Mondays can feel overwhelming when you’re carrying unfinished tasks and trying to remember EVERYTHING that needs to happen! In this episode, we’re sharing a 5-step weekly reset to help you wrap up loose ends, prepare for the week ahead, and create a clearer starting point for Monday. It’s not about getting everything done, it’s about being prepared with a plan!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/weekly-reset-for-teachers/

Resources:

• Order our book: Structure and Spark
• TheraICE Migraine Relief Cap
• Muse Apothecary Pillow Ritual: Calming Pillow Mist
• Join The Teacher Approved Club
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow
• Shop our teacher-approved resources
• Join our Teacher Approved Facebook group
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Leave a comment or rating on Spotify

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 93. Teacher Morning Routine: 10 Tips for Creating Your Perfect Plan
• Episode 243. How to Protect Your Planning Time (So You Can Stop Working For Free)
• Episode 147. Teacher Approved Tips: How to Plan Ahead for Future Problems!
• Episode 228. The Simple 6-Step Plan for Resetting After a Sub

This is episode 287 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're sharing a routine that will help make next week a

lot lighter, and we've got a teacher-approved tip to help you

take back your weekends.

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

share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right

away. Emily, what's our suggestion this week?

Okay, tomorrow, put a student in the director seat for

one transition. So give the directions and then let your

student director keep everyone on track and monitor the time.

Oh yes, kids love that sort of thing. So you probably

need to offer some coaching ahead of time about the sorts of

things that a transition director should do, like giving

reminders if they get too loud, or answering questions if anyone

is confused, or keeping track of the time.

If you have a stopwatch handy, that's perfect for this

sort of thing. And if you like this idea or anything else we

talk about today, we would so appreciate it if you shared this

episode with one of your teacher friends. People really trust a

recommendation from someone they know, so it actually helps us a

lot to reach new listeners when you share it with your friends.

All right. If you are listening to this podcast on the

day it comes out, happy Monday! Hopefully, the week is off to a

great start.

And if you're listening on a different day, take a

minute to remember your most recent Monday morning. How did

it go?

Well, if you are anything like me, it was somewhere on the

spectrum between hectic and catastrophic. You know, you step

through the doorway and it's like a switch is flipped.

Suddenly, all the things that you told yourself you were going

to do over the weekend just come rushing back.

But you didn't think of them all weekend. It's like,

it's like Severance. It's like your Innie and your Outie. So

when you leave school, you transition to your Outie and you

forget all the stuff that the Innie needs, and then when you

come back and they step through the door into your classroom,

you're just like back as an Innie again, and now you

remember all the things you forgot. If you haven't seen

Severance, you won't appreciate that reference, but some of you

are really going to like that reference.

Well, I'm going to have to trust showing that because I

have not seen Severance. But you know, you know that feeling.

There's the email you never answered, the copies you forgot

to make, the lesson plan that needs 15 more minutes of work,

and before you've even turned on the computer, you are somehow

already behind.

That's because you're not gliding into a new week

bright-eyed and ready to dig in. You're stumbling through the

door, dragging all of Friday's leftovers with you.

To some extent, everyone feels like this on a Monday

morning. We are all haunted by the ghosts of to-do lists past,

but I think this is a particularly challenging problem

for teachers because teaching is an inherently open-loop job.

There is always another thing you could do.

Yeah, the bell doesn't ring, and then just like hand

you a clean stopping point where you're like, okay, that's this

week's work. Won't have to think about this again. On to a new

week. If only.

If only, that would be so nice. And in fact, I think

sometimes the bell does exactly the opposite. The kids walk out

the door, and you look around the room and think, "Okay, now I

can finally get some work done."

Yes. So unless we create some kind of deliberate stopping

point, this week's unfinished business just becomes next

week's "you're already behind" list every week, over and over.

And that sense of never being done with work is a big

part of why teachers are so exhausted. So instead of trying

to somehow finish everything before the weekends, which let's

be honest is never going to happen, what if we created a way

to deliberately close out the work for the week anyway?

