The Principal's Handbook

Breaking Free from Overthinking for Principals
[00:00:00] In this episode, we're going to be talking about breaking free from Overthinking for Principals. That's all coming up next right here on the Principal's Handbook.
Speaker: Welcome to the Teacher Burnout Podcast, where we explore the challenges of burnout for teachers and share practical strategies to support teacher well being. I'm your host Barb Flowers. If you're a teacher looking for ways to prevent burnout or an educational leader searching for strategies to support your team, this podcast is for you.
Let's dive in.
Well, welcome everyone back to the podcast. Today we are talking about breaking free from overthinking, and I think this topic of overthinking is a really important topic for all educators, not just principals, but I think this is important because
We often overthink many things and. This really can lead to a lot of stress and take away any joy or excitement of education. And [00:01:00] so in this episode today, I wanna talk about what overthinking is, why we overthink, and then what that really does for principals when we overthink. And then I'm gonna give you three practical strategies to overcome overthinking.
So let's start by talking about what is overthinking? Well overthinking is the habit of constantly analyze something beyond what's productive. And that's the most important key here is beyond what's productive. It's different if we're analyzing something for reflection or to learn from it, but if we're analyzing something just because we're stressed about it or we didn't think we handled it correctly, that is what makes it not productive.
And so really it can manifest in your leadership. And you can be susceptible to overthinking when you're doing teacher observations, when you're meeting with parents, when you are, meeting with other leaders, or maybe it's even in your staff meetings, right? Or the things that you tell teachers, you really start to [00:02:00] overthink them.
And so it's important that we understand the process of overthinking and become more aware of it and know what our overthinking patterns look like. So why do we overthink? Well, overthinking really comes from a lack of confidence in our professional judgment. It comes from our doubt and our abilities to lead. And so when we're overthinking things, I want you to realize that it really is a lack of confidence. If you think about this in an area that you're super confident, you're probably not overthinking it because you know you did the right thing, you know you made the right decision.
And so when we overthink, it really is just a lack of confidence in that specific area. And when I'm coaching with principals, one question I have for them is, how would you rate your confidence in your leadership? Because I think this is a really important question on a scale of one to 10, and most of the responses I get, which completely makes sense, are it depends on the area of leadership we're talking.
And so when you're thinking about that in your confidence with overthinking, [00:03:00] I'm sure overthinking happens more in certain areas. For me, I never overthought curriculum decisions. I felt super confident in everything I did with curriculum. Sometimes I overthought discipline decisions with kids because I always wanted to make sure I was making the right discipline call and sometimes I would overthink it.
Overthinking generally happens in those areas that you're less confident. It's when you're uncertain about making the right educational decision for whatever that area is. Another way that people often overthink is if they're a perfectionist. So if you're a perfectionist and you think that everything you do has to be perfect, that can cause a lot of overthinking because perfectionism is really having.
Such a high standard that you have no standard at all because you can't even hold yourself to that standard. And so when you have such a high standard, you're overthinking, is this good enough? Constantly. So that's another way that overthinking can come, , into play. So what happens when we overthink?
What is the problem with that? Well, [00:04:00] the problem is with overthinking, it creates a lot of mental fatigue and mental brain fog. So think about how many decisions you make in a day as a school leader. I would come home from school, , when I was in a school all day. I would come home exhausted, mentally exhausted, and I would explain this to my husband who has a very physical job.
He'd come home physically as exhausted, and I was mentally exhausted. And it's interesting to see the difference between the two. , even now, , I am an online principal and I work from home. I still have that mental fog that happens when I'm overworking or when I'm super tired from all the decisions I made in a day.
It's really interesting to think about how overthinking can. Lead to that , mental fog. We need all the brain space that we have in our brain, right? We, we don't have room for overthinking because like I said, there's so many decisions that we have to think about and so many things we're thinking about all the time.
And when there's too much mental fog. We don't have [00:05:00] that clarity when we need it the most, when we need to make a quick decision and have clarity when we need to know something, and our brain is just overworked, right? And so that is a problem with overthinking. That's why we need to address it. Also, it really distracts from being in the present moment as a leader.
