Posted on by hildaweisburg

Maximize Your Time

There are only 24 hours in a day, and no matter what you do – or how much needs to get done – there’s no way to use them all for work. So the goal becomes using the hours we have to our best advantage. But here’s the thing – what works for one person and seems productive, might not work for you and could, in fact, be detrimental to you in the long run. So before you decide how to organize your time – take the time to learn how you work best.

To create your own personal plan for maximizing your time, consider following this 4-step approach Chris Taylor presents in his article How to Make Your Days More Productive:

  1. What To Do –  Start by knowing your priorities – for a project, a semester, a school year. Even knowing this, you won’t get everything done (have you ever?) but if you can get clear on what’s most important and what will get you closest to where you want to be then you can organize your time and to-do lit accordingly.
  2. When To Do It – This is where it gets even more personal. What is your most productive time of the day? When are you most creative?  For me, it’s first thing in the morning.  I know other people who like to work at night when everyone else is sleeping. Schedule your high priority tasks at the times when you are most clear. Of course, if you’re not a morning person but are at work then, as best you can, do the activities that align with your energy and ability to focus.
  3. Where To Do It – Environment can play a large role in our productivity. Is your office space the best place for you to work?  Do you like or not like the buzz of others working nearby?  Do you find being outdoors stimulates your thinking? Be as honest as you can and then see where you can adapt your workflow to fit. Can you clear off your desk? What about adding pictures of favorite places that you can see while you work? When can you close your door?
  4. How To Do It Well – That is the ultimate challenge.  You need to turn off the interruptions that take you away from being as productive as possible.  This is not necessarily other people interrupting you.  It can be seeing stuff popping up in your email.  Or the phone ringing. Turn them off. Don’t see your email when you are working on these high priority tasks.  Turn off your phone until you are ready to attend to those messages. And when it’s time to focus on emails – stay focused on them and get as many answered as you can in the time you give it.

Like anything else, it will take practice and iteration of these four steps to make them part of your routine, but the results are worth it. Be prepared to tweak it as you work with it and learn what supports your success. Maybe you thought you could be creative for two hours at a time, but one is better followed by a break. Do what you can to limit the break, then get back to the priorities. There’s no way to add more time to the clock – so add time to your day by using what you have in the way the best supports you.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Are You Procrastinating Too Much?

Procrastinating means to put off doing something. The definition doesn’t include the words “something important,” but that’s usually when we think of it. Because often when we’re putting off something – the bills, returning a call, setting up a meeting with our principal – we’re getting lots of other things done. Just not the one that banging around in our heads, the one we can’t stop thinking about that we know needs to get done.

There is no doubt about it. That list of check marks on the unimportant tasks probably means we’re avoiding the priority or the most impactful action. Why do we do that to ourselves? And how can we stop doing it? Greg Vanourek tackles the problem in How to Stop Avoiding Things: 17 Practices:

