With the exception of philosophy books, which are fun to read anyway, my goal this semester is to never bring work home. If that means that I stay at school late into the night, or come in on Fridays or Saturdays, so be it.
Anything that is strictly school work, whether it be writing a lesson plan, grading student papers, or managing administrative and committee work, it will all be done at school. My home is for leisure and actually doing philosophy.
Whenever I bring work home, my productivity falls anyway. My work and life get blended together, and both work and leisure take a hit. By constructing this boundary, I hope to increase productivity and my personal happiness, which will be good for both myself and my students.
Time and time again, I have told my students or myself that I will accomplish such and such after classes. After class, I go home with the intent to do the work. But then I get tired on the bus, I get home, and I can’t concentrate. If I am at school at 9pm, and have a few things to post on blackboard, I may as well just stay the extra few minutes and get it done.
Natural Causes 
Have you or will you at any time be teaching a World Religions course?
I often teach a “Philosophy of Religion” class, about twice per year. If you haven’t seen the post, I wrote a lot about the class in the summer semester reflection post, just a few posts back. As far as a “World Religions” class: I assume you mean a comparative religions course that discusses the history, books, and beliefs of the different major religions. I don’t teach that class, and I do not think I am prepared to teach such a course.
Yes, I was referring to a comparative religions course — it would have been interesting having your take on such a class. Thanks for the quick reply and all the best with increasing productivity while maintaining time for leisure!
Do you feel like you are achieving this goal so far? It seems almost impossible for a professor with as many classes as you have to put idea this into action. Are you really more organized or are you just less stressed about being unorganized? Which one is your actual go? Either way, the main goal is for you to separate work from home, right? Is it working?
I am definitely failing in this life goal! Except for the first few weekends, I always have work left over that I need to bring home. I am less stressed, thankfully. I can say that I have made improvements over last semester, but I have a long way to go. I think my actual goal is to be a better teacher, while still having time to live my life. In the spring semester, for example, I did not see any of my friends for the first 8 weeks of the semester: I think there was one exception to that. This semester, I have seen friends at least once per weekend.
I’m glad you see that on your own. You seem more focused and less stressed. That makes you better teacher. You’re a really good professor now, but I think you’re starting the shift into a great one. I’ve never seen another professional instructor as willing to adapt and work on his trade in the same way. You’re setting a really good example. I hope that I will be half as passionate and engaging when I have my own students. Although, you could work on your email response time.
I appreciate that. And I’m fully willing to admit that my two worst qualities are (1) grading essays in a timely manner, and (2) responding to e-mails quickly. I’m getting better at both. However, I think I need to make it clear to my students, if I have not already, that if the purpose of the e-mail is to get an assignment for a class they have missed, that they should inquire to other students. Otherwise, especially at this time of the semester, I get overwhelmed with e-mails. I want to spend my time responding to e-mails about philosophical questions or the substance of the reading assignments, not giving them information that they would have gotten if they actually showed up to class. At the present time, I am poor at both. But if I cut out one, I’ll have more time for the other.
You did make it clear. I seem to remember you saying in class that if a person misses class, they would have to get the assignment from another student. You just get suckered into emailing them back anyways. I have no sympathy for someone who doesn’t bother going to class. I know a lot of us get overwhelmed because we work and go to school, but at some point people need to make school the priority.