. You could be overthinking situations that already happened, or you could be overthinking a situation that's coming up. So for example, maybe it's discipline that you did with a student and you don't like how you handled it, and so you're overthinking. You just won't let it go. You keep thinking about and ruminating on.
How you handle that situation. Or it could be that you have a meeting coming up with a parent or a teacher. That's gonna be a hard conversation. And so you're overthinking that meeting and it's just ruminating through your head over and over and over again. Okay? So it could be, future or past, but either way, it's taking away from your present moment in leadership.
It's making it hard that whatever happens to you in that present moment. You are not presently there. Okay? So that's another problem with overthinking. [00:06:00] Also, it erodes at your self trust and makes you even less confident. So you might already lack confidence in an area, and then the more you overthink something, it really makes you start lacking it even more because you overthink it versus just starting to build that trust in yourself.
And then when we're overthinking, it complicates decisions. That could just be a straightforward decision. Like I said, I, I think discipline's a great example of this. You know, you handle a situation, it should be straightforward. The student did this, this is the consequence, but sometimes we overthink that and then it can really complicate the situation and either make the situation out to be.
Bigger or less than what the actual situation is. And then I think what also happens with overthinking is it increases our stress so much.
It brings on that mental fog, takes us out of our present moment. Then that increases our stress and it contributes to burnout in leaders. I think the more that you overthink things. The more you lack confidence, the higher level of [00:07:00] stress and burnout you're going to have. So today I wanna give you three practical strategies to overcome overthinking as a school leader.
So my first strategy is to identify the root cause. So what is causing you to overthink? So know what specific areas you overthink. Like I said, for me, a lot of times it was discipline. I didn't overthink curriculum. I usually didn't overthink evaluations. Sometimes I did, but for the most part, those weren't areas that I overthought.
I didn't overthink parent meetings, you know? So, but for you, what are the areas that you overthink and then ask yourself, what's really bothering me about this situation? I. And is it how you handled the situation? Is it a solvable problem? Right? Is it something you actually have control over or is it an unproductive worry loop?
Sometimes , , what you're overthinking, you can sit down, really recognize that trigger and make a change moving forward. Sometimes you can't. The situation's already happened, it's time to move on, [00:08:00] and it's not helpful or productive to continue overthinking it. Okay, so really get to the bottom. What is the specific trigger that is causing you to overthink?
What are the areas that you overthink in your leadership? Break it down. Is it parents? Is it dealing with students? Is it dealing with teachers? Is it dealing with instructional leadership? Do you overthink your vision for your building? Do you overthink when you talk to your superintendent or whoever your boss is?
, do you overthink when you talk to your colleagues, identify what those things are, where maybe you lack confidence or you find that you overthink? And I want you to take some time and really journal and track those patterns that you have with overthinking track in those specific areas when you overthink.
And what typically causes that overthinking? Because once you identify the root cause, then you can really get to the bottom of it if you decide that it's an area in your discipline. , then maybe you can start thinking about how can I get better and more [00:09:00] confident in my discipline? Or maybe it's with teacher evaluations.
How can I get more confident in teacher evaluation? Maybe you need to evaluate with another school leader and see if you're on the same page. Maybe you need to, , get better in your instructional leadership practices so you feel more confident evaluating whatever that is. Once you know the root cause, then you can really dig in and see how you can change that overthinking.
My second strategy is to challenge those unhelpful thought patterns, so really have constructive responses for self-doubt. All you have to do is think about. You are constantly talking back to your brain, which seems like a crazy concept, but that's what you're doing. When your brain offers you a thought, you're just talking back to it.
Okay? So if you have the thought, I'm not good at blank. I'm not good at discipline, I'm not good at evaluations. I'm not good at having hard conversations. The more you tell yourself that story and overthink that. The worse it gets and the more you erode at your confidence. And so what I want [00:10:00] you to do is really talk back to those thoughts, change that thought pattern.
So instead of, , I'm not good at discipline, or I'm not good at evaluations, maybe it's this is a more complex discipline situation that I'm going to figure out, or this is a different evaluation that I'm used to dealing with. That I'm going to figure out. So don't let yourself have these general thought patterns that tell yourself this negative story about your skills as a leader.
