125. Time Hacks for Special Ed Teachers

There’s never enough time in the day—you already know that. This episode is packed with practical strategies to help you use your time more intentionally, without staying late or bringing work home.

We’ll cover:

• How to stop relying on overwhelming to-do lists
• Ways to block time and build micro-habits
• Routines that make planning more efficient
• Gentle boundaries that protect your energy

✅ Don’t miss Episodes 123 and 124 for more tips on simplifying your systems and finishing the year strong!

Episode 123 - Progress Monitoring in Less Than One Minute

Episode 124 - Paperwork Batching Tips

If you're a busy special education teacher looking for tips, tricks, and resources to save you precious time, I've got you covered! I'm here to help you regain your confidence in the classroom and feel calm and collected as a special educator.

Tune in every Friday for practical tips, tools, and the support you need to to THRIVE in the classroom.

Grab your FREE Special Educators Cheat Sheets at positivelylearningblog.com/free-resource-library/

Join the Facebook group

I'd love to hear what's working for you! Send me a message on Instagram @positivelylearning

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Special Educators Resource Room.
I'm Jennifer from PositivelyLearning and today we are
wrapping up a unintendedthree-part series.
So way back in episode 123, wetalked all about getting more
efficient with progressmonitoring and data collection,
especially for quarter four, andthen in episode 124, we talked

(00:20):
all about your paperwork andgetting more productive using
batching.
Today we are wrapping it upwith the third episode in the
series and it's all about timemanagement hacks for special
educators.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hey, special educators, I'm Jennifer from
Positively Learning.
Welcome to the SpecialEducators Resource Room.
If you're like me, you'realways looking for ways to save
time and streamline your work.
That's why this podcast wascreated to give you the systems
and solutions you need to getyour time back.
Tune in for tips, tricks andtools that will help you manage

(00:57):
your workload and make the mostof your time.
Whether you're brand new orexperienced, all are welcome in
the Special Educators ResourceRoom.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Now, before we even start, I want to make something
super clear.
This episode is not about doingmore.
It's about helping you protectyour time so that you can do
what matters and feel a littlemore in control of your day.
Because, let's face it, youhave so much on your plate the
IEPs, the paperwork, the smallgroups, the behaviors, the

(01:29):
emails and the meetings thatcould have been emails it's easy
to feel like the day runs youinstead of the other way around.
In this episode, I'm sharing afew of my favorite time
management strategies,specifically designed for
special educators.
These are things that havehelped me and the teachers I
support use time moreintentionally, without staying

(01:49):
at school until 6 pm every nightor bringing work home.
There are five tips and, asyou're listening, you can take
them or leave them.
Let's dive in Number one.
Let's start with the classicto-do list.
You know the one 12 things arescribbled on a sticky note or
typed into your digital planner.
And here's the truth Mosttraditional to-do lists are too

(02:11):
long or too vague.
If you're writing things likecatch up on documentation,
organize your files, ieps, thoseare categories, not actually
tasks, and your brain doesn'tknow where to start.
So here's a idea Pick your topthree Every day.
Identify three specific anddoable tasks that would make

(02:34):
your day feel successful.
So instead of IEPs, you mightwrite draft present levels for
Jennifer Email parent aboutJennifer's meeting time.
Update service minutes in thesystem for Jennifer.
Email parent about Jennifer'smeeting time.
Update service minutes in thesystem for Jennifer.
This narrows your focus andhelps you make real progress,
even if the rest of the listwaits until tomorrow.

(02:55):
Remember, being busy is not thesame thing as being productive.
So you want your to-do list toreflect what actually moves the
needle.
Time-saving tip number two blockscheduling and micro-tasking.
So let's talk about timeblocking, or what I like to call
making an appointment with yourpaperwork.

(03:16):
Time blocking just means you'reassigning a specific type of
task to a specific time on yourcalendar.
So instead of saying I'll dopaperwork sometime during my
planning, you decide from 115 to145.
Today I'm writing progressnotes.
This makes it real You'recommitting to that task like you
would a meeting.

