Everything Has a Bucket 

A Guide to Prioritizing and Automating Your Work Tasks

Introduction

Educators are constantly balancing a long list of tasks—lesson planning, grading, meetings, parent communication, and more. With limited time and endless to-dos, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. 

That’s why everything needs a bucket.

This guide will help you categorize your tasks, prioritize what matters most, and identify patterns in repetitive work that can be automated. By organizing your work into buckets, you can create systems to be more productive, efficient, and focused on what really counts: your students.

Step 1: Identifying Your Buckets

To begin, break down your daily and weekly tasks into different categories or “buckets.” These buckets will help you visualize where your time is going and allow you to make better decisions about what to prioritize.

Here are some common buckets you might create:

• High-Impact Teaching Tasks: Lesson planning, curriculum development, student engagement.

• Administrative Tasks: Grading, attendance, reports, IEP documentation.

• Meetings & Collaboration: Staff meetings, parent-teacher conferences, IEP meetings.

• Communication: Emails to parents, students, colleagues, or administration.

• Personal Development: Professional learning, training, and self-reflection.

• Miscellaneous: Random tasks that pop up but don’t fit neatly into other categories.

Take Action: Write down your main tasks for the week and assign them to one of these buckets (or create your own).

Step 2: Prioritizing What’s Important

Once your tasks are in buckets, it’s time to prioritize. Not all tasks are created equal—some drive student outcomes or enhance your teaching, while others might be more routine or administrative.

To prioritize effectively:

• Focus on High-Impact Tasks First: Identify the tasks in your teaching or admin buckets that will have the most immediate and meaningful impact.

• Use the 80/20 Rule: 20% of your efforts often lead to 80% of your results. Find the most crucial tasks that drive the majority of your progress.

• Tackle Quick Wins: Some tasks take little time but make a big difference—like replying to a parent email or reviewing a student’s assignment feedback.

Take Action: Choose your top 3 priorities for the week. These are the tasks that, if completed, will make the biggest difference.

Step 3: Spotting Patterns in Repetitive Tasks

Here’s where we look for opportunities to automate. Automation is about noticing patterns in your repetitive tasks—those tasks that you do every day or every week—and finding a way to simplify or streamline them.

Ask yourself:

• Which tasks do I do over and over again?

• Are there tasks I’m manually completing that could be automated (e.g., sending emails, tracking attendance, generating reports)?

• Can I batch similar tasks together to save time (e.g., grade assignments all at once, plan lessons for the month)?

Take Action: Pick one repetitive task that consumes your time and research an automation tool to help streamline it. For example, you could use email templates or automated reminders for parent communication.

Step 4: Creating Systems for Productivity

Now that you’ve identified your buckets, prioritized tasks, and found patterns for automation, it’s time to build systems that work for you. These systems help ensure that you’re making the most of your limited time and staying on track.

Key Systems to Consider:

• Daily Task Routine: Create a consistent workflow for each day. For example, you might start your day with 30 minutes of high-impact lesson planning, followed by 20 minutes of communication tasks.

• Automation System: Set up systems using Make.com and Google Sheets to automate routine tasks. This could include creating automated email responses, setting reminders, or generating reports.

• Reflection System: Take 5 minutes at the end of each week to reflect on what worked well and where you can improve. Use this reflection to adjust your systems and buckets for the following week.

Take Action: Set up a daily routine and choose one automation tool to implement this week.

Conclusion: Streamlining Your Time for Maximum Impact

By organizing your work into buckets, you’ll have greater clarity over what tasks are truly important, and where you can save time by automating repetitive work. With clear priorities and systems in place, you can take back control of your time, focus on teaching, and ultimately improve student outcomes.

Remember: Everything has a bucket, even the things that slow you down. 

It’s time to get organized, automate the repetitive, and free up your time to focus on what matters most.