What does your desk look like?

Mine looks like this . . .  frankly, it’s a mess. Every time I manage to shift something a new piece of paper magically appears from somewhere. People think they’re doing me a favour if they put the new stuff in a new pile.

And PostIt notes! I usually try and keep all (OK, most) notes electronically, but that’s not working right now in Week 8. The damn PostIt notes seem to be breeding and forming their own little tribes, all competing with each other for a bit of attention and the fast-shrinking desk real estate.

And the box of non-health approved chocolate fish . . . they should have swum off over a week ago and it just hasn’t quite happened . . . maybe tomorrow.

Which brings me to the pile.

The one you built over the past Term and/or year.

Some people have an actual pile. A regularly added to vertical stack of paper that lives in their office (or home). Some hide it in a cupboard or a filing cabinet and some have it on obvious display.

Some people have a digital pile. Folders or desktops full of files, links, and website favourites that don’t clutter up a physical desk but do clutter up a computer drive. Digital piles are still piles!

Whatever the particular type of pile, they all have characteristics in common – they represent an eclectic mix of optimism, possibility and indecision. The items added definitely have value. If they didn’t, you would have rejected them, and both figuratively and literally thrown them away. You wouldn’t even remember what they were.

But you didn’t do that with your pile inhabitants. They piqued your interest enough to make you keep them. To let them contribute to your failure to keep a clear desktop.

For any particular item, you may have optimistically planned to “get back to it” but here you are in Term 4 Week 8 and the evidence is you haven’t managed to. Perhaps the item represented possibility – an awesome PLD course, a new maths scheme, or free dog safety training for everyone . . . too good to reject, not good enough to action when you had to prioritise.

Which is why all piles are essentially about indecision. And no one wants to be an indecisive school leader. So a pile also comes with a slightly negative vibe, the merest whiff of failure faintly wafting from  the evidence of your indecision .  .  .

The good news is that there is a simple solution. Throw the pile away. Delete it.

How many times have you come into work during the Christmas holidays and started flicking through your pile only to finally admit you will never do anything with any of it, so you pull over a rubbish bin?

Or look at your computer desktop and start deleting (although at least one person I know organises their piles into folders for each year which forever more haunt their back-ups and storage space)?

There is a real sense of lightness and freedom that comes from finally biffing a pile. It’s a figurative and literal cleansing that feels really good. I’m going to act earlier next year and dare you to do the same!

Dave

(If you are feeling worried that your personal reality is not good, you can draw some comfort from research done by the University of Minnesota and published in Psychological Science, that shows there are pros and cons to your current state! Read more here.)

Happy Week 8.5!

Mid-term 4 seems to bring out a special blend of drama in many schools. I see the label “Madvember” popping up on social media and can’t argue based on recent personal experiences. Maybe the combination of warmer nights (sleep deprivation), spring (hormonal crazy) and the busyness leading up to Christmas is to blame? I don’t really know, but it is definitely different!

Set against this slightly chaotic background is the daily running of your school. There’s a lot on. And when there’s a lot on, it’s all too easy to let the busyness overtake the things that matter.

. . .

Recently, one of my amazing team leaders did what she does so well and noticed a member of her team struggling. They were stuck with a looming sense of paralysis by overload – lots to do and overwhelmed by where to start (starting is always the hardest!).

She met with the teacher, listened to their worries and then together they wrote what was essentially a priority list with a timeline attached. Clarity was restored.

This “fix” may sound ridiculously simple, but that’s because a nice sanitised blog post is far removed from the emotion and reality of the situation as experienced by the teacher inside it.

The point of this little slice of school drama is that now is the time when many (most?) of us have a constant feeling of being out of time with multiple deadlines crowding our calendars and more stuff coming daily. With less than four short weeks until the end of the school year, it can be difficult to know where to focus and impossible to meet all the competing needs. And as Steve posted last week, any “plans” can be trashed in a heartbeat by having to deal with an unexpected drama. On a bad day the stress is very real.

