How can we create our own systems to lighten our workload?

I have been reading ‘The 4 hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss, the premise of the book is to automate a lot of what you do, eliminate distractions, say no to things that don’t interest or serve you and to start to think about working remotely with the eventual goal of creating a business or an idea to allow you to work a short amount of time each week as you become more of a passive operator, allowing others to handle much of your administrative work and

Although I do think AI and remote working will become more mainstream in education. Some schools already allow teachers to spend their PPA time at home, particularly in primary school. I think it is a little more difficult to accomplish in a secondary setting – I can’t see my school doing that any time soon.

The book is essentially full of tips and tricks to move more towards automating your life and to slim down the amount of time you spend completing menial tasks. Tim encourages the use of virtual assistants and tries to limit his time responding to emails and managing the minutiae so he can spend his time travelling, learning and working creatively on his business.

This got me thinking, how can we as teachers start to implement these methods and how far can we possibly go?

When I first picked up The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I assumed it was either a satire or a manual for tech bros who make millions by selling NFTs of their houseplants. Turns out, it’s actually packed with genuinely helpful ideas — even for us humble UK teachers chained to our marking piles and duty rotas.

Ferriss’s big idea? Stop working harder. Start working smarter (no, really smarter — not “doing a PowerPoint instead of writing on the board” smarter). His framework is called DEAL: Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation. And no, sadly, it doesn’t include “Deportation to Bali with a coconut laptop.” But stick with me — here’s how teachers can apply it:

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D – Definition: Redefine What “Success” Means

Ferriss starts by throwing out the idea that success = long hours. Preach. In teaching, we often treat working late as a badge of honour, like some sort of tragic educational gladiator sport. But what if we measured success by impact, not hours?

💡 Teacher tweak:
Start asking: “What actually helps students learn?” Spoiler alert: it’s probably not that six-page seating plan colour-coded by blood type. Use “fear-setting” (one of Ferriss’s tools) to get over the guilt of not being the last one to leave the car park. What’s the worst that could happen if you leave your display board looking “adequate” instead of “Pinterest-worthy”?

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E – Elimination: Stop Doing Stuff That Doesn’t Matter

Ferriss is big on the 80/20 rule — 80% of results come from 20% of what you do. The rest is noise. In teacher terms:

• 80% of learning comes from 20% of your lessons (usually the ones where you remembered to print the worksheet).
• 80% of behaviour issues come from 20% of students (you know the ones).

💡 Teacher tweak:

• Ditch the pointless admin and campaign for less of it – can one of the admin team do that, just ask.
• Cap meetings. Suggest a “This Could Have Been an Email” badge. Ask for an agenda for EVERY meeting and stick to it. Once that agenda is completed – you take your leave.
• Reduce marking to what actually makes a difference. This is a tough one as you will need to stick to your school marking policy, but can you create rubrics for each SOW you have and use AI to assign the correct feedback comments to each students (we’ll talk about AI a lot more going forward)
• Give yourself permission to be a “good enough” planner. If you know what you’re doing, does it matter? Embrace the mess and allow yourself to be more fluid.

And remember: perfectionism is just procrastination in a sparkly hat.

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A – Automation: Build Systems, Not Stress

No, you can’t outsource your Y9s to a virtual assistant (yet). But you can automate your workflow.

💡 Teacher tweak:

• Set up self-marking quizzes. Most schools now use google classroom or Microsoft Office, both of these have fantastic methods of delivering homework with self marking capabilities – get on YouTube and figure out how to do it or, find the nerd (usually in the IT dept) in your school to help you out!
• Batch your emails and focus only on reading them at specific times of the day – don’t be afraid to add an auto reply letting staff know that you will only be checking emails at certain times of the day (Tim Ferris has a fantastic, and polite, template for you, let me know in the comments if you’d like a copy)
• Reuse feedback codes or stickers instead of writing War and Peace on every essay.
• Build resource banks with your department so you’re not all inventing the wheel at midnight with a sad biscuit.

Basically, create little systems now that save your sanity later.

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L – Liberation: Escape the Busyness Cult

Ferriss is obsessed with freedom — and while we can’t all teach from a hammock in Barbados, we can challenge the idea that being a burnt-out husk makes you a better educator.

💡 Teacher tweak:

• Push for flexible working (job shares, work-from-home PPA, or just fewer meetings with biscuits).
• Focus on outputs over face time — it’s what your students learn, not how long you spent at your desk.
• Take your “mini-retirements” seriously: protect weekends, use your TOIL, and for heaven’s sake stop answering emails at 9pm.

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TL;DR – You’re Allowed to Teach Smart, Not Just Hard

The 4-Hour Workweek isn’t about abandoning the classroom. It’s about ditching the unnecessary nonsense so you can focus on what actually matters: inspiring young minds, enjoying your job, and maybe even having a life outside of it.

It’s not about working four hours. But it is about making the other 36 feel less like a treadmill and more like a purposeful, well-caffeinated stroll.

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