Top 12 Success Habits to Have in Your Teacher Business

As a teacherpreneur, you’ve set out to redefine the way you work and live. But with so many things to juggle and stress at an all-time high, it can be hard to achieve that balance you want. According to research from the U.S Dept of Labor: Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress and 54% of workers report that work stress affects their home life.” And that’s just the average American, let alone those that start their own businesses and come from chronically stressful environments in education. 

Taking control of your life requires determination and dedication to the right habits. In this article, we uncover the 12 habits that successful teacherpreneurs use to grow their business, while keeping a healthy and balanced life. From setting daily goals to your productivity profile, we’ll explain how to use these principles to take back control of your career and life. 

So, if you’re ready to be your own boss, set aside a few minutes to learn these routines and unlock the ultimate freedom of life as a teacherpreneur.

The Habits

1. Setting Daily Goals

• Learn to set your priorities for every day. You can label them as mini goals or as priorities or as tasks; but no matter what, have a sense of purpose for your day. This allows you to move forward to what is most important for that day and leaves you feeling accomplished at the end of the day.
  • If you need help with this, check out the Goal Setting Workbook in the JOT Store.

2. Connection

   • Incorporate connection with your family, friends, coworkers, colleagues, Instagram biz buddies, and/or potential clients/customers. Adding in connection helps you feel more fulfilled with your day and also helps your audience know that you care about their needs. 

3. Journaling

   • Use journaling either to release your emotions and thoughts into a physical form (i.e. out of your cycling mind) or to help you understand your business tasks better. Journaling is however you want it to be. Allow it to flow into whatever shape it needs to for each day, just make sure you actually do it.

4. Gratitude

   • Practice gratitude at the beginning and/or end of every single day. Ask yourself what are you grateful for? What was your favorite part of the day? By framing your day like this, you begin to look for the good things and seek them out. You then start to realize that abundance and amazing things are already all around you, so you begin to allow even more to fill your space.

5. System Check-ins

• Now systems may not be as hot as gratitude or journaling or even goal setting, but those systems are essential for keeping your business running. And though they work pretty great on their own (that’s why you put them into place after all), you still need to do maintenance on those machines. Set aside some time either once a week or once a month to check in on all your different systems and make sure that everything is running smoothly. You can reflect, readjust, and make sure that all is well in the systems arena. 
  • If you want to learn more about business systems, check out this article. 

6. Planning Time

   • You’re in the business of doing good business and a good business needs some time to look ahead. This may not be a daily habit, but it should be at least a monthly habit. Give yourself time to lean into the creativity and build a swipe file or plan your Black Friday sales in June. Whatever it is, dedicate some time to plan for your business so you know what is happening and when. Overwhelm can’t find you when you already have everything in place. 

7. Positive Movement

• I know, I know…exercise is not technically a business habit, but isn’t it though. Oftentimes, I find myself at my computer for far too long and getting up and away is exactly what I need to recharge and reset. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy though. Notice that I said Positive Movement over exercise in the title line, it should be something that you enjoy and doesn’t have to have any rhyme, reason, or structure to it. Go dance around the kitchen or take a walk or lift weights to the rhythm of a rock song, you do you girl.
  • Learn more about Positive Movement here. 

8. High Value Tasking

• We may have heard that multi-tasking isn’t a thing. And yes, that is correct (though my ADHD brain is extremely hesitant to agree to that), but I think a reframe is also in order. Instead of just avoiding doing multiple things at once (because let’s face it, sometimes I just follow the dopamine), let’s focus on what tasks are really going to help us move forward. This goes with our prioritization list and goal setting that we do at the beginning of the day. We know what is going to help us move the needle forward and we start there. Sure, our email list could be pinging all over the place, but silence it until you complete your high value task. You will feel far more productive and I promise your inbox will still be there in 20 minutes. 
  • Learn more about Time-Management here.

9. Break Times

   • Create dedicated break times throughout your day. Make it a habit in that you set a timer or you have a trigger that indicates you are stepping away from the computer or that your Apple watch tells you to move your butt out of that seat. Whatever it is that you need to do to take an intentional break. Intentional breaks allow you to avoid burnout and set some boundaries between your work and your energy, even when the passion takes over and all you want to do is dive in deep. 

10. Sleep

    • Sleep is another one that is an amazing habit to have. If you can create a consistent sleep cycle, you are going to be better off for your digestive health, your energy levels, and your brain power. I say this as I write an article at 3 in the morning; but luckily this is a once in a blue moon situation (I took the daytime medicine for a sinus infection instead of the night time medicine 🤦‍♀️). Days outside of this weird circumstance are blissfully habitual where I am in bed by 11pm and up by 8am, because that is what works best for my current schedule. Figure out what schedule works best for you and try to stick to it as best as you can.

11. Read

• Whether it is a paranormal romance (raise your hand if you’re with me 🙋‍♀️) or a nonfiction piece about furthering your business or a blog post you found about habits, reading can lower your heart rate into a resting state and allow you to feel more clarity afterward…except maybe if you’re reading a thriller. Still, reading daily or weekly can really help you take some time to decompress and focus. Incorporate reading or other stress relieving habits as often as you can to complete stress response cycles and stay more active in your business. 
  • Every month I recommend a new book I have read inside the TBB membership (along with all of our other goodies), click here to check it out.

12. Work Within Your Productivity Profile

    • I talk all about the productivity profile inside the Time Management Workbook and I abide by it as often as I can. The productivity profile is where you figure out your innate patterns of productivity, i.e. times when you are naturally most productive. Track the times when you actually feel like working and then try to create a schedule around those times. For instance, I know that I am most productive on administrative tasks first thing in the morning, whereas my more creative tasks are in the 8pm range. I also know that I have a huge slump where it is difficult to do anything outside of client calls in the mid afternoon. As such, I don’t try to force myself to work on creative or admin tasks during that mid-day slump and either take time to rest or schedule my Zoom calls during that time. I find it much easier to chat mid day than it is to write, so this schedule works perfectly for me. Learn what works best for you and create a habitual routine around what works.

Habits can be tricky, especially trying to be consistent. If you would like extra help, head over to the Teacher Business Balance Membership, where we are all about creating a supportive community. Inside, you will not just find other teacherpreneurs like you that are trying to build that flourishing business and WLB, but also quick & meaningful trainings from expert teacherpreneurs on different business tips, bonus resources, workbooks, live workshops, and new items added every single month. Join us today, so you don’t have to take on business all by yourself anymore. Teachers support teachers and teacherpreneurs will do the same.

And don’t miss next week’s article where we dive into how to build these success habits into your lives. You can sign up for our Jewels of Teaching Newsletter to be alerted (and receive monthly freebies on the first Tuesday of every month to help you and your business grow).

It's no secret that teacherpreneurs are passionate, hardworking, and have a desire to not only create a successful business but also maintain balance in their lives. To ensure this success, we need to develop habits that will keep us organized, productive, healthy, and happy. By setting daily goals, connecting with others, journaling, showing gratitude, and monitoring our systems and productivity profiles, we can build work life balance and reach our business goals. So, if you're a teacherpreneur eager to reach success, don't forget to take time for yourself. As the old adage goes, "if you don't take care of yourself, who will?"