One Work Habit Teachers Should Change

What started as a pandemic habit became my best tool for staying grounded

Hey, how’s it going? I’m Erik Johnson—a veteran social studies teacher, university professor, and educator coach. In this newsletter, I share practical teaching tips, deep dives into education topics, and the occasional piece on my personal interests. If it’s your first time here, take a look at my coaching homepage, and don’t forget to subscribe!

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A Free Teaching Tip

I started teaching in 2015, and for the first five years of my career, I worked through lunch. During those early years, I worked so much and was always in such a rush that my friends called me “the windmill.” Constantly stressed, I propelled myself through life, more like a panic-fueled rocket than any common or garden windmill. I was miserable.

It really resonated with me when I recently saw a clip of Marc Maron reflecting on his anxiety and how he needed to remind himself, “Dude, you’re not in a hurry!”

Welp, I would’ve been better off if I could’ve heard or thought about that ten years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I got a lot done, but I spent so much time feeling harried that I started to feel resentful of colleagues who appeared to have more time to chill. Whenever I got home, I crashed hard. I needed lots of evening and weekend time just to recover from the speed of the weekdays.

World events forced me to change my work habits.

I worked like this until COVID, when we were pulled home for remote teaching. Particularly because all of our teaching was online, I especially needed to step away from my computer by the time lunch rolled around. My eyes were basically bleeding, and my soul had left my body because I’d been teaching history to blank screens. So, I’d wander off to make lunch, refill my bird feeders, or even take a brief nap. This felt nice, but it didn’t quite make a dent in the existential anxiety of teaching through the throes of a pandemic.

When we returned from remote teaching, I started taking my lunch in my car because I wasn’t yet ready to be unmasked around my colleagues. This practice proved to be a pivotal shift in my work mental health.

Suddenly, during the hectic day, I slowed down. The long walk from my office to my car gave me a chance to decompress a bit, and listening to audiobooks or podcasts while I ate lunch and enjoyed some sunshine was awesome. The stresses of the day melted away, and I was able to recenter myself. I had fifty minutes to be me, not teacher-me.

When I’d return to the building after eating, I noticed I had new energy. I was able to be particularly cheerful for my next classes and felt far more productive. I was happier. I’m a huge fan of David Allen and his Getting Things Done methodology, and suddenly, some of his work shifted into stark focus for me: the necessity of slowing down to speed up.

So, teachers, here’s my tip for you: at lunch, or on a free period, take the full period to step outside. Sit in your car and listen to an audiobook, go for a walk, enjoy some sun, and recenter yourself. You’ll be better off for it.

Read below for a list of some of my favorite things that I’ve gotten up to while taking my lunch at work:

• Listened to and enjoyed many audiobooks, but I especially have meaningful memories of Becoming Superman.

• Played emulated games on an RG351V gifted to me by my brother.

• Knocked out some shopping at Target.

• Watched episodes of Ultraman on my phone.

• Read lots of comic books.

• Ate possibly thousands of Uncrustables.