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Are you feeling swamped by the demands of being a principal? From juggling emails, calls, and decisions to boosting test scores and wading through endless paperwork, the pressure is real.
But imagine a scenario where you no longer feel this overwhelming stress. Picture yourself as a more resilient leader, concentrating on enhancing your school rather than merely coping with the daily tasks that currently consume your time.
I‘m Barb Flowers. Drawing upon my eight-year experience as an elementary principal, with a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and certification as a life coach, Along the way, I've mentored and coached school leaders, guiding them to change their mindset, set boundaries and focus on their own well-being while navigating their roles.
Each episode offers practical insights on time management, communication, overcoming overwhelm, boosting confidence, and fostering a positive mindset. We'll also discuss topics like working with stakeholders, implementing new initiatives, and managing discipline. Let's set boundaries, focus on well-being, and reignite your passion for being a principal. Welcome to "The Principal's Handbook."
I firmly believe that to be an impactful educator, you must first become a confident and well-rounded individual. Join us in this journey to empower and enhance your confidence as a school leader.
3 Time Management Mistakes Principals Make
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Principal's Handbook. In this episode, we're talking about common mistakes that principals make around time management. That's all coming up next 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.
, Welcome everyone back to the podcast. Today I am talking about three common mistakes that I hear principals make when it comes to [00:01:00] time management.
And so these are just reoccurring themes that I'm constantly hearing when I'm coaching principals or working with principals about where they struggle the most with time management. So I'm just going to jump right in and talk about them. The first mistake I hear from principals is they set on realistic expectations for themselves.
So, for example, and I am so guilty of this, they might have expectations of themselves that nobody else set on them that they can do in an eight to four day or in their work week. So for example, they might be doing the job of two people. So if you have a job that, maybe it's not clear what the expectations are for you.
I've Talked to assistant principals who have different roles that aren't just behaviors. And so talking about , what is your role? What is the expectation from whoever your supervisor is, whether it's the principal or somebody from central office, , what do they want from you out of that role?
Because if you're trying to do everything in that [00:02:00] role, you're probably. One, not going to have it be a sustainable role for you, but two, you're not going to be good at what they actually wanted from you, whether that's instructional, leadership, discipline, social emotional learning, whatever that looks like in your role.
You want it to be clear what that is supposed to be and what your expectations are. , I know some administrators have split shifts, things like that. , Where they're actually teaching a little bit and an administrator, you have to know what that looks like to be sustainable for you. , For me.
Taking over a new building, we had to put a lot of systems in place and I had to remind myself that I need to make it sustainable. I need to make this job sustainable. I can't do everything at once. Whenever I would find myself, with this long to-do list, and I was stressed out and I felt like I wasn't getting enough work done.
I would just remind myself, I can't do it all today. I have time in this role, right? Like it's not going to be fixed overnight, [00:03:00] and it's not helping anybody if I am just rushing through and trying to do it all at once. So really thinking about what are the expectations that you are putting on yourself, because a lot of times it's self-imposed expectations that are too high for the role.
The other thing, when it comes to. The expectations of the role around time management and what you want that to look like. I want you to think about, what are you doing at school and what are you doing at home? Do you have the expectation at school that you are not allowed to be in your office?
And I ask this because I used to have a lot of guilt around. Anytime I was in my office, right? I would feel like I have to be out of my office all the time, all day. And I'm a very visible principal. However, I still give myself time blocks in my office maybe. , I like to start the day where. I do announcements, and from about nine to 9 15, 9 30, I'm in my office checking emails, drinking coffee, and kind of like setting myself up for [00:04:00] the day.
I'm planning out what I want my day to look like so that everybody else doesn't decide for me, because we always say you have to be proactive on your day and what you want that to look like, or everybody else will decide it, but it's not a bad thing to be in my office at that time. But I used to feel really guilty about that.
Like I felt like I had to be out and about all the time. And I talk a lot in my eight to four principal blueprint about if , we're out with a purpose. Because sometimes what I would find is I was just walking around the building, talking to people, not being the most productive version of myself, just trying to be out of my office, which, what was the point of that?
If I've already been in classrooms, I've walked through the building, I've talked to teachers, I can have focus time in my office to get things done at school. I just really had to shed the guilt around that because a lot of times it comes more from guilt than anything else. And our own thoughts about being in our office,, there's a lot out there about being visible being the principal on the cart, and if you're doing that, that's not a bad thing, but it's also okay.
I wanna normalize [00:05:00] it. You know, we do have an office for a reason, and it's okay to take a block of time and work in there. Again, I'm not saying be in there all day. I'm not saying, you know, you put your office first and you get out when you can. , You make it a priority to be visible and be out of your office.
