83. From Inbox Overload to Streamlined Communication: 3 Must Have Tips for Optimizing Email Use in Your Teacher Toolkit [Simplify & Systemize Series]

Nov 21, 2023

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Did you know that recent studies show that teachers spend 23% of their work time in their e-mail inbox?

With the increasing reliance on email as a means of communication, many teachers find themselves spending excessive amounts of time in their inboxes, leaving less time for important tasks. I, too, struggled with this until I found ways to integrate tools together and automate my email communication.

In this episode, we explore practical ways to reclaim valuable time by optimizing and automating your teacher email inbox & dive into three essential tips for efficient communication in your teaching toolkit. These tips will not only reduce the time you spend but also alleviate the stress and burnout that your email communication can cause.

TOPICS COVERED:

How e-mail has changed the scope of teaching
Surprising statistics about e-mail usage and teaching
Impact of email in education
Streamlining email communication
Setting boundaries and expectations
Creating email templates for efficiency
Benefits of automated communication
Introduction to Automate Your Classroom program
Special offer for podcast listeners
Email toolkit and its benefits

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FREE Teacher Email Template Guide - This FREE guide will provide you with strategies for your simplifying your teacher workload and for use in your classroom. You will learn to:
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Join the Waitlist for Automate Your Classroom Course - Learn the step-by-step roadmap TO creating a sustainable teacher task simplification and automation system to beat burnout, squash stress, get back YOUR time, and sustain your career in education

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TRANSCRIPT:

Teaching in the past vs. present: Evolution and Challenges

[0:00]

Teaching has evolved tremendously over the past 10 to 20 years.

So much so that the scope of teaching and what we're expected to do is way more than any one teacher can do all on their own.

With so many things on our plates as teachers, a lot of really, really important priority things can fall to the wayside.

Or we just spin our wheels trying to keep up with all that we have to do.

Just think about this for a minute. While email was around 10 and even 20 years ago, I know that sounds really weird to say because when I think of 30 years ago, I still think of the 1970s.

Either way, email was around 10 to 20 years ago, but its role in education was not as prevalent, not as significant as it is today.

Now we use it for sharing important information, updates, resources, collaboration to multiple different stakeholders.

[0:52]

We've got parents, co-teachers, team members, administrators, students, and because of this, we're spending a lot of time in our inboxes, which means we're spending a lot less time on more important tasks.

Streamlining email use for teachers: Tips and automation

[1:05]

That's why in this episode we're gonna explore some practical ways to streamline and optimize our email use, making it a more efficient, more effective tool in our teaching toolkit.

We are gonna look at my top ways for automating this process, starting with super basic ways, especially for you not-so-tech-savvy teachers and give you some of my top tips to help you come up with a system that works for you.

So stick around to the end for some free resources to get you started and let's get into it.

Introduction to Systemize and Simplify series

[1:35]

Before we get into this episode, this is just a reminder that this is the fifth installment we are scooting on through our Systemize and Simplify series here on the podcast, really tailored to giving you the most support for creating systems in your classroom to manage the overwhelming to-dos, tasks, all that extra stuff that we do outside of actually teaching.

And so if you're just joining us or you haven't listened to the previous episodes, I highly recommend you going back to those and listening in because I kind of Work to build each episode off of the previous ones to give you kind of like a step-by-step, And so if you've been listening along and you're really enjoying this content, I haven't asked you in a while So, please make sure you leave a review on Apple podcasts and share your favorite podcast episodes Not only so we know that you're like it actually enjoying it but it helps get the word out to more educators who might be into this sort of thing.

It's super simple, just head over to your pod player, type a quick little review, and if you email me and tell me you did, I'll send you an extra special gift that's for those reviewers only.

Streamlining Communication: Checking Email and Setting Boundaries

[2:40]

Now in this episode, we are talking about streamlining that communication, because I'm telling you, when I first started teaching.

[2:48]

It wasn't a constant, let me go check my email thing, or feeling like I was missing something if I wasn't checking my email every 10 seconds.

There was a lot more paper, pencil, folder, binder type stuff that really took up a lot of my time then. I know you know what I'm talking about.

Nowadays, it feels so important to check your email all the time, every time it dings.

But here's what I wanna make sure you know right now.

There is nothing in your inbox that is more of a priority than getting those kids taught, loved, and cared for. End of story.

Now, I'm not saying it's not important to communicate with parents, co-teachers, administrators, students.

It totally is. I'm saying there's a time and a place for that, and you could easily spend one to two hours per week communicating with these people.

Easily. When I audited my time on my teacher task a couple of years ago before I started utilizing more robust and strategic automated email systems, I could easily hit three hours per week during super busy seasons, like IEPs, progress report time, that sort of thing.