  1. Start by noticing your avoidance practices – Awareness is always the first step in being able to deal with a problem. What are you go-to tasks that alert you to the fact that you’re avoid something bigger. (Email? Facebook?)
  2. Seek the root cause of your avoidance behavior – It may be feeling uncertain about how to handle the specific task. It could be something frightening such as dealing with a book challenge and/or preparing for a board meeting where your book selection practices are being questioned. Knowing what’s behind your choices can help you make a change.
  3. Process your emotions – Recognize the emotions. Allow yourself to feel and express them. Vanourek suggests journaling or exercising. Both of these can change your physiological state and put you in a better mindset.
  4. Divide the problem you’re avoiding into smaller, more manageable chunks – It’s the old adage about how to eat an elephant. And as you complete each chunk, you feel successful and ready to tackle the next chunk. Momentum helps you keep going.
  5. Start with an easy task or small encounter to get momentum – This works like chunking and gives you a way to get into action – sometimes the hardest part.
  6. Look for ways to boost your motivation for a better result– Keep track of what you are accomplishing. Consider a Success Journal or visible check list. Cheer your own progress.
  7. Reframe a situation to note the positives and refrain from focusing only on the negatives – This may a very challenging project, which is why you were avoiding it in the first place. Keep your focus on the positive results you’re aiming for. If it’s something you are uncertain about handling, consider this a step in your learning. For a book challenge issue, see yourself joining those who stand up for our core values and beliefs as a librarian.
  8. Quiet your negative self-talk – Not easy, but reframing will help. Vanourek suggests being compassionate with yourself, “we are all works in progress.” Know that mistakes are a part of the process, not a reason to stop.
  9. Practice your communication skills – Be ready to talk about the benefits and challenges of what you’re doing by always keeping your communication skills strong. Then you can confidently as you express yourself and when asking for help when needed.
  10. Set a deadline for taking action – “By when’s” are vital to starting and continuing. “I’ll have this step done before Wednesday/noon/break.” It also gives you goals and milestone to reach.
  11. Build action habits – The more you see yourself doing – and as being a doer – the easier it will be to continue. Momentum is your friend.
  12. Recognize that addressing something you’ve been avoiding can make you feel powerful – Instead of carrying around the heaviness of your thoughts as you think about this project and the fact that it’s still not done, taking even that first step will be empowering. You’ll inspire yourself to take the next.
  13. Work on your problem-solving skills –Vanourek suggests exploring creative ways of dealing with problems even before you get to a project that you want to avoid. Knowing you are good at problem-solving will help you spend less time procrastinating.
  14. Develop your tolerance and flexibility – Rigid ways of thinking rarely help us out of difficult situations and challenging emotions. Be open to the process and recognize some problems are beyond your ability. Look for ways to get help – such as your PLN.
  15. Work on improving your coping skills and strategies – Some suggested questions to ask yourself: “How might I address this? What would my best self do in this situation?
  16. Resist your urge to avoid when it appears – Now that you recognize your avoidance behaviors, you are better equipped to deal with them. Get into action as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it is to get going.
  17. Get support – You don’t have to do everything on your own. Look to see who handles this better than you and ask for help. Mentors can be useful in this.

This is a long list – and a long post. If any of these points hit you, then make a change. And if you’re reading this instead of tackling that responsibility you’ve been avoiding? It’s time to get to work.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Be More Effective

According to Merriam Webster, effective means “producing a decided, decisive, or desired effect.” A second meaning for the word is “ready for service or action.” You obviously want to get certain tasks done during the course of the day, but are you doing this effectively? And if not… why not?

When you sit down at your desk, are you completely ready for action? Or do you start by straightening things up, putting off the moment when you begin? Even after you have begun, there are so many things that can and do pull you off track. It’s no wonder that by the time you finish for the day, it’s frequently later than you had planned, and you are often feeling battered and thoroughly exhausted.

In his blog post, These Three Questions Help Our Effectiveness, John Keyser quotes David Emerald’s 3 Vital Questions: Transforming Workplace Drama, observing how the approach is simple, helpful, and insightful. The responses to these questions require reflection which Keyser guides you through. As usual, even though this post is intended for business leaders, you are leaders, and it does apply to all of us.

Here are the questions and the process for responding to them (italics are based on Keyser’s emphasis):

  1. Where is my focus? – Take time to notice where your thoughts are going and if they are pulling you off track. Ask yourself: Am I focused on where it should be? Am I listening to what my teachers really want/need? Have I heard what the student was really looking for? Do I communicate my appreciation for what they do? Do I let teachers know I am grateful when they take a chance and work with me? When I am helping others, am I focused on doing my best so they do a great job? Do I do it all with kindness or am I abrupt and thinking about getting back to a task? In the process, am I giving feedback in positive ways that can be heard? You won’t be able to do all of these at once (or immediately) but keeping them in mind will help.
  2. How are my relationships? – Keyser says, “Relationships matter greatly” and this is no surprise to us. I have repeatedly stated we are in the relationship business. If we aren’t building relationships, we will be out of business. To do this, Keyser recommends one-on-one conversations. Every interaction, planned or spontaneous, is an opportunity for starting or building a relationship.
  3. What steps/actions am I taking? We cannot ignore the truth that everything we do has an impact. The smallest step in relationship-building leads to more steps. The clearer your focus, the better your results. To-do lists and priorities are recommended as always as a way to see your progress and know that you are moving in the right direction. Keyser recommends you have only three items on your to-list, and these should be the ones that will produce the most significant outcomes. (In other words, don’t just pick the easy ones.) Be hones with yourself – what will move you toward your most desired result.