However, it's also important that you give yourself time to get work done at work. If you're just walking around and not using your time in the best way or the most productive way out of guilt and shame and you know, anxiety of being in your office, then that's a different problem. . Think about what those expectations you do have for yourself around time, what does that look like?
You know, are you putting too much pressure on yourself to do everything? Do you have people that you can delegate to really think through that , and just take some time list out. What are those expectations that you have for yourself? And maybe what are the expectations somebody else has for you?
Because I'm sure you'll find that your expectations for yourself are much higher than what somebody else has for you, and in the long run, you're not able to sustain the role. I always say if you're [00:06:00] staying after work till five or six every night, you're not taking care of yourself. You're not going to be good for the people that you lead.
So be strategic with your time. Think about the expectations around your time that you're putting on yourself and what is actually sustainable. So that's the first mistake on realistic expectations. The second mistake that I see. Is there aren't systems in place. So having systems in place saves so much time.
And I know this from taking over a building that we merged two buildings together. It was, I took over a building that was first and second, we added kindergarten to it. And I was new and teachers were new coming together. So we had to create all these new systems together. And the beginning of the year was very stressful because there weren't great systems in place yet.
With all of the teachers there. You know, there were systems in place that worked for it being a first and second grade building, but not to accommodate the other 140 kids that came into the building and really added a lot to it. And so we had to create systems and until we created those [00:07:00] systems, my time, it felt crazy.
It was very stressful because. We were redoing PBIS systems. Even though the district had a K 12 system, we really, , being grade level buildings wanted to make a great K two foundation when it came to PBIS and make our expectations really focused around a being a K two building. And so without great systems when it came to discipline and what teachers, you know, knew to send kids down or what to do when there were discipline problems in the classroom, like we were all figuring that out together because I could have the best plans when I came in, even as an experienced principal, but until I.
Had the opportunity to see how the day-to-day went in the building. It was really hard to put those systems in place. And so even though I tried, there were things I put in place that had to be tweaked along the way. Also, when I started, you know, I wanted teacher input and I didn't have the teachers there till the beginning of the year.
So again, we're constantly tweaking and putting those systems in place. , So that we can make it better. [00:08:00] So having systems around PBIS and discipline are going to save you so much time. At first I had kindergartners who had never been to school before in my office all the time because.
They didn't know how to behave in the classroom and they were really very disruptive and interrupting and, , impacting kids' learning. And so that took up a huge portion of my time. And so figuring out systems for that and what that looked like in that school building and how do we address discipline and.
, Even now, I have ideas for next year of how I want the school year to start off. And we've had conversations, you know, as a kindergarten team of , what are we going to do to set kids up for success because they're not coming to us ready for school. So we need to, again, it kind of goes back to that unrealistic expectation, but have the expectation that some of our kids aren't coming to us ready to learn.
So what systems are we going to have in place to get them ready? So that's one area is behavior like systems around behavior are going to save you so much time. If you [00:09:00] have less discipline to deal with, you're going to have time to do other things. And my last building being a K five building, , when I started as an assistant principal, there was a lot of discipline.
The principal I was working with was a very good at PBIS. She put a lot of good systems into place that I then carried over and we were able to reduce discipline. So much. And it was almost by 50%. And when you reduce discipline by almost 50%, you have so much more time to be the instructional leader that you want to be, and you're not just running two emergencies all day.
So thinking about that as a leader is what systems do you have in place around discipline? Also systems around special education, gifted education, things that might cause you to be in a lot of meetings, 5 0 4 plans, things like that. Like what systems do you have to make sure that you are in compliance, that meetings are happening in the, .
Dates that they need to happen so that you're not out of compliance. Are there other people that can go for you in your place? If you have an [00:10:00] assistant principal or maybe a counselor who can help with five oh fours? You know, in my district, I typically go to all of them. Unless I am overbooked, I can email my special ed director or somebody else to attend for me.
So are there people who can help you if you need that help with time, but really thinking about all those meetings and how can you reduce those meetings? So that's another thing to think about, , our systems for your special education programs, meetings that you are having. Also trying to streamline and having systems for streamlining, like your committee meetings, your PLCs, things like that.
You know, I really have streamlined in the time that I've been a principal, how many meetings I was having at my last school. I felt like we had so many committee meetings and so many. Things happening all the time and it was all really good work. But I've, in my new school, really tried to streamline that MTSS meets.
But we also have intervention meetings that happen, , once after every benchmark that are really beneficial. And they're the same as like A [00:11:00] PLC. , So that takes the place of A PLC. We also have grade level meetings where we can talk about data and really dive into data and how are kids doing? And talking about those strengths or weaknesses.
So what are those systems in place that are actually streamlining the process? So you're not like doing extra things, but everything feels really streamlined because there are systems in place for that. So that's the second thing. So again, first mistake on realistic expectations. Second mistake. There aren't systems in place.