And then I want you to think about instead of, what if I do it wrong? What if I fail? Think about what if I do it right? What if this all works? What if whatever I'm trying works, what if I can constantly improve in this and one day this becomes my strength? Just remember there's no perfect decisions you're gonna make as a leader.
And so when we overthink every decision we make, or we overthink everything that we do. Just get rid of the idea that you're ever gonna be perfect at it, or you're ever gonna know the exact right thing. Talk back to your brain when you have those negative thoughts. When you think you don't know what you're doing, when you think you didn't handle a [00:11:00] situation right.
Tell yourself, have a conversation with yourself. Let it go. Move on. There's nothing I can do now. It's no longer in my control. I'm just going to make it better moving forward. The more you overthink it, the more you're eroding at your self-confidence, the more you're causing doubt for yourself and the worse the situation's gonna be.
So talk back to your brain. Tell yourself you can do this. Tell yourself you'll change moving forward, but don't continue ruminating on the same thoughts. And then my third strategy is find clarity through taking decisive action. The more you take action, the more you're gonna build your confidence, right?
Confidence comes from taking action and knowing that you can do the things that you wanna do, and so the more you can just take action. The more confident you're gonna think, the less overthinking that's gonna happen. So I want you to find clarity through that action, because the more we can find clarity too, we're gonna stop overthinking things.
Because overthinking things is really overcomplicating things. [00:12:00] And so, for example, if we're going back to discipline and we're thinking about, oh, this situation's so hard, I'm not sure if I made the right decision. This kid did this and this kid did this, and I'm not sure. They got in a fight.
, if I made the , right decision with that, instead of if you just simplify it and say, this student put his hands on another student, it's not okay. We don't allow that. Here's the consequence, right? The more you can find clarity in the situation, stop over complicating it and take decisive action, the better it's gonna be.
Same with an evaluation. Sometimes we think, oh, it could go in this column. I'm thinking about the Ohio rubric is, in a rubric. It could go in this section or this section, but just take decisive action. This is where I saw it. This is where it fits best. I'm not gonna overthink it. I'm just going to simplify it and take decisive action.
And that also helps you feel more confident in the decisions that you take and in the choices that you make. The more you complicate things. The harder it is to find clarity and it's easier to be indecisive about it. [00:13:00] Okay? So break any complex situation or any complex challenge into just something very simple, and it's not always black and white.
It's not always the case that you can do that, but more often than not, it is, okay? So break it down into something simple. One technique is to say, I'm gonna make a two minute decision. I am gonna take two minutes to make a decision. I'm not gonna overthink this. I'm gonna make a decision within two minutes, because more than often too, your gut decision about something is the right decision.
I've had situations where, I knew what I should do. I had that gut feeling of what I should do, and then I overthought it and did something else, and if I would've just did what my gut feeling told me.
I would've been right. It would've been the best decision for the situation, right? More than often, my gut decision is always the best decision for the situation. So simplify, find clarity, and just take decisive action. Just remember, overthinking makes leadership so much harder than it needs to be, and you [00:14:00] have to trust your professional experience as.
An educator as a leader, , even if you're a brand new principal, you have experience in education or you wouldn't be where you are. So you have to trust that professional experience. And I wanna tell you, and I'll put the link in the show notes, , I have a free workshop called Stop Doubting Your Decisions.
And this has been something that. So many people have downloaded and taken, and it's helped them really find clarity in their decisions. Because what I've noticed is there are so many people who overthink decisions and don't have confidence in the decisions that they make. So download that free workshop, take that.
It can definitely help you just have more confidence in the decisions that you make. But I want you to trust yourself as a professional and then think to yourself, what if this doesn't have to be complicated? Because remember, the goal isn't to be a perfect leader. But it's to make the best decision that you think you can make in that moment.
So again, I just wanna review those three practical strategies to overcome, overthinking. Identify the root causes of where you're [00:15:00] overthinking, challenge those unhelpful thought patterns, and talk back and then find clarity through taking decisive action. I hope you found this podcast episode helpful.
Share it with another leader who you know is overthinking,. If you love the podcast, please leave a review that helps other people find the podcast.
Keep in mind you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. So I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you back here next time.