How to stop teaching from taking over your entire life
Building every lesson plan from scratch while spending weekends grading leaves no time for a life outside the classroom. This constant exhaustion and stress make it nearly impossible to disconnect, ultimately leading to severe burnout.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Arriving at work early to complete tasks while the building is emptyDid this help you?
- 2Leaving school laptops at work and not signing into work accounts on personal devicesDid this help you?
- 3Simplifying assignments and being selective about what gets gradedDid this help you?
- 4Using pre-made free online resources or lesson plan templates instead of designing everything from scratchDid this help you?
- 5Planning to send personal documents and proven materials to a third party so the generated plans resemble the teacher's original contentDid this help you?
- 6Writing lessons last minute or on the flyDid this help you?
- 7Taking a long time to respond to emailsDid this help you?
- 8Focusing only on day-to-day survival rather than long-term planningDid this help you?
- 9Accepting being called 'the mean teacher' to enforce strict structure and disciplineDid this help you?
- 10Keeping classroom centers simple or using a basic library center instead of building custom activitiesDid this help you?
- 11Borrowing curriculum ideas and lesson plans from veteran teachers and teammatesDid this help you?
- 12Limiting weekend work hours and ignoring non-essential suggestions from specialistsDid this help you?
- 13asking the district to provide a curriculum or help build one to change as neededDid this help you?
- 14Looking for survival tips and non-verbal cues from online communities to handle chatty students.Did this help you?
- 15looking to jump ship asapDid this help you?
- 16finish the year out, save as much money as possible and book itDid this help you?
- 17faking it until you make itDid this help you?
- 18banking the good times to revisit during low momentsDid this help you?
- 19switching districts or moving states if administration is unsupportiveDid this help you?
- 20sticking with the career for a few years to gain experienceDid this help you?
- 21Looking at other job offers with fewer lesson preparationsDid this help you?
- 22Asking for tips and advice to make the current workload easier to handleDid this help you?
- 23Telling him to start every day with a clean slate and not carry over the previous day's eventsDid this help you?
- 24Working as a substitute teacher to test out the professionDid this help you?
- 25Transitioning into a role as a school nurse insteadDid this help you?
- 26Volunteering with a health education organizationDid this help you?
- 27Staying an hour past contract time to catch up on planningDid this help you?
- 28Giving a pillow or a snack to calm students downDid this help you?
- 29Lowering immediate expectations to focus purely on survival rather than being a perfect teacherDid this help you?
- 30Keeping a daily journal to reflect on what worked and what needs improvementDid this help you?
- 31Trying different strategies like structured consequences, redirection, and scaffolded assignmentsDid this help you?
- 32Establish boundaries to keep yourself from overworkingDid this help you?
- 33Follow the provided curriculum best as you canDid this help you?
- 34Rely on veteran teachers to helpDid this help you?
- 35Volunteering independently at a daycare to gain hands-on experience without the pressure of gradingDid this help you?
- 36Working as a paraprofessional while pursuing a teaching degreeDid this help you?
- 37Building strong relationships with students to find meaningDid this help you?
- 38Setting a strict mental deadline to survive just one yearDid this help you?
- 39Switching to a different school districtDid this help you?
- 40Separating work life from home life and refusing to bring work homeDid this help you?
- 41Focusing on financial stability, benefits, and scheduled breaksDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It took me about 3 years to feel like I kind of knew what I was doing.”source ↗
“So I’m in my fourth week of my first year teaching.”source ↗
“I am completely absolutely exhausted and I feel so overstimulated and overwhelmed.”source ↗
“I feel like I have no energy for my two little kids when I get home and I feel like I have no time for planning or anything.”source ↗
“Is I normal that I already am ready for the year to be over? And unsure I want to do this for 30+ years?”source ↗
“Still, I'm finding it incredibly difficult to have a life outside of teaching, and very hard not to let it take over my life.”source ↗
“I am having to build everything from scratch!”source ↗
“my weekends are spent bed rotting and grading. I am so exhausted, yet I've had trouble sleeping because of the stress and anxiety.”source ↗
“I’m 35, transitioned into teaching from fairly cushy office jobs. Now contending with constantly being on my feet, constantly being in conflict with chatty students and paperwork out the ass.”source ↗
“Now, I feel like I’ve walked a marathon by the end of the week. I feel anxious before going into class. I’m one lesson plan ahead (there is a feeling of being underwater), without a plan for the year.”source ↗
“So far it’s been exactly that for me and I’m in my first year, as an Associate Teacher. Thinking about making this a long term career is up in the air, so I just wanna know the perspectives of others.”source ↗
“It's stressful. It's hard.”source ↗
“It's bleeding into every moment of my life and I'm destined for burnout if I keep up this pace.”source ↗
“This is my first year teaching and I feel like I already want to jump ship.”source ↗
“So for being on my first week, I didn’t want to make a bad first impression. I went every week. But having to go in at 6:15 am and then leave school at 6:45pm after JH practice is absolutely insane!”source ↗