So work to get those systems in place. Again, it takes a lot of time, but you can do that. And also, I have a lot of resources I wanna share at the eight to four principle.com. I have a lot related to discipline that, , principals do the PBIS tier one blueprint, and then of course my eight to four principle blueprint.
The third mistake that I see from principals is that they aren't focused on the important priorities, right? We get focused on just the emergencies being reactive all the time. That takes over our [00:12:00] schedule, that we're not focused on priorities. And this is what I talked about when I said I like after announcements to sit down with my coffee and think about what I wanna get done for the day.
Think about my three priorities for the day. And I think about my schedule. I look through my schedule for the day. What are the things that I have to get done? And then where am I going to get those three priorities done? And I try to make those priorities related to instructional leadership. So. Getting into classrooms, looking at data, , having conversations with teachers.
Maybe it's planning an agenda for my BLT, my building leadership team so that we're moving the building forward. Maybe it's making sure that I have a presentation going at the staff meeting for our book study. This half of the year we're doing a book study on. Explicit instruction. So really thinking about what are the priorities that I want for my building?
I like to look at my opez, the Ohio Principal Evaluation System. I like to look at my goals for that, and my personal goals on that are related to PBIS. Implementing a new math program and implementing, , explicit instruction related to the science of reading. [00:13:00] And so , I constantly go back to those goals.
What am I doing to move those goals forward? And I know some people think of goals as part of your evaluation as like just compliance things, but if we can really think about like, how am I moving this building forward and not just reacting all day because it gets very frustrating in this job. It's not fulfilling if you're not moving the building forward.
And I talked to a lot of principals and assistant principals that this is where they get burnt out when they're just focused on discipline all day because they've lost the meaning of why they wanna be a principal. Most principals wanna be a principal because of an instructional focus and making a difference in the building.
And if you don't get time to do that, you really lose your energy and your excitement for being a principal because you're so focused on the part of the job that you probably don't like. Dealing with upset parents, upset staff, , putting out fires like that Part of the job is not the fun part of being a principal.
It's the proactive, it's the actual [00:14:00] leadership, the influence, , what we know about instruction and helping impact teachers and students with our knowledge of instruction. That for me is why I wanted to be a principal, and I wanna keep that in the forefront of my mind as I do this job. And so that really is me sitting down and thinking about what are my priorities in this role and how do I squeeze them in throughout the week, throughout each day.
It's little things that compact over time. Right now I'm reading a book, which I highly recommend, or I'm listening to it on audible called The Slight Edge. I highly recommend this book because he's talking about what gives people the slight edge. What makes them successful is the mundane task, and the mundane task as a principle can be those little things that you do on the day to day.
A around instructional leadership that has the huge impact on student learning. It's getting into classrooms, it's having conversations with teachers. It's , checking in on data to see where you're at. It's making sure that you're [00:15:00] having those purposeful meetings to talk about data or to move instruction forward in the building.
It's building the capacity of your teachers to be teacher leaders. All of these things that seem so small. They add up and make huge impacts on the instruction in your building. And so thinking about what that looks like for you, what your priorities are, and how you're able to do that in the building.
So those were my three mistakes that I see. So I just wanna go through those again. Number one, unrealistic expectations for yourself. Around time. Number two, there aren't systems in place. And number three, you're not focused on the important work that needs to happen in your building and thinking about priorities.
So I hope that you think about these three things and really think about how you can make sure that you're not making these mistakes in your building. I also just wanna remind you that right now we have our eight to four principal group coaching intensive happening, and I am so excited about this [00:16:00] because we are going to be talking about all of this, everything related to these mistakes I shared today, so that you can get better with your time and actually be the instructional leader that you want to be in your building so that you're able to move your building forward.
In a way that you see momentum and progress, and you're not stuck in the urgency every day and putting out fires and feel like you're reacting all the time, but you can actually feel like you're making a difference in the building. So if you wanna join us, check out the link below. It's going to take you to the sales page. And you can see if it's a right fit for you, but the sooner you register, the better. We hope that you can join us. It's only 2 97 for four sessions, plus an extra session where we're going to be doing a q and a call where I'm going to get to the root of what's going on, if you have extra questions related to your specific context.
So I'm here to support you. All the way through the journey. We're doing this starting February 8th. It's going to be four weeks, and we're going to see a huge impact on your time management and how you can actually be the leader you want to be in your building. [00:17:00] So check out the link below, join us in that.
I'm only taking 10 people, so I hope you're one of them. All right. I hope that these tips were helpful today. I hope that, learning through these mistakes and what other principals do can help you be a better leader and have more time to get the things that you want to get done. All right. Have a great week and I will see you on the podcast next time.