The Principal's Handbook

The Eight to Four Non-Negotiables for Principals
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[00:00:00] In this episode of The Principal's Handbook, I'm going through the eight to four principal non-negotiables that I use to help with time management. That's all coming up next, right here on the Principal's Handbook.

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.

Well, welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm taking you through my new guide. That is a free [00:01:00] guide that I have that you can download after this episode.

But I'm sharing my five non-negotiables that I use. To help with time management throughout the building. And so I called it the eight to four principle non-negotiables guide. And before I jump into it, I just wanna share a little bit about my title, the eight to four principle.

I do have some products called the eight to four Principle, and really that is just time management products for me, and I say eight to four because I'm an elementary principal, so my hours are typically around eight to four. And really it is just this idea that to be an effective principal, we do not need to be working 10 hours a day.

I've worked with so many principals that get caught up in working 10 hours a day, and they're really, um, just struggling to have a regular life outside of school because when you're working 10 hours a day, you know, five days a week, and then you add in maybe any extra work that you're doing over the weekend.

Before you know it, you are cutting into so much family time that it affects your relationships, it [00:02:00] affects friendships, your family, it affects your marriage, it affects everything. And so I really am passionate about talking about this idea of the eight to four principal. The principal who gets as much done at school is as effective and as efficient as possible when you're at school.

And then you can actually go home and just be with your family. And I will say, I just have a caveat to this. , There are always times that you have to stay over, right? , I can't control the times that my superintendent wants me to be at a football game, or if I have conferences or I do a math or a reading night.

There are definitely times that you stay after school. Don't get me wrong. And if you're a middle school or high school principal, you might have the expectation that you are after school one to two days a week. But what I'm talking about here when I talk about the eight to four principal, is this idea that.

When you don't have to stay after school, you are out the door when you're allowed to be. And it's not because I think. And , a lot of times I think there's this guilt around that, this [00:03:00] guilt that, I need to be the last one there. And that is totally a misconception because you are not good for other people if you are working all the time.

You have to have balance, you have to have. A life outside of work. I truly believe that because the principles that I see working all the time are not in their best emotional state. They're not in their best state with their, , personal relationships. And it, that all impacts your work. I know if I'm not in a good place in my marriage, that impacts my work because I'm feeling that when I'm at work.

We're human. And we can't be a hundred percent about work all the time. It is so important to find that balance. And so before I talk about these non-negotiables, I just, I haven't talked about the eight to four principle in a while and I just thought that's an important, , thing that I just wanted to talk about with podcast listeners.

It's a good reminder, especially as we are right now around the holiday season. Two, remember what's important in life. And , one last thing I'm just gonna end with on my little spiel here is that we are always [00:04:00] replaceable at work. We are not replaceable at home. And so it's really important that we do have our priorities straight.

And I will say as we work on these eight to four principle non-negotiables. You know my story as I'm heading into my story about this is that I was in a building for eight years, had great systems, just took over a new building, and it did take me a minute. My first two months of school were a little bit crazy because one, I was combining two elementary schools together, so we were creating all new systems.

I didn't take over a building that was ready to go. We were creating everything. But then I had to get back and grounded in my eight to four principal self of like the systems that I know work and being able to leave things at school, because otherwise I was taking things home and just getting stressed and I had to stop myself and remind myself of my own priorities and remind myself of my own systems that I put into place in the eight years of being at another school and really ground [00:05:00] myself in those.

And I can say. We're in the second nine weeks. I really feel like I am much better at implementing them. So if you're a new principal or new to a school, just know that it does take a little bit of time to adjust, but you can definitely get there. Alright, so now let's jump into those five non-negotiable principles.

For the eight to four principles so that you're able to get more done at work and actually leave work on time. So my first non-negotiable that I do is I have three daily priorities. So every morning I like to identify what are the three top priorities for the day. What are three things that I have to get done before I leave at four?

So they could be instructional leadership, things that you wanna get done. It could be operational things, , it could be related to behavior, it could be communication, task, whatever you think is going to move your school forward. So some examples of some of my priorities. That I write out are, , that I wanna get into a certain number of classes for walkthroughs.

I try to get in every [00:06:00] class every day for just a quick check-in walkthrough, but a walkthrough where I'm giving feedback and it's related to their evaluation system. So I might say, today I wanna get into walkthroughs, , and put that on my to-do list. It might be that I want to review the benchmark.

Data and look at what that looks like for second grade and look at who's making progress and who's not. It might be me working on my newsletter to get to parents. I send a short newsletter every Friday. To parents, and I do weekly notes every Friday to staff. I like having consistent. I know some principals do monthly, biweekly.

I just like it every Friday, so it's never a question about when it's getting sent. So those are some examples of three priorities. So I always say if it's not one of those three priorities, it can wait unless it's a safety issue in the building, unless you know somebody's gonna be hurt. Or I'm worried about other kids' safety.

