Teach17

You leave the classroom. You leave the building. But sometimes your head stays at school.

The lesson that went badly. The email you need to answer. Tomorrow’s Year 9 class. The pupil you are worried about. The marking sitting in your bag.

Research into recovery from work suggests that one of the most important things we can do is psychologically detach — giving our minds genuine time away from work.

That is easier said than done in teaching. Here are 17 ways that might help.

One. Finish the day before you leave the building

Give yourself five minutes at the end of the day to write down what still needs doing. Do not rely on your brain to keep reminding you all evening. Put tomorrow’s jobs somewhere you trust.

Two. Decide tomorrow’s first job

Unfinished tasks have a habit of following us home. Before leaving, decide exactly where you will start tomorrow: “8.00am — print Year 10 practical sheets.” Giving an unfinished job a next step can make it easier to put it down for the night.

Three. Have an actual finishing time

Teaching expands to fill whatever time you give it. Decide when work stops. Not “when everything is finished”, because everything will never be finished.

Four. Take school email off the evening shift

Turn off notifications. Better still, decide on a time after which you simply do not look. An email arriving at 8.30pm does not necessarily require an 8.31pm response.

Five. Make ‘just checking’ harder

Move the school email app off your home screen. Log out on your personal laptop. Put the work bag somewhere you cannot see it. Small amounts of friction can stop an automatic check becoming another 45 minutes of work.

Six. Use the journey home as a transition

The commute can be useful decompression time. Music, an audiobook, a podcast, silence or a walk can help create a gap between school and home. Try not to use the whole journey to conduct a mental post-mortem of the day.

Seven. Create a small ‘I’m home’ ritual

Change your clothes. Make a drink. Walk the dog. Take a shower. Go around the block. It does not need to be profound — it simply tells your brain that one part of the day has ended and another has started.

Eight. Move

A walk, run, gym session, cycle or twenty minutes outside gives your attention somewhere else to go. The aim is not another target to hit. It is to change state after a day spent thinking about school.

Nine. Decide what you are going to do at home

Do not simply try to “not think about work”. Give yourself something else to think about. Recent research suggests that deliberately thinking about your non-work goals can reduce after-work rumination. Decide what the evening is actually for: cooking something, seeing someone, playing music, exercising, reading or watching something.

Ten. Find something that completely absorbs you

Good recovery is not always lying on the sofa. A hobby that requires concentration — playing an instrument, gardening, cooking, sport, drawing, DIY or learning something new — can give your mind a much-needed change of direction.

Eleven. Protect something that has nothing to do with education

Have part of your life where nobody talks about behaviour policies, GCSE grades or retrieval practice. Teaching is important, but it does not need to occupy every part of your identity.

Twelve. Put a limit on the school debrief

Talking about a difficult day can help. Reliving every irritating moment for the entire evening usually does not. Have the conversation, get it out, then deliberately move on to something else.

Thirteen. Deal differently with useful thinking and rumination

There is a difference between “What shall I do about that tomorrow?” and repeatedly replaying what happened. If there is an action you can take, write it down. If there is nothing you can do tonight, recognise that another hour of thinking probably will not improve it.

Fourteen. Stop trying to solve tomorrow’s classes in bed

Keep a notebook nearby if ideas arrive late. Write the thought down rather than mentally developing an entire lesson at midnight. Your future self can deal with it tomorrow.

Fifteen. Try five minutes of doing one thing

Mindfulness does not have to mean a half-hour meditation session. Cook without scrolling. Walk without checking your phone. Listen properly to a piece of music. Research involving teachers has found mindfulness-based approaches can reduce work-related rumination and improve aspects of sleep and recovery.

Sixteen. Guard your sleep from school

Late-night marking, email and planning can turn school into the last thing you think about before sleep. Create some school-free time before bed. Tomorrow is usually easier to deal with after sleep than after another hour staring at a laptop.

Seventeen. If you can never switch off, look at the workload too

Not every problem can be solved with a walk, a hobby or better boundaries. If excessive workload, difficult relationships, lack of support or unrealistic demands mean school is permanently following you home, the problem may also need addressing at school. Speak to someone rather than assuming you simply need to become better at coping.

Switching off does not mean you care less about your pupils or your job.

It means recognising that recovery is part of being able to come back and do the job again tomorrow.