Four Key Ways to Navigate Your Time as a Principal
20 Four Key Ways to Navigate Your Time as a Principal
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[00:00:00] In today's episode, I'm going to share tips on how you can navigate your time better. This is all coming up next right here on the Less Stressed Principle. Stay tuned. Welcome back. This is episode number 20, and today we're talking about how to navigate your time as a principal. [00:01:00] It can be really hard to manage your time as a principal because you are completely in control of your time and what your schedule looks like.
However, you're not really in control of it. And by that I mean, it's not like being in the classroom where we have this daily routine that we do every day and a schedule that we stick to. But we do get to design our schedule in a way that works for us and we can fit everything in in a manageable way.
We also know as a principal though that lots of things come up that aren't on the schedule that takes our time away from what we have had scheduled for the day. So it can be really stressful for getting in all the things we want to do as a principal and getting that done and being able to manage the situations that come up that are unexpected.
Making sure that you're using your time wisely is really important. William Penn says, time is what we want most, but what we use worst. And I love that because of the keys to being less stressed as a principal, like we talked about in the last episode, is [00:02:00] managing your mind and managing your thoughts, but it also is managing your time because If we're doing a lot during the school day and using our time in the most efficient way, we're going to have less to do outside of school, which is going to help with our stress.
Where if we don't manage our time well during the school day, then we're going to have all this stuff to do after school. So time management is such A crucial part of being a principal and being able to do it in a less stressed way. So a lot of times we feel guilty as principals over how we allocate our time.
I know I have experienced this many times where I experienced guilt. of being visible in the school and getting administrative tasks done in my office. So it's this constant struggle of how much do I go out and be visible and make that meaningful, and then how much can I be in my office having conversations with teachers and getting paperwork done and getting all the things that I need to get done as a principal.
So [00:03:00] there's this guilt that goes with that. Also, just balancing all of the tasks that have to be done, whether they're state mandates or it's, you know, working on committee meetings and working on agendas and getting things scheduled, scheduling observations, getting those observation write ups done.
There's a lot of tasks that need done in your office. So again, it's that visibility and where do you locate the majority of your time? You know, you want to be as visible as possible as a principal, but you also need to get. And then the struggle for work life balance. Again, like I said, you know, if you're not getting stuff done at school, then it's all pushed to outside of school hours, which leads to burnout because, you know, you're not taking time for yourself.
You're focusing too much on work. you know, you're not balancing those personal and professional responsibilities well, and so we really need to think about that work life balance. And when I say work life balance, I'm not talking a 50 50 balance. There is not a true [00:04:00] work life balance, but a balance between getting your professional responsibilities done and also taking care of yourself and spending time with your family when you're done with work.
You need all of that. So making sure that you balance that is really important. And then also thinking about the stories that we tell ourselves about time. Think about someone you haven't seen in a while and you ask how they're doing. What's the first thing most people say? We're busy. I'm really busy.
And I catch myself saying it all the time and I hate that because I don't want to be a person who just talks about how busy I am. But it's just so common in our society. We get It in our head and we have stories that we tell ourselves about how busy we are. No matter what, you know, we feel like we can't get ahead and we have to be productive.
And so I think that we also need to think about what narratives and what stories are we telling ourselves about time? Are we telling ourselves that we're so busy and we don't have time for things, you know, or are we actually looking at our schedules and seeing what those look like and trying to get those [00:05:00] balanced out a little bit better so that we're getting tasks done and we're being visible and interacting and building those relationships throughout the building.
So today what I want to do is I want to share some common things that principals do with time management that can be a problem and then what to do instead. And all the problems I'm going to talk about today I have done myself. So I don't want anybody to think I'm judging or anything like that. Just know it's a common problem and that many principals do it.
one of the first problems is an unfinished to do list. So a lot of times what I used to do is I would have good intentions on a to do list. I would create a really long to do list and I would not complete all the tasks on my to do list because like I said we have ideas of what we want to get done and then unexpected events come up.
And so what I have learned though over time instead of having a long to do list is I need to take that to do list and look at what the priorities [00:06:00] What are the things that I must do? There are things that I want to do that would be nice to do, but what must I do? And one of my must do's every day is to walk around the building, get in classrooms, and be able to see what's happening in the classrooms and what instruction looks like.
And how I'm able to do that is not by just putting it on a list, but by scheduling it as a priority. Because if I make it a priority and I schedule it on my calendar, I know it will get done. I always tell teachers if it's not scheduled on my calendar, I can't guarantee it's getting done. So make sure you talk to me and make sure I'm putting it on my calendar.
Because I have my calendar on my watch and on my phone and it alerts me of what I should be doing. So even if I schedule it, I can't forget about that appointment to go out to classrooms because it's on my phone and it comes up on my watch. So I'm able to see that. So knowing that that's a non negotiable for me and incorporating that into my daily schedule and scheduling it shows that it's a priority and then also [00:07:00] staff expect it.
If I'm not walking around classrooms they'll be like, Why weren't you in there today? Were you not here? And so they expect me to be in there and students expect to see me. And when I walk around, I actually have a lot of teachers who will say, Hey, I was waiting to talk to you when you walked around. So they expect it.
And because they expect it, I make it a priority and I know it's something I need to do every day. So I schedule it on my calendar. Another problem that I used to do all the time with my scheduling and time management was I would just look at my day to day schedule. So I would do, I would print out my Google calendar schedule and I would look at it for that day and think about what I had to be doing.
