The Principal's Handbook

Master Your Week: Planning Tips for Principals
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I wanna talk about planning tips for principles. Stay tuned.
Speaker: Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority. I.
Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about planning tips for principles.
And I love talking about this because it is going to help you be more efficient so that you can leave work at the time that you really wanna leave work. So [00:01:00] I love planning. That's a huge part of my success for being super efficient, and I know not everybody's like that.
My husband is not like that. He hates calendars and schedules and it's hard for him to utilize them in the best way to manage his time, but everybody's a little bit different. But I will say that this is how I am so efficient. This is how I'm able to have an eight to four schedule as a principal, and
so I really encourage you that if you are not good at planning or like having a planning session, this will be very helpful and to listen closely because it could completely change your relationship with time and your efficiency as a principal. So one thing when I talk about planning that I've always struggled with as a principal is I love paper pencil calendars, but I also love digital calendars.
Maybe that's just because I love planning so much. So I've figured out over time how to combine both methods because I always have had to have a digital calendar because I love that. I get notifications on my [00:02:00] watch when a new meeting's coming up or a new event, and it really does help that people can invite me to calendar events.
I invite other people. I see it. It's really easy on a calendar, I can put it on my phone. I just love Google Calendar. However, I love. Physically writing things down. And so just recently in the last couple of years, I've created a system that has really combined both methods so that I'm able to do weekly planning and have a planning session with a paper pencil planner.
But it's really based off of my digital calendar. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. But you could do everything digitally. You could do everything paper based, whatever works for you. That's important that you know what is best for you. I still see people who carry their paper planners around.
But like I said, I feel so organized when I have my digital calendar, my Google calendar, because if it's on my calendar, I know I'll do it, and I always get that notification on my watch. So I think that that [00:03:00] is key because in my first couple years as a principal, I missed meetings and there were so many things, , that I didn't do that I wanted to do because I wasn't as organized.
So that's what we're gonna be talking about today. But first I wanna talk about why planning matters for principals, and one, it supports your leadership impact. You can have better meetings, better professional development when you plan ahead, when you take time to plan ahead, you can create agendas that help people know what to talk about, to focus on, and just be more productive in the meetings.
We know that there is never enough time, right? Even when we had committee, even when we have committee meetings. For PBIS or BLT, anything like that, it seems like the time just flies. And so having a clear agenda of everything you're going to be talking about with norms and you know exactly what that should, what that meeting should look like, is going to help them flow better and help you be more productive.
And that's only [00:04:00] able to happen when you plan better because when I did not have a clear plan of what meetings I had coming up for the week. I was just doing things, last minute where I would. Do a quick agenda or not have an agenda like right before the meeting.
And so when I planned my meetings ahead of time, we had better meetings and it was more productive and , we just utilize everybody's time better. Another reason planning is so important is for mental clarity. So it helps me so much feel less stressed, less overwhelmed when I have.
Clear plans in place when I'm utilizing my calendar, when I'm using my eight to four principal planner, because that's my written calendar where I'm thinking about my priorities, my meetings, I'm preparing for my observations because I'm getting it all out of my head and I'm putting it on paper.
Because even if I have observations on my calendar, and that's what I did was I scheduled my observations on my Google calendar. If I didn't have it written down where the next day I would look and say, okay, in two days I have so-and-so's [00:05:00] observation, then . I didn't have a plan in place of when I was having that pre-conference and.
Just knowing when I had to have everything ready or when I had to work on the writeup , for the observation. So having everything written out really helps with my mental clarity. It helps me, so I'm not thinking about 10 million things before bed. I talk to a lot of principals that struggle to disconnect after school because either you're replaying conversations that you've had with people, or you're thinking about all the things that need to get done.
And if you have a clear planner where you're just writing it all in your planner, this is my to-do list and all the things I need to think about tomorrow,
then you don't have to go home and think about it. It really just helped me get things outta my head. On to paper. Another reason that planning is so important for principals is you can delegate if you don't plan ahead. You can't delegate because you're doing things last minute. I was just recently on the PTA for, , my kids' school and even the PTA president said.