That's where the weekly reset comes in. This is a short

routine for rounding up the loose ends of one week, deciding

what matters for the next, and then making it easier to start

again.

Think of a reset as a way to build a boundary around a job

that does not naturally come with one, because even though

you can't finish everything, you can decide what happens to the

things you didn't finish, and then do some of the work that

will make next week easier.

Then you can say, Okay, I'm done with this week. Walk

out the door and enjoy your work-free weekend, guilt-free.

And even better, enjoy a smooth, peaceful start to the

new week. So today we are going to talk about how to create a

weekly reset that fits into the reality of your school week.

Hopefully, by now you know us well enough to trust

that we are not about to suggest a three-hour catch-up session or

a three-page color-coded to-do list.

Although a color-coded to-do list is one of my favorite

things.

Yeah, I'm actually surprised there isn't a one-page

colored to-do list in this system, but it's good. I do like

making the list more than I actually like doing the list, so

probably good it's not even in here. To help you avoid that

same trap we're going to share a routine that creates space for

getting that work done instead of leaving it up to "I'll do it

soon."

But before we can get into the how, let's look at the

why. The goal here is to get ready, not get caught up. You

may still end the day with piles on your counters and grading in

your inbox.

Yeah, we know that is not what you want to hear, but a

manageable system has to account for reality, and the reality is

that there are not enough hours in the day to do it all. So you

need a way to identify what's essential right now and what can

reasonably wait.

So another way to think of a weekly reset is to think of

it as your minimum viable readiness plan. Although that's

way more of a mouthful. The ultimate goal with doing this is

to give you clarity. You shouldn't have to spend the

first 30 minutes of the week figuring out where you're going.

So let's talk about how to make this part of your

routine.

Yeah, that routine part is important.

Yeah, because a routine does two things. First, it

reduces decision fatigue and wasted time, and second, it

ensures you've got all the essentials covered.

And like all good routines, your weekly reset

needs a standing appointment. Put it on the calendar like it's

a meeting you can't move.

Yeah, really put it on the calendar. If it is just

floating around in your mind and you tell yourself you'll get to

it, but then the week fills up and you know, it just doesn't

happen, especially on Friday because you're tired and you

you're like, it's not even on the calendar. I can just leave.

Oh yeah, I've fallen into that trap many a time, but when

the time is fixed, you make sure it actually happens. Now, any

time that works for you is the right time for a reset. For me,

I liked 11:20 to 11:50 on Fridays, so that was the half

hour right before lunch.

Okay, and tell us why you picked that time because that

definitely is not the time you would think for a reset.

Yeah, that's why it took me so long to land on that. I

think it took me a few years to get that right, but I realized

that I just could not plan effectively after school. My

tank was empty, and so I would just decide that I was going to

go home and I'd worry about it next week. But I realized that

Friday morning, before the afternoon slump hit, my brain

actually was still working, more or less.

The nice thing about doing your planning in the

morning means your kid-free prep time can go towards things that

have to happen outside your room, like making copies.

Now I know that using class time for planning is going

to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but it shouldn't. Doing

work tasks on work time is literally what a job is.

Right. As long as your students are doing something

meaningful that they can manage without you having to directly

supervise, then you're not shortchanging anybody. A 30

minute reset once a week still leaves you over 2000 minutes of

learning time.

And that 30 minutes can make the other 2000 minutes so

much more effective.

Yeah.

So with my second graders, my official schedule

said that that half hour was for a phonics review, and that

review just happened to be a Between the Lions video.

And you've probably heard us talk about this before

because it's actually this really nice hack you might not

have thought of if you if you're not familiar with Between the

Lions you are missing out it is a PBS series from like what

early 2000s?

Yeah like mid 2000s.

But it has a phonics emphasis and the first two

seasons are really good.

Yeah after that I think it was the financial crisis so

they lost some of their funding and the quality does go down.

You lose some of the puppets, and that's what we're here for.

But those first seasons are so good. I used to feel guilty

about showing a video every week because I also got the messaging

that this was not actual teaching. But then one day, a

student used a word that was unusual for a second grader, and

they were able to tell me that they learned that word from the

Between the Lions video we'd watched last week. So I stopped

feeling guilty after that.

