I used to dread handing papers back to students.
I’d spend hours grading, marking up every little error, adding thoughtful feedback. Then I’d pass them back — and watch as so many went straight into the trash without a glance.
All that time. All that effort. Gone.
That’s when I realized something had to change.
Teachers are doing too much.
I know. It sounds like heresy. But hear me out.
Teachers show up early. Stay late. Take work home.
We grade, plan, decorate, organize, and pour ourselves into our classrooms. We spend hours of our lives, often doing things that really matter.
But we also spending hours doing things that don't push the needle in terms of the change we want to make.
Enter: The “Minimum Effective Dose”
Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, defines the Minimum Effective Dose (MED) simply as "the smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome".
It's the smallest dose that will produce the desired outcome. Anything beyond the MED is wasteful. To boil water, the MED is 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it 'more boiled.' Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something more productive.
tim ferriss
Ferriss uses this concept in "The 4-Hour Body" to optimize exercise.
Michael Hyatt used it to streamline his blogging process.
And I think educators can use it, too — it to optimize our time and resources teaching.
My “overboiled water” moment
Remember those papers I graded endlessly? The red pen marathons?
That was me overboiling the water.
When students tossed those papers, I realized that the traditional “mark-every-error” method wasn’t helping them learn Spanish.
So I tried something different.
I had students write blog posts in class instead of handing in papers. As they wrote, I walked around, gave real-time feedback, answered questions, and praised good work on the spot.
Instant feedback. Immediate learning. Fewer red marks, more progress.
By the time the posts were done, most errors were already corrected. I could leave a quick comment or two, assign a grade, and move on — no endless stacks of papers waiting at home.
Same learning outcome. Way less time and stress.
That’s the minimum effective dose in action.
Finding your classroom’s “minimum effective dose”
In his article “The Power of the Minimum Effective Dose”, author and productivity expert Michael Hyatt explains that the secret to sustainable success isn’t doing more — it’s doing what’s most effective. He challenges us to find “the bare essential of the bare essential” and to ask, “What’s one activity you could reduce by half and still get the desired results?”
That same principle applies perfectly to teaching. Here are 10 ways educators can apply Hyatt’s Minimum Effective Dose mindset to simplify their workload and focus on what really moves learning forward.
10 Ways to apply the “minimum effective dose” in teaching
1. Cut tasks in half — then test the outcome.
Hyatt asks us to identify activities we could reduce by half and still achieve results. Try it with grading, prep, or student assignments.
🔗 Resource link: The Gmail survival guide for busy teachers
2. Focus on the “bare essential of the bare essential.”
Overdoing often doesn’t improve results. Distill your lessons to the elements that matter most for learning.
3. Define success in terms of impact, not effort.
Anything beyond the MED is wasteful. Aim for what will move the needle, not just what keeps you busy.
🔗 Resource link: 10 low-prep, high-return activities for class TOMORROW
4. Experiment to find your MED — it won’t be the same every time.
Unlike boiling water, teaching requires experimentation to find what works best for your students.
5. Provide feedback during the process rather than after every error.
Once students meet the learning goal, extra corrections won’t boost results. Use class time for immediate, targeted feedback.
🔗 Resource link: How do I give feedback to 100+ students?
6. Set strong boundaries on your time and energy.
Hyatt warns that if you “play full out on everything at all times,” you’ll burn out. Protect your time for what matters most.
🔗 Resource link: Radical Wellness: The Self-Care Nobody Is Talking About
7. Do fewer things—selectively—and do them well.
Identify your high-impact actions and focus your energy there instead of spreading yourself thin.
🔗 Resource link: Habit stacking: 10 ways it can streamline class
8. Automate or delegate tasks that don’t require your unique role.
Tasks beyond the dose that produces the desired outcome are wasteful. Automate or assign them so you can focus on your irreplaceable teaching work.
🔗 Resource link: 20 ways to use AI to enhance existing lessons
9. Apply MED to your professional growth too.
Decide on one strategy or habit to deeply implement rather than trying dozens. Experiment, then scale.
10. Reflect regularly and recalibrate your dose.
Ask what you could reduce and still succeed. Make reflection a regular habit—each term or quarter—to fine-tune your teaching dosage.
🔗 Resource link: 6 Tips for Making Reflection a Consistent Habit
Less isn’t lazy — it’s strategic
I'm not saying that we should cut out all activities that don't improve our students' skills. And I'm certainly not saying that we should eliminate everything that doesn't make test scores and grades improve.
This isn’t about cutting corners or doing the bare minimum. It’s about doing what works best — and cutting what doesn’t.
Ask yourself:
- What tasks take the most time but create the least impact?
- Which ones could I simplify or rethink?
- Where could I provide just enough feedback, structure, or prep to make the biggest difference?
When we focus on the essentials, we gain time, energy, and space for the parts of teaching that truly matter — connecting with students, designing creative lessons, and actually enjoying our work.
Teachers often say they're overworked and underpaid, and they are. But maybe the overworked part is partially our own fault.
We need to stop overboiling the water.
What do you think of the "minimum effective dose"? Do you have any "overboiled water" activities? Have you ever identified any and replaced them? Share your thoughts and experiences in a comment below!
I also resonated with this, spending hours documenting and grading absolutely everything kids did, even if it was just a completion grade, then being sad and grumpy when they didn’t even look at my comments. Whether digital or on paper, kids tended to just look at the grade and internalize it as a personal judgement, not an effort to help them improve. Plus, it takes the learning power away from the kid. I plan to have students track evidence of their learning and submit it to me. I may agree or disagree, ask questions, give feedback, ask for more evidence, but the student will be grading him/herself with input from me.