It's so hard [00:06:00] for me to delegate to you as the vice president because I don't plan ahead. And so I'm doing things like last minute, late at night, right? And so we've all been there and I think it's good to know that, but if you can plan ahead, then you can actually delegate and ask other people to help.
And that goes back to what I was talking about with the agendas that are well written and are those meetings that are really productive. You can delegate in those meetings. And make sure that other people are helping out and you're not doing everything . , so that's really important.
Another reason planning matters for principals is you have to think about how you plan at different levels. , you have your year at a glance. What does the whole school year look like? Your month at a glance and then your week at a glance. And so that's what I really like to think about in my eight to four principal planner is, okay, what does this year at a glance look like?
What are the different things I have? And I break the year down into months. What do I have in August? I have my open house community event. What do we have [00:07:00] in October? We typically have our back to school, parent night, curriculum night. What do we have in November?
We have our Veterans Day Assembly. What do we have in December? We have an awards assembly , and if I have all those written on my yearly, , year at a glance, which really is looking at it by month. Then when I'm planning weekly, I can go and look at that calendar and refer, okay, in the next couple of weeks, do I have any of these events that I planned ahead in my year at a glance.
So that's an important part of planning too, is planning at that higher level so that you can look at it when you're doing your weekly planning. And I'm going to take you through my weekly planning and break that down, what that looks like in just a minute. But again,
, I just wanna reiterate the difference between digital and paper calendars. Digital, it's easy scheduling. Your reminders are going to come up on technology. It's easy to change time. So if you're not using digital, I highly recommend it. But the benefits of paper that really, this is one of the things for me [00:08:00] as I'm writing events, it helps with your memory.
There's actually research that as you write, you remember things better, and so there's a lot more retention when I write things down physically too. And so by using my paper planner alongside a digital calendar, it actually helps me have a, , planning time each week where I'm thinking about, okay, what is going on this week, coming up and the next week, because I like to pre-plan two weeks ahead to be forward focused planning.
, and it gives me opportunities to reflect because my planner actually has spots. Four celebrations and what do I want? , what are three wins for today? What do I want three wins to be tomorrow? , it also holds me accountable to my priorities. So thinking about what are my three priorities for the day, what meetings are coming up, what observations, which again, you could make all of that digitally as well.
Just for me. Having that in paper format as I look at the digital calendar is really helpful. , now I [00:09:00] wanna break down my weekly planning session and what this looks like. So what I do is I start by reviewing my big goals. So I look at that yearly calendar, which is really by month, and I look to see when I'm planning, are any of those events coming up that I had planned , that are big events for the year.
, and then I also look at my digital calendar and see, okay, what observations do I have, what meetings are coming up? , it could be teacher meetings, parent meetings, committee meetings, IEP meetings, what are coming up, and then what deadlines do I have as well, because I put all of that in my calendar.
Do I have a deadline to get? , things done for the teacher evaluation system. Do I have a deadline for just information to enter for testing? Do kids have to be tested, , in a certain window of time? I put all of that in my calendar. Another thing I like to put in my digital calendar that I then look to put as a priority in my planner is if I have new teachers.
I like to check in with new teachers monthly, but that's really [00:10:00] hard to just remember to do so monthly. I have it reoccurring where it's, like, check in with new teachers. So now I'm going to pick the day in my planner that I write it as a priority that I'm checking in with those teachers. I also like to block out work hours intentionally, and I like to do this for the upcoming week.
I look at, do I have any meetings before school hours or any meetings after school hours? When do I have to be out the door? So for me, I'm a mom of two kids, so my daughter has gymnastics or they have sports. Certain days I have to be out by four on those certain days, Mondays are usually a little bit slower.
If I want, I can decide I'm gonna leave at five that day because I wanna get some extra things done. This is the important thing to remember. It's your choice. To plan your hours based on your life. And so that's what I would do. Now, there are times, like I said, where we might have an after school event.
Of course I'm staying after now. I live about 15 minutes from the school that I work in. So,, and I've always [00:11:00] lived about 15 minutes. At my new school. I'm 15 minutes. My old school I was 15 minutes, and so I always had that choice, between after school events, do I go home for an hour and see my family?
Or do I stay at school and work? And so depending on my workload, I might block off. I'm going to stay at school and work, and I'll plan to have food here and not go home so I can get more done. Or I might say, I am caught up on everything. So I'm planning to go home, be home for a minute, and then go back to school.
