Here are some ways that teachers can use when they feel tired. Every teacher needs to techniques on beating fatigue
#1. Take a 10-minute walk. They say one will feel the energetic benefits from a 10-minute walk for the following two hours.
#2. Blend frozen blueberries with almond milk, or even water. Always keep some bags of blueberries in freezer.
#3. Stop reading anything connected to education for a week. Or cut down by 90 percent.
#4. Notice the moments in the day when you’re not tired. They do exist but when your overall state is tired, you’ll miss all the other moments.
#5. Fantasize about the next school year. This is energizing and revitalizing. There is a future beyond the immediate fatigue.
#6. Eat raw kale. You’ll feel an almost caffeine-like rush of energy. Chop it up really small and add to salad or blueberry-smoothie. It also balances out the jellybean consumption that increases with tiredness.
#7. Work in 45-minute time blocks. While the timer is on, don’t divert attention for anything — no checking email, clipping cuticles, or organizing bookshelves. Forty-five minutes of intense concentration (set the timer) and then a 15-minute break. Take a walk during the break. Right now. Take a walk.
#8. Listen to music, really loud (can be combined with walking). And sing along.
#9. Take ten slow, long, deep breaths. Inhale. Hold for the count of five. Exhale, slowly.
#10. Pet a furry creature. There’s science behind this: Petting an animal lowers blood pressure and raises endorphins.
#11. Limit taking any kind of news, even turn off NPR; listen to music. And sing. Bob Marley is good, too.
#12. Sniff fresh mint. Or mint tea. Or mint-extract. The smell is supposed to wake up the brain. (It can’t hurt.)
#13. Take a walk with a friend who does not work in education and talk about trivial matters or reminisce about wild college days.
#14. Let your eight-year-old child tell you bathroom jokes. It’s not the jokes that are funny, it’s the fact that you’ve given your child permission and the way his/her body contorts into peals of laughter; his joy is infectious and laughter is all about deep breathing and so there’s a science behind it, too. It helps.
#15. Look for other jobs. This either makes you really value your job or it reminds me that there might be something else out there. Usually, however, I am happy to return to my work.
#16. Ask for help from those around you, especially if they are getting fed up with you being so tired. State your purposes and then beg them to remind you of this one: “I am never, ever going to write a book again! Even if I get all excited about some other project, remind me not to do it.” Those others can also make you tea, or squeeze your shoulders (which are beginning to inch into your ears).
#17. Take naps. Sleep a little extra. Those eight hours are not to be messed with.
#18. Make lists like this, reminding yourself of what helps when you’re really tired.
#19. If all else fails, watch your favorite TV show.
#20. Ask others for advice and tips.