A teacher’s workload is not difficult only because there is too much to do. It is difficult because so many tasks arrive unexpectedly.
A pupil needs help. A parent emails. A practical needs changing. A meeting is added. A colleague asks for data. A lesson has not worked. A safeguarding concern must be recorded. Meanwhile, tomorrow’s lessons still need preparing.
David Allen’s book Getting Things Done offers a simple idea: your brain should be used for thinking, not for trying to remember every unfinished task.
The full system may feel too complicated for a busy teacher, but many of its principles can make school life calmer, clearer and more manageable.
1. Stop trying to remember everything
Teachers carry hundreds of small commitments in their heads:
- Email a parent.
- Print the Year 9 practical.
- Check a pupil’s missing homework.
- Speak to the form tutor.
- Find a better explanation of electromagnetic induction.
- Add marks to the school system.
Trying to remember these tasks creates constant low-level anxiety.
Choose one trusted place to record them. It could be a notebook, planner, phone app or digital task list. The important thing is that you use it consistently.
2. Write tasks down as soon as they appear
School tasks often arrive at inconvenient moments.
A pupil speaks to you at the end of a lesson. A colleague catches you in the corridor. A parent issue is mentioned during registration. A resource needs changing while you are teaching.
Record the task immediately, even if you cannot deal with it immediately.
Writing “Contact Mia’s parent about missing assessment” is much safer than assuming you will remember it at the end of six lessons.
3. Turn vague worries into clear actions
Many teachers have tasks such as:
- Sort out Year 10.
- Improve behaviour.
- Catch up with marking.
- Prepare for parents’ evening.
- Fix the scheme of work.
These are not actions. They are problems or projects.
Replace them with a clear next step:
- Email the head of year about three pupils.
- Mark Question 4 from every Year 10 paper.
- Print the parents’ evening appointment list.
- Rewrite Lesson 3 of the electricity unit.
A specific task is easier to begin than a vague worry.
4. Separate projects from ordinary tasks
Some jobs contain several stages.
“Prepare Year 11 mocks” might include:
- Choose the paper.
- Check specification coverage.
- Arrange printing.
- Confirm access arrangements.
- Prepare mark schemes.
- Agree grade boundaries.
- Book rooms.
- Enter results.
- Plan feedback lessons.
Treating this as one task makes it feel overwhelming. Breaking it into smaller actions makes progress visible.
5. Keep one list for tasks you are waiting on
Teachers regularly depend on other people.
You may be waiting for:
- A parent to reply.
- A pupil to return a form.
- A technician to order equipment.
- A colleague to send marks.
- A line manager to approve a trip.
- The SENCO to provide information.
- The examinations officer to confirm a room.
Create a simple “waiting for” list. Check it once or twice a week.
This prevents important matters disappearing into old emails.
6. Use a two-minute rule without becoming distracted
David Allen suggests completing very short tasks immediately.
For teachers, this could include:
- Forwarding a document.
- Confirming a meeting.
- Saving a resource.
- Adding a deadline to the calendar.
- Replying with a quick acknowledgement.
However, do not let every two-minute task interrupt lesson planning or marking.
Use the rule when you are deliberately processing tasks, not every time an email appears.
7. Protect your calendar
A school calendar can quickly become overloaded.
Use it for events that genuinely have to happen at a particular time:
- Lessons.
- Meetings.
- Parents’ evenings.
- Report deadlines.
- School trips.
- Detentions.
- Phone calls.
- Examination dates.
- Duty periods.
Do not fill it with every task you hope to complete.
Your calendar should show the fixed shape of the week, not become another impossible to-do list.
8. Create lists for different parts of the job
A single list containing 80 unrelated tasks soon becomes useless.
Consider separating tasks into areas such as:
- Lessons
- Marking and assessment
- Tutor responsibilities
- Parents
- Department
- Administration
- Professional development
- Personal
You could also create practical lists such as:
- At school
- At home
- On the computer
- Photocopying
- Phone calls
- Five-minute jobs
This helps you find a suitable task for the time and resources available.