You get to choose. Block it out. Block out those hours intentionally. But plan your arrival and plan when you're walking out. The other thing I like to plan, like I said, which I like to think about for the week based on my schedule, what are three priorities each day that I need to focus on? You know, is it doing an observation writeup?
Is it doing an observation writeup? Is it getting agendas done for committee meetings coming up? Is there. Analyzing data with the reading coach, what are those three priorities that I need to get done? Because also I need to [00:12:00] think about who do I need to talk to to get that done. If I wanna analyze data with the reading coach, I need to have a conversation to see when she's available.
The other thing I like to do is reflect on daily wins. So three daily wins, and then set what the wins will be for the next day. That builds positive momentum. And then the more I'm thinking about that celebration. And the more I'm thinking about what went well each day, it's actually helping me create positive thoughts about the day, which overall what's going to happen is that I'm rewiring my brain to focus on positive things.
So you'll notice the more that you focus on three wins each day, three celebrations, three things that went well, it's just going to naturally rewire your brain to do that. The other thing I like to think about in my weekly planning session are what are three to five habits?
Or routines that I wanna have in place. Now, hopefully I'm already doing these things, but it's just keeping them in check. So one for me is getting into classrooms daily, and I actually have in the eight to four planner where I write down how many [00:13:00] classrooms I visited each day. .
That's just motivation for me to get into those classrooms. Another habit is morning announcements, and then another one is anchoring my day in bus duty. So bus duty in the morning, bus duty in the afternoon. Those are three habits that I focus on. So in my planner, as I'm doing my weekly, , planning session, how have I been doing with those routines?
What do I need to do to make them better? So I really encourage you to find what rhythm works for you, whether it's a paper calendar, a digital calendar, or hybrid like mine. Figure out what's going to work for you and have that weekly planning strategy session. Have that weekly planning session where you're really sitting down, reviewing those big goals, reviewing the next couple of weeks and blocking it off, and it's going to help so much with your stress level, with making you feel more productive
and making you feel like you're going to get more things done. So it's so beneficial to just sit and have that time. And before we end, I just wanna remind you that when it comes to [00:14:00] planning, the biggest thing for planning is your mindset, which this sounds crazy, but when I'm coaching people on time management, I always say your mindset is everything when it comes to time management.
If you have the mindset that I never have enough time. That is going to become true for you. You will never have enough time because your thoughts create your emotions and actions. Where if you have a mindset of, I will get it all done, or I will plan it to get it done, I will time block, I will schedule.
That makes all the difference. Another one I see for people is it's hard for them to set boundaries because they have this mindset , and maybe they learned it from a previous leader, but the principles have to be the first one there and the last one to leave. So you have
this mindset that it's harder to set boundaries. And I always say to people in my eight to four principle, blueprint, boundaries benefit everyone. That's part of the blueprint is the mindset boundaries benefit everyone. And your effectiveness isn't measured by hours worked. So tell yourself that. Remind yourself , that you are setting the [00:15:00] example, and if you have boundaries, it's benefiting your teachers.
It's benefiting parents because they get to spend time with their kids. It's benefiting everybody. Everybody benefits you, benefit your family benefits. Everybody benefits when you have boundaries, and also to keep telling yourself your effectiveness isn't measured by hours worked. You could be a principal who works 12 hours a day and if you're not effective.
Who cares. And there could be another principal who works seven and a half hours a day, and they're super effective and efficient in everything they do. So just remember , your effectiveness isn't measured by hours worked. I always have to remind myself of that because , I just think it's natural to have this mindset.
The more you work, the better you are at the job. But that's just not true. It's how effective are you being in the time that you're working? I hope that you found this episode helpful. I'm going to put a link to the eight to four principal planner in the show notes so you can grab that. I'll also put the link to the eight to four principal blueprint.
It's my full course that goes over [00:16:00] everything for planning so that you can be out the door by four. That's in much more details, but that's another thing I'll put in the show notes for you. But I just encourage you start small and be consistent with having a weekly planning session.
Alright, everyone, if you love the show, if you're listening on Apple, scroll down in your app, leave review and keep in mind that 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.