. . .

So how do you cut through the background “noise”, get the important work done, and stay well?

My suggestion – slow down.

What!?

Yes, slow the heck down.

You need to (temporarily) step off the hamster wheel and sit out to the side on a lilypad. A presenter I heard recently described it as “getting off the dance floor and sitting on the balcony” – you need space to get perspective. And you need to remove yourself from the busy so that you can see the important work clearly.

Given that we all have plenty of important work to do right now, it’s essential to deliberately reflect on what it is and when you’re going to do it. Just like the teacher I described at the start of this post, you need a priority list with a timeline.

. . .

So, on Monday morning at 9:30am, close your office door, put your phone on shut-up mode and get a nice clean piece of paper. Make sure your gatekeepers (office team) know you are in an uninterruptible meeting – with yourself!

Plot the next 3.5 weeks out on the paper and then add the non-negotiable work that needs to be done. I’m guessing you’ll have stuff like:

• Finish appraisals
• Keep in touch with your leavers
• Employ a fantastic teacher (or two)
• Be visible around the school
• Get class placements close to right

Congratulations, you now have a plan!

Outside of this short (if it’s not short, shut the door again, and get clearer) list, the rest is “noise”. It’s just stuff that the world is throwing up (sometimes literally!) and either needs to be ignored or dealt with as quickly as humanly possible.

But now comes the real challenge – how do you focus on the important stuff, deflect the noise, and stay well?

The answer is to keep it simple and do the things that you already know keep you well. Things like regular exercise, enough sleep, eating lunch, capping your work hours . . . things that may seem surplus right now but are actually essential.

If you are anything like me, the temptation is to ignore all this stuff and sprint to the end of Term and hope to recover on the other side, but 3.5 weeks is not a sprint, it’s a middle distance race that can hurt both your wellness and happiness if not managed.

So I say, make the time. The time to walk, to eat, to chill with your friends and family. The time to look after you because the alternative is neither effective nor sustainable – you owe it to your school and yourself to arrive at Christmas with energy and good-humour.

Everyone you care about will thank you.

Dave

Let’s start with a question – is your job ever finished? Is there ever a point when all the work is done?

Most of you won’t hesitate for long before saying, “no”.

“What wears me down is the number of tasks I have to do. There’s just too many and I can’t finish them. There’s something new to add to the list every single day and I hate that. I’ve just done the NZEI survey about wellness and they asked about my hours working and they’ve gone up again this year. I know this isn’t good but what can you do? If I don’t keep running things won’t work, it’s just the job I guess.”

I believe that we can look at this reality from two completely different perspectives. One leads to stress and the other to possibility.

The first perspective sees an unbroken string of “stuff” that needs to be done now, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. There’s another Board report due, there are meetings to be held, there are parents to ring, the newsletter needs to be done . . . these things just keep coming. This is our job. What alternative is there?

The second perspective actually relies on acknowledging the inherent truth of the first – the job will never be finished.

Think about this, . . . it will never be finished. Long after you wear out your first Zimmer frame, the work will still be there. It will have changed shape, but it will still need to be done.

No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how hard you work, you can’t finish.

With that truth comes possibility because if you acknowledge there is no “end-point” you can ethically consider reshaping how you do the work.

The first part of the “how” is sustainability – yours. If the work has no end-point, it can be argued that you have a responsibility to do it in a way that allows you to be well, because to be well, gives you the very best chance to be an effective leader – to have energy, balance and a clear head.

So how do you achieve this?

I suggest it’s not rocket science. In fact, you probably already know how to keep functioning at your best. Each of us has things that if missing from our lives, lead to unhappiness and a less healthy way of being. We’re all individuals and our lists will vary, but your’s exists and 10 minutes of quiet reflection and some note paper should be enough to acknowledge the key ones for you to focus on.

