Principals, it’s time to take our lives back and get work done…AT WORK! Keep in mind you may not get it ALL done EVERY day. There will be nights and weekends you have to put in extra time. However, let’s not make over-working the norm. Let’s not work multiple nights and weekends. We can increase our productivity at work.
If Covid taught us anything hopefully it taught us to take our lives back. Six years ago saying yes to everything and everyone was no longer an option. This post is not about learning to say no. It’s about learning to say yes to yourself and more of the right things. You can’t say yes to yourself if you are working all the time and saying yes to everyone else.
Quitting isn’t an option. Too many of you are leaving the profession. We need experienced principal wisdom. We need to be more productive at work. We need boundaries. Let’s rediscover our passions for the principal-ship, together, and do the right work for the right reasons.
Let’s talk about boosting productivity in the workplace. Some of these examples may sound familiar to you. If you are a student of productivity you already have a lot of tools in your tool chest. Without a doubt, these 10 secrets are going to keep at least one principal going for another year.
10 Secrets to Increasing Your Productivity at Work
10. Practice gratitude
Start every list by practicing gratitude. If you have followed me for a while you know that my number one morning habit is writing down three things I am grateful for that day. Daily gratitude can include something work-related. It can also include something family-related. It can also include something as trivial as being thankful for grocery pick-up or delivery.
9. Have 3 daily priorities
Priorities help you be productive in the workplace. Principals can have lists for lists. We can have the main list and then sub-lists. Here’s a list. There’s a list. Everywhere a list. These lists will stress you out. However, if you have 3 priorities at the top of your list, you will feel more productive. Therefore, knowing you are going to complete at least important tasks can reduce a lot of stress.
8. Plan ahead to be productive
Principals start multiple projects a day knowing full well we are not going to complete the project. We start projects so we can work on them incrementally throughout the day, week or month. How far ahead can you look on your calendar? Perhaps we should look a little further and start on projects super early. The earlier the better. Starting early will help you decide what you can delegate which is my next secret.
7. Delegate.
Delegation means getting help from your secretaries, children, relatives, etc. Can your secretary complete your hair-brained ideas or projects during the school day? Are there students or parents who have asked to volunteer? How can your own family help with school projects? Acts of service is a love language and is also found in the book The Language of Appreciation at Work. It makes some people feel appreciated when they are asked to help.
6. Stay off social media
Without a doubt, as soon as you open Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Youtube to post something for school….30 min. will pass in the blink of an eye. Literally opening an app to post something for school can be a 10-15 min. distraction. Before you know it you have been scrolling social media for 15 min. or more. Add social media management to your calendar or delegate it. Give your staff access to your school’s social media and allow them to help update regularly.
5. Keep a detailed calendar to increase productivity.
Whether it’s a Google calendar, the calendar app on your phone, a digital planner, or a paper planner, you will want to keep a detailed calendar. Principals use calendars. How many calendars do principals use? Once you have added your required meetings and appointments, you can add your tasks, to-do list, etc. in the blank space of your calendar. Let’s use classroom observations for example:
Observations are hard to prioritize if you don’t enter them on your calendar. Calculate your monthly observation total by dividing the total number of observations for the year, by the number of months you have to complete all observations. You know you might do a lot of observations in May. Maybe you won’t do very much in December. My total is 11 per month. By plugging in 11 observations a month is much more manageable than waiting until February and trying to do 30 or more.
4. Use the Pomodoro method
If by some unforeseen stroke of good luck you have a long period of time to work every now and then, I recommend the Pomodoro method. This method involves setting a timer for a period of time determined by you and taking short breaks between each timed work session. 25 min work sessions work best. 25 min of working then 5-10 min break if needed. If you don’t feel like you need a break, start the timer again without the break.
3. The two-minute rule.
Without a doubt, an email that can be completed in 2 min or less will pop into your inbox. Reply right then! How many times have you been on your computer and an email comes through that you can answer quickly? Regardless, if you don’t want to answer it because you don’t want the sender to think you are just sitting there checking email… JUST REPLY!
2. Don’t bring work home.
Raise your hand if you bring work home and leave it in your car.
Raise your hand if you bring work home and leave it in your bag.
Raise your hand if you bring work home to work for another 3-5 hours after you get home.
Don’t bring it home. It will be there tomorrow.
If you know that you have evening plans…don’t bring it home.
If you don’t feel well and/or you’ve had one of those days…don’t bring it home.
If it’s not due tomorrow…don’t bring it home.
1. Celebrate productivity every night
It can be easy to go to sleep at night and feel completely unproductive. You may have actually completed some pretty major tasks for the day. As a result, the mundane probably not as mundane as you think. Celebrate mowing the yard. Celebrate getting 2 loads of laundry done. Celebrate getting your Friday memo out on Friday. Undeniably, you accomplish a lot more than you give yourself credit for.
In conclusion, seasons of life come and go like the seasons of the year. During this season of life, The Principal Blog had to take a backseat. We were on a roll this summer with content on the podcast, Youtube channel, and creating images for all platforms. However, my business productivity took a turn for the worse once school started.
Furthermore, when educators say this year is harder than the last couple of years…it is NO JOKE!
