5 Top Productivity Tips To Avoid Yoga Teacher Burnout

Productivity may be a buzzword, but it's an essential skill that every yoga professional needs. Whether you’re a new yoga teacher or a seasoned instructor, you are the owner of your business and, thus, in control of your business’s growth. 

But here’s the thing; for most of us, we start teaching yoga because it changed our lives, and we’re passionate about sharing it with others. Thus, we usually begin teaching classes as a hobby and don’t think of it as a business. While this is fine initially, what happens when word gets out about how amazing we are and demand increases? Much too often the result is we burn out. 

However, by thinking with a business mindset and implementing some productivity strategies, we can practice what we preach (self-care), work smarter, not harder, and make a bigger impact without exhausting ourselves in the process. Sounds good? Then read on to discover how you can bring more freedom and fulfillment into your yoga business. 

Plan and time block your week

If you’re not already scheduling your weeks, this is something you need to change right now. This is because, between teaching and all your other commitments, there’s likely not a tremendous amount of time left. Therefore, it’s not easy to create new content, update your website, and do all the other hundreds of things on your mental to-do list for growing your business. 

This is why it’s essential to put things on your calendar. Take a blank weekly calendar (you can find tons online) and input all your classes along with other time-bound commitments, like a second job. 

Then you can see your remaining time and start scheduling your tasks into specific time slots for the week, known as time blocking. For example, say you want to create a new Youtube video. Instead of putting it on a to-do list where it will likely stay, plan to do it on a particular day and time. This slight difference will significantly increase your chance of doing it.

Thinking with a business mindset is essential whether you want to grow your yoga business or simply free up your time.

Schedule your classes back to back

While we’re on the subject of scheduling, let’s talk about how you can free up your time. Once you’ve put all your classes into your calendar, take a moment to look at your teaching schedule. Do your days look like this; an early morning class, a lunchtime class, then a late evening class? This is a sure way to burn out fast as a schedule like this will make your body and mind feel as though you’re working 12+ hours a day despite the large chunks of time between classes.

If you’re teaching multiple classes a day, a much more innovative way to do it would be to schedule them as close to back to back as possible. For example, perhaps you decide to only teach in the mornings on Mondays, afternoons on Tuesdays, evenings on Wednesdays, etc. This will shorten your teaching day right down (while leading the same amount of classes) and give you much more time and energy to focus on other projects.

Of course, this is not always possible as we’re working around other people’s schedules. Depending on your client base, most of your yogis may only be available early morning or late evening. However, even if that’s the case, you’ll still find ways to move some of your classes closer together just by writing your schedule out and seeing it on paper. 

Set boundaries

This brings us to the next tool, boundaries. For a more productive workflow, you’ll need to set boundaries with your yogis and yourself. As yoga teachers, we tend to over accommodate our yogis, working around their schedules with no regard to our own. This is how we find ourselves feeling exhausted every evening. 

So if 9 pm works for your student but you’d prefer to be in bed with a book at this time, set a boundary with yourself that you will not work past a specific time in the evening, say 8pm. Alternatively, you may decide to only work 3 evenings a week. Then, explain your new schedule to your yogi and offer alternative times and days so that you can find a time that suits BOTH of you.

Offer pre-recorded classes

The problem with live classes is there is only a certain number of hours in the day. However, one way to reach more people without spending more hours on the mat is to offer pre-recorded classes, either instead of or in addition to your live classes. 

Video on demand works really well as a membership-style offering, which is much easier to set up than you think. There’s no need to build a membership website from scratch. Instead, you can use online yoga services like Momoyoga to create an online video library on their platform and schedule live classes. With pre-recorded lessons, your yogis can access you anytime, and you can make money while you sleep.

Introduce hybrid classes

Hybrid yoga classes, combined in-person and online classes, are an innovative concept we’ve seen emerge from the pandemic. This is an excellent idea if you are currently teaching group classes in person. You simply set up your phone or laptop as you would for an online class and connect to Zoom, so you’re instructing the people in front of you and those who are online simultaneously. It may feel a little weird the first time you try it, but you’ll quickly get the hang of it. 

Yoga teachers started doing this when studios reopened after lockdown to meet the needs of those who wanted to continue practicing from home. However, it looks like this teaching style is here to stay, which is excellent news for teachers. Hybrid classes allow you to reach more people and earn more money without increasing your teaching hours. For more information about this check out our blog and article about how to teach hybrid classes with Momoyoga.

Final Thoughts

Thinking with a business mindset is essential whether you want to grow your yoga business or simply free up your time. With smart planning, digital software, and a little thinking outside the box, you’ll enjoy more time, freedom, and energy, and increase your income, too!