Time Management Principles 1.1 Opportunity Cost

The idea of opportunity cost is particularly important to teachers because it highlights illogical attitudes which are very common in some schools.

In its simplest form, opportunity cost means that whenever we spend time doing something - doing anything - we have less time to spend doing other things. Hopefully, you find this statement undeniably true, in fact some may find it blindingly obvious. What this means is that no matter how hard you work, you will - inevitably and irrevocably - be letting somebody down. If, for example, you work long and hard to help students with learning difficulties and put in extra hours to develop good parent relationships at Key Stage 3; then - inevitably and irrevocably - you are denying your Gifted and Talented students extra focus, and reducing the time you have available to give detailed written feedback to your A Level students. You really can't win. The key goal here is balance, making sure that no one activity, or stakeholder, hogs your time to the exclusion of all others. This principle must apply regardless of how important the activity is, or how important the stakeholder is.

Also linked to opportunity cost is the law of diminishing returns. This suggests that even though extra effort in a particular area is initially effective, repeated or excessive effort may be less and less productive. In order to remain effective, teachers need to be flexible in their approach, and be prepared to abandon cherished ways of working if they are no longer add sufficient value.

The key point here is that a lot of our cherished attitudes - 'trying our hardest at everything we do' and 'always going the extra mile' - are excellent as motivational slogans, but pretty rubbish in the context of time management. The truth is that everything must get done, everything involves a decision, and everything involves a sacrifice. 

Linked to the principle of opportunity cost is what I call the 'Goldilocks Principle'. We don't want too much planning, or too little planning, we need to get it just-right. This principle applies not just to planning, but to every other aspect of a teacher's non-teaching work. Too much effort is bad, too little effort is bad: every time we need to get it just-right. You may have come across the tool called a Fishbone Chart often used in product design and quality assurance. Here is an illustration of how teachers may be influenced in deciding how to spend their non-teaching time.

This model could be used to illustrate what most teachers accept: there is just not enough time in the day to please everyone. To deal with this, we need to have a clear understanding about what is happening, and to approach the situation with the correct mindset. We are NOT simply being buffeted by waves and pushed in different directions at the same time – what we are going to do is making decisions based on exactly what is needed - and no more. We accept that some compromises will be needed, and we must apply the Goldilocks principle to do just what is needed, not too much, not too little.

You may have come across the word Satisficing which describes the same idea. We need to do just enough to satisfy; just enough to suffice. Any more effort is not wasted, but it deprives some other important task of your focus.

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