You probably won’t go through these three every day. However, if you do this at the beginning of the work week and then review them again at the end, you’ll see the results as well as where you want to do things different. The process and practice of self-reflection and self-evaluation is good to develop and will lead to great effectiveness.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

You know you need balance in your life, but what about those times when your balance is so shaky you feel like you are going to tip over? You know what you are supposed to do: Identify the important tasks and start with those, working your way down the list to the items which a lower priority. But most of what’s on your plate is both important and urgent with deadlines looming?

Welcome to the club. Many of us are overwhelmed. When this happens, most of us keep our heads down and slog forward. This is probably why so many school librarians and other educators counted down to the last day of school with more fervor than ever before. And even though the school year is over or almost over, depending on where you live, you know Fall is lurking in the distance and will be here before you know it. Then it will begin all over again.

Unless you have a plan.

Kristen Hendrix knows well what it’s like when your “cup runneth over”. The phrase generally refers to abundance, but it has another meaning to her and to most of us. In her blog post Cup running over? It might be time to dump it out, Hendrix takes a hard look at the quotes and memes around those words. She notes we’ve been told you can’t pour from an empty cup but must keep it filled with self-care making it possible. But she acknowledges that self-care is harder to fit into an already crammed schedule. Hendrix prefers asking, “What goes in the cup? How can I know when it’s too empty or too full? How can I use these insights to anticipate or respond to burnout?”

To answer these questions, she suggests we look at these six ideas which flow into each other:

  • The Cup of Life – While we all have this cup, what we put into it is unique to us. We are the ones who are filling it. If we just keep adding water, the cup will overflow. You can’t keep pouring more into it than it can hold. As Hendrix says, we must be mindful of what we are putting into it before this happens. Which is why the next idea is….
  • Filling Our Cup – Whatever we put into our cup can be put into categories such as work, family, health, volunteering, etc. Her comment about including “adulting (eating, showering, dressing, brushing teeth, etc)” resonated with me. Somedays, I feel getting undressed at night is one more chore. To determine how we fill our cup, we need to recognize whether it’s draining or energizing.
  • Managing to the Brim – It’s our choice whether we fill our cup to the brin or leave a little space in case something needs to be added. I am a to-the-brim person, but what happens when there is a change, and there’s a new task or responsibility? Unless you recognize the effect it will have, you will quickly become overwhelmed. I’ve learned to consider whether the new commitment fits with my priorities, purpose, and passions. If it doesn’t, I don’t take it on. If I do take it on, I look to see what can be delayed, cut back, or even eliminated.
  • Dump It All Out – Hendrix recounts her own breakdown when it all became too much. She had to eliminate everything until she recovered. The object is to recognize when you are approaching this tipping point before it happens. You may have to withdraw from a volunteering job you took on or find someone who can help you with one or more of your tasks.
  • Preventing Burnout – Recognize all that you are doing and prioritize. Hendrix recommends using the 80/20 rule (the Pareto Principle), which says that 80% of your results comes from 20% of your work. Focus on the productive 20%. What are your goals? If what you are doing doesn’t move you toward it, consider eliminating it. And if elimination isn’t a possibility, it may be time for the next step – delegating it.
  • Getting Help – Help can come in many forms, from people to work with which lightens the load to speaking with a professional if you who have become depressed and feel the joy is gone from your days. You can also reach out for a mentor, a friend, or anyone who will listen. Keeping everything bottled up when your stress is bubbling up inside is a recipe for a serious problem.

