

group.

Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where

we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters

and simplify the rest. This week's Teacher Approved Tip is

just a friendly reminder that if you're planning to give

Valentines to your students, you want to buy them now.

Yeah, Valentines are one of those things that can sneak

up on you. You think you have plenty of time, and then

suddenly it's February 10, and the store shelves are already

picked over, and then you're stuck with, like, weird off

brand Valentines with, you know, Happy Valentine's Day from Steve

the snake. Who's Steve the snake? Nobody knows, but he's

all that's left.

I always liked giving something that was a little more

memorable but still affordable, so maybe a card with a fun

pencil or cute paper airplanes that the kids can fold and

actually play with. But that usually meant ordering online,

because most of what you can find in store is candy based.

Now, obviously, there's nothing wrong with candy. Kids

love candy, but if you want something that feels special,

you need to figure that out now. Some of our favorite places to

order Valentines from are Oriental Trading, MindWare,

Paper Source and, of course, Amazon, they all have unique and

interesting options at good prices.

And a tip on Oriental Trading and MindWare

specifically, make sure you're signed up for their emails so

you can snag a coupon code. That can save you a ton, especially

on shipping.

And if you are able, you might want to consider buying

one or two extra boxes of Valentines. Because of cultural

differences or family finances, it's not uncommon for kids to

arrive on February 14 without anything to hand out, and you

don't want them to feel left out or sad. It's it's really

heartbreaking if you've been the teacher in that situation.

Yes, having a backup stash means you can quietly slip

them some Valentines to share without making a big deal of it,

and they don't need to be fancy, just a couple boxes from the

Dollar Store can do the trick.

And also keep this in mind if you were expecting

students to arrive with boxes that they have decorated at

home. If a student shows up without one, don't assume it's

because they weren't interested. Sometimes it's just not within a

child's control to manage all of these extras. Be ready with a

backup, even just a bag that they can decorate quickly, or a

simple container that you keep on hand.

That's why I always preferred to decorate

Valentine's bags in class. Then I knew everyone was covered,

plus I ate up some time on a day that was not going to be

productive in the least.

Yeah, I don't understand why every teacher doesn't do

that. It's such a nice time filler on Valentine's Day.

Yeah.

Now these things aren't big things, but they can make a

big difference for a kid who might otherwise feel embarrassed

or left out.

So buy your Valentines now, order online for the best

options, and grab some extras for any students who might need

them.

Okay, to wrap up the show, we're sharing what we're

giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your

extra credit?

I'm giving extra credit to the most recent season of The

Traitors. I have already given this extra credit before, but I

don't care. I love it so much. Like, if you're not watching The

Traitors, what are you doing with your life? It is, it's just

so delightful. And I always just assume everybody knows about The

Traitors, but then you talk to people who are just like, it's

just not been on their radar at all. So it's basically like

playing the game that we called mafia growing up, where

everybody, and it's usually celebrities, which I much

prefer. There were some of the past seasons had real people,

and I didn't like them as much, because then you feel bad for

the people who get kicked off.

Because they need the money for their mom's surgery or

whatever.

Yeah, for celebrities, I don't feel bad at all. So they

go to this castle in the Scottish Highlands. Of course,

Alan Cummings and his very over the top Scottish brogue for this

role, and his over the top fashion as the host. And they

are all trying to figure out who among them is a traitor. So

secretly, a few of them have been designated as traitors, and

they are trying to be undetected in this game. And the faithfuls

are trying to figure out who they are. And it just...

Because the traders are going around at night, killing

people.

Yes, exactly. And at the end, if they get to the end and

only faithfuls are left, then they split the money. But if

there's even one traitor left, the traitor gets all the money.

So it's a big challenge of trying to figure out, like, who

do you trust? Like, who's being, who's being the sneaky traitor

behind your back, and who's, who's a traitor, but not very

good at it, and so they get caught really fast? Sometimes

that happens.

Yeah, they play their hands. They overplay their

hands.

It's such a hoot. And honestly, I don't watch a ton of

reality shows. So for the most part, I don't even know these

celebrities. Like, there's always a handful of Real

Housewives, and I don't watch any of those, and there'll be

like, Love Island.

Big brother.

Yeah, big brother, Survivor. I don't watch any of

those shows. So mostly I don't even know these celebrities, but

I don't care, like you get to know them, and it's fun. And

usually there's at least a few people, like this time, there's

a comedian Ron Funches that I love, a comedian and actor, and

Mark Ballas from Dancing with the Stars.

Oh, that's fun.

And a few other people that I do know, but for the most

part, it's people I don't know, but I don't care. It's still

fun. So if you're not watching it, you should be watching it.

It's on peacock.

I haven't started this season yet. I'm waiting for it

to build up episodes, because of course, they only drop one a

week.

No, they, but to start, they dropped like three the

first week and then two. So I've already watched five.

Okay, that's good. I've been catching up on the, because

on Peacock, you can see the UK Traitors.

Yes, which are also good.

So that's been really fun.

Yes, they're at the same castle. They do it at the same

castle, but it's a different host, and the vibes are a little

different, but it's fun too. I like the British ones too. It's

a good watch.

Definitely.

What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Well, I'm giving extra credit to everyone who helped

with our Teacher Winter Talk Summit that ended a couple weeks

ago. This took months and months and months of careful planning

and so many hours of work. Emily deserves all of the bonus

points, all of the gold stars, all of the extra credit.

Where's my crown? I will accept it.

Seriously, or a couple days off of work.

Yeah, I would take that too.

But the event was awesome, and Melanie and Sara

and Mari and Kate and so many other people worked behind the

scenes to make sure that all of the pieces work together. You

have no idea how many tiny little pieces all have to come

together to make this event work.

Oh, yeah, yes. And then our amazing presenters, too.

Extra extra credit to everyone who presented. They did

such amazing sessions. I got great takeaways. Hopefully all

of you did too. And extra credit to everyone who signed up, who

listened to the sessions, who joined for the live calls.

Oh, those were so fun.

It was so fun to get to see some of you, and you know

everyone who worked hard on their bingo boards. That was a

commitment.

Yes.

It really was a fantastic weekend, and I'm already getting

excited about the Summer Summit. Emily has picked out a really

fun theme.

You guys, it's gonna be so good!

Well, that is it for today's episode. Try out our two

pillar framework for protecting your planning time, and don't

forget to grab those Valentines before they are gone.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.