5 Quick & Easy Daily Tasks to Keep You and Your Classroom Organized

No comments Classroom Organization, Just for Teachers, Organization, Stress Management, Teacher Productivity

Organization is an ongoing process. You may have heard me say that before. Truly, there is always something to organize and stay on top of. One way to minimize the amount of time you spend organizing every week is to tackle a few small organizational tasks every day. These tasks might be small, but if you do them, it will make a big impact over time.

#1 - FILE YOUR PAPERS DAILY
File those miscellaneous papers daily. I'm guilty of not doing this from time to time, and every time I let those papers pile up, I regret it. It ends up taking what feels like forever to file everything. It's much easier to file a few pieces of paper each day than it is to file 40 pieces (that will likely be going into 15 different places) at the end of the week.

#2 - EMPTY OUT YOUR TEACHER MAILBOX
Daily. Just do it. Just like with filing, it's easier to go through a few papers at a time than it is to let it all pile to the top of the box and work your way through a mini mountain of papers-some of which might be time sensitive.

#3 - GET RID OF PAPERWORK YOU DON'T NEED
When you get papers and notices in your mailbox, go through them. Make note of what you need to, add important dates and times to your planner or calendar, but then ditch the paperwork if you no longer need it. You don't need a bunch of memos pinned to your bulletin board. It's clutter and when you put them all on display, they no longer stand out or serve their purpose.

#4 - CHECK YOUR EMAIL AND DELETE AND/OR FILE MESSAGES
Friends, check.your.email. Your work email shouldn't be like one of those personal email accounts that some people have where on any given day the inbox features 547 unread messages. I'm not knocking people with inboxes like that, I'm just saying make sure your work email isn't like that. It's part of your job to make sure that you read your email.

Check your email in the morning, and again after school. That way, you know you won't miss any important information that you might need for the following day. Decide how frequently you need to check your email, as well as the time of day that will work best for you and stick to it.

Also, just because you get an email doesn't mean you need to print it or keep it. Some emails are sent school wide but don't really pertain to you. Delete it! If it is a message you may need to refer to in the future, create a special folder. We often get emails with procedural information/reminders. I don't need to print these out as I won't refer to them on a daily basis, but I may refer to them in the next week. I move these messages to a special folder where I can quickly reference them as needed (and won't lose them).

#5 - UPDATE YOUR TO DO LIST
At the end of the day, take a few minutes to update your to do list for the following morning/day. When you get to work the next day, you won't spend any time guessing what you need to do. You'll already know. And, if you're like me, you'll think of a few more things to add to that list by the time you return to school the next day.

While this may sound like a lot to stay on top of every day, it really isn't. It's when you let these tasks pile up that it becomes hard to stay on top of. It's much easier to spend 15-20 minutes scattered throughout the day doing these things, than dedicating a large chunk of time to them at the end of the week. In the long run, doing these tasks each day will save you time, make you feel less frantic, and ultimately, help reduce your stress levels.

DON'T FORGET IT, PIN IT!