The Principal's Handbook

Why a Better To-Do List Won't Fix Your Time Problem

Speaker 2: [00:00:00] 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

Speaker: Welcome to the podcast. Today, we are talking about why a better to-do list won't fix your time problem. So I love a good planner. I love color-coded calendars. I like pretty notebooks to write in. I love productivity apps. I have tried everything when it comes to time management. I have [00:01:00] tried so many different things to figure out what system is the best way to feel like I have more time.

And every time I found a new system, I'd think, "This is it. This is going to help me be more productive. This is finally the thing that's going to make me feel like I'm on top of everything." But here's what I've learned after years of chasing productivity, after coaching principals and focusing on it myself, a better to-do list doesn't fix a time problem.

Now, let me be clear. Having a to-do list, having a clear calendar, all of those things are super important, and they're very helpful. But what I've found working with principals is most principals don't actually have a planning problem. Most principals are able to plan. We have a habit problem.

So today what I wanna talk about is why can you have the most organized planner in the world and still feel behind, and what is the thing that actually changes that? So a lot of times, we think the solution is better organization. When life feels chaotic, we wanna control it, [00:02:00] and so our first instinct is to organize it, try to control as much as we can, download another app, rewrite the to-do list.

I don't know how many of you can relate how many times you've rewritten the same to-do list, , and even just writing things on there that you can cross off, sometimes that feels good. But a lot of times we buy more planners. We create categories. We color code, and these things that we do aren't bad.

But if your calendar is already full and you're not changing your habits that don't support your priorities, all you're doing is organizing all of the chaos and overwhelm. A prettier list, it doesn't create more time in your schedule because the real problem isn't your list , here's what I've noticed with clients, and honestly, in my own life, , we often spend more time managing our task than managing our energy, our attention, and our decisions.

Okay, and I've done this as a principal, I've done this in my own business, and I just think about what does it look like when I'm feeling overwhelmed? [00:03:00] Well, what I do is I write down the 37 things that I need to do, and then I get upset if I only get six of those things done, right? Because that list isn't getting completed.

It feels like it's getting longer and longer. And so we beat ourselves up when we only get a few things done, and we think, "Ah, I should've been more productive today." Or we just start to, think about how we'll never get ahead. Or sometimes what I see a lot of times with principals actually is they'll stay late to try to get more done.

They're staying so late. , I can think of a principal I coached that every night it was, like, 6:00 he was staying at work. And it's not realistic. You can't sustain that. So time management, it's not about fitting more into your day, but it's about deciding what actually deserves your time. This is so important.

You have to decide what's actually important, what's actually going to make the difference in your leadership. Because the principals I know who seem calm even during busy seasons, it's not that they're magically more organized [00:04:00] than other principals, it's that they've built habits that support them. I think about my principal that I had when I was a teacher.

He, had been a principal for a very long time. He was retired, rehired, but he was so calm all the time, and what made him so productive was that he had systems in place. He was a very routine and habit-based person. He had habits of when he got into classrooms. He had habits of what his day looked like.

, You could predict for him what his day was going to look like, because he was such a person who craved routine and thrived on that routine. But what helped him was that actually made him an amazing leader who was able to support his teachers, because he was so routine in the things that he did, and he was all about looking at what are the things that we're doing well and what are the things that we need to do, but we're not just gonna add a bunch of things just because.

, Principals that seem on top of things, really, they know their top [00:05:00] priorities before they open an email they know what are those things that I need to do before they're sitting there getting sucked into their email and letting email dictate their day. They also leave margin in their schedule to have time To get out into classrooms, to have time to be visible.

The principal I had when I was a teacher, he was at recess every day and would play kickball with the third, fourth, and fifth graders, and this was his way to, one, build relationships, but two, it helped with discipline at recess because he was monitoring the game. He was out there. They didn't have a lot of conflict because the principal was out there playing with them.

He was the referee, and it really helped so much with what that recess drama looked like. And so, you know, leaving margin in your schedule to be visible, to be present with kids, to get into classrooms, protecting your focus all day. This is important. , With principals who are really making a difference and staying organized, they're [00:06:00] protecting their focus.

They're not over here and over here. They're knowing what they need to be focusing on at that particular time, and they know, , they can handle, if they have to put out a fire, but they're not just reacting all day. When people come up to them with a situation that needs to be handled or what other people think is an emergency, they know how to prioritize those things.

Another thing that I think makes a huge difference for principals who are a little bit more calm is they know not everything has to happen today, and I think that has been a huge shift for me Because I'm a person who, if I have something on my to-do list, I want it done right now.

And that's not just at school, that's at home. If I have a home improvement project, if there's something I feel like I need to do, I wanna do it right now and get it over with. It just makes me feel better. In college, I was a person, if they gave us an assignment, I'd go home and work on that assignment right now.

I didn't want it hanging over me. , And that can be a really positive thing. It's, you know, I'm motivated and wanna be proactive, but the hard [00:07:00] thing is with being a principal is you can't put everything on your list to be done that day because you're setting yourself for unrealistic expectations.