My “essentials” list would include:

• Making time to stop and be still (daily)
• Capping the total hours I work across a week
• Spending quality time with my family
• Using the natural ebbs and flows of the job (as a tool to recover)
• Exercising regularly (and outside)
• Eating healthy food (well, at least healthier!)
• Drinking less coffee and more water
• Playing a sport I enjoy

What does your list look like?

Music? Movies? A passion hobby? Bonding with your cat? Whatever strengthens you is what you need to prioritise, make space for, and do.

.  .  .

The second part revolves around professionalism. Accepting that the job will never be finished, you need to manage your pace and energy commitment so that you are the very best version of a leader that you can be. That’s a professional response.

Effective leaders, people at the top of their game, know how to pace what they do. They put their finite energy and focus into the most important parts of their work. And they don’t apologise for or feel bad about making sure they can do this – sustainably. Like Bill Gate’s “think weeks” and Tim Ferriss’ “mini retirements”.

But herein lies the sticking point for many of us, while we may want to do the things that keep us well and effective, we believe (wrongly) that there is no way to fit these healthy habits in. So we keep doing what we’ve always done, with either a dogged resignation to “it’s the job” or a faintly held hope that “it’ll get better” someday. We all know the famous saying about doing what you’ve always done and expecting . . .

If you need a push to change how you work, consider this statement – “it is unprofessional to knowingly work in a way that is either ineffective and/or unsustainable.”

I’ll rest my case here – you have a choice. Either view the workload of being an educational leader as unavoidable, put your head down and commit to working as you always have, or , accept the reality that the work is never finished and so start changing how you do it.

Today is the very best day to make a start.

Dave

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Do you often get to the end of a day with a “to do” list at least as big as you had 10 hours before? Have you started a week with something important that needs to be completed but when you get to Friday afternoon it’s still sitting there – and now it has time pressure as well?

The good news is that you’re far from alone. We all have weeks like this. The better news is that you absolutely can do something about it – it’s time you learnt how to “batch”.

.  .  .

Batching, Pomodoro Technique, Focus Blocks . . . call it what you like, all work around the principle of having focused blocks of time where you remove distractions and stick with one important task for a set period of time.

Sounds simple? Not for a school leader we suggest. The very nature of leading a complex organisation centred around people, means that our jobs are littered with opportunities to do the exact opposite.

I believe many of us have been seduced by the mantra that we have to be highly accessible. We take pride in keeping our office doors open and will drop anything to talk to a student or staff member. We answer emails as they come in (personally guilty!) and admin staff put phone calls straight through as a default action. Our days are full of constant, unpredictable shifts from task to task.

The unintended, but inevitable outcomes of this way of working, are that we’re spending way too much time on the busy work, too little time on the important work, and a constant feeling of not quite being able to keep up. For some of us, these consequences will be very obvious, for others they will just form part of the mental load that we carry home each night.

It’s time for change.

The very first thing to acknowledge is that you will have to take deliberate action if you want to change your current habits. You are also going to have to change the habits of the people around you – particularly the “gate keepers”, the people who either send you distractions or block them.

Both Steve and I are currently experimenting with setting up more robust versions of “batching”. We intend recording some of the challenges and successes that we find along the way. Sharing our real-life experiences with you is a win-win – it keeps us accountable and potentially helps others make changes that are both personally and professionally helpful.

Step 1 – Identify a block of time (ideally daily) that you will aim to use for batching.

I did this by writing myself a new schedule for the entire day. I tried to make the plan workable by scheduling my availability to match the ebb and flow of a “normal” day. For example, I like to catch-up with parents and students before school as they come in for the day so that’s not a good time to pick.

From looking at my usual schedule, I have chosen 9:30am to 11.00am as my batching block. Before the first bell, I like to be “out and about” in the school. Once classes start, teachers and students are busy so I head back to the Office. At this point, there will almost always be the need to catch-up with the admin team or parents for approximately half an hour. At the other end of my batching, morning interval starts, and I will be on duty or simply just talking with staff and students.