9. Batch similar jobs together
Constantly switching between tasks is tiring.
Instead of answering emails throughout the day, set aside one or two short periods.
Other tasks that can be batched include:
- Printing.
- Photocopying.
- Entering marks.
- Contacting parents.
- Preparing retrieval starters.
- Checking homework.
- Writing reports.
- Ordering equipment.
Batching reduces the repeated effort of stopping, starting and finding the correct information.
10. Keep a list for each regular meeting
Teachers often remember an important question immediately after a meeting has ended.
Create a running list for people you meet regularly:
- Head of department
- Head of year
- SENCO
- Technician
- Line manager
- Form tutor team
Add items as they occur.
Before the next meeting, check the list. You will arrive prepared and be less likely to forget important issues.
11. Use checklists for recurring school tasks
Schools contain many jobs that happen repeatedly but not often enough to become automatic.
Create checklists for tasks such as:
- Setting up a practical.
- Organising a trip.
- Preparing for parents’ evening.
- Writing reports.
- Running an assessment.
- Preparing cover work.
- Completing end-of-term administration.
- Planning an observed lesson.
A checklist reduces the risk of forgetting a small but important step.
12. Build a reliable system for lesson ideas
Teachers constantly collect ideas from books, websites, social media, training sessions and conversations.
Do not mix useful resources with urgent tasks.
Store ideas in a separate place, organised by topic or year group:
- Forces
- Electricity
- Waves
- Atomic structure
- Required practicals
- Retrieval activities
- Demonstrations
- Revision
This keeps tomorrow’s task list clear while preserving ideas for future lessons.
13. Keep a “someday” list for good ideas
Teachers often create extra work because every interesting idea feels urgent.
You might want to:
- Start a new club.
- Rewrite an entire scheme of work.
- Make revision videos.
- Introduce a new practical.
- Build a question bank.
- Organise a trip.
- Read a teaching book.
These ideas may be valuable, but they do not all need doing this term.
Put them on a “someday” list and review them occasionally. This allows you to keep the idea without immediately turning it into work.
14. Review the week before it controls you
A weekly review is one of the most useful ideas in Getting Things Done.
Once a week, spend around 15 to 20 minutes checking:
- Next week’s lessons.
- Upcoming assessments.
- Reports and data deadlines.
- Meetings.
- Parent contact.
- Pupils requiring follow-up.
- Equipment or photocopying.
- Tasks you are waiting on.
This will not remove the workload, but it can reduce unpleasant surprises.
Friday afternoon may work well because the school week is still fresh in your mind.
15. Plan difficult work for times when you can think
Not every free period is equally useful.
A 20-minute gap between lessons may be suitable for:
- Printing.
- Checking emails.
- Entering marks.
- Organising resources.
- Making a short phone call.
It may not be suitable for:
- Planning a difficult A-level lesson.
- Analysing examination results.
- Writing reports.
- Redesigning an assessment.
- Preparing an important meeting.
Match the task to the time and concentration available.
16. Decide what “good enough” looks like
Teachers can spend large amounts of time improving work that was already effective.
Not every lesson needs:
- A new PowerPoint.
- A redesigned worksheet.
- Multiple differentiated resources.
- Elaborate displays.
- Perfectly written feedback.
- A new practical activity.
Sometimes the best next action is to reuse a strong resource, adapt an existing lesson or give whole-class feedback.
Productivity is not about completing everything to the highest possible standard. It is about using limited time where it will make the greatest difference.
17. Use organisation to create boundaries
The purpose of a system should not be to fit more work into every evening.
It should help you decide:
- What must be done?
- What should be done?
- What can wait?
- What can be delegated?
- What can be simplified?
- What can be stopped?
A trusted task system can make it easier to leave school because you know your commitments have been recorded and will be reviewed.
No productivity book can solve excessive workload, staff shortages or unrealistic school expectations. However, the right habits can stop every unfinished task competing for attention at the same time.
The most useful lesson from Getting Things Done is not that teachers should work faster. It is that they should spend less energy trying to remember everything and more energy deciding what genuinely needs to happen next.