Do you operate a teaching or tutoring business out of your home? We hope you’ve been able to run your business smoothly, but perhaps you’ve encountered a few snafus along the way.
Unforeseen problems are pretty much inevitable, regardless of the type of outfit you run. There’s always something that can go wrong or place obstacles between you and your goals.
Whether you’re dealing with scheduling issues, parking dilemmas, permits, or anything else, below are four ways to make your teaching job easier.
1. Selling your home while you teach? Hire a property manager
If you’re teaching out of your home while it’s on the market, you’re probably not going to be enthused about having to schedule times to show your property to potential buyers. You have enough to deal with, so hiring a property management company would be beneficial.
Property managers can handle just about everything you need, so you can remain focused on teaching. For instance, professional property managers in San Antonio from Green Residential handle inspections, showings, photography, closing services, and contract preparation for clients.
All of these tasks will consume your valuable time and energy, making it harder for you to perform your teaching duties at top form. If you’re selling your home, save your energy and hire a property manager to do all the heavy lifting.
2. Use online scheduling software
Manually scheduling appointments can be a huge source of stress. Keeping track of meeting dates on paper, no matter how good your calendar is, will drain your resources.
When you need to pencil someone else into your week, it takes time and effort to figure out where you can squeeze in that person. And if you want to schedule recurring appointments, you’ll have to add each one by hand.
The best way to keep track of your students’ appointments is with automated scheduling software. If you have a smartphone, you probably already have a calendar app that will serve.
You may even want to use an appointment app that integrates with your Google account to keep events and activities seamless between your computer and smartphone.
3. Schedule in break time for yourself
If you tutor everyone or hold all of your classes back-to-back, you’re going to get exhausted quickly. The ideal way to schedule classes is to make sure you include break time for yourself.
You may wish to schedule a couple of sessions right after one another, but make sure you don’t go too long without a break in between, during those periods when you have nothing going on.
Data shows that working through the day without taking adequate breaks actually makes your performance worse. When you don’t perform at your best, it’s your students who suffer.
Preserving time between your sessions ensures you’ll have the ability to handle unexpected breakdowns, talk to your students after class if they need extra attention, and get a little bit of breathing time before your next session.
It’s smart to schedule your classes and appointments in clusters, but if the sessions are long – such as an hour or more – you’ll likely need at least fifteen minutes to a half hour between each of them. After a couple of sessions, schedule at least an hour for yourself to relax or grab a bite to eat.
4. Structure your classes
No matter how great you are as a teacher, it’s usually wise to have a syllabus to follow. When you have a syllabus, you and your students know what to expect.
This also helps you keep your stress levels lower, because you don’t forget to cover crucial points or risk leaving out certain details.
Having a clear understanding of what each class will involve is invaluable, and it’s the same for having a daily structure. Don’t try to ad-lib the action of following your syllabus.
Take the necessary time to create lesson plans that detail what you’re going to teach during each session. You don’t have to give your lesson plans to your students unless it’s worthwhile for their study beforehand.
In any case, a lesson plan will keep you on track and give your students the best possible learning experience.
Teaching isn’t a stress-free job, but you can reduce your stress
Home-based teaching will probably never be a stress-free job, but you can take certain steps to reduce the stress you experience. Of course it’s a priority to take care of your students, but make sure you also take care of yourself.
If you’re not at your best, your students will notice and they will be affected. Following the tips outlined in this article is a great way to start.