I recently said to someone that I was “whelmed,” – one more drop and I would be overwhelmed. Leaders need to be honest with themselves and recognize when they have become over-committed. Too many people are counting on us. Abundance is great, but too much is too much.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

When Less Is More

Are you one of those people who strive to give 100% every day – to everything? Where has that gotten you? More often than you’d like, you’re probably exhausted, somewhat cranky, and likely feeling unappreciated. And if self-care isn’t on your to-do list, it isn’t happening. When we stretch ourselves beyond our limits, we slip into a negative mindset while draining our abilities to keep going. We look at all we are doing, all that still needs to be done, and find ourselves coming up lacking.  

What if, instead, we worked to get the maximum return for the time allotted? Not necessarily, giving 100% all the time, but making smart, specific choices about what we do and when we do it – and how much it truly needs from us.

It starts by determining the level of importance of any task. Does it promote or advance your Mission and Vision? When you think about it being completed, what will be achieved as a result? Once you’ve gotten clear on these decisions and distinctions, do it as excellently as possible within the parameters you gave it.

Kristin Hendrix explains the concept of less is more in How an Athlete Mindset Helps Me Optimize My Work Performance. Thinking of our job in the context of an athlete makes the idea more understandable. No athlete trains or plays their sport at maximum level all the time. Basketball players don’t play the same way in the middle of the game as they do in the final minutes.

Hendrix makes 5 key points:

Top performance doesn’t come from constant 100% effort – What would a basketball player have left in the final minutes if they were playing full-out throughout the game? Hendrix notes this is true for our mental strength as much as for physical strength. As she observes, responding to the expectation that we will give our best all the time leads to “mental exhaustion, stagnation, and burnout.”

Plan for the surge – It’s easy for athletes to know when to draw on the reserves they have been saving. They have a time clock or other way to know the end is looming. We have deadlines. That’s when we need to be able to give our maximum effort. It is almost certain that every  project will have problems as the finish draws near. That’s when we need to have enough in reserve to go into overdrive to that we can see things through to a strong completion.

Case study: Mindful surges to avoid overwhelm – As librarians you have an inordinate number of jobs and tasks to accomplish. AASL’s National School Library Standards lists your 5 roles: Leader, Instructional Partner, Information Specialist, Teacher, and Program Administrator (pp14-15). On a daily/weekly basis you have things to do for each. Note where the deadlines loom for each and plan for those “surges” by cutting back on your other tasks as needed. Do you have several important tasks that have overlapping needs? Write them down, get clear on what’s needed, and what the deadlines are. Planning, will keep your energy levels where they need to be.

Building up our strength and stamina – As you take on new roles or increasingly more significant roles as a leader, whether in your building/district or on a state/national level there is much to learn. It can be hard initially to get a grip on what you need to do and in what order. The answer Hendrix recommends is scaffolding. Determine what you need to know and what you don’t know yet. Look for the people and sources that can help you learn it. Depending on the situation, social media groups, Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) or mentors can give you the support and information you need. With each step, you’ll know more and be stronger for the next time – and you’ll need less energy because you can better prepare.

Want to outperform?  Underperform first – Hendrix alludes to the story of the turtle and the hare, modifying it by recommending we be the turtle at the start and the hare as the finish line approaches. Compare your mood and mindset when you are taking short breaks as compared with when you do everything all day full-out. When do you accomplish the most? What about your mood? Learn what works, what helps, and how you can improve the next time.

Don’t let the work of being a leader bog you down. Learn to give less in order to give more. By managing your time, energy, and priorities, you will be better able to embrace your work and the enjoyment that leadership brings.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Time – It’s Irreplaceable

Nothing is more valuable than our time. Once it’s gone, we can’t get it back. Each day, someone or some task claims another piece of it. At the end of a very long day, you are often left wondering where the time all went. When you look closely at a typical (if there is such a thing) day, there are precious few hours to complete all your tasks. How do you manage the available time to get the best results?

