I’m back with a rested mind and fresh attitude. A couple of months ago, I experienced some pretty serious burnout. It wasn’t just burnout in my Bible class, it was pretty much everything. I home school my boys, teach a string orchestra, teach private violin lessons, teach Bible class and attempt to be a good wife and mother. I was ready to quit it all, put my kids in school, enjoy the pleasures of bon-bon eating, mall shopping, having lunch with girlfriends and whatever else women do in their spare time. I was just a little tired and overwhelmed.

One night at ladies’ Bible class, I told the ladies how stressed I had been. I told them that I was ready to quit teaching. Thankfully, my friend Sherry came to my aid. She took over my class on both Sunday and Wednesday. I got the much needed rest and am ready to go at it again.

No matter what we are involved with, burnout can creep up on us, wear us down and destroy what good we’ve tried to accomplish. Home school moms experience it if they get involved in too many activities. School teachers experience it when they are given too many responsibilities or tasks unrelated to their true love — teaching. Moms experience it when they don’t get enough sleep or feel under appreciated. Burnout leaves us feeling frustrated, depressed, exhausted and stressed. It causes us to have less patience, keeps us from maintaining organization, and stifles our creativity. What can we do about burnout? There are some typical things that any of us feeling burnout can do regardless of what our chosen activity is.

Setting priorities is a good start. We need to make sure we are doing the most important part of our job and not concentrating too much on the peripheral things. For instance, in Bible class we can get so wrapped up in having a really cool activity or a beautifully decorated room that we forget the most important thing — teaching children about God.  If you’d like to read a little more on my thoughts about focusing our lessons on God, you can here:  A Teacher, A Student and a Bible.

 Delegating duties can help relieve burnout.  I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to ask others to do things for me.  I find it easier just to do it myself.  There are probably a couple of things that each of us are really good at.  It might be in everyone’s best interest if we did these things but most of what each of us do can be done just as well by someone else.  A good example of this would be the string orchestra I teach.  Among the moms in my home school group, I’m the only one that knows how to teach an orchestra.  I can’t very well delegate my teaching responsibilities to someone else.  I can however ask someone else to help schedule concerts and organize receptions.  I’ve tried doing all of it on my own before.  It’s exhausting.  Everyone is happier and more relaxed if I’m not the only one doing all the work.

Setting reasonable goals is a tough one for me.  I tend to get a little aggressive when it comes to what I think my students can do.  I start the year or a new quarter with grand plans.  In Bible class, I usually plan enough to fill an entire hour when in actuality I have about 35 minutes for class.   Since I tend to plan too many activities, I have learned (the hard way) how important it is to be flexible.  Pushing the kids to hurry through an activity so we can move on to the next does not promote a good learning experience.   This morning, with my fresh attitude and rested mind, I did this quite well I thought.  I had planned a review activity that took longer than expected due to the young readers in class.  We got to a stopping point and I did it!  I said, “Let’s finish this next week.”  That was a big step for me.  It was wonderful.  The kids were okay with it.  No one felt hurried.  We got to the main point of our lesson in plenty of time to cover it fairly well.

Making a change can help prevent burnout.  I really like to teach Bible class.  I don’t mind teaching 100% of the time.  In fact, I prefer it, but to teach the same kids in the same classroom for too long a period can be a problem.  It’s easy to fall into a rut and do the same thing over and over.  The kids can sense it too.  It’s time for a change.  The change can be as simple as rearranging the furniture in the room or redecorating a wall or two.  If your facilities allow it, you can change rooms.  A change of scenery can do wonders for a tired, burned out teacher.  Another thing I’ve found effective is to change the age group I’m teaching.  Moving into a different age group can awaken your creativity and cause you to delve deeper into God’s word to present the material the best way possible for this new age group.  If you’ve been teaching the 2nd-3rd grade class, volunteer to teach the babies for awhile.  You’ll see things in a whole new light.

Taking care of yourself should be high on the priority list.  The three biggies we hear about all the time — sleep, exercise, eating well — can all help us prevent burnout.  Staying up too late is so easy to do in this day of 24 hour entertainment.  I know I like to stay in touch with friends and family far and wide but sometimes doing so eats into my sleeping time.  This is definitely something I need to work at.  Exercising clears our minds allowing us to be more productive and more creative.  Eating right helps our bodies to work more efficiently.  All 3 of these things take effort and self-discipline but they will help prevent burnout and so are well worth it. I have had a lot of experience with burnout over the years so writing this was therapeutic for me.  If it helps you too, that’s great.  If I’ve left anything out, I’d love for you to add your thoughts on burnout in the comment section.