Yeah, they're learning. We forget that you don't have to

be actively teaching for students to be learning. And

besides educational videos, you could have students

independently working at learning centers, finishing a

review packet, doing a research project or even silently

reading.

Yeah. If you have to skip pulling small groups for a

little bit, that's okay. They'll be fine, and all of those

activities are beneficial for students all on their own. But

if a midday reset really won't fit your schedule, just get

creative. If you still have brain power on Friday afternoon,

that really is a natural place for reset.

Right. And think how awesome it would be to walk out

the door Friday, knowing everything's ready for Monday.

But you aren't limited to Fridays. You could just as

easily reset on Tuesday afternoons instead.

Yeah, or make Wednesdays your common early day if you're

more of a morning person. We can't relate to that, but good

for you. Just any chunk of time that gives you the space to take

stock of things right now is perfect.

And technically, you don't even need one big block of

time. You could spread it out and reset one part of your

schedule each day. So maybe on Mondays you reset math for the

upcoming week, Tuesdays for literacy, and so on.

Prepping in steps like this is easier to schedule, but

the trade-off is flexibility. If you lose one of your prep

windows because you're out sick or you're stuck in a meeting,

you have to find time to reset what needed to be done today as

well as the next day's reset.

And then pretty soon you've got a whole clown car of

resets that you need to find time for. But you know, if that

setup works best for you. You can definitely find ways to make

it work. Ultimately, the when matters a lot less than the how

often. Find what actually fits your schedule and then protect

that time.

Once you've scheduled your reset, it's time to figure

out how to spend those minutes.

And again, here, do what's most useful for you. But

if you do want some structure so that you are not wasting that

time figuring out where to start, we've got a framework.

And for our reset, we are going to R E S E T.

Yes, an acronym our favorite. So that stands for

round up, examine, sort, execute, tidy. The five steps

that will help you look back at where you've been, look ahead at

what's coming, and decide what matters. Then you can put the

pieces in place and leave things ready for next week.

So let's take a deeper look at each step, starting with

Yeah, get your lasso. So start by writing down every task

R, roundup. By the end of the week, your tasks are like a herd

of cattle wandering the prairie, and before you can do anything

that's floating around in your head, and don't forget the odds

with any of them, you got to round them up.

and ends. Find the note you wrote on the back of a kid's

spelling test. Check the email your team leader just sent.

Think of it like getting all the cows into the corral.

We're such cowgirls.

I know.

Then look back at your week. What didn't get done, and

what needs to carry over? And is there anything you need to

follow up on?

Next, look around the room. What's on your desk?

What's piling up on the counter? Are there any stray tasks hiding

in there? If so, break out your lasso and round them up.

Isn't it such a relief to know that you're not about to be

ambushed by something you forgot about? You can turn off the

worry and then just trust that your list will keep you on

track.

After the roundup, the next step is to examine. Go

ahead and pull up next week's calendar and know anything out

of the ordinary that requires something from you.

This step is essential. Back when I was teaching second

grade, I would beat myself up over and over about poor time

management. Why couldn't I keep all my curriculum on track? How

are we always falling behind? So one year, I started tracking how

many weeks had five uninterrupted days.

And what did you discover?

Well, it was pretty shocking. I can't remember

exactly, but it was something like there were five weeks with

no schedule adjustments.

Oh my god!

And most of those weeks landed at the start of the

school year before anyone has even settles into routine. So I

don't even think we can count those as routine weeks.

So it's basically a guarantee that something is

headed your way next week: assemblies, meetings, early

release, fire drills, observations, red ribbon week,

picture day testing, all the things.

And probably so much more. But you can't plan for

what you don't know about. So flag anything unusual, and then

figure out what it requires from you. Is it going to eat into

your class time? Do you need to send home reminders? Do you need

to buy a costume?

So write all of that down before a visit from the district

catches you by surprise. And now you've collected all the stray

tasks from last week and all the upcoming tasks for this week.

That means your third step is to sort.