Step 2 – make the space

There are two parts to this step.

1. Students, teachers, admin staff; they all have the potential to stop you batching. It doesn’t have to be this way. Even when the “wheels fall off” with a child, there are usually opportunities to slow down the necessity of an immediate principal response. In fact, a slow response can often be the best (a whole new topic). It is true that in a larger school there are more people available who can help with urgent work. If you are sole charge, it is much harder! However, we all have the option of when we schedule our batching and if your school doesn’t have two walking DPs just waiting to help, perhaps you can choose a time where it is more likely that someone else can run interference for you.

And really, that is the key; you need to get your people onboard with what you are doing. In my case, I met with the admin team and explained what I was trying and why. They readily agreed to help create the space. We have an understanding about when it is OK to interrupt and at this point, very little is getting through! Trust is key here.

2. Email, Stuff News, social media; they are constant distractors for most of us. They demand attention, and wreck productivity.

If you are batching, turn them off. Yes, off. Don’t just not look, actually shut the tabs, close your email, and turn the alerts off on your phone. You can do this, and it feels really empowering! If in a moment of madness, you got a smart watch that connects to any form of media, take it off and turn it off. If your cat gets run over while you’re batching, someone will tell you later.

These two steps are enough to get started. In my next post on the topic I’ll share my schedule and some links to general thinking about batching. If you want to listen to an expert on the subject, check out Tim Ferriss’ 5-minute explanation below. If you have questions or want to share your batching story, please comment (bottom of this page) or message us, we’d love to hear from you.

http:// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghVdzAeX0bg

Dave

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about “reasonable” and the “status quo”. You can read it here, but in a nutshell, I stated that to change the status quo of your school leadership role you have to be “unreasonable”. I wasn’t suggesting that you have to be a pain in the proverbial sensitive spot or walk all over other people’s rights, rather that the status quo is maintained by reasonably doing what is expected, whereas change relies on you doing things differently.

I finished the post by posing a few questions designed to move the conversation from theory (“go on, just be unreasonable”) to practical (“this is what you might do”). Let’s have a look at them now.

. . .

1. What does ‘unreasonableness’ look like in the context of your role?

Since the concept of being unreasonable is simply what it means to challenge the status quo, there are plenty of opportunities that you can consider. Let’s just pick a couple –

Exercise – your job means that you frequently have meetings and other community commitments in the evenings or weekends. These work events probably mean that you struggle to fit healthy physical activity into your schedule. People might assume a reasonable school leader knows this is “just part of the job” and will accept that their personal wellness has to be sacrificed.

But, what about challenging that status quo and fitting in the necessary exercise at other times? For example, in the afternoons of any days with evening meetings, or the Monday morning after your school Fair weekend?

Challenging students – you receive a call from someone at the MOE. They want you to enrol a student who has a long history of behavioural issues at previous schools. They only offer a minimal amount of practical support because “it’s a limited resource” and round out this attractive pitch with, “it’s your turn” (or a euphemistic version of the same).

Sticking with the status quo, and therefore being reasonable, you would swallow, accept the situation, and start the inevitable damage control with your teaching team and community.

But, you could be “unreasonable”. You could: seek your Board’s support, ring your local MP, insist on limited onsite time based entirely on the resource given, choose to value the rights of staff and other students when deciding on possible disciplinary responses – in effect, challenge the status quo. If this annoys someone, good work, it proves you are making a change.

Remember, being unreasonable (in this context) doesn’t mean you are a “bad person”, “unprofessional” or any other negative label that pops to mind, it simply means you are challenging the status quo. You can do this!

2. Will making this choice lead to a conflict with your own personal morals or values?

In short, probably.

Just as teachers are usually people who value literacy, school leaders are usually people who like to be seen as professional, collaborative and . . . reasonable. It’s who we are and who people expect us to be.

