To ask you to see if I'm missing something in my day

[bapplebanana]

Could you help me to manage my time better in the day- every day is the same, never enough time to go to the gym / do something for myself, or so it feels.

6.30am wake up, get two young DS ready, do breakfast, get myself ready
7.30am leave the house for first drop off at nursery
8.00am second drop off at breakfast club
8.20am arrive at work (secondary school)
4.00pm leave school, pack up school work I haven't finished, and pick kids up, be home by 5.00ish
5.00ish start dinner
6.30 husband arrives home, me and husband eat
7.00 husband starts bed time for the boys, I start work
9.00-9.30 finish work and fall asleep on sofa by 10!

What can I rejig there to make life a bit less repetitive? I love working out it makes me feel much better and currently only managing a work out at weekends

Who does the general housework & gardening, remembering birthdays, buying Xmas presents etc ?

Doesn’t help get time to yourself, but I would do just dance videos, play football with the kids or go for a bike ride after school/before dinner to get exercise and avoid any guilt!

Looking at your timing again this can easily change

6.30 get the kids ready to
6.30 get up and do 20 mins yoga / Caroline Girvan / Jillian Michals/ 20 mins on the rebounder

and hike DH gets the kids ready.

• 2x swimming a week. Job done !

look up

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KsVwAs9LriQ

and

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP34IA0d8LI

do those for a year and it will change your life.

Batch cook and try to have 20 min yoga session . Or get up earlier

Unfortunately teachers have to work in the evenings. Otherwise, when would they prepare lessons for the following day or mark the pupils’ work?

I genuinely don't know any teacher who works for 2.5hrs every evening. It's the sort of thing I see repeated but I have a family of teachers plus friends who are now about 7-10 years into teaching primary or secondary and no one is working those hours.

You have 5 weekday mornings and 5 weekday evenings a week, there should be enough flex in your schedule to go to the gym twice and maybe drinks or dinner with a friend one evening. You just have to want to do it.
If you don't make the plans you won't do it.

I think dh could take the kids to swimming or judo or whatever and you could go to a class and you could all have baked potatoes and cheese/salad one evening a week. In fact do it twice and let dh go for a class too.

I am just wondering how you get 2 young kids ready, do breakfast AND make yourself up in an hour. I need tips! Lol

You easily have time to workout if your husband takes over the full evening routine once he steps in the door, say 2-3 times a week

Where is your DH in this? Can he do some of the morning drop offs, so you could do a workout between 6.30am and needing to leave for work? Or make more use of the time between 5-7pm, by batch cooking at the weekend so you only have to reheat something for dinner.

Can you squeeze in a Joe Wicks workout? I did a lot of them during lockdown and lost about 3 stone - workouts range from 15-30 minutes.

Either wake up a bit earlier and do a workout before everyone else wakes up, or do one as soon as you get home from work/school pick ups. Get the kids a snack and leave them to their homework/TV whilst you have 15-30 minutes of working out. Even if you do it in front of them and they interrupt - it's better than nothing - and they may even join in and realise the importance of exercise. Easier said than done though! Best of luck OP x

A decent sized freezer and batch cooking was probably the most time saving thing for me. For years we lived on easy batch cooked casseroles, curries, fish pie, cottage pie, pasta with a variety of sauces. Not exciting, but easy to do. I never cooked a single quantity of anything, always at least double.
The slow cooker was really useful too.
Never put just one thing in the oven.
Those big foil trays with cardboard lids are great for stacking in the freezer and ziplock bags are good for stews and sauces and you can lay them flat.

@Hufflepods
I think the school that you work in makes a big difference? If I didn't work in the evenings I wouldn't have lessons to teach the next day, and I wouldn't have word marked to give back to students. I teach a lot of exam classes at gcse and a level which makes a difference to workload

Absolutely this! I can barely prep breakfast and get my DS ready for nursery and myself ready for wfh (!) in an hour... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Sounds really tough. Sounds like your DH needs to help more. What does he do after bedtime is done? If you’re working could he get a head start for things for the following day eg dinner

My DH never does school drop off or pick ups (unless am working away/ill) as he leaves so early but always does the cooking. Could your DH do more cooking? or just make it his job!

Essentially, your work day is cut short because you are doing all school runs and dinner etc. then you have to make up for it in the evening. So what’s your DH role? I get his work hours and commute may be fixed but surely there’s something he can pick up somewhere, in order for you to have some time back (even if it doesn’t mean you can go to the gym more - just some breathing space which you deserve).

I think the 2 hours of working in the evening is your biggest problem. I’m a teacher and although I occasionally work in the evening I really try not to. And yes I have exam groups too. How are you using your PPA at school? Are you doing everything from
scratch or are you re-using lessons from previous years, sharing resources with colleagues etc? I know it’s hard to stop but something’s got to give.

Also totally agree about doing easy mid week meals and the same meal for everyone, don’t cook twice!

I think the school that you work in makes a big difference? If I didn't work in the evenings I wouldn't have lessons to teach the next day, and I wouldn't have word marked to give back to students. I teach a lot of exam classes at gcse and a level which makes a difference to workload

Surely you aren't starting from scratch every year though? Your teaching strategy should largely follow a pattern through the academic year though. Your lessons for the next day should be pretty similar to your lesson plan from last year with minor adaptions.
I still disagree that it is necessary to do 2.5 hrs of evening work as a teacher.
You need to get more organised and that will give you more time back.

Would you be better off doing a lot of your evening work one of the weekend mornings or paying for after school childcare a couple of times a week and getting a lot of your work done then?

This is a good idea- when my DC were very young I left them at the childminder til 6 one day a week so that I could stay at school a bit later.

You say you only have one car so you have to do all the drop offs- is there an argument for getting a second car so that your DH could do some drop offs/ pick ups?

@Hufflepods

The core lessons are already made, but I'm adapting them to suit the needs of some very high achieving classes with exceptionally high target grades, and I also teach a number of support groups, and in the schools attached PRU, so it isn't one size fits all.

I have three ppa periods a week, one of those is completing tasks as I'm 2i/c in the department, another of those is a mentoring meeting with an ITT student and the final free on a Fridays is taken up with printing for the next few days and replying to emails/ admin.

It is not about lack of organisation, it is about lack of time in the school day to fit the needs of my role.

I'm 13 years into the job and work in an outstanding school- I couldn't keep my standards up, and couldn't support the children in the same way if I didn't work in the evenings. Sometimes it is marking, sometimes it's tweaking lessons and making resources to support students, sometimes it is inputting data, writing reports, planning ahead and writing curriculum for news schemes of work, completing ehcp reviews, replying to parents etc.

If I worked at school until 5.30, 6pm I'd probably be able to cram it in, but then I'd not see the kids. It's balance but trying to get it right.

I do try not to work at weekends, though, and I'm able to post today as my youngest has chicken pox so I'm off!

Also I think by the time I site down to work in the evenings I'm tired and slower than if I were cracking on with it earlier in the day!