It takes organization and focus. Be mindful of what you are doing – and why. Create a system that works for you. Know where you are and what you will do next. For example, as I head into my office to begin my day, I always know what my first task will be. When I was working in a school library, I did a mental review of my schedule while on the drive to work. On my way home, I would shift gears, plan my route if I needed to do an errand or recall what I had to do to get dinner started.

What do you need to do to get a handle on time management? In How to Use Your Time Effectively and Efficiently, Paul B. Thornton recommends for effective time management to “Separate the ‘vital few’ from the ‘trivial many.’ Don’t waste your time solving the wrong problems or pursuing the wrong goals.”

Effectiveness is about using your time for the right things. He lists these five effective techniques:

  1. Writing down priorities and making them visible – Whenever possible, tie these to your Mission and/or Vision statements. It will keep you focused on what really needs to get done.
  2. Periodically reviewing and revising your priorities – Change happens. Are your priorities adjusting and changing with them? And when was the last time you reviewed your Mission/Vision statements? Be sure they are current. I recently read one from a library whose mission dates from 1987.
  3. Learning to say “No.” -Two letters, but a very important word. If the request doesn’t fit your priorities, consider if it’s possible to say no. If it’s not, look for alternatives. (I did a blog post on this a few weeks ago).
  4. Checking for alignment – Again, review your list to see if there are tasks that don’t fit with your priorities. Thornton advises you to see where you can make changes. Also, look for ways to delegate to others.
  5. Schedule uninterrupted time – Officially scheduling this time is incredibly challenging during the school day. If you have a period of time where no one is with you in the library, I recommend shutting off the lights, so people think the doors were closed. Commuting time can also be used this way.

Efficiency means you what you can to not waste time. Thornton’s top five efficiency techniques (he lists ten) are:

  1. Create a “to-do” list – Connect this with your effective techniques (above) by reviewing your priorities when making this list. It’s also important to choose a listing method that works best for you. Do you number the highest ones or star them? Do you prefer a daily or weekly list?
  2. Periodically identify what you can stop doing – Just because something was a priority, doesn’t mean it still is or is as high a priority as it was. Thornton recommends looking for ways to eliminate what doesn’t provide value.
  3. Get organized – More than the “to-do” list, this is your calendar allowing you to keep track of meetings and deadlines. What works best for you – digital or paper? How do you ensure you don’t overlook what you have recorded? Do you have a reminder system in place?
  4. Remove the clutter – Looking for things wastes time. If you don’t need it, get rid of it.
  5. Deal with paper and electronic documents only once – A follow-up to the previous one. Thornton reminds you there are only three things to do with them: file it, toss (or delete), or take action. It can be hard to make an immediate decision, but doing this whenever you can will make you more efficient.

And don’t forget about your time outside of work. Be sure you are giving you and your family the time they deserve. You also need personal time to refresh and rejuvenate. It may not be every day, but if you aren’t doing something at least weekly, you are wearing yourself out. Time is your most valuable commodity. Don’t waste opportunities for joy.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Deciding What To Do First

We all have full plates. So many tasks calling for our attention at the same time. New ones constantly being added. Where do you start?  What do you do next?  How you answer those questions determines how efficiently you work and how successful you feel at the end of the day.

There are lots of ways to develop your to-do list and determine your priorities. I use the tried and true pen and paper list. To help me, I break my tasks into categories such as Blog, Montana (where I am teaching online), ALA, and Personal. But where do I begin?

Starring the highest priority items helps, but there are always several starred items. The first item of business is knowing which comes first. On Saturdays, it is this blog. This gives me room to complete it by Sunday should life interfere. The imperative is to get it to my editor who edits what I’ve written as well as posts it on my website on Monday.

My second task on Saturday is checking on my students, responding to their posts, and grading their work. The rest of the week, they come first. I count on the amount of time I need with them to increase slowly through the week as they complete readings and are then able to submit work. The other tasks follow.

