Why Teachers Should Track How They Spend Their Time

Five of the best teachers in the country tracked every hour of their workday for two weeks, and the results changed how they looked at their jobs. Here’s how you can do the same.

(This is the last installment of a five-part series about how some of America’s best teachers spend their time. Catch up by reading the introduction, part two, part three and part four.)

During the 2014–2015 school year, five alumni of the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice tracked how they spent their workdays with the support of TNTP, a national non-profit founded by teachers, but the project is one that you can easily replicate in your classroom or school.

Here’s how.

Form a group and set a goal.

Of course it’s possible to track your time on your own, but the project is even more interesting and beneficial when you have colleagues to share and reflect with. The Fishman Prize alumni chose to track their time as a way of exploring larger issues of sustainability in the profession, but they individually used their data to improve their work-life balance, share useful data with administrators, or simply to clarify their own thinking about how they spend their time.

Regardless of why you’d like to track your time, it’s helpful to have a vision in mind for the project.

Choose a time tracking tool and structure.

The Fishman Prize alumni used a common smartphone app — Toggl — to conveniently track and store their time, but even a pencil and paper method will do, provided you’re consistent. After you’ve chosen your tool, reflect on some important questions to determine the structure of your time-tracking. For instance, how long do you want your time-tracking period to be? How many time-tracking periods will you have? Will you track weekends and weeknights?

Define clear, specific categories.

Each of our participants used an app to track how many hours they spent on individual activities over the course of a typical school week. They also carefully assigned each hour into into clear and specific categories. They did this during two, two week periods during the school year, refining their methods after the first go around to make sure they captured a clear sense of their days.

Predict your results and invite your administration to do the same.

It was eye-opening for the Fishman Prize alumni to compare how they thought they were spending their time versus how they actually spent it. To make this comparison yourself, design a pre-survey that captures your predictions for how your time is spent prior to time-tracking. If you are curious to know how your school leaders think about your time, invite them to do the same. Reflecting on the results of your study together could open up important conversations about your daily schedule.

Make time to step back and reflect on your results.

The Fishman Prize alumni met several times during the course of the school year to discuss their time tracking project and results. Even an hour is enough time to review the data, discuss similarities and differences, and share perspectives on the work.

“I feel sometimes like I’m in situations where I think that my time is not being used well. I was interested in getting some actual data to help me know whether or not those were inefficiencies on my own part, or if my time was actually not being respected, or if I actually just have too much work.” — Jennifer Corroy Porras

Learn more about the Fishman Prize

Each year, TNTP, a national non-profit founded by teachers, awards the Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice to shine a spotlight on public school teachers who achieve exceptional results with students from high-poverty communities. Selected from thousands of nominees and hundreds of applicants who undergo a rigorous, months-long selection process, Fishman Prize winners receive $25,000 each, one of the country’s largest monetary awards for practicing teachers — and money that is well deserved for individuals who too often go unrecognized.

Yet the prize goes far beyond financial rewards. During the summer of their award year, our winners embark on a month-long residency where they reflect on classroom practices, explore the larger issues that shape their profession, and use their experiences and ideas to help us improve our efforts to understand and support great instruction.

Do you know a teacher who’s achieving great things in a high-poverty school? Visit TNTP.org to find out more about the upcoming 2016 Fishman Prize nomination season.