[3:54]

Responding, sending, drafting, reading emails even.

There was an article written by We Are Teachers called, I Get Paid for 180 Days of Work Each Year But I Actually Work More Than 250.

And basically, just in the communications sector, teachers are spending upwards of 40 hours per school year on communication alone.

More broadly speaking, studies consistently show that people spend around 23%.

[4:19]

Of their work time on email, with some estimates suggesting that individuals check their email about 36 times per hour.

Now obviously as teachers we're probably not checking our email 36 times an hour, and if you are, like what are your kids doing and how are you staying focused?

But either way, we're still checking our email way too much.

Creating a Schedule and Setting Expectations for Email Communication

[4:39]

And so before we can get to a place where we can automate our inbox and automate our emails.

Above all else, you have to create a schedule that makes sense for just interacting with your inbox.

I want you to think right now, how many times a day are you checking your email? I'll be honest with you.

I was at one point in time checking my inbox for God knows what reason.

[5:03]

82 times per day, according to my screen time on my iPhone.

That is literally just on my iPhone. I had no way of like actually tracking my computer times and I have no idea why like I couldn't tell you I felt Compelled to check like there was gonna be some clearinghouse sweepstakes that told me I won a million bucks or something I was not until I saw that, using my inbox correctly. I realized how much time I was checking my email just by seeing that report.

And I know that I'm not the only one getting caught in that cycle, too. But here's something you might not have known.

Did you know that every time you quickly check your email, it takes an average of 23 minutes just to refocus on any other task?

That's like a black hole of productivity. No wonder it feels like it takes ages to accomplish anything, because our brains literally cannot refocus on what we set down to do.

That is why we have got to set those boundaries.

By scheduling times to actually check your email, you can concentrate on your priority teaching work and be much more productive.

I think checking your email at the beginning and the end of the day is a great system, but I also recognize not everyone's day fits that mold.

And so you guys know, like, I'm not into cookie cutter solutions.

[6:23]

So creating your own block of time that groups these types of like tasks together is the most productive method because it reduces the impact of cognitive overload or task switching.

When, how and where that occurs is going to be very different for all of us.

So creating a workflow that has these blocks of time to do specific tasks and setting that boundary is a huge piece of making this work.

So, in order to create a good system, my best piece of advice is to schedule specific times to check your email, like once or twice a day at most.

This way, you're prioritizing your day based on what you want and what you need to do, not what other people demand of you.

I heard someone say that before and it's just always stuck with me.

Being in your inbox all the time teaches students, parents, colleagues to expect immediate responses. but let's be real, you cannot be available 24-7.

[7:20]

Boundaries, remember? So when people expect those instant replies, they get frustrated when they don't get them.

So we have to train those parents, those students, those colleagues, whoever, to understand that you are not always on email duty.

You are not always available.

Setting those clear expectations for response times and channels for urgent matters, that is where the key is.

A tip I have for doing this is just adding a little blurb to your email signature or even setting an email autoresponder that says something as simple as, I do my best to respond to emails within 48 hours.

That tells parents, students, whoever, and lets them know that you're not always in your inbox, which kind of alleviates the stress of what if they think I'm ignoring them, right?

One thing I did that worked really well for managing my inbox was also adding an FAQ to my autoresponder.

And some of those questions for you might include...

Like, what are your office hours for communication? You might say, you can expect a response during my office hours, which are, like, add your office hours here.

Please note, I may not be able to respond outside of these hours.

[8:31]

Number two, you could say, how can I reach you for urgent matters?

For urgent matters, please contact me through calling the office, leaving me a voicemail.

Just provide an alternative contact method, like the school's emergency line or another platform. Number three might be when will my child receive their assignments or their grades?

You could say assignments and grades are typically updated.

You could specify the frequency, weekly, bi-weekly.

[8:58]

So if they have specific concerns about their child's progress, feel free to reach out and I'll be happy to discuss it with you.

Number four might be what's the best way to stay updated on classroom announcements and events?

You could say to stay informed about classroom announcements, events, and other important dates, please check our, maybe it's your classroom newsletter that you send every week, your classroom website, a school portal, you know, telling them where you regularly post those updates.

Number five is how can I request a, like a parent-teacher conference?

[9:32]

If you want to schedule a parent-teacher conference, please send me an email.

We'll just arrange a suitable time to meet and discuss your child's progress.

I like to use Google Appointments for this or something like Calendly.

That way, it kind of tailors it to what I'm actually available for.

Number six, what is your policy on late assignments or missed classes?

This is where you would put that policy in there, explaining your policy, any grace periods, any makeup opportunities that you provide.

