Managing workload and avoiding burnout
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 131 No 7, 2 October 2026, page no.20
All teachers face a steep learning curve during their first months on the job. Here a pair of new teachers from the QTU’s Metropolitan North region share what they have learned.
What strategies help you manage competing priorities?
It is definitely important to map out what actually has to be done versus what can wait. It sometimes feels like everything is a priority and nothing could possibly wait, but when you take a moment to think about the to-do list, you often find not everything is as urgent as it seems. Build your time around the due dates, not the never-ending list.
How do you decide what is worth your time and energy?
If something is worth our time and energy it will have to tick at least a couple of these boxes: Will this have a positive impact on my students? Is it good for both me and the students? Is it actually benefiting anyone? Does it bring me joy? Not everything will fit into those categories of course, but it does help to decide what to spend our time on. It has taken a bit of time to be able to decide this more easily, but we have gotten better at this over the years.
What productivity hacks have made the biggest difference?
The to-do list built into Outlook is great - Super easy to make notes of things that need doing, flag emails to come back to, and share lists with teams for projects. Staffrooms are noisy places, so headphones to limit distractions help, as do setting timers and having breaks between tasks. We both find getting to work a bit earlier helps as well. Getting the day sorted in the morning helps us to feel prepared, but it also means we aren’t spending too much time at home working in the afternoons. Getting to work early means we leave on time — that makes a difference!
What is one task you’ve learned to simplify?
We both find having a really clear spreadsheet for our markbooks makes keeping track of marks easy, which really helps come reporting deadlines.
How do you stay organised during busy periods?
When tasks are piling up at busy times, it usually means spaces are piling up with paperwork too. We both like to set aside a time to “reset” our spaces — desks and classrooms. This helps us feel like things are still coming together and are not adding to the overwhelm. This task takes a bit of time away from “work”, but it really helps to not feel like things are snowballing out of control.
What advice would you give a graduate teacher feeling overwhelmed?
You are doing a good job! Your first year is tough! It takes a bit of time to find your “groove” and develop ways of managing all the competing priorities. Feeling like you have things under control doesn’t happen overnight either. Getting involved at work helps — we both had really great mentors and support groups in our first year. It was important to us both that we checked-in with these people regularly for support. We created things to look forward to with good people throughout the term, to try to keep the positivity up, even in busy times. Also, we both found it helpful to build a good support network outside of school. When we were feeling overwhelmed at work, we didn’t want to feel that way in our personal lives too.