Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher’s Field Guide.

This week, we’re sharing our exclusive Beyond Balance resource, which is specially designed to take you through the process of bringing some balance back to your life.

Let’s jump in…

Beyond Balance - How To Live The Life You Want To Live

For years, building a life/work balance was utterly beyond me.

I just couldn’t see how I could be a teacher, leader, creative, and manager, take personal responsibility for everything in my many job descriptions, do it well, and live a full life outside of school.

It took me to the edge of a breakdown to understand the truth.

I couldn’t.

And honestly, I don’t think anyone can.

I’m still a long way from perfect, but I work a lot harder on myself now, and I no longer try and do everything! As a result, I’ve got more time for balance in my life, which I try to use for my own wellbeing.

This is the road map that I wish I’d had when I started the journey…

5 Steps To Life/Work Balance For Busy Teachers

Here’s the first thing I learned.

When you're trying to achieve a life/work balance, it's important to start with small, achievable steps instead of trying to overhaul everything at once.

That means building good habits gradually, starting with embarrassingly tiny goals that take just 5 minutes.

Incrementally replace unhealthy habits with sustainable new routines one small step at a time. Don't aim for perfection (which can be a real challenge for me), but focus on consistent progress and identify the core habits that can drive broader positive change in your life.

This is so important.

Forging the space for self-care and wellbeing is critical for your effectiveness as an educator and for preventing burnout.

These are the steps you need to take…

1. Self-Reflection

The first step is all about looking inward and taking stock. You can’t get the balance you need in your life without identifying the existing imbalances.

First, identify your current life/work balance by monitoring your activity during a typical working week. You can visualise this by creating a balance wheel. There’s an example of what this might look like below:

Then, identify your satisfaction in different areas of life, such as work, personal relationships, health and leisure. A 1 means you are completely satisfied, and a 5 means you are utterly dissatisfied. You’ll probably arrive at this score through a combination of reflection and instinct. Add this information to the balance wheel.

Be honest and acknowledge the areas that need improvement. This is where your balance journey starts.

2. Prioritising Needs

Next, you have to deal with the importance of prioritising your personal needs alongside your professional responsibilities. To do this, you need to revisit personal values and envision your ideal balanced life.

First, list your professional and personal responsibilities and commitments, then categorise them as "essential," "important," or "optional."

Next, you need to commit to eliminating or delegating non-essential tasks to create more time for self-care. This is the step that almost every teacher I know struggles with. You can eliminate, you can delegate. In fact, you absolutely must.

Last, set some SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals to align daily actions with your desired balance.

You’ll need to involve your support system (family, friends, colleagues) in this process for maximum accountability and assistance. But more than that, sharing your journey with others makes it real, and that’s an exceptionally powerful factor.

3. Time-Management

Once you’ve worked out what you can and can’t reasonably achieve in your personal and professional life, you need to dedicate yourself to planning your time. If you’re not instinctively the most organised person, you’ll need to prioritise this step and commit to sustaining this process.

Begin by using practical tips and techniques for effective time management, such as scheduling work and personal and self-care activities. Say no to non-essential commitments and start batch-processing to minimise context-switching.

Continue with small, achievable changes to build momentum and confidence.

Use the Pareto Principle technique, or divide your typical day into time blocks and focus on specific activities.

4. Establishing Boundaries

Boundaries bring you peace.

The more you can introduce and maintain divides between the physical, intellectual and emotional elements of your life and work, the less your work will spill into your personal life.

So, commit to setting clear boundaries between work and personal life. Schedule personally beneficial activities as non-negotiable commitments.

Develop strategies for disconnecting from work during personal time, such as turning off work email notifications and avoiding work-related tasks at home.

Most importantly, remember that you’re modelling a healthy life/work balance for students and colleagues alike.

5. Practice Self-Care

Now you’ve identified your needs, organised your time, and put some boundaries in place, you’ve got to actively engage with practical strategies for self-care. The rest is for nothing if you don’t.

Dedicate yourself to scheduling and prioritising self-care activities such as exercise, mindfulness, hobbies, and social connections on a daily basis.

Find accountability partners or join support groups to stay motivated. Share goals, celebrate small wins, and troubleshoot challenges together.

Critically, you must revisit and adjust this plan regularly as needed.

Beyond Balance

Here are four things you need to do to make this balance strategy work…

• Start by making small, sustainable changes, model healthy behaviours, and seek out support systems to keep you accountable.

• Achieving the ideal life/work balance is a journey, and setbacks are normal. Don’t be derailed by them, learn from them.

• Practice self-compassion and celebrate small wins along the way. Your most important job is to be kind to yourself.

• Log your journey in a journal or keep notes on an app. Regularly review and revise your plan as your goals and lifestyle change.

Download our Beyond Balance infographic below. Perfect for printing and sticking on the wall, the fridge, or your desk when you need a reminder of how to get some balance in your life…

What Are You Waiting For?

We believe that teachers achieve extraordinary things under challenging circumstances and that we all deserve to be valued, supported and celebrated.

That’s what this newsletter is all about.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, why not join the Marigold community? You’ll get weekly strategies for sustaining your wellbeing, avoiding burnout and flourishing as a person, not just a teacher.

And best of all..?

It’s free and always will be.

You can find out more about what to expect in this weekly newsletter here, or just go straight to our sign-up form.

Thank You For All You Do

I really hope this newsletter has given you some strategies and structures for building the balance that every teacher needs.

It isn’t easy, but the key is to remember that you’re entitled to live your best life. You do an amazing job, and you deserve to find the balance you deserve.

Here’s a reminder of the 5-step process…

In next week’s issue, we’ll explore 10 top strategies for spreading positivity throughout your community - and show you how to reap the rewards!

Until then, remember, you’re more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You’re you. And that’s all you need to be.