That way that's kind of already hitting that if somebody's reaching out to find out about late assignments or missed classes.

Number seven, how can I support my child's learning at home?

That is a very common question and you could simply just put something like supporting your child's learning at home is vital, you can, and then you could put some suggestions or some resources for parents to really assist with that learning at home.

What should I do if my child is struggling in your class.

If your child is facing challenges in my class, please don't hesitate to reach out. We can work together to find solutions and provide additional support.

[10:38]

What is the best way to contact you if I have questions or concerns?

The most efficient way to reach me is via email.

You can put your email address. I strive to respond within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.

You could also put a section in there about how to access online learning materials or resources and just say you know all online learning materials and resources are accessible through blank you can log in using your child's account credentials.

And while we're here on the subject of email there are a lot of teachers who believe that they're already doing a whole lot when it comes to communicating grades or missing assignments or whatever because they upload this information into their grading portal or whatever. And here's where I may have, a slightly controversial opinion, and this in no way is meant to be abrupt or a hard stop, but I think we need to think about where we're giving our parents or our students information and how they might best receive it.

If we're not surveying our parents at the beginning of the school year to find out how they want to receive communication, then we have no idea.

The importance of effective communication with parents

[11:46]

And I in no way mean that you're not doing enough. If you've listened to this series thus far, I'm going to assume that you already know that I know that we know that our workload is completely unsustainable without systems and automations in place.

I'm simply wanting to get you thinking about how this can be more effective as a part of our workflow and how this piece of the puzzle can really work to support your students because that is one of our priorities in the classroom, right?

We want to support our students and communication with their parents and trying to get their parents involved or them involved is a big piece of the puzzle.

You see, being a parent and watching my husband, who is not tech savvy in the least bit, try to communicate with teachers using various different methods, because every year it has been something different.

Because we have different kids and different grades, they use different programs, different protocols, whether it's Seesaw or Remind or Rooms, which is a brand new one for me, or any of those other methods of communication, it's truly not as intuitive for parents.

So even those parents that want to be involved, want to help support their child, they just can't get it.

And I understand because I'm a teacher, but explaining a different program every year to my husband, because seriously, every year it has been a new program of communication, parents don't understand how to use it effectively.

It's just another barrier between them and the school instead of being a bridge to cross it.

The limitations of traditional grading systems for parents

[13:14]

It doesn't matter if you give them a paper handout that gives them step-by-step.

[13:17]

Instructions, they're still only using it for their student, only interacting with it in a limited way.

We use it all day long for every student, so it's a little bit more intuitive for us because we're using that tool more often.

And while some grading systems will alert parents, if we're not actually taking the time to make a specific comment, because we don't have the time to do that, the grade itself isn't a whole lot of relevant or purposeful information for that parent, right?

The parent is going to ask this kid, Hey, you got a 50 on this test.

Why the kid doesn't know, or it might pretend not to know.

And so I say all of that to say, if the parents have an inkling of tech knowledge whatsoever, they more than likely have the ability to read an email and to respond to email.

[14:04]

That's assuming that they actually have some method of communication digitally, right?

Because on the other hand, there may populations of parents who don't have access to any digital information and we're gonna save that one for a rainy day because there's a lot that goes in with that.

But that's why I think that email is above all the best way, other than picking up the phone and calling or sitting down with a parent, to communicate with them.

They more than likely interact with emails daily.

The second best way is probably text because most of us text nowadays as well, but if We.

Like have an attachment or something, it gets kind of sticky with text.

[14:40]

So that's why I'm such a big proponent for keeping it simple with emailing, because it is more readily used by the general population.

[14:50]

Not only that, but for you as a teacher, the one with the huge workload here, if you're using one specific location for communication, then you're not switching applications.

You're not switching interfaces to go to another platform and have another place to put something right. Remember that 23 minute to refocus thing?

Yeah, that applies with switching apps or interfaces too.

So I think the majority of teachers do not realize how automated this communication that you have with parents and other teachers and administrators and students really can be.

This wasn't something that I was ever taught in my teacher prep programs, and to my knowledge, it's still not taught today.

This is just something that I found on my own during virtual teaching, through hours and hours of researching more effective and more productive methods, seeing that actual success that my parents and my students I worked with had through hours of trial and error to find that communication could actually be streamlined and automated to happen by setting triggers from things like Google Sheets or other applications to do that magic for you.

The only way to make it possible to systemize and automate your communication is to tip that first domino, and that first domino is just creating those boundaries and scheduling those times to interact with your email.

The second domino is to begin using those ready-to-use templates.

[16:13]

Like how we talked about in episode 81.

Utilizing email templates for common messages, whether it's weekly updates, assignment reminders, meeting requests, having those templates ready can save you a tremendous amount of time.

