There is no spare time in teaching. We all know that. But what if I told you that I could at least make the stress of being constantly active easier, and perhaps even gain you a little time, too?

It’s not as difficult as it may first seem. Rather, it is all about subtle tweaks to the way we work, according to clinical- psychologist-turned-writer Alice Boyes. She has plenty of neuroscience-backed ideas on the topic, as explored in her books The Anxiety Toolkit and The Healthy Mind Toolkit.

She says the first step is knowing how your body works across a typical day. You want to ensure, she says, that you do the hard tasks when you are most geared up to complete them.

“People’s mental energy and focus is often highest about one or two hours after they wake up,” she explains. “So if you start work before you hit that zone, then you might want to do a few lower-key warm-up activities. The problem is that, for a lot of people, they hit their high focus time right in the middle of their commute.”

Basically, this is about using your resources for the right task at the right time. Being at peak focus when sat in traffic on the way to school is not the best use of your time. Neither is doing simple admin tasks before school when you could be making lighter work of something more substantial.

This reinforces how important the pre-first lesson time really is. It is likely that this will be the time you will be most productive, so difficult conversations, particularly complex marking or tricky emails would all be best done at this point. You will be better at them, and they will take less time.

The pursuit of pleasure

Boyes also refers to something known as Premack’s principle: a psychological theory of conditioning that states that people are more likely to complete difficult tasks if they know they will lead to a more pleasurable task afterwards.

That doesn’t have to mean bribing yourself with chocolate, but rather prioritising your to-do list to get it in a specific order.

“Premack’s principle is about the fact that any more probable behaviour can reinforce any less probable behaviour,” she explains. “To put it in another way, the behaviours you prefer to do more can be used as rewards for behaviours you prefer less. From a neuropsychological perspective, it’s just the psychology of rewards making behaviours more likely.”

So putting the boring admin task before teaching your favourite class, or filling out the school trip risk assessment prior to chatting to a colleague about an exciting new project means those less enticing tasks will actually get done.

“Another type of task I use as a reward is social reaching out and connection,” Boyes says. “For example, I will chat to colleagues I’m friends with about work projects after I’ve done 90 minutes of intense, focused work. Reaching out is still an important thing that needs to be done, but it’s an enjoyable thing.”

Essentially, this is about making time to have a chat across the school day, regardless of how busy you might be. You may think this will “waste” time, but in fact it can maximise the amount of time you are able to focus for.

In the same vein, Boyes is damning of attempts to squeeze work into other situations in order to “get it done” - for example, marking on the commute home, or answering emails on your phone while making dinner. This is a major no-no from a psychological standpoint because, Boyes says, it can in fact lead to more time being spent on work, but with less productivity - you think you are getting through a task, but grabbing five minutes to focus on it properly will mean it gets done better and more quickly.

“What tends to become a problem is if people are doing things that keep work on their mind but aren’t actually productive, like checking work email, Slack, or work-related social media,” she says. “It’s typically a better idea to only do those activities on your computer rather than on your phone. By doing that, you can cut down on mindless use of your phone to fill in waiting times. It’s unwise to do it all the time because it means you have no mind-wandering time.”

Just as important as mental breaks are physical breaks, she continues. That could be physical exertion that gets the blood pumping, but equally it could be something more relaxing.

“One option is to use your phone to track your heart rate while you do slow breathing,” says Boyes. “When you breathe slowly, your heart rate will slow. Just concentrate on a slow breath out, and let your breath in regulate itself. Focusing on slow breathing rather than deep breathing is easier for a lot of people.

“Another option is to scan your body for tension and release any tense spots you find. I like particularly paying attention to my face and shoulders, releasing tension in my eyebrows or jaw.”

It might make you feel awkward, but there are usually quiet private places you can go in a school to do this for a few minutes. Boyes promises the upside would be worth it.

Finally, she says, even if your stress level soars, do your best not to take it out on the people around you who offer support. Take the time to engage with friends and family without letting work become an excuse, she advises, and consider asking them to call you out on your behaviour when you’re being snappy or short.

That may cause you irritation in the short term but it will reap huge benefits in the long term. After all, a true friend is a critical friend.

Zofia Niemtus is acting deputy commissioning editor at Tes. She tweets @Zofcha

This article originally appeared in the 5 July 2019 issue under the headline “How to tweak your way to peak efficiency”