Educators often think of January as a time reset with our students, an opportunity to plan resolutions. We introduce new systems or ideas or practice routines at the beginning of the year. Perhaps Spring, then, is a good time to focus on powerful ways to simplify your teaching life.

Most educators I know are juggling way too many priorities. They are exhausted and rundown. It feels like we have far too many things on our plates with never enough time in the day. When new priorities arise or we begin to feel overwhelmed, we don’t always have the time or bandwidth or take things OFF our plates. But that’s exactly what we need to do: identify what to let go of. We can use the “three Ds” to help us prioritize.

Simplify With The Three Ds

Letting go of activities or skills in the classroom is hard. However, it’s essential for growth, for making space for new things, and for avoiding burnout. It’s not just about working smarter or being more efficient. We don’t need to increase productivity, we need to increase balance. Last year, my sister shared with me a strategy from her physical therapist. The goal was to learn not to overextend herself and think of her daily energy as finite. This strategy, the “three Ds,” is great for life in general. I also find it particularly helpful for simplifying teaching life. The three Ds are: 

1. Delegate
2. Delay
3. Delete

Sometimes everything in teaching seems essential and urgent. But it’s not. Any time you feel overwhelmed, stretched too thin, or have a too long to-do list, the three Ds can help. 

Time to Delegate?

There are likely many tasks in your teaching life that recur but don’t need to be done by you specifically. There are also probably many tasks that aren’t essential but take a lot of your time. This is where delegating comes in. Who do you delegate to, you ask? Building a team and divide up tasks among the members is one key strategy. If you have a grade level team, divide up and delegate things among team members. Each person can take turns overseeing a certain subject area. You can take turns planning weekly lessons. Rotate responsibility for extension activities, sub plans, or field trip logistics. 

If you don’t have a teaching team, or they aren’t open to this, build a team another way. Like-minded teachers from different grade levels can still divide up work. The next time you’re at a conference or workshop, get contact info for teachers from other schools or states and create an email chain. Join an education association like ISTE. Find a group on social media that has similar interests, like equity work or project-based learning. You shouldn’t have to do all your teaching work alone. 

In addition, there may be tasks that your students can take over and be responsible for instead of you. Even very young students are capable of class jobs that can take things off your plate. Can students take over tracking daily attendance? Is there a system for work correction that students can run themselves? Are there ways for students to give direct instruction to their peers or design their own projects? Teachers shouldn’t be the only ones doing the work of the classroom.

Should I Delay?

We often feel pressure to do everything immediately, especially if we think it will benefit our students. But the reality is that most things can and should happen over time. It is healthy to push back against the constant sense of urgency. So when your to-do list is too long, delay some things. Ask yourself: does this task need to happen today? This week? This month? This year? Give yourself permission to intentionally spread out tasks over time. 

Start with one or two things that are actually essential and necessary for today, and delay everything else. Create sections in your to-do list for next week, next month, and next year. That way, you won’t forget about a good idea, or let go of an important shift. You are, however, relieving the pressure to do too many things at once. If there’s pressure from colleagues or administrators to tackle something quickly, explain the intention behind your decision to delay. Delaying is an acceptable and excellent strategy for simplification. 

Ready to Delete?

Lastly, it’s time to get really comfortable with deleting things from your practice. We should consistently identify tasks, activities or skills that we can simply let go of. Not all learning is equally vital or valuable. It’s a good time to edit and think about how to spend time from now until June. 

Things to consider deleting: activities or units that you or your students don’t enjoy; activities that don’t connect directly to any skills or standards; outdated skills that are less essential in 2025; content you routinely deliver in lecture format; activities that are too controlled or teacher-led (vs. student-led); homework that is just busy work; things you do year after year without changing.

Deleting something doesn’t necessarily mean you have to plan something new to fill its place. Sometimes you should just delete. It also doesn’t mean it’s a bad activity. Sometimes it’s just too much. Focus on quality over quantity. Prioritize meaningful learning experiences over excessive activities. Think about how much of the work you are doing versus guiding your students to do. 

Powerfully Simple

Using the three Ds to guide your simplification thinking can have a powerful effect on your teaching life. We need to stop glorifying educator martyrdom, and create teaching roles that are sustainable. There are many challenging things about education that are out of our control. While I fight to change broken systems, I also focus on what we can do to simplify teaching life. After all, happier teachers make for happier learning and happier students!