40 Hour Teacher Workweek Reviews: Work-Life Balance in 2025

Educators often joke that “There’s no tired like teacher tired.” But so many teachers these days are beyond just tired. They’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and simply unable to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s where Angela Watson’s 40 Hour Teacher Workweek comes in. Find out all the details for the 2025-26 school year, including reviews from real teachers who say this program has truly changed their lives.

What exactly is the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek?

The 40 Hour Teacher Workweek is a 52-week program that helps you streamline your teaching, one area at a time. Essentially, it’s a yearlong professional development endeavor focused on increasing productivity. The goal is cultivating a more productive mindset to help you succeed, no matter what you teach. The program can help you do what needs to get done—in less time!

As proof, Angela offers this statistic: The average teacher joining the program works an astonishing 62 hours a week. Within six weeks, their average workweek drops to 51 hours—an 18% reduction! And that’s just the start. With each month that passes, you’ll learn new techniques for streamlining your workload more and more.

Who is Angela Watson?

Angela Watson spent 11 years in the classroom and a decade as an instructional coach. She’s been sharing classroom tips and teaching advice on the web for more than 20 years, as well as writing half a dozen books on various topics. She also hosts a bi-weekly podcast called Truth for Teachers.

In 2015, Angela started the 40 Hour Workweek program to prove you can do the teaching work you love without burning out. Over the last 10 years, she’s helped thousands of teachers, administrators, and instructional coaches find more joy in their work and more time for themselves.

How does it work?

Each month of the program focuses on a plan for simplifying one aspect of your teaching. You’ll make incremental changes that have the biggest impact. Also, you’ll get 12 months of classroom-tested productivity ideas. These resources are available in both PDF and audio formats that go step-by-step through each focus area. Choose just a few ideas each month and watch as small changes add up to big results.

At the end of the course, you will receive a professional development certificate to document up to 104 credit hours. It might be some of the most valuable teacher PD you ever complete!

What does membership include?

In addition to the monthly productivity ideas, membership includes access to more than $350 worth of forms and teacher resources to help you put the strategies into action. When you join, you get access to a positive, supportive Facebook community of coaches and other teachers to share ideas, answer questions, and provide encouragement and accountability.

Once you become a member of the club, you’ll have unlimited access to the membership site and the Facebook group, even after you complete the course.

What are some of the topics?

A different topic is covered each month, timed to help you with exactly what you need at each point in the school year. Plus, to address changes and requirements in education, they review and adjust the content of each month’s resources the month prior if necessary. Here are the topics, month-by-month:

July: The Self-Running Classroom
August: Sustainable Systems
September: Communication and Documentation
October: Lesson Planning
November: Grading and Assessment
December: Time Management for Kids
January: Students, Not Scores
February: More Time for Learning
March: Work-Life Balance
April: Technology Time-Savers
May: Ending Strong
June: Maximizing Your Summer

How much of a commitment is it?

Entirely self-paced, the course helps you work through the resources each month when it’s convenient for you. There are no deadlines or assignments to submit, unless your district requires it. Even after you “graduate” from the club, you still have access to all the topics on the membership site.

In addition, if for any reason you feel the program is not a fit, there is a 100% money-back guarantee within the first 30 days. (Although the site estimates that only 3% of teachers who join request a refund.)

How much does the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek cost?

You pay a onetime fee of $175 to join the program. If you preregister for the 2025-2026 session using the code PREORDER before June 15, 2025, you get a discounted rate of only $125. Once you join, there are no ongoing fees—you basically pay once and have access forever. (Using this program as school-funded PD? Contact them for help with a purchase order.)

Can I join anytime I like?

You can enroll anytime after June 15, 2025 (or preorder to save $50). The sooner you enroll, the more time you’ll have to check out the program before the new school year begins!

To join the 2025 cohort, simply visit Angela Watson’s 40 Hour Teacher Workweek and sign up. You can also enter your email to get a sneak peek at sample materials.

40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit

Want to get time-saving strategies from real elementary teachers? Check out the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit. It includes 30+ presentations from K-12 teachers on topics like grading, lesson planning, differentiation, and more. The Forever-Access Pass costs just $19 and allows you to view all the videos anytime you like. Plus, you get time-stamped transcripts and detailed summaries all conveniently organized in a single Google Doc that you can edit and use for note-taking.

Additional Programs

The 40 Hour Teacher Workweek has proven so successful in helping teachers make incremental changes with a huge impact that Angela Watson introduced a whole suite of programs.

40 Hour AI

AI is one of the hottest topics in education these days, and while there’s still plenty of debate, there’s also no doubt that AI tools have the potential to save teachers a whole lot of time and work. This new program shows you how you can use AI responsibly to streamline your teaching workload. Get a full year of access for $89, or try it for three months for $29.

40 Hour Fast Track

If a full-year program sounds like too much, take a look at the Fast Track program instead. It condenses the full program into six weeks worth of the key principles you need most. You can start it at any time, and you get forever access for a onetime fee of $39. Sign up for 40 Hour Fast Track here.

40 Hour Leadership

The 40 Hour Leadership program helps administrators figure out how to cut through bureaucracy and inefficient processes to focus on what truly makes an impact for students. You’ll learn how to free up time for teachers to focus on what’s important. The $599 program includes enrollment for up to three school leaders plus additional options that include virtual coaching sessions. This means you can complete the five modules with your colleagues at your own pace.

40 Hour Instructional Coaching

Angela Watson and Nicole Turner of Simply Coaching created 40 Hour Instructional Coaching for K-12 instructional coaches. Learn to streamline your workload to stay focused on what makes the biggest impact. You also learn how to support teachers in doing the same. Sign up for a onetime fee of $97.

Real 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Reviews

Prior to joining the club, I felt like I was climbing up a steep mountain with a heavy load strapped to my back. … My backpack was filled with grading, lesson planning, maintaining a classroom, building positive student relationships, communicating to parents, delivering dynamic lessons, designing rigorous assessments, integrating new technology, attending meetings, endless paperwork, and so much more. Angela Watson’s 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club transformed how I climbed up the mountain. … This club allowed me to take back my personal life, guilt-free. … My husband and children now have the best version of me, as I have finally captured the perfect work-life balance.
Jill Capotosto-Baio, fifth grade math and science teacher

Before the club, I was always working, or feeling bad about not working, or thinking about working. I had difficulty seeing the good that I was doing because I was so fixated on a to-do list that was nebulous, huge, and impossible to ever finish. After joining the club, I work fewer hours, carefully plan out my time, and when I’m not working, I mostly turn off my brain and don’t think about work until I’m ready to go back refreshed. I could talk about my experience in the club all day, it’s been that transformative!
Kelly Steiner, middle school science teacher

My days were a combination of high-intensity grading and record-keeping, meetings and phone calls, and an overflowing inbox of emails. I was constantly sick, constantly exhausted. My evenings and weekends were spent dividing my time—and guilt—between my family and the toppling stacks of grading and prep work haunting my dining room table. … Ultimately, Angela Watson’s 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club gave me the tools to free up my time and energy so that I could become the teacher I have wanted to be. I’ve gone from working 60 hours to working 40–45 hours per week. … My conscience is no longer plagued with work all weekend. I am able to give time and attention to being the wife and mother I want to be, rather than allowing them to be another casualty of my profession.
Erin Palazzo, high school English teacher

Why We Love Angela Watson’s 40 Hour Teacher Workweek