As I sit here staring at the stack of papers waiting to be graded on a Sunday afternoon I couldn’t agree more. I heard something at a curriculum meeting Friday, that at first seemed blasphemous, but after a while was, not just a lightbulb, but a great ray of sunshine. Instead of grading whole essays, have students choose which paragraph or sentence is their best based on whatever criteria is the focus and grade that one sentence. One sentence instead of a 5 paragraph essay. One sentence. This all came out in a discussion of the 11 minute essay so it is a guided essay already. One sentence. I could grade that quickly, possibly that same bell if the essay was first and other activities that might not need my full attention came after. It is almost exciting, which, after this year of PARCC and AIR testing is something I need.
You’re right, Matt … and we’ve got to remember that we’re human and we have family/friends/other interests to tend to outside of class. We have an obligation to our students, but it can only go to a certain point. If we’re still sitting at our desks in the classroom at 8 p.m. every night because of all of the work we’re doing outside of class, there’s something wrong. And we’re not getting a good “return on investment” in the extra hours we’re spending … kids aren’t gaining that much more because of all of those extra hours.
I love reading your reflections, Matt. Thanks, and keep them coming!
In this day in age, students want their feedback as soon as possible just like everything else in their lives. When I give a test, they want it graded right then and there. I get the biggest moans when I give a test on Friday and collect them. Then, I probably won’t get them graded and it takes me a week, or more, to grade them and input them. (Don’t tell my principal though). I agree that when they get them after an extended amount of time, they don’t feel the same connectedness to the assignment. Or I might make comments and they won’t see the connection anymore because it’s been a day or more. In the moment authentic assessments are more meaningful. Assessing and giving feedback during the middle of a writing is definitely more impactful than at the end after it’s been handed in.
Great topic on moving forward and making me think of ways to assess. Thanks!
Former teacher, now current “facilitator,” maybe? I like how you frame the idea of what you do! You’re right … real-world experiences are really what we all should strive for. Those experiences are the ones that tend to engage students the best, too, in my experience. Thanks for the comment, Kelly!
Keith, the work in progress revision is so much more powerful than the “write the rough draft and I’ll mark it up” approach! I think students really value when their teachers — and their peers, like in your paired readings — work side-by-side with them to help make an assignment its best, rather than pick out errors after they’ve worked hard on doing their best work. Thanks so much for your insight!
Tim, you’re so right on automated assessments! They do save hours on the back end, and I think the immediate gratification is golden. I know many educators talk about deep summative assessments and how the auto-graded quizzes aren’t great pedagogical tools. I think, though — especially in this world of instant gratification — that giving students instant feedback is very powerful. Sometimes, when we grade a test overnight and hand it back the next day, students aren’t “in the moment” of taking the test and have forgotten the feelings they had tied to certain questions or concepts. Those feelings are still there when they receive grades instantly, and the connection between the grade and how they took the quiz is strong. Great point, Tim!
Thanks so much, Don, and I agree about similar things with teaching. I think we so often try to return every paper and take grades on everything when the real feedback that students treasure and take to heart are our honest, face-to-face, pointed praise and suggestions … kind of like the trusted coach you talk about.
Matt, as others have commented this piece is spot on. As a “former”, and I emphasize “former”, teacher of the sciences in middle school and high school this was an issue. My solution was to redesign the program itself- changing classwork to fieldwork, essays to public speaking engagements, and exams to determine mastery of knowledge to mentoring of elementary students to express mastery of content. Therefore, the emphasis on “former” teacher.
Our emphasis here in Kentucky, is on the “standardized” program of teaching that we all know may not be effective with all students. So, strike one for change is that it goes against the program. Strike two for change, is that even though your students toss their graded work in the waste bin, it is at least visible to them and an objective system. I made students step outside their comfort zone, making them prove their mastery, not through memorization/regurgitation, but through a real-world measurement tool – action.
I believe we need to explore real-world experiences as measurement tools, assessment through performance in a real-life setting. How else will students survive and excel in the job market and the research facility?
I am so on board with this idea of doing less to see more results. Like you, I labored over papers, making so many revision suggestions, just to see students give them only cursory glances. I’ve found that using sites such as Google docs and Wikispaces allow peers, and later me, to make comments as work is in progress, which is certainly a more welcome time for suggestions. Digitally, all comments and revisions are saved, should you care to revisit them. I’ve found that paired readings are more effective if students are given just two or three main ideas on which to focus (which goes along with what you were saying). If partners can catch 80% of the smaller issues, that alone saves me lots of time! Great topic.
As a math teacher, I discovered the magic of “automated assessments.” I began to put more and more items online to quickly quiz my students and give them the instant feedback they deserve. It was an adjustment at first, but we all grew to appreciate how quickly an assessment could be administered and graded without waiting on me to hand-grade it. Did I do every assessment online? No, but I definitely pushed the envelope for as many different question types as possible: multiple-choice, T/F, matching, fill-in-the blank, numeric response, even the occasional essay question. It was a lot of work on the front-end, but it saved hours on the back end.
This is a great piece Matt, dead on. Has me thinking about the different ways I over boil the water as a principal. I think many administrators over-boil formal observation reports thinking that they will change the lives of the teachers they observed. I often think these formal observation reports are more for our benefit than for the teacher’s. The real power of the observation process is when the leader is seen as a trusted coach who can help give feedback for improvement. It’s more important to hold up a mirror to practice than to create an artful term paper/observation report.
Thank you for your thoughts Matt.