What Teachers Can Learn from The More of Less
A veteran teacher unlocks her classroom at six in the morning, the way she has for a decade, and tells herself that once she gets more prep time, grading will finally feel manageable and she'll have energy left for her own life by Friday. She has said this every August. The classroom keeps filling — another bin of manipulatives, another folder of worksheets she might use someday, another committee she agreed to join because saying no felt unprofessional — and the promised time never arrives, because she has never named exactly what she wants that time and energy for. Owning less, whether it's classroom materials or after-school obligations, only works as a means toward something specific you've chosen; clear out supplies and commitments without naming what you're making room for, and the clearing has no direction, so the shelves and the schedule fill right back up. Once the destination is named, it becomes obvious which materials and meetings are actually serving your teaching and which are just leftover habit.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Naming what your teaching time is actually for
Before purging a single bin, name what you actually want more time and energy for — deeper feedback on student writing, a calmer classroom tone, enough left over to enjoy your evenings. Without that anchor, any supply closet you clean just refills with the next donation.
A teacher spends an entire weekend reorganizing her supply closet into neat labeled bins, then realizes months later she never actually decided which materials she uses and which she simply stored more tidily, so the closet is organized clutter instead of less clutter.
Write one sentence naming what you want your reclaimed planning time for this semester, and keep it visible on your desk.
How materials and extra duties compete with that goal
Every worksheet packet, classroom decoration, and volunteered committee seat draws on the same limited planning time and energy your students' actual learning needs, and each one seems reasonable alone while together they leave no room for the deeper work you value.
A teacher keeps three years of "just in case" printed worksheets in a filing cabinet, spending real time each semester sorting and re-filing materials she has not touched since the year she made them.
List every recurring extra duty or committee you're on and mark which ones you would volunteer for again if asked fresh this year.
Removing the easiest excess first
Start with materials you clearly haven't used in a year and duties nobody would notice if you stepped back from, before touching anything tied to a favorite unit or a colleague relationship. Small, easy cuts build momentum for the harder decisions later.
A teacher tries to overhaul her entire curriculum library in one weekend, gets overwhelmed by sentimental attachment to old lesson plans, and abandons the project rather than starting with the expired textbooks nobody has opened in years.
Clear out one drawer, bin, or folder of unused materials this week, and donate or recycle what you find.
Re-examining as the school year changes
A clean supply closet in August rarely stays that way through June. New curriculum arrives, new colleagues share materials, and requests for extra duties never stop coming. Revisiting your classroom and your schedule at each grading period, rather than trusting one summer cleanout to hold, keeps your energy pointed at what teaching is actually for as the year unfolds.
Naming what you value and clearing out materials can pull against each other when a colleague hands you supplies "just in case" and declining feels unkind. Resolve it by weighing the offer against your stated goal rather than the giver's feelings — a polite decline protects the time and space your teaching actually needs.
Name one thing, honestly
If a colleague walked into your classroom tomorrow, which materials and duties would visibly serve your students, and which would just be there?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Clear out one drawer, bin, or folder of unused materials this week, and donate or recycle what you find.