So that is really how I keep those non-negotiables. I write those out for the day just in my notebook, or I have the eight to four [00:07:00] principal planner you can write those out in and really think about what are those three priorities, and you have to have them written down. Otherwise you don't get them done.

, Your day easily will get filled up if you don't have what those priorities are and decide that it's a non-negotiable to get it done. So keep those at the top of your mind and it's gonna help you feel just more productive at the end of the day and like you're actually making progress.

My second non-negotiable is using a discipline delay rule. Okay. And so what I've had to learn over time is not all discipline is urgent. When I first started as a principal, everybody was like, we need you now. They're like beeping for me on the announcements and it was a very stressful environment because I would be in an observation that I really can't leave and they're calling me for discipline.

That's really not important or a parent that wants to talk to me right now. Well, one, I sent a boundary about that parents can't just talk to me right now if I'm available. Okay. If not, I'll contact them later. , But, discipline is really the one that I [00:08:00] had to set a boundary about and I would use the discipline delay rule and think about that.

So things that were immediate were, if it was. Like a major classroom disruption, like if kids are throwing chairs, tipping desk, and it's a safety concern. , So a safety concern or a major classroom disruption that might need me. . Then. , If you're in a high school and there's a fight and you don't have an assistant that might need you, right then now I'm in an elementary.

If there's a fight. You can separate those kids and I can handle it in a half hour or 20 minutes. , That's not an immediate thing that kids are escalated and somebody's gonna get hurt if it's not handled right that second. But like I said, if you have older kids, physical aggression might be one that needs handled right now.

Then I think about what needs handled within the next hour. So maybe it's like a medium level disruption, the student's not doing work, or the student keeps repeating a behavior and I need to follow up. There, there could be these medium [00:09:00] level disruptions that I need to get to.

I'm gonna get to those within an hour. And then there's some that are later in the day. If I find out about a bus issue, I will get to that. I will figure it out. I will handle it, but I might not get to it right away. , I'll get to it before the end of the day. , There's restorative conversations I need to have with kids.

Maybe there was an incident the day before and I wanna have two kids talk together. I will get to it. It doesn't need to be done that second. Again, if a parent wants to talk to me, I will get to it. Doesn't necessarily have to be that second. So just having what your immediate discipline issues are within an hour, you'll handle it and later in the day.

That really helps you prioritize what is an immediate interruption and what is not. And then you can have conversations with your secretaries about this because they don't know. And for them, when teachers come to them panicked or when somebody comes in, I had recess monitors and said, Hey, this happened.

They felt like it was a huge issue that needed handled right then. And. Didn't necessarily. So you [00:10:00] create what that looks like for you and then you share that. But that's really going to protect your instructional leadership time if you are able to delay discipline and not think that everything's an emergency.

All right, non-negotiable. Number three is pick one system you need to improve each month. , Let's say you've been in your building a long time. You might not have to do this. I am in a new building. Even in my old building though, we were constantly refining systems.

, We were doing RTI for years. Right before I left, I said to my assistant principal, I don't love RTI like that. Last year I was there. I was like, I don't love it. And so we were constantly brainstorming about how that could look different. , The next year, we did tier two PBIS and.

We were constantly refining how we were doing that because when we first started, we just made the system so complicated. So we were like, how can we make this more simple for teachers to use? So always thinking about how you're improving the systems. Now in my new building, we need all the [00:11:00] systems improve because we're combining two schools together, and they did PBIS, but they did it, K 12, and we're a K one two building.

So we're really making our tier one PBIS align to us as a building. , MTSS, what does that look like when you're combining two schools? What did one school do? What did the other school do? How do we make that a simple process that everybody can easily use? How do I want staff meetings to look? We're very PD focused at our staff meetings because we don't have a lot of professional development days.

, What do grade level meetings look like? And as I'm in a new building, I can't focus on all that at once because I'll burn everybody out right away. But I can just focus on one system each month, or just one area of the system each month. So thinking about what that looks like for you, what are just two to three improvements you want to see in each system, and how are you going to do that in a way that doesn't burn everybody out?

And what does that look like? When are you gonna work on those things? When are you gonna meet with that team? How does [00:12:00] that look for you? Because if you don't have a system for things like tier one PBIS, um, dismissal, MTSS, staff, meeting structures, grade level meeting structures, how you communicate with parents, staff, all of that.

If you don't have a system, then you're constantly gonna be putting out fires every day. Where you have strong systems, your day is going to feel way more calm and predictable because everything is routine and habit. Like I always say, my systems for communication are very routine because again, then people know when I'm going to send out my communications and where they can see that.