And it was helpful because I knew what that day would look like and I had everything scheduled, but sometimes I would forget to plan for meetings because I was just looking at that day and I didn't realize what I had the next day or next week and I wasn't really thinking ahead. I was just thinking day to day and getting everything done for that specific day.
I also [00:08:00] was being more task oriented and I wasn't focused on, you know, big goal setting and big thinking, big picture thinking, because I was just looking day to day. So I started shifting this and starting to look at my schedule more as a month view. So I would advise you to look at that so you can think about what committee meetings you have coming up and you can plan agendas that are meaningful.
So those. meetings you get the most out of them. you can look at those daily activities that you have going on. And then how does that connect with your bigger goals and objectives for the building? And then looking at again, those daily actions, how does it go with the broader vision of the school?
So instead of just day to day, remember to think at least month to month, you could even do quarterly, you know, where you're really planning things out for the quarter, but Looking further than just each day is really going to help you stay planned, and I've talked to a lot of principals, you know, who are newer, who do the day to day, and we've talked about you miss [00:09:00] things, even if it's on your calendar, you're not as prepared, or you miss meetings or events because you were just looking at that specific day.
So really shift that to looking at least a month ahead. Another problem I see is just a lack of clarity on goals. Clarity of what you want for the building is so important. And this is a conversation that you have with your teachers. We have a building leadership team that we create goals together, so we have clarity around those goals with our building leadership team.
But making sure that we have a clear plan for the building, and then setting clear goals that, you know, you have clarity that you're working towards. each day. So like I was talking about, instead of just planning day to day based on what needs to be done and being task oriented, really looking at the goals of the building and having those daily actions aligned to that and being strategic about what you're doing.
each day that aligns to those goals. So, for [00:10:00] example, if one of our goals, I don't know off the top of my head what the percentage is, but it's to increase reading scores. And if we're, our goal is to increase reading scores, one of the action steps within that is for me to be at PLCs, especially PLCs that are talking about reading and where we're talking about What we're implementing with reading and the new reading curriculums we're using and helping teachers use that, having conversations with the reading coach and how they're supporting teachers.
All of that's really important. But if I'm not thinking about all those actions that help with the goals and what I need to be doing to help support those goals, then it's not going to get done. So I really have to plan and schedule activities that align with the building goals that's going to keep us on track.
for meeting those goals. Another problem I see is we spend time on activities as principals that don't impact instruction. And don't get me wrong, there's going to be activities that we have to do as managers of the building that are [00:11:00] important, but we just have to make sure that we're not spending too much time on email or doing administrative tasks that we could delegate to other people.
And also, I've also seen where a lot of principals like to be visible, but it's not necessarily in a meaningful way. And so they're wasting a lot of time just making sure they're visible, but it's not even meaningful, and it doesn't really have an impact on the instruction. So instead, what is important is having non negotiable attendance to high impact activities that impact instruction.
So I encourage principals to find the activities that have the most significant impact on student instruction. So what. What activities do you do throughout the day that you feel like you really impact the teaching and learning happening in your building? It could be observations and the conversations that you're having with teachers after observations.
It could be walkthroughs. You know, when you're doing walkthroughs, you have these informal conversations that you have [00:12:00] with teachers that spark, good conversations about things they could do or help them reflect. For me, the non negotiable, like I said, was is PLCs. During PLCs, we're looking at data and we're looking at the data and actually having discussions about how we can change instruction.
It hasn't always been that way. Our PLCs have not always been as focused as that, but we've worked on it over time. Before, when they weren't focused on data and instruction, it wasn't the best use of time for me because there was a lot of housekeeping items for grade levels where they would talk about field trips or recess or things that they needed to do that weren't necessarily related to instruction, but when we really got them looking at common assessment data, talking about that data and talking about changes to instruction.
I realized that that was the place that I needed to be to make the biggest impact because there I could see what resources they needed, what they might need from the instructional coach in the building, and how I could support them or what [00:13:00] resources they needed more professional development in. So I just have found that PLCs gives me a big impact on how I can help with instruction and be a good instructional leader in the building.
So, making sure that you figure out for you what those non negotiable activities are, and it might be different for everybody, you know, it depends on your building, it depends on the structures and what things look like, but figure out what those are and make them non negotiable.
I just want to review those tips for time management. Schedule your priorities, shift your day to day scheduling to month scheduling, have clarity on your goals, and have non negotiable attendance to high impact activities. So if you do these things, you'll find that you're managing your time better, you'll feel better about where you're spending your time.
But another strategy I have is to do a time audit. And I have a free time management resource that includes a time audit. If you're interested in getting more tips on managing your time and really reflecting on how you're spending [00:14:00] your time, because a time audit is a great tool for thinking about how you're spending your time and is it useful and should you be spending it differently?
So if you're interested in finding that free time audit, Go to my Instagram at Barb Flowers Coaching and click the link in the bio, and you can get that time audit and look at that and get some free tips also on more ways to manage your time. Also, if you like the show, make sure to share this episode with a friend.
In the next episode, we're going to be talking about three mistakes you're making when you're handling unexpected situations, which again, we know take up a lot of time. So we want to make sure that we're handling those. very efficiently and in the best way possible. And keep in mind, you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose.
I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.
