Staying out of the RUT!

I hate to admit it, but I have been in several "ruts" in my first semester. The first rut seemed to be that I couldn't keep up with my emails that I had no idea would be so numerous. I had no sit down time during class and still find it hard to do things while the students are at work. I then learned how important the warmup is at the beginning of class and I use the board to post the daily assignment so the students can start on their own while I mainly handle tardies and emails and attendance. Another rut I get into is not planning ahead, and things pile up leaving me to make decisions on the fly. The variety of actions I've used to help me so far have been to realize that the first year offers no or little free-time and just suck it up. Also, I've learned that my lessons don't last as long as I planned, so I now think of multiple lessons for students who complete their work early, like bonus points. Even when I plan ahead, things don't go as planned due to materials, student behavior, time to get materials. I just keep finding ways to keep students busy and keep my job. I know there will be more ruts in the future, but the ones I've gotten into, I've somehow managed to get out...