A Healthy Alternative to Work-Life Balance
For many teachers, achieving work-life balance remains elusive, and it may be time to try something new.
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One Tuesday evening, I had a required professional development Zoom call scheduled at the same time as my daughter鈥檚 school basketball game. Initially, I was naively optimistic that I could interact on the Zoom session while also watching my daughter鈥檚 game. At first, I secretly congratulated myself for my work-life balance hack. I thought, 鈥淚 am nailing this! I can be a basketball mom and a professional educator at the exact same time!鈥�
Wrong!
I wasn鈥檛 really listening to my Zoom call, and I wasn鈥檛 watching the game with my usual enthusiasm. My attempt at balancing by multitasking resulted in 鈥渘o-tasking.鈥� Without any hesitation, I made the decision to end the Zoom meeting and turned my full attention to the game. At that moment, I chose to 鈥渟tack鈥� my tasks rather than attempt to balance them.
Stacking
Maybe because I am a teacher with thousands of hours of paper-grading experience, I think of the concept of 鈥渟tacking鈥� as a stack of papers that are waiting to be graded.
The student鈥檚 paper that is on the top of the pile is the paper I am currently grading鈥攖he paper that gets my attention. This does not mean that the papers under the paper on top are ignored; rather, right now I am focusing on the top task only. I am being intentional and present with this paper on the top of the stack. Stacking is a practice of mindfulness.
Ann Klotz, 鈥嬧�媓eadmistress of Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, discussed her views on chasing balance in an . 鈥淚 don鈥檛 like the word balance,鈥� Klotz said. 鈥淚t implies that there is a perfect state where all the plates are in the air.鈥� Klotz went on to say that she teaches her students (all girls) to use the word sequence instead of balance. She described sequencing as 鈥渨hat your priorities are and what needs your attention.鈥�
Writer and psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler, LMHC, shares Klotz鈥檚 sentiment when it comes to the myth of balance. In an interview on LinkedIn鈥檚 , she stated, 鈥淣othing boils my blood more than hearing people give that directive [to find balance] to women.鈥� We鈥檙e sending women on this wild goose chase to find balance when it doesn鈥檛 exist.鈥�
An Elusive Concept
The concept of work-life balance might be too elusive for the reality of a busy teacher鈥檚 lifestyle.
Bored Teachers鈥� 鈥溾�� advises (among nine other tips), 鈥淒eciding to no longer take work home is a great way to find work-life balance.鈥� This is a fantastic goal for teachers but not totally realistic. If a teacher has an unusually busy week and must take work home, is she 鈥渙ut of balance鈥�? It鈥檚 inevitable that work will occasionally seep into personal time and vice versa.
Defining balance with hard rules such as 鈥淣o work email on the weekend鈥� can feel quite unbalanced when you unexpectedly have to prioritize a personal task, such as having to meet the plumber at home during work hours. Work and life are not a zero-sum game. A March 2022 Psychology Today article, 鈥�,鈥� warns, 鈥淲ork-life balance is a binary way of framing the problem.鈥�
The Eisenhower Matrix
Teachers are often faced with multiple 鈥渦rgent鈥� tasks that need to be at the top of the stack throughout their day. Knowing which task is the priority takes careful discernment. The , a system that requires you to prioritize tasks by urgency and importance, can be helpful in determining which tasks need your attention now.
The matrix consists of four quadrants framed by an x-axis labeled 鈥淚mportance鈥� and a y-axis labeled 鈥淯rgency.鈥� The top-right quadrant represents tasks that are both high importance and high urgency. This might be something as extreme as accidentally starting a small fire by placing a plastic DVD case in front of the projector bulb on a cart. (Yes, I actually did that years ago. And yes, extinguishing this small flame immediately was at the top of my stack. Don鈥檛 worry, only the DVD case was harmed by my negligence.)
Alternatively, a task categorized in the low importance/low urgency quadrant might be adding decorative images to your classroom newsletter. A task that will eventually make it to the top of your stack but not until the proverbial fires are put out.
The matrix can help you determine how the tasks of your work and personal life should be stacked. It can get frustrating when a new urgent and important task gets added to the top. That can feel overwhelming because the numerous less urgent and less important tasks are getting buried.
Some days our stacks will be high, and some days our stacks will be shorter; however, avoid aiming for the goal of maintaining a 鈥渂alance.鈥� If taking a moment to have a short walk outside is at the top of your stack, then that鈥檚 where your focus should be. The rest of the tasks in your stack will be there when you鈥檙e ready.