Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve been talking about time management, specifically about getting your mindset in the right place about what you have to do and how long you have available to do it. This week, we’re bringing that work together with some real actionable tips for making the most out of the time you do have.

Our to-do lists can be pretty intimidating, and especially if it’s all up in your head, it becomes an all-consuming monster that you can’t stop thinking about. Well, it doesn’t have to be this way and I can’t wait to share with you how you can put your to-do list into perspective and give yourself the best chance of getting everything completed.

 

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Something I see in a lot of my clients is a reluctance to associate work with pleasure. They see work as work and fun as something that should be enjoyed out of office hours. This makes a lot of sense on some level, but what it’s actually doing is making your work environment so much harder to enjoy.

It is not your job’s job to make sure you have a fun time at work. The only person responsible for making work a pleasurable experience is you. We’ve talked about every other aspect of scheduling this month, but now, it’s time for the good stuff.

 

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I recently looked at the job posting for a job as a principal, just out of curiosity, and I was slightly shocked to find no less than 40 bullet points for different tasks that were expected of the applicant. That is a huge number. It’s little wonder that our school leaders are feeling increasingly more pressure in their jobs.

There is nothing more disempowering than being given way more to do than there is time for in your workday. So, what can we do to take some of that empowerment back and still do an amazing job?

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Devastatingly, in the week leading up to me recording this episode, there were three mass shootings in our country – one of those was a town very close to where I live. This got me thinking, while it seemed like everyone was looking for someone or something to blame, what can we do as school leaders to remove the stigma around mental health?

I believe that mental health should get as much focus as physical health. We have physical education programs in schools and there is never any shame around hiring a personal trainer or joining a gym. So how can we integrate awareness around mental health in the one place where kids go for no other reason than to learn?

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We are taught from a very young age, and we still teach kids today, that if we are upset, it’s because somebody else has done something to make us feel that way. Now, if you’re a regular listener, you will be familiar with the STEAR Cycle, essentially the concept that how we feel has nothing to do with anybody else but everything to do with our thoughts.

When something happens in our lives, that is a circumstance, and every circumstance is completely neutral. However, when we are in the heat and stress that school leadership can bring, it’s easy to lose sight of what is a circumstance (a fact) and what is our opinion about a circumstance (a thought). When these wires get crossed, we are not acting with the integrity required from a school leader.

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