And adding that FAQ into your autoresponder is just kind of like automating that all by itself.

At the end of the day, I think a lot of us are just sitting there acting as if this is the first email of its kind, when in reality, we get the same type of emails to respond to time and time again.

So instead of thinking like, how do I word this in a professional way and spending 10 minutes trying to get the wording just right, we've got to start creating these templates that are used time and time again.

You can use tools like text plays, which we talked about in episode 82 to get those templates to work with us, or just simply use templates within our email service provider.

I have an entire library of ideas and swipe copies for templates to create inside of the free email template guide which shows you how to create and use these templates in your email service provider as well as swipe copy templates to reduce that amount of time that you spend writing and responding to emails.

I even just added that FAQ section template to that as well which you can grab at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash email templates.

[17:31]

These templates are the building block of then taking those templates and then creating a more robust system to work with your gradebook like in Google Sheets or Trigger off of a Google Form or use a more strategic project management tool which we're going to talk about later on in this series.

You cannot get more in depth without first setting that schedule and getting out of that inbox and creating your templates.

There are ways to integrate your email service provider with your learning management system or other programs or software that you frequently use to get that automatic emailing but you first have to simplify this.

And then you have to tackle the ways to do it, all of that seamlessly and automated so that you may not even have to lift a finger.

Completely automating your parent communication is one of the topics that I teach inside of the Automate Your Classroom program and I make it super simple for you by helping you assess your specific needs, help you choose a path that works best for your comfortability with technology.

So even if you don't want to learn a new program or don't want to learn a new software.

[18:38]

And certainly like if you don't know coding because I don't know coding either, there are ways to automate with no code tools and solutions fit just for you. I get it.

Some teachers may say that they don't have the time to communicate with parents, and I certainly felt that way before I automated.

And sure, there are some parents who may not seem interested, but let me challenge you to think differently.

There are more parents out there than you would think who would genuinely appreciate hearing from you, but they don't have the skills or they don't have the time to check another app, but they're already checking their email daily.

And here's the game changer. By automating your paperwork, by automating your grading, planning, you can free up time for more meaningful communication where you can actually have the time to communicate with parents because you have a system set up to do it for you.

Since discovering automation, I have helped over 5,000 teachers automate tasks from automatic emailing to parents, behavior, data analysis, grading, lesson planning, so much more.

And I want to help you do the same without spinning in circles or researching for hours.

Right now we have the doors open to the Automate Your Classroom program for a very limited time.

[19:50]

But inside of the program, depending on your unique preferences, your needs, you'll be able to build an automation system custom to you that won't take you years of researching or advanced computer knowledge.

This course isn't just gonna throw a whole bunch of tech tools at you.

It's gonna work you through a step-by-step action plan.

[20:09]

To put in place and then build out this system customized for you, designed as a six-week cohort to get your automation system up and running in six weeks or less with support along the way.

You'll have lifetime access and even if you don't do anything else but automate your emails in this cohort, you will be able to join in on any of the future cohorts and take on your planning, your grading, your data in the next cohort.

You'll have access to the Automation Tech Vault with different tools that will serve you in different stages of your system development.

You can join me and dozens of other teachers inside right now.

And as a special offer for our podcast listeners, use the exclusive coupon code BlackFriday10 to get 10% off any plan or any product on my website.

Pre-Sale Ends on December 3rd, My Birthday!

[20:57]

Hurry, though, because the code expires December 3rd, which is my 36th birthday.

And, if you're unsure if the full Automate Your Classroom program is right for you right now, I have taken everything I know about automating emails and packaged it into the ultimate automated teacher email toolkit full of tutorials for managing your inbox, creating templates, swipe copies, and of course, automating emails with other tools like Google Forms and Sheets and project management tools that you can get on pre-sale until December 3rd.

You can learn more at TeachingMindBodyAndSoul.com slash email toolkit or check out the link in the show notes at TeachingMindBodyAndSoul.com slash episode, 83 for any of the links of the freebies and the products that we discussed.

All in all, there are three main steps that you need to take before you can begin that touch-free automation setup to communicate with parents, students, teachers, whoever else and that is creating a strategic schedule for interacting with your inbox, setting those boundaries and those expectations by using things like a blurb in your signature or an autoresponder with FAQs, and then creating templates to use over and over again.

We are still plugging through the Systemize and Simplify series in our next episode on Friday, and this might just be what you need to hear to get you started automating as soon as this weekend.

Get Inspired to Automate Your Classroom Starting This Weekend!

[22:18]

So make sure you follow along on your favorite pod player.

Don't forget, you are a resilient teacher. We're in this together. You got this.

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