During the week there are other things on my schedule. Doctors’ appointments, phone calls that are important, and any other number of things which make planning essential because something is bound to throw me off course at some point. Holding onto my fallback mindset, “Everything will get done — it always does” can keep me calm (mostly) about unanticipated disruptions.

Another way to determine what to do first and what to next is to use the Eisenhower Box or Eisenhower Matrix, named for US President Dwight Eisenhower. It’s an excellent guide for helping you making the decisions on what to do first, next, and so on.

James Clear, author of the bestselling book Atomic Habits, explains how to use this  in How to be More Productive and Eliminate Time Wasting Activities by Using the “Eisenhower Box.”  To construct the Box, you work with two categories, Urgent and Important and their flips, Not Urgent and Not Important which give you a matrix with four boxes. Clear gives the following explanation to help differentiate between the two, “Urgent tasks are things that you feel like you need to react to: emails, phone calls, texts, news stories. Meanwhile, in the words of Brett McKay, ‘Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals.’”  You can easily redefine Urgent for your work environment with school-related tasks – student disruption, fire drill, call from the principal.

The Box is pictured above. If something is Urgent and Important – DO it. It’s a priority. If something is Important, but not Urgent, you can schedule when it will be done. If it is Urgent and Not Important, look for ways you can delegate this – it’s not the best use of your time. And if it’s Not Urgent and Not Important… don’t do it. Cross that off and move on to the things in the other boxes.

What is important about the Eisenhower Box is that it has you identifying the difference between what is urgent and what is important. Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” But it is wise to know when it’s both and when it isn’t.

Life being what it is, this matrix doesn’t always work. Sometimes, you cannot delegate something, and because it is Urgent, you need to do it anyway- sooner rather than later. Which may mess up the scheduling you’ve done for the things that were Important but Not Urgent. Fortunately, this won’t be an everyday occurrence and you can return to the matrix when it’s time to plan again.

If this thought process works for you, consider adding the Eisenhower Box to your time management skill set. When you consciously decide what to do and when to do it, you feel more organized and have a sense of accomplishment. I also, am aware of what time of day is best for me to do certain tasks and what small and not very important things can be dealt with when I have short periods of time available. Look for those things in your schedule and hopefully soon you’ll be spending your time on your priorities and crossing things off your to-do list.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Perfect or Good Enough

When my daughter was in high school, I told her, “Good enough is not good enough.”  I was wrong. One reason for our stress and exhaustion is our need to get everything done perfectly. That’s not an option. We have too much to do, and we need to be honest about the importance of our tasks. From making the bed in the morning to leaving the library looking neat, we often treat everything we do equally, but that’s not a good use of our limited time. The result can be that important jobs do not get the detailed attention they need, and we are worn out.

Time management requires more than a to-do list. It means looking at what we do with an eye toward the return we get from our investment of time. In The Costs of Being a Perfectionist Manager, Anna Carmella G. Ocampo, Jun Gu, and Mariano Heyden discuss how to use perfectionist strengths without wearing yourself out trying to get everything done perfectly. They warn that perfectionism frequently leads to dissatisfaction because even when a job is well done, it still may still not meet your standards. It becomes a matter of balance and priorities.

In addition to describing several different types of perfectionists, the trio recommends the following approaches when faced with your own perfectionism:

Design the Right Goals – Ultimately, your goals should be tied to your Mission and Vison, however, as they say, your goals need to be “attainable yet challenging.” Interim goals that inch you towards your larger one will give you the best results. You learn what works and what doesn’t, and you don’t beat yourself up for not seeing your whole Mission in operation or achieving your Vision. You enjoy the process.

Recognize Failure as Part of the Process – This can’t be stated often enough. We teach students that failure is learning, then don’t apply the concept to ourselves. We won’t get it right the first time. The learning is as important as the goal. If we don’t accept this, then fear of failure will keep us from taking risks, and risk-taking is an important leadership quality.

Cultivating Mindfulness – How you think is how you feel. Meditation is what the trio recommend. This could be traditional meditation, but anything that gets you away from your desk and immediate demands on your attention can be beneficial (long time readers of this blog know that I’m a walker). Look for times in your day when you can take a break, listen to your own thoughts (or music, or a podcast) so that you come back recharged.

