General Teacher Tips

Organization for Teachers: Simple Ten-Minute Tasks

Linda Asaro
March 22, 2023

Organization for teachers: it all comes down to one thing. Time. If you are a teacher, you know it is a very, very valuable commodity. Just when we sit down and focus on something that needs our attention, it’s already time, say, for kids to come back from lunch.

Even during our prep periods, there is always something else competing for our attention (a phone call, a crying student in the hallway, a fire drill). Before you know it, the day is over and our “to-do” list is left without a single “check”. The solution? Look for small pockets of time and smaller, more manageable tasks. Read here for ideas to get and stay organized with these 10 tasks that you can complete in 10 minutes or less.

blog post on organization for teachers — Get and stay organized with small tasks that make a big impact.

Organization for Teachers: 10-Minute Tasks

It’s so hard to get a big chunk of time. These tasks take only about 10 minutes and will have a huge impact.

Try these:

Grade One Essay: Just one! You can do it if you know it’s the only one you are tackling. It gives you momentum for when you have a bigger chunk of time.
Clean Your Desk Top: Clear it off, wipe it off, throw out the junk…it just makes you feel organized.
Post Tomorrow’s Materials on Your Digital Learning Platform: You’ll come in feeling prepared.
Make Tomorrow’s Copies: If there are no jams, you’ll be done and all set.
Send a Positive Email: Make time to tell a parent that their child is shining or improving in your class. Although we don’t always make time to do this, it is so important and has a huge impact.
Outline Next Week’s Plans: Just a brief idea of what you are doing. It will make your actual planning time go much more quickly.
Organize One Shelf in Your Closet: Empty it, then put it back in an organized way. It feels great.
Tidy Up Your Classroom Library: In 10 minutes, it will look inviting. What’s better than a nice-looking library?
Parent Phone Call: Tackle that one call, but lead with the fact that you only have 10 minutes. Example: “Hi there, it’s Mrs. Asaro, I wanted to talk to you about Madison, and I just want to let you know the kids will be back at 2:00…”. This way, it doesn’t go on and on.
Walk Over to Speak to a Colleague: In our electronic world, we barely come face to face. Community is important in a school, so hop on over and say a quick hello or ask your question in person.

Organization for Teachers: 10-Minute Home Tasks

I know, I know. “Teachers shouldn’t have to bring work home.” Whoever said that doesn’t teach ELA most likely (in my humble opinion). Even if you minimize work at home, having a career requires at-home prep.

Organization for teachers begins at home:

Prep breakfast for the week: I do overnight oats because they’re perfect to grab and go.
Pack tomorrow’s lunch: Your morning will run MUCH more smoothly if you do this.
Make a grading plan: Drowning in grading? As an ELA teacher, it’s a way of life. I jot down a plan of how to tackle it (grade 5 essays on Monday, do report card comments on Wednesday, etc.)
Put in standards for next week’s plans: This frees you up to just get the bulk of the planning ideas done and put in your standards separately. If you do it all at once, you might get bogged down.
Put together this week’s outfits: This is a tough one for me…I leave early and I can’t be having my own personal fashion show while I decide. When I do this, I just put together 5 outfits, each on their own hangar, in the front of my closet. Nothing is more helpful to me than this in the morning!
Create a snack bag for the week: I am someone who needs snacks. Packing my snacks for the week and leaving them in the classroom (or in a specific place in my home fridge to grab and go) helps!
Clean out your teacher bag: If you just commit to dumping it out, I promise, you can clean it in under 10 minutes. It feels amazing and sets you in a good frame of mind.
Pack Your Hot Drinks for the Week: I drink both coffee and tea, so I refresh my bag of tea selections and coffee k-cups in my lunch box weekly.
Fill in Your Home Calendar: Go through your texts, emails, and school calendar to see if you made any plans or have any new commitments and add them to your home calendar.
Take Care of YOU: Make some appointments that you need/want: physicals, blood work, massage, nails, etc. As a teacher, it’s hard to get to the phone, and by the time we can get to it, we are too tired to do so. Making 2 appointments should only take about 10 minutes.

Organization for Teachers: Get Some Student Help

Although we don’t want our students doing our “grunt work”, there are tasks that students can quickly do that will save you a ton of time. After all, a classroom is a community, and kids need to be a part of keeping the classroom in shape. These work well during the last 10 minutes on a Friday or during homeroom:

Put away library books: This is a time-consuming task for me, but something that a group of kids can quickly and easily do.
Take down an old bulletin board: Don’t waste your time…kids love doing this. For some reason, they are mesmerized by a staple remover and really get to work on pulling out every single staple.
Organize tomorrow’s papers: Get a couple of kids who are neat by nature to get you set up for tomorrow.
Straighten out desks/furniture: Ever wonder why our room constantly looks like an earthquake hit? I don’t get it, but it does. Have your students put everything back in place…they know where everything belongs!
Tidy up shelves: Assign a few kids to each area of the room. When I do this, it gives my room an automatic “facelift”.
Section off closets and assign kids an area to organize: I would do this with a small group of kids.
Organize/alphabetize papers such as class trip permission slips: Kids are good at this when you ask them to do it!
Correct Papers: I’m not talking about an assessment here; I’m talking about a classwork or homework assignment. You don’t need to grade everything. They can check their own or a partner’s.
Organize a Random Pile: Pile of what? You tell me. I once had a ridiculous pile of jumbled paper clips taking up real estate on my desk. I had 2 students deal with it, and they were happy to do it!
Locker Clean Out: Although it’s not my personal area, I get stressed looking at their mess. This is perfect for a Friday afternoon.

These are small tasks, but once you start incorporating a bunch of them, they give you momentum. You will quickly see how much of a difference they can make. Before you know it, you’ll be more organized and more motivated to stay that way.

Also, if you’d like more organization for teachers tips, read my other blog post on “How to Stay Organized as a Middle School Teacher“.

Finally, if you need the “ultimate shortcuts”, I have lots of products that can save you tons time as a middle school language arts or social studies teacher. From whole units to fun activities, there is something for every need. Click here to see my TPT store.