The Deload Week: How Teachers Get Through a Hard Week Without Quitting

Here's your quote, resource, book, and an affirmation to power you through the rest of your week.

Quote

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
— Vince Lombardi

Resource: The Deload Week

Weightlifters have a word every teacher should know. Deload.

Every few weeks, a smart training plan backs off on purpose. Fewer sets, fewer reps. Effort levels stay high but the weight lifted drops. Nobody in a weight room calls that quitting. It's on the plan.

Teachers don't get to schedule ours. Ours just shows up, usually right about now, when grades are due, Halloween lands on a Saturday (so watch out for Friday), the clocks fall back, and you haven't eaten lunch sitting down in the last few weeks.

So call it what it is. This is a storm week. Once it has a name, you can plan for it.

Now, cut the volume. Pick one thing that can wait, and write down the day you'll pick it back up. The bulletin board. The second email explaining the first email. The kids and the grading are the lifts that matter. Something else gets lighter. And if you need a spotter, ask. Busy stretches are exactly when we stop reaching out (more on that in Head Down, Get It Done).

Vince Lombardi hung that line in the Packers' locker room for a reason (Wise man, even from a Bears fan perspective). When sleep researcher Matthew Walker kept people awake for a night, the brain's alarm center fired about 60% harder at upsetting pictures.

Tired brains overreact. Fatigue makes us smaller versions of ourselves.

Sunday I felt lousy and almost skipped my 10-minute challenge walk. Went anyway, short and slow. Just enough to keep the habit alive. Full disclosure - I'm finishing up this newsletter today at home, sick, on a forced deload. Today's walk is in jeopardy, and that's okay too.

When I ruck during a hard week, I don't skip the route. I pull a few pounds out of the pack and walk the same road. Momentum is maintained while the load is a little less taxing.

So take something out of the pack this week. Keep walking.

Book

Good to Go by Christie Aschwanden - A science journalist and former ski racer tries the whole recovery industry on herself (ice baths, cryotherapy, even beer) and finds that what actually works is almost boring: sleep and real rest. A deload, in book form. (Affiliate link. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.)

Worth Your Time

• Teachers Spend Eight Hours a Week Supporting Student Well-Being (RAND): training volume nobody's counting.
• How to Build a Habit by Starting Ridiculously Small (Greater Good): a deload for your habits.
• How Veteran Teachers Keep Their Cool (Edutopia): small moves for the moment a class gets to you.
• Ten TV Series That Highlight the Best in Humanity: 2026 (Greater Good): for the couch after a storm week.

From the Archive

• Steady As You Go (Sept 2025): the recovery ride, cycling's version of a deload.
• Weathering the Hard Weeks in Teaching (Oct 2025): last October's take on hard weeks, a year later.

Now Repeat...

I can carry less this week and still be the teacher my students need.

P.S.

It's Day 9 of our 30-day challenge. Deload yours too: a five-minute walk still counts. (Monday's six words: "Halloween approaches, be kind to yourself.") Post yours with #30DaySTRONG, add a song to the shared playlist, or grab an idea from the Thirty-Day Challenges workbook.

New on the podcast: 28 Years of Teaching Taught Me This 1 Rule. Have a question for the show? Hit reply.