Pressure management (stress management) for teachers - pacing

Pacing has two components

• monitoring your stress and energy level
• pacing yourself accordingly

Look at the "human function curve", decide where you are on the curve, monitor your position every day and speed up or slow down accordingly.

Understanding the human function curve

• start in the safe work zone; at first, increased pressure produces increases performance
• once you pass the "hump" the reverse is true. Trying even harder is unproductive or even counter productive
• fatigue is one of the first symptoms of distress - do not ignore fatigue - take action (slow down)
• once over the hump, the harder it is and the longer it takes to return to normal

Using the human function curve

Aim to stay always in the safe work zone. For normal working you should be in the lower part of the safe work zone (ie to the left). This means that when extra pressures arise (eg dealing with pupil problems, reporting to parents, mock examination marking) you can increase pace and performance and stay within the safe work zone.

If you normally work in the upper part of the safe work zone, any extra pressure may take you beyond the zone. You appear to cope in the short term. If you continue, symptoms of stress (including fatigue) will result.

The temptation is to ignore the symptoms because other teachers appear to cope. Once over the hump, the downward trend continues and accelerates. You have to work even harder to maintain your original performance, but you fall further down the slope as a result.

Once you reach the stage where you have a diagnosable health injury you are unable to function as a teacher. As you crawl back up the slope, any attempt to work normally will simply take you back down to the bottom again. Repeated and long-term absence results.