It is a truth universally acknowledged that no one has less time than a teacher. I’ve lost count of the number of non-teaching friends who have suggested I do something innocuous in my “lunch hour”, like call the bank or meet them for coffee.

No teacher I have ever met has experienced such a break in the middle of the day. Education, though, should not submit to the idea that an endless, insurmountable workload is a noble ideal. So how can we claw back precious extra time?

Here are a few ideas - both practical and philosophical - that could help.

1. Focus on butterflies, not hornets

It’s easy to say yet hard to do, but being honest about what is important and what can wait can have a huge impact.

For example, some stuff is important: phoning the parent you promised to call with an update or having a difficult conversation with a co-worker. Ignoring these tasks will cause you more work in the long run.

Some tasks, though, are good to do but less vital: sending “well done” postcards to the most improved members of your form or calling pupils’ parents to offer praise.

A good metaphor to guide your thinking in this area comes from the late, great Sir Tim Brighouse: butterflies and hornets.

A “hornet” is something that takes up a lot of time but has little impact on pupils - such as making a corridor display. A “butterfly”, by contrast, is something that takes little time but has enormous impact - such as greeting pupils at the door to your classroom with a smile.

Do more of the latter, less of the former. If you can get this balance right you can immediately start to reduce your workload and ensure the truly critical work is done with time to spare.

2. Plan ahead and be proactive

A well organised planner can be a lifesaver. Ideally, use whatever you know you will actually look at - your teacher planner, online calendar or a printed calendar - and write down the things that are immovable, such as teaching, duties and deadlines.

Then not only note down when key deadlines are due but write them in ahead of time. For example, if you need to enter key stage 3 data by 9 February: write on the 2 February page: “KS3 data due next Friday”, and on 26 January: “KS3 data due in two weeks.”

The act of writing it down and reminding yourself can help to remove those last-minute rushes when you realise a deadline is imminent. Then, having done it early, you will have time to focus on other tasks.

3. Focus on truly useful opportunities

Unless you wish to remain a classroom teacher all your days - which is, in my opinion, possibly the noblest thing you could do with your life - you will need to say “yes” to doing extra things to win favour, garnish your CV and secure promotions.

However, good intentions can easily be waylaid if you say “yes” to everything. The key is to work out what to say “yes” to. Think about the impact a particular task might have, the new skills it will enable you to learn and how it will support your future job applications.

For example, conducting an in-depth analysis of the mocks might help you learn to think more strategically and enable you to position yourself as someone who understands the school in the round. Planning and delivering whole staff continuing professional development on something you’re great at will enable you to practise your delivery to all teachers, particularly if you rarely have the opportunity to do this.

However, if the idea of learning these skills for career progression doesn’t feel worthwhile then, for now at least, say “no” and focus on what truly matters to you in your role.

4. Learn to say ‘no’

Of course, saying “no” to something is a skill in itself. One good way to ensure any new task can be reasonably taken on is to turn to your trusty calendar and to-do list, and ask either yourself, or the person with the request, what can be dropped or de-prioritised.

It might be that there are things clogging up your workload that are not that important (see point one), and you could take something else on with a bit of rejigging. But equally, the reality might be that another new task is going to be overwhelming and you are unsure you can commit to it without the risk of letting people down. In which case, you’ll need to make that clear.

Jo Facer is a former headteacher and the head of the National Professional Qualifications faculty at the National Institute of Teaching