This is where you decide what deserves your attention and

when. Everything goes into one of four groups. Urgent tasks are

do now. Anything that has to get done but isn't as pressing is a

do later task.

But the key is making sure you have a way to keep

those do later tasks front and center because it's really easy

to feel like you've taken care of them just because you wrote

them down. You put them on the do later list, isn't it done?

Yeah, it should be covered. And okay, I know this

is not the same thing, but I do this every year with my

Christmas cards. Like every year, I order super early. In

fact, I already have my cards for this year, so you know, gold

star to me. But once I've ordered them, my brain seems to

think that the job is done, and then it just forgets that you

know everything needs to be stuffed in an envelope and

actually mailed to people.

Yeah, it's such an easy trap to fall into. So if you're

kicking something down the road, give it a place to go. Write it

on your calendar or set a reminder on your phone to come

back to it before it's due.

Okay, that's a good prompt. I need to put a reminder

in my phone to deal with this in November.

I've started making my reminders in my phone my

favorite app because I just accepted I can't remember

anything. I need to be reminded.

Honest, I almost made that my extra credit for today,

as the reminders.Okay, besides your due now and your due later

categories, you have delegate. Maybe this is something that you

could hand off to a teammate, or even better, maybe it's

something the kids can help take care of.

And then we have the best category: drop it. If something

doesn't absolutely need to happen, or if it's not directly

benefiting students, it's not worth your time.

I love this category so much because you get the

satisfaction of crossing something off your list without

actually having to do any work.

That's like finding 20 bucks in your coat pocket.

I love that.

Then take a look at your sorted tasks and identify what

matters most. Which three tasks would make the biggest

difference for your students or your well-being?

Those are the tasks you need to prioritize. Add them to

your schedule first. Dedicate time and energy to managing

them, and then you can work in the less important obligations.

Okay, so far in our reset, we've rounded up,

examined, and sorted. Those are all thinking tasks. Now it's

time for some action with our second E, execute. This is where

you make the copies and find the slides and the books and

everything else, and make sure it's ready to go.

And this is where having the whole week's list already in

front of you pays off, because now you can batch prep. So

instead of making copies every day, you can copy what you need

for the week in one trip.

Yeah, assuming your coworkers won't mind you hogging

the copier for 30 minutes, then batching really is a time saver.

Every time you switch between different kinds of tasks, you

lose a little time just reorienting yourself. Batching

by type, copies with copies, emails with emails, really cuts

that lost time out.

But batching only gets you so far if you don't know how

to get yourself moving. So, what do you personally need to be

successful? Some people need to eat the frog first or knock out

the task that they're dreading most, so that it stops looming

over the rest of the day.

But some people do better starting with an easy win and

then letting that momentum carry them into the harder stuff. So

there's no best solution here; just the one that gets you

moving.

Yes, set yourself up to succeed, however that looks for

you. And then once the doing's done, we only have the letter T

left, so that means it's time to tidy.

Do what you can to organize your physical space,

even if that means putting all the loose papers in one stack

instead of sorting them right now.

And then don't forget everyone's least favorite task:

digital tidy. Close the tabs you don't need. Clear your inbox. Do

what you can to reduce friction for the teacher who walks into

that room next week, which also happens to be you.

When you're tired, it's so easy to tell yourself that

you'll just deal with it later. But don't fall for that trick.

Later is exactly when you'll be annoyed that you didn't just

finish it.

I know I have mentioned this before, but Sam over at

Engineer Does Education posted about this a while back, and it

has really stuck with me, so she showed the wreck of her

classroom at the end of the first week of school, and she

said she was cleaning it up before she left because, quote,

that's not how Friday Sam is going to treat Monday Sam.

Yeah, that's such a compassionate way to look at the

clutter problem. Even if you're tired and annoyed right now,

deal with at least some of it so the problem doesn't compound

later.

So that is the framework for our weekly reset: round up,

examine, sort, execute, and tidy. Hopefully, this is

happening at a predictable time every week, but that doesn't

mean that there's no room for flexibility. If you've got the

time and energy, go ahead and do the full thing, and if you

don't, you can adapt.