So that can really help, , just keep communication in a spot where everybody knows what's going on. So that was non-negotiable. Number three, think of a system you wanna improve each month. Non-negotiable. Number four, always know your downtime task. So sometimes I get these little pockets of time in my day, , that are five minutes.

It might be five minutes until dismissal, whatever it is. One of my [00:13:00] secretaries at my last building used to say , that that was the difference of what made me so productive is I could have. Two to three minutes of time and I would get two things done, 'cause I knew here's what I'm gonna do when I have any downtime, here's something I'm going to work on.

I always had like a running to-do list of things I could be doing. They weren't my three priorities. But it was things that I could be doing, and again, this kind of goes with my eight to four principle planner that I have that's free, is I like to plan two weeks in advance, and this is part of my eight to four principle blueprint.

I plan two weeks in advance. And I like to think about, what are the, , what are the committee meetings coming up? And I just put it on a ongoing to-do list. And then when I have two to three minutes, I'm gonna hurry up and do an agenda for a committee meeting, , or start an agenda while I'm thinking of it.

, I might, . I might work on my slideshow. I've been doing slideshows for the staff meeting. , Add a slide to that. , Looking at my tier one, what am I, what do I need to reteach with [00:14:00] that, what are just some things that have been on your list that you could do

I know some people struggle to work like that, but it is something that really helps make me more productive is because I use every little pocket of time so meaningful. I know exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm not sitting there thinking about what should I be doing? I'm not debating, there's no mental load.

I just get stuff done. Okay, so. Having something you're working on, having that to-do list of downtime task that you can leave with these 10 tasks on a list. But if you ever have extra time, this is what you're doing. So think about what those things are and non-negotiable. Number five, protect my shutdown routine.

So I have a routine that. , Our buses, I joke, we have the longest dismissal ever because of school choice in Ohio and busing kids to private schools and things like that. , Our buses start about three 15. They end about 3 45. And so typically I'm done at 3 45 or three 50 with dismissal. I leave at four.

In my [00:15:00] last school, I was typically done by three 40. I left at four, so I had like a 20 minute time before I left. I always like to have a shutdown routine to, to just clean up my desk. I like to check email one more time because I don't check email after school. I like to maybe think of my three priorities for tomorrow or think about some things I wanna get done for tomorrow.

, I like to also look at what I already got done for the day. That helps me feel really good about my productivity. , I like to sometimes if I have time sanitize my desk, especially when there's a lot of germs going around, sanitize my phone, but really thinking about how I'm shutting down the day, having a routine of what that looks like.

One of the most important things for me is checking my email because then I don't check it when I get home because I've just checked it at the end of the day and now my workday is ending.

And again, some people struggle with this and they like, they wanna know if they didn't get an email, that's fine. I've worked with principals who are like, I can't do the, not checking my [00:16:00] email or taking email off my. But I'm just gonna check it one time at seven o'clock, if that works for you. Great. It is just something that I've learned.

As soon as I open my email, I start thinking about school, and then I think about it while I sleep, and I don't wanna do that. I just want that boundary. I wanna shut it off. Now, that's not to say if my superintendent calls and said, Hey, check this email, or Hey, , I need you to do this. I would.

Definitely do it in a heartbeat. I'm not saying, oh, this is my eight to four boundary. , If my boss wants me to do something, I'm doing it. , But I do always like to say that. If I'm just choosing to do this for myself because I want to check email, I'm not going to do that. , Nothing ever comes through email that is a priority.

It's always a phone call. If I get a phone call because something crazy happened, it's usually from teacher, superintendent, the police department, they call my phone. So just something to think about as you're ending your day. Alright, so those are my five non-negotiables. I'm gonna go through what they were really quick.

So number one, [00:17:00] the three daily priorities. Have those each day. Number two, use the discipline. Number two, use the discipline delay. Rule number three, have one system that you're improving in your building each month. Number four, always know your downtime task that you could be doing. And number five, protect your shutdown routine.

Those are the five non-negotiables. If you're interested in this free PDF, go to principle freebies.com. Because in the PDFI also have a non-negotiable planning page where you can actually download it. Think about what your top three priorities are, what your rules will look like, how you want your day to look.

, And going through each non-negotiable you have like a planning page that you can use. So that can be really helpful. So, like I said, go to principal freebies.com to get that. Also, if you're interested in the eight to four principal blueprint, you can do that by going to, , barbed flowers coaching.com or the eight to four principal.com.

It'll take you to the same place, but you can go check out that course as well if [00:18:00] you wanna go into more depth about just having better boundaries and being able to get a lot done at work. Feeling really efficient. But having that time at home, I will tell you, like I said, I could preach this all day, but it makes such a big difference on your own mental health, your physical health, all of it.

So I hope you found some tips helpful today and I hope you have a great rest of the week and I hope you join me next week on the podcast.