Steve echoed this in his last post – “I’ve made a career based on being reasonable”.

And that’s a problem, a big problem, because it’s almost a guarantee that a large part of your own personal identity story has you pictured as being reasonable, following the rules, not rocking any boats.

Personal identity stories . . . they are the intimate, detailed stories that all of us carry in our heads. They define who we think we are and who we want others to think we are.  They are self-constructed over years until we have a mental image of ourselves. (And they are largely completely fictional, but that is another topic!)

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of the psychology behind this, you can find any number of explanations on the web. Here’s one that is easy to digest on The Atlantic.

Regardless, if you seriously consider making a change in how you operate as a school leader, there is going to be tension between the leader you think you are and some of the choices you will have to make to do things differently. That’s why the status quo is so seductive. It’s a comfortable place to live.

The good news is that feeling tension between your values and something different, means that you are actually considering real change. You are reaching out into the unknown and metaphorically starting to flex your legs, ready to take a step out of the box that defines your picture of school leadership.

3. If you have built a career based on reasonableness, over years – what critical shifts will allow you to change?

I believe there are some stages to go through before you can get to the actual change(s).

Firstly, you have to want to. I know this sounds simplistic, but until you come to a point where you know things have to change, the cards are stacked against anything happening. For me, I reached this step when I realised that no matter how much experience I gained, and no matter how “good” I was getting at my job, it just kept growing in size and complexity – even after nearly 20 years working in the field. That, and the creeping realisation that I was continually putting my own wellness behind doing the job. This was, and is not, OK.

Others get to this point because there is a crisis, perhaps in their health, a relationship, or their happiness in the job. While crisis is a great catalyst for change, it is also an unhappy place filled with unpredictability and pain. A better plan I suggest, is to heed that inner voice and start changing while you are in control of the process.

Once you have decided that the status quo can’t continue, you are in good shape to take the next step – which is to get very clear about what is important work and what is not. We have written more about this in The Forty Hour Principal, but in essence, the important work is always to do with people. Gaining this clarity is a critical step because choices have to be made and some things will either be done differently or not at all. Sabbaticals help with this type of thinking, as does coffee with  friends who are willing to challenge your status quo.

Once you have that clarity, it becomes much easier to rationally prioritise what work you will focus on and what work you will put in the optional pile – what is actually important and what is merely status quo reinforcing habits. Your list will build quickly once you move into a change mindset.

At the very point that you find yourself seriously considering which parts of your current job reality can be changed/deleted, you have already made the critical thinking shift needed to challenge the old way of doing things. Congratulations!

4. Who are you going to upset? (Because real change requires this.)

The people on this list are important. If a possible candidate is on your team, it’s a good idea to communicate very clearly why you are going to make a particular change. If you’ve been upfront and clear, then fire ahead. Others may not need as much effort – the guy who drives past your school at lunchtime and sees you out for a walk, may shake his head and mutter something about “teachers and the real world”, but that’s OK, just add him to the upset list and ignore.

A win/win outcome might be what a reasonable person seeks, but to make real changes, to move away from the status quo, you are going to have to annoy someone (at least in the short term).

To minimise the ripples, I suggest you start small and go after the easiest things to change that potentially have the greatest impact. For example, create a ‘no interruptions time’ daily between 9:30am and 10:30am. Diarise it, explain what you are doing to the people who might interrupt it, and set the bar for an emergency interruption high. I can promise that this “space” will have an immediate positive impact on both your productivity and sense of calm.

So, who might this upset? I’d suggest anyone who routinely interrupts you is a likely candidate as you are stopping their status quo behaviour. Hold strong, keep doing it, and in a surprisingly short time you will have made change.

If any of this post resonates with you (or not!), or you want to tease out some of the thinking further, put your thoughts in the comments section below, or head over to The Forty Hour Principal Facebook page and we can discuss them there.

Dave