Using Pep Talks – We are well-aware that we speak a lot of critical things to ourselves, things we’d never say to others. Perfectionist tendencies can make these thoughts batter us too often. Ocampo, Gu, and Heyden recommend finding calming and positive mantras to help banish these thoughts. I use this technique and remind myself of past struggles and ultimate successes. Again, what you think is how you feel.

Fostering Positive Interpersonal Relationships – Although every conversation is an opportunity, you don’t have to have an end goal in mind for each one. We know how important relationships are to the success of the library program, and building them begins with casual interactions. The authors point to how good we feel when we help someone. Doing so is a natural part of being a librarian. And not all help needs to be tied to library use. It’s about being an empathetic, caring person.

Managing Emotions – This is part of SEL and is vital for us all. Perfectionism leads to stress which tends to make us irritable and unpleasant to be with. The above techniques can help reduce that as will reframing. Every cloud has a silver lining. Find it and use it to calm yourself. This may also be a good time for a walk or reading some funny memes. Do whatever you need to restore your mental balance.

How many tasks do you have that don’t need to be done perfectly? Look to your priorities, give them the time they deserve, and then let the other things go. Sometimes, and again with apologies to my daughter, good enough is good enough.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

I Don’t Have Time To…

How are you completing the sentence in the title? To get books shelved? To do a diversity audit? To eat lunch? We are so pressed for time we focus on the most urgent tasks or the ones we are struggling to complete and forget ourselves. It’s not only that there are a limited number of hours in the day. The fact is, we can’t be creative every hour we are awake. We cannot even be productive every hour. Our bodies and brains need a break.

We’ve all tried a variety of ways to organize and manage our time. We have our to-do lists in whatever format we prefer, project planners, and post-it note reminders. Then your principal pulls you to cover a class and have no choice but to do what you were told. And there goes the to-do list and your day. You surrender to it and are too tired to use whatever time you have left to tackle the task you expected to get done.

Despite your best efforts, you may not be making the best use of the time you do have. Mary Kelley has 5 Ways to Find Out If You Are Maximizing Your Time.

  1. You Stick to Your Schedule – First, make sure you’re doing what you said you were going to do when you wanted to do it. You’re not maximizing your time if you are checking emails before getting started. But what about those unscheduled interruptions?  What happened to the task you didn’t get to finish? Get back to it as soon as possible. You may need a quick review to see where you left off. An alternative is to consciously reschedule it for a better time. Then get on with the next task on your schedule.
  • You Plan Ahead – Kelley is referring to looking long range – next week, next month. I call it telescoping, periscoping, and microscoping. In telescoping you view a project through its completion. This could be an advocacy plan or a unit you are doing with a teacher. You are aware of when the parts need to be completed to meet your final deadline. In periscoping, check in every so often to see if you are on target for completing a task. If not, make the adjustments to the schedule to make sure there are no surprises as you head toward the finish live. In microscoping you focus on the immediate work. Then if you are interrupted, you can make the needed change when you periscope.
  • You Prioritize – Kelley uses a whiteboard with her MITs (Most Important Tasks). You may be doing that with your to-do list but having them in front of you is a constant reminder. It might also alert those interrupting you to the work you are trying to do. And don’t forget to put yourself in the schedule. Put in your lunch time. Add whatever you do to stay healthy such as a chair yoga exercise or even going to an open window to breathe. You need these pauses to refresh your brain. You are a priority too.
  • You Avoid Multitasking – It’s been proven that it doesn’t work, and we keep doing it. Know which tasks require the most brain power and/or creativity. Make sure that has your total focus. If there is an interruption you must respond to, do not work on the task while dealing with the interruption. Tasks involving creativity often require that you pause to think through a problem. It may be tempting to scan your emails while you think. Just because you are not actively doing something doesn’t mean you aren’t engaged in the task. Trying to get through those emails will only slow you down, and you are likely to miss important details on both tasks.
  • You Cheerfully Say NO – I like this one. While you can’t say no to your principal, there are many other requests you can turn down. Knowing when and how is important in making the best use of your time. If the request connects to a priority of yours, “yes” is probably the right answer. If not, refuse, but carefully. Suggest an alternative. You may be able to take it on at a future date. It’s important to know how to say “no” without damaging a relationship.

