What I felt when I finally did it and what it taught me about protecting my own time.
By Kim Lester
Teachers —
I want to talk about something that sounds small but isn't.
Deleting your work email from your phone.
The first thing I felt wasn't relief. It was panic.
That's the part nobody mentions. They tell you about the exhale. The evenings back. The freedom. What they don't tell you is that the first thing most teachers feel when they seriously consider doing it is this:
What if something happens and I miss it? What if my principal needs me? What if a parent sends something about a kid and I'm not there?
That fear is real. It's not weakness. It's what years of being the person who handles everything does to you. You've been conditioned — by the job, by the culture, by your own love for the work — to stay available. Always. Even inside your own home.
But here's what I need you to sit with:
The school day ends. Your job does not require you to extend it.
Not legally. Not ethically. And not in any way that actually serves your students better than a teacher who rested the night before.
That email sitting in your inbox at 9 PM is not an emergency. It will be there at 7 AM. And you will handle it better after a night where your mind was somewhere else entirely.
Deleting the app is not abandonment. It's a decision that your evenings belong to you. That the version of you walking back into that building tomorrow is worth protecting tonight.
I'm not saying be unreachable during a real crisis. I'm saying most of what lands after 4 PM is not a crisis — and treating it like one is costing you something you cannot get back.
You can only give from what you have. A teacher who never fully leaves school never fully comes back either. And the students in front of you tomorrow deserve the version of you who actually came home last night.
If you've been thinking about it — do it.
Delete the app. Set an out-of-office that says you respond during school hours. Then go be somewhere else.
You've earned the evening.
— Kim 🌿
If this resonated with you, the After the Bells box was built for moments exactly like this — the crossing back over from school life to your own.
👇🏾 Join the waitlist: afterthebells.org/pages/waitlist-after-the-bells-official