Healthy Work-Life Balance: The Unicorn of Music Education?

By the time this article goes to print, we will be in the throes of the fall semester. Whether you are an early career teacher, a veteran, or a student aspiring toward a career in music education, the concept of work-life balance may feel particularly elusive at this time of year. Is a sustainable worklife balance even possible for music educators? In this article, I explore common challenges with achieving work-life balance. I also offer several tips for moving toward a healthier relationship with both professional and personal responsibilities.

Work-Life Balance: What We Know

Work-life balance has been defined as “balanced involvement and satisfaction across life domains” (Sirgy & Lee, 2018, p. 230). In a study investigating the work-life balance of 347 Ohio music teachers, Bley (2015) found that educators who struggle with work-life balance also experience elevated feelings of guilt, worry, and resignation, often sacrificing to the point of exhaustion. Given these findings, it’s no wonder that those with an unhealthy work-life balance may be at higher risk for burnout or even attrition from the field. Conversely, music educators with a healthier work-life balance tend to set limits in line with their professional and personal priorities, practice better self-care, and seek others’ help when needed.

Certainly, one of the biggest challenges for music educators aspiring toward a healthy work-life balance is establishing a culture of balance in the face of time and workload demands (Bley, 2015; Shaw, 2014). In a field where putting in additional time and energy can often yield various benefits for our students, where do we draw the line? Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear answer. Learning when to say “no” (and having the courage to do it!) is a critical skill for music teachers across all career stages.

Priorities and Boundaries

Finding balance begins with clearly identifying your personal and professional priorities. In listing your priorities, begin with the big non-negotiables. A popular ideology is to consider your life as a large glass jar. Your most important priorities are represented by golf balls, your moderate priorities are represented by pebbles, and your smaller concerns are represented by sand. If you fill your jar with pebbles and sand first, there is no room for your main priorities. Therefore, it is important to keep the most critical aspects of your personal and professional life at the forefront.

Establishing lasting balance over time involves responding accordingly when these particular priorities are challenged. Most often, these challenges come from limitations on time and energy. Effective boundaries can help protect these limited, precious resources. Some teachers have had success with compartmentalizing, i.e., work stays at work, or setting limits on work time spent outside of school hours (Bley, 2015). While there are inevitably extenuating circumstances that can arise that may force one to compromise some of these boundaries, being clear and consistent with such boundaries over time can have a notable positive effect on work-life balance. Worth noting—even as a veteran teacher, it’s never too late to prioritize that culture of balance!

One area where teachers commonly struggle with establishing boundaries is email communication. When work email is connected to our phones, this issue can be exacerbated. There are several strategies that can address this challenge. For example, consider designating specific times for checking and responding to email. If colleagues, students, and families know you only read and respond to emails between 7-8am and 4-5pm on weekdays, for example, this can help with expectations management – both for what others expect of you and what you demand of yourself. For those teachers that link work email to their personal phones, consider removing it—even if just for a few days as an experiment! Similarly, you might try removing saved passwords from your web browser. When you suddenly have to physically type in an email password every time you check your inbox, you become more conscious of the frequency with which you check your email, which can be enlightening.

Establishing Efficiency

We operate at varying speeds at different times of day. Some may feel particularly focused and energized first thing in the morning, while others may get their boost in the afternoon. In order to manage time more efficiently, consider reserving more complex tasks —both personal and professional—for times when you are at your best. Tackling a challenge when you are physically or mentally drained may lead to added frustration. Similarly, save simpler tasks for when you aren’t operating at 100 percent. Matching task demands with our energy and focus levels is an effective strategy for improving overall time management.

Making Habits Stick

To instill effective, consistent, and balanced habits, one strategy is to use a three-tiered approach. For example, what is one small thing you can commit to every day that could make an impact on your work-life balance and overall well-being? Maybe that one little thing is doing a quick twominute breathing and mindfulness exercise each morning, which can in turn help your focus, efficiency, and presence throughout the day. Next, think of a medium-sized habit you can commit to once a week. Perhaps this involves creating a list of personal and professional tasks for the week ahead and identifying those that can be reasonably simplified or even delegated to others for support. Finally, consider a large-sized commitment to connect with once a month. This could be something like a device-free day or an afternoon of self-care. Addressing habits from multiple levels can create a more comprehensive balance, while also being sustainable.

Conclusion

Time and energy are our most precious resources. Effecting lasting, workable change in how we manage our time and energy requires commitment and consistency but doing so is a worthy investment with immeasurable returns.

References

Bley, S. (2015). An examination of the time management behaviors and work-life balance of K-12 music educators (Unpublished master’s thesis). Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.

Shaw, R.D. (2014). The work-life balance of competitive marching band teachers: A multiple case study. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 200, 62-80.

Sirgy, M.J., and Lee, D.J. (2018). Work-life balance: An integrative review. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 13(1), 229-254.

Dr. Lisa Martin

Dr. Lisa Martin currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music Education at Bowling Green State University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses. Prior to her appointment at BGSU, she taught middle school band and orchestra for nine years in Illinois and Colorado. Her research interests include music teacher identity development, assessment practices in music education, and music teacher evaluation.