The Literacy Teacher’s Life Podcast: Making the Most of Your Time: A Conversation with Laura Vanderkam

As many of you may know, I love time management and planning! Managing time is not easy, which is why I find it so fascinating. I don’t think it would be nearly as interesting if it came naturally. I am often asked by students who are student teaching and students who are in the early years of their careers about how best to plan and how they can get everything that the job requires accomplished. In order to shed light on this topic, I spoke with time management and productivity expert, Laura Vanderkam. She is the author books such as What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, and her most recent book, Tranquility By Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. I have read all of Laura’s books and she offers advice that is practical to implement and does not require you to change your whole life.

During our conversation, we discuss ideas for how to manage all of the curricular demands placed on new teachers, managing time during the school day so that lesson plans are written and you have time to speak with parents. She gave some very helpful tips on this one! We also discuss finding time outside of work to do things that you enjoy doing. Laura talks about all of the inputs that we have in our lives, and that’s a great thing but, she offers strategies for managing all of these inputs.

I hope you listen to and enjoy this episode and find something that makes you think about managing your time in the classroom or outside of the classroom differently.