Okay, so let's go back to that Monday morning we started

with. You walk into your classroom, and all those

unfinished things from the previous week come rushing back.

Except this time, let's back up a few days.

Yeah, it's Friday afternoon, but instead of just

closing your computer and hoping you'll remember everything,

you've taken a little time for your weekly reset. Are you

completely caught up? No, but here's what's different: you're

not starting Monday carrying all of last week's work debt.

That's really what a weekly reset is about. You don't

have to finish everything before you can leave the week behind.

You just need to know what you're leaving unfinished, what

happens to it next, and what you can do now to make Monday a

little easier.

And that's a pretty good way to end a school week. So if

this conversation was helpful, we would love to have you in the

Teacher Approved Club. We dig into this kind of thing every

month, the stuff that actually makes your week lighter, not

just longer to-do lists.

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

build yourself a closing ritual for Friday afternoons. Okay,

tell us about Heidi.

Well, even if your weekly reset doesn't happen on Friday,

it still helps to have a small ritual that signals that the

work week is over, and now you can enjoy your downtime. Because

otherwise, you are leaving the door open for weekends spiraling

about what's not getting done.

So when we say ritual, we definitely don't mean anything

elaborate. Your ritual might include physically closing down

your workspace or creating a defined stopping point, like I'm

done with the week once I prep my welcome slides for Monday.

And your transition ritual could even happen after

you left the classroom. Maybe you save a particular podcast

for the Friday drive home, or stop and treat yourself to a

coffee from your favorite place.

The specific ritual doesn't matter nearly as much as

having a reliable signal that now you're off duty. When you

repeat that same cue regularly, it creates an automatic

connection between the activity and the way you want to feel.

So to wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving

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

week?

I'm giving extra credit to the Thera Ice Migraine Relief

Cap. So it's basically like a gel ice pack that's designed to

go on your head, but it's super comfortable. It has really good

reviews. It's just it's stretchy, so you don't have like

Velcro you're trying to get on there. It's made to keep the

cold off of your ears, so your ears don't get cold. So it just

fits nicely around your face, and so it's nice for headaches

for sure. But I think also for like allergies or when your

sinuses hurt, or your eyes are irritated and puffy, like any of

those, it's so soothing, and it just feels really nice. It's

well, it's well made.

It probably feel really nice when you come in after on a

hot day and you're all sweaty and feel like you're gonna melt.

All right, what are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Well, I'm giving extra credit to the Muse Apothecary

Pillow Ritual Calming Pillow Mist.

Okay, tell me.

And I specifically got the Cara Orange Fig and

Blackberry Vanilla Scent.

Oh, that sounds amazing!

It really does smell so good, but it's not like an

overwhelming fake perfumy smell that gives you a headache that

you would need an ice cap for. And going back to our tip about

having a transition ritual, I'm trying to make bedtime a lot

more ritualized so I can signal to my brain that it's time to

shut down.

Yeah, it's hard for us night owls.

Yeah, so I was hoping that this scent could be another

cue I could add to just help me transition for the rest of the

day, and I really do like the scent. Now I'm like, oh, do I

need a new scent for each season?

But then you're going to be messing up your connection in

your brain and that smell.

That is true.

But you could probably do a different smell for a

different connection.

That's that's true. And I do not spray this on my pillow

because that would definitely drive me nuts at about two in

the morning.

I was wondering about that because I was like,

"There's no way she's spraying smell on her bed."

So I do it more of as a room spray, like in my bedroom

and the bathroom as I'm getting ready, and it, I haven't noticed

it lingering, so it's just like a little scent cue.

Yes, that's a really powerful stimulus for your

That's perfect. And I really was thinking that when we

brain. So something to think about, everyone.

were talking about the Friday ritual, I was like, Oh, if you

Yeah, we'll link to both of those in the show notes.

had something in your car that had a certain smell and you

opened it up on Fridays, like some little air freshener you

only open on Fridays, or something like that. That would

be a good way to signal like it's weekend time.

And that's it for today's episode. Remember, you don't

have to finish everything before you are allowed to leave the

week behind. You just need a system for managing what's left

undone.

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.