And so knowing that not everything's going to get done that day, you have to learn to be okay with that. And then ending the day knowing that what's next, ending the day knowing when you're gonna finish that or when you're gonna look at your to-do list, or how to just disconnect from school and not carry everything from that day mentally.

I think that's really important for principals. Because a lot of times, you know, those principals who are more organized and don't feel as stressed, it's because they've learned to cut off the mental load that they carry every night. And again, as a new principal, I would take that home every evening, where I was just thinking about all the things I had to do.

But one of the things that helped me so much was just time blocking things on my calendar and knowing, "Okay, this is on my to-do list, but I could work on this all the way up to next week, and I would be fine with [00:08:00] time." You know, so planning ahead so that you're able to do that. And I talk about all that in my eight to four, , principal blueprint where I'm giving tips for time blocking and planning two weeks ahead.

But that helps me with my mental load because I am a person that doesn't like to carry things over to the next day. So if I know I scheduled it, and I have time blocks to get it done, then I'm good, and it can create, , this habit of peace, where I leave feeling at peace, knowing that I gave my best today and knowing that I'll have time to get it all done another day.

, It's not about having another app or another thing that you need to do. So, you know, there was a time when I would get caught up in, how am I having this perfect planning? What is the calendar that I need to use? , Like I said, I've paid for apps that are $20 a month, and Do great things and, bring your calendars and to-do lists and all of this.

But what I realized is just having a simple notebook where I write down the things that I do, putting things in my Google Calendar, is the easiest thing for me. I also [00:09:00] have the Eight to Four Principle Planner, where I've made it where every day I can just, , list out those things. , The Eight to Four Principle Planner is actually meant to go with your Google Calendar because, I know myself.

I am a person that if I have a to-do list or something, I personally need to write it down. I love Google Calendar because it's in my phone, it's on my watch. I can check it at any time. But what I love about pen to paper is it helps me remember what's happening. , Knowing what works for you when it comes to planning.

But just knowing that no matter what planning system you use, it's not the planner that makes the decisions, it's you deciding what matters most. It's you deciding what are the things that can wait? What are the things I can , delegate? What are the things that I can just let go that don't need to be done?

And once I started changing those habits, instead of constantly focusing on the system, everything became better. Everything became lighter. I just really learned that I had to dial into those eight to four principles that I talk about , in the Eight to Four principle [00:10:00] blueprint You know, it is all about just giving yourself grace and really sticking to having those habits and making sure that you're not putting unrealistic expectations on yourself and doing too much.

Because, , when I took over a building last year, it was my first time in a new building. I was in the same building for eight years, and then I took over a new building, and it was really stressful. I was finding myself, , so stressed, and I had to stop myself and think, "You know how to handle this.

You know the principles. You know to keep things simple. You know that you don't need another plan or another system. You just need to follow those eight to four, , principle habits. You need to focus on the time blocking and knowing that everything's not gonna get done at once, but planning and giving yourself that grace in those periods throughout the day that you are doing the habitual things, and you are giving yourself margin in your schedule so that you're not feeling so overwhelmed."

So this week, I really wanna challenge you. Instead of asking, "How [00:11:00] can I organize this better?" I want you to ask, "What habit is creating the problem?" So when you think about what is keeping you so busy, what's keeping you so overwhelmed, what is the problem? Are you over scheduling yourself? Are you over committing to things?

Do you say yes too often? Are you constantly checking your email? What does it look like for you that's causing you to feel so stressed and overwhelmed with time? Is it that people are constantly bombarding you, and you don't feel like you even have a second to breathe? What does that look like?

Am I trying to finish everything instead of focusing on the one or two priorities I need to focus on? 'Cause when you're able to do that, that question changes everything. You're able to just slow down and think about, what are the most important things here? , And just think about that. If you're feeling overwhelmed- It could be that either you're doing too much and you're taking on everything and taking it off everybody else's plates, I've been there, or everyone's overwhelmed, because as a [00:12:00] building, you're doing too much.

So think about what is the problem? What is causing the issues with time management? So just remember, it's not about your calendar being the problem, it's not about the planner being the problem, and you definitely don't need another 14-step productivity system. You need consistent habits. You need just a few consistent habits that help you protect your time, your focus, and habits that help you protect your peace.

'Cause these small habits are gonna add up far more than a perfectly organized to-do list that you wrote five times, okay? So as you think about that, as we close out this episode, , I just wanna invite you, if you haven't watched my five time management habits keeping me grounded even when work feels crazy, this is a workshop that I did, and it- it's just a quick workshop that you can watch.

It's not about creating the perfect planner or downloading a productivity app. I'm sharing five habits I actually rely on when life and the school day gets busy. The simple routines that keep me focused, reduce [00:13:00] overwhelm, and make steady progress without feeling like I'm constantly behind.

So if you're ready to stop chasing better to-do lists, start building better habits that actually work, i'd love to have you watch that workshop.

So grab that link in the show notes

And remember, the best principals aren't the ones who do the most, they're the ones who know what to subtract.