In her post, Kelley notes our brains can’t run at full capacity for more that 4 hours a day. Know when your most productive/creative times are and develop your schedule around it. Do what you can to work on your biggest priorities during those times. And give yourself a break when the schedule goes nuts.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Diffusing Pressure

We are all under pressure. The bad news is, it’s not going to get better. The worse news is, if you don’t do something about it, the pressure will (and undoubtedly has) affected you physically and emotionally. The good news is you can learn to manage pressure. You can develop strategies that reduce its hold on you. Mostly, it’s about how to reframe and change your mindset.

When we’re under pressure, we feel an adrenaline surge. This surge gives you the energy to stretch your physical, creative, and/or emotional drive. Unfortunately, the crash that follows depletes you, and you still have more on your plate.

Strategies for developing the right mindset can help you from escalating pressure and lowers the anxieties you are feeling. Theodore Kinni in Leading Under Pressure offers Dane Jensen’s four-step technique for diffusing pressure. It applies to the business world, the world of athletes, as well as your professional and personal life.  

  1. Ask yourself what’s not at stake – When you focus on a big project, a deadline, a chosen or imposed job change, remember to pause. Take the time to identify what in your life is not hinging on this one thing. Intense focus may be needed, but it also blocks out everything that’s not in our face. We cannot see the complete picture. Stop and took for what is good in your life, personally or at work. This hasn’t changed. These things will to be there however this one big thing plays out. The perspective can help you breathe easier.
  • Avoid the anxiety spiral – We have overactive brains which usually jump to the negative. We tend to escalate things. It’s a form of catastrophizing. A simple example might be when your principal asks to speak with you. Immediately, your brain goes to, “What did I do wrong?” “Are they going to eliminate my position?” “Did a parent complain?” You haven’t learned the purpose of the meeting, yet you assume something is wrong. It could be something positive, but you are already in a panic about what might be coming. The energy wasted is enormous. Your stress is high for no reason. This is another time to pause and remind yourself that until you know, you don’t know. You can’t deal with an issue that is still unknown. Wait for further information.
  • Let go of ego-driven stakes – This usually applies when we’re leading or initiating a big project. Maybe you launched a “One book, One School” event. Perhaps you are planning to genre-fy your collection. You’re out on a limb and everyone is looking at you. Besides the anxiety spiral of “what if it doesn’t work?”, you may also find the Imposter Syndrome has taken hold. “Why did I try this?” “What was I thinking?” With support from your PLN and others who have done this, you will get through it. Plan to get help and share credit. Leadership involves risk. The more risks you take, the more successes you have as compared with projects that didn’t meet your expectations. What did you learn from it that you can use next time? Whatever happens, it’s not the end of the world – or your career.
  • Gauge what is truly urgent – Too often we expend time and energy on what is immediately in front of us. Using Jensen as a guide to deal with this, ask yourself, “What might happen if I rush to get this done?” Then ask yourself, “What will happen if I delay for a while?” Not everything that lands on your plate is urgent. How does it relate to your Mission and Goals? What/who is the source of this task/request? Is there a due date on it? If it is immediate, does it make sense to request a delay? Focusing on the high priority items in your to-do list, however you keep track of your tasks, reminds you of what needs doing first. I use a star and sometimes multiple stars.

We don’t need to eliminate pressure. Pressure is not the problem. It can, in fact, be useful. It powers us to go beyond ourselves and do better than we knew we could. However, the anxiety pressure causes drains us. By developing the strategies to reduce the anxiety, we gain the benefits of pressure with fewer negative effects of accompanying anxiety.