“I have to come in Saturday till 8 a 3:30 for a variety film! I don’t even have a full weekend to rest.”source ↗
“What really broke me is that I haven’t been able to see my partner till this morning.”source ↗
“My first year was an absolute nightmare in one of the worst districts.”source ↗
“Last year, I was constantly writing up lessons last minute, or just putting together lessons on the fly.”source ↗
“It would be so hard for me to even think a week into the future because I felt like something new would happen every day and I would just be dead after work, not wanting to do anything.”source ↗
“building a curriculum as a 1st year teacher sounds tough.”source ↗
“This job requires me to teach 6 different grade levels throughout the day, with 6 different lesson plans, no curriculum to go off of, and a dream.”source ↗
“On top of me being a new teacher, having nothing to start off the year with, and costing my time at home to make multiple lesson plans, I started getting severe panic and anxiety attacks and it's starting to affect my health.”source ↗
“I’m not a new teacher. I’ve been working as a teacher for three years, but my boyfriend has only recently started working, and his days have been awful so far.”source ↗
“He ended up on a team with several female colleagues (he’s an elementary school teacher, so he’s surrounded by women), and the colleague who seems to be “in charge” doesn’t seem to like him very much.”source ↗
“They gave him a teaching role that he isn’t happy with, and I know that today, the first time he was alone with the children and had to supervise them during lunch, was really difficult.”source ↗
“We had to move away from our family and friends because of his job, and right now I don’t really have anyone to vent to... I feel very fragile, and I need to pull myself together before he gets home from work so that I can support him.”source ↗
“Now that I’m actually responsible for my own classroom, though, I feel like I’m struggling constantly.”source ↗
“Every lesson lately feels like a failure even when I’ve spent hours preparing it.”source ↗
“The other difficult part has been feeling isolated from the adults around me.”source ↗
“Today was the first day I went home and cried. I found myself wondering whether I chose the wrong career”source ↗
“I just feel like I’m drowning trying to meet everyone’s expectations without really knowing whether I’m doing any of it correctly.”source ↗
“I’m currently doing my first ECE practicum and it has honestly been a pretty stressful experience. I’ve had some issues keeping up with assignments and documentation, even though I actually enjoy being with the children and participating in the classroom.”source ↗
“Today my field liaison came to visit me and told me that she doesn’t think I’m ready for my next practicum yet.”source ↗
“I definitely think trying to manage everything at once has been overwhelming for me, so I’m trying to remind myself to take it one step at a time.”source ↗
“my first year i came home crying every day and was sick for my entire christmas break.”source ↗
“As a first year teacher going through it... thank you”source ↗
“As the title says, I’m six weeks into my first teaching job in first grade and I’m struggling. My kids behaviors are bad, they don’t listen to me, and they talk all the time. I have a hard time keeping up with all of the curriculum, trying to also somehow have centers made, the specialists are hard on me after they’ve been in my room, I work on materials on my weekends because I only have one free conference a week, and I go home crying everyday feeling like it’s never going to get better.”source ↗
“I’m trying my best, but it just doesn’t feel like it. I feel like I’m going to be miserable and under a watchful eye from others I work with forever.”source ↗
“I'm on my fourth year and only now do I feel like I am actually doing this thing without completely winging it.”source ↗
“Responsibilities that overwhelmed me before are starting to feel like smaller tasks.”source ↗
“I still have days that make me want to rip my hair out, but those are less this year.”source ↗
“I have just started teaching full time after I completed my studies. I have to say that I'm not really happy rn it feels like it sucks maybe till I get used to it and settle down it's only been a week. Also I hate that I always have to plan for next time and take work home with me.”source ↗
“I feel like jumping into both at the same time would be extremely overwhelming.”source ↗
“Tbh me imagining myself getting into groove of teaching seems impossible with the amount of stuff I have to learn but im sure that’s not a feeling I’m alone in as a first year (at least I hope not)”source ↗
“recientemente emprendí con mi pareja y me está tomando el tiempo que usaba en planear mis clases, entonces pagar para hacer planeaciones es algo que he considerado, aunque no sé qué tan ético sea.”source ↗
“Hey, I'm currently a new grad RN, and I enjoy doing it.”source ↗
“My thought is to go to WGU for a Secondary Math Bachelors degree.”source ↗
“1. Do you think it would be realistic for me to hold down two jobs? I'm thinking 11p-730a (Nurse) and ~8a-3p (Teacher). M-F”source ↗
“2. The big issue would be that first period of school. Do you think I could negotiate a contract with the school to guarantee I have that first period off? Is that possible and/or reasonable to request?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Why is my first year of teaching making me physically sick?
- 12What should I do on the first day of teaching?
- 28How to go back to school while working full time with a family
- 6What are the real work hours like for a new HVAC tech?
- 6Why is my school teaching schedule so impossible to follow?
- 2Why does the classroom chaos never go away?