At this time of year, your to-do list is going to be a mile long, and you’re going to be working a lot of hours trying to get good systems in place for your new group of students. If you are feeling overwhelmed by all that needs to be done and exhausted not only by the long hours but also the physical labor of rearranging and setting up a classroom, please know that this is very normal, and it will get better. I tended to work 70-hour weeks or more during those first two weeks of school–I wanted to do things right the first time and from the start, rather than having to go back and finish or redo things later. I considered my long hours at back-to-school as an investment of time–doing things during those first few weeks that would create more time for me later.
However, there are things you might get sucked into doing this time of year that waste time, or actually create more work for you in the long run. These are five back-to-school time traps that you want to avoid.