(03:37):
Now, if your day isunpredictable because hello,
it's special education, you canstill use micro tasking.
These are the short tasks thatdo fit into a five or 10 minute
gap.
So, for example, while yoursmall group is transitioning,
you're jotting down a quickobservation.
Or while your class is liningup for outdoor recess or

(04:00):
specials, you can check offcompleted tasks on a student's
checklist.
During morning arrival, you canprint one progress report.
You don't have to wait for thatperfect hour of uninterrupted
time.
Those small moments can add upfast.
And yes, I feel like I'mcontradicting myself.
Last week I talked all aboutbatching, but what I want to do

(04:23):
is offer a menu of time-savingstrategies, not so that you do
all of them, although that wouldbe amazing but that you pick
the one that works for you.
The third time-saving tip is agood one Create anchor routines.
It is such a powerful thingthat you can do for your time.
You're building habits that aregoing to start running

(04:45):
automatically.
Think of it as muscle memory,but we're going to call them
anchor routines because theyground your week.
So think of it like this Mondayyou check goal progress.
Tuesdays, you updatecommunication logs.
Fridays, you file all thefolders and documents and you
prep for next week and you don'thave to think what should I be

(05:07):
doing, because it's alreadydecided.
You can even take it smallerand build anchors into your day.
The first five minutes ofplanning you're checking your
top three list the last fiveminutes.
You're logging any data fromthe day.
When these routines areconsistent.
They're going to removedecision fatigue.

(05:28):
You're not spending energyplanning what to do, you're just
going to be doing it and, bestof all, you don't have to finish
everything in one day, becauseyou're spreading the work in a
way that's sustainable.
Oh, I'm thinking that thiscould be another episode talking
all about those anchor routines, but for now, let's move on.
Number four probably should havebeen what I led with.

(05:50):
It is all about protecting yourtime, also known as gentle
boundaries, because boundariesare hard.
But if you want to actually getthings done, you're going to
need to protect your time likeit's a meeting with admin,
because it kind of is.
Here's the trick Boundariesdon't have to be harsh, they can
be kind and clear.

(06:11):
So you could try.
I'd love to help with that.
Can I follow up with you aftermy paperwork block at 3.30?
Or you could say I have about15 minutes right now.
Should we meet briefly, orwould it be better to schedule
time tomorrow?
And here's one I've used often.
I have a few IEP tasks I'mworking through right now, but

(06:33):
I'll check in as soon as I wrapup.
You're not being difficult.
You're being professional andfocused, and the truth is people
often respect those boundariesmore when you're modeling them.
Clearly, if you always stopwhat you're doing to respond
immediately, people are going toassume you're available 24

(06:57):
seven.
So start protecting just onepart of your day, maybe your
planning period, if you get one,or the first 20 minutes after
dismissal, if you're still there.
That small shift can create bigresults.
Time-saving tip number five isactually just a challenge.
I want you to try one thingthis week.
Let's make this actionable.
So here's a few small tweaksthat you can try this week.

(07:18):
You can create your top threetask list each morning, just
three things.
You can block off one specifictime this week for paperwork and
protect it.
You could build one new anchorroutine.
Maybe every Friday becomesfolder audit day and you can
communicate one small boundary,just one, and notice how it

(07:40):
feels.
You don't need to overhaul yourwhole schedule.
Let's just try one thing andsee what shifts.
Time management and specialeducation isn't about being
perfect or doing it all.
It's about working with thetime and energy that you do have
and making that work feel justa little less chaotic.
So whether you try batching,blocking or just choosing your

(08:02):
top three for the day.
You're moving in the rightdirection.
You are doing such importantwork, so I hope these
time-saving strategies give yousome space to do it with more
clarity and a little morebreathing room.
Thank you for sticking with thisepisode of Special Educators
Resource Room.
I'm so excited to share thesestrategies and I'd love to know
what's working for you.

(08:23):
I'll link the previous episodesthat came in this time-saving
series.
It's episodes 123 and 124.
I'll put it in the show notes.
I can't wait for you to listento them.
They are very short so youcould binge listen to all the
episodes in a row, but they arepacked with tips that you can
take it or leave it.
I truly believe if you even putone new strategy in place, you

(08:46):
can see a difference.
You're also invited to comeback next week.
We have a really special topic.
We're going to be talking allabout creative ways to celebrate
student progress at the end ofthe year.
That moves way past thatperfect attendance certificate.
So stay tuned next week.
I'll catch you next time in theSpecial Educators Resource Room

(09:06):
.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Thanks so much for tuning in and I'm dying to ask
what'd you think?
Be sure to hit the follow orsubscribe buttons that you never
miss an episode.
You can find the show notes andlinks for everything mentioned
in this episode atpositivelylearningblogcom.
See you next week for morespecial education solutions.