Productivity Update

I have always been interested in improving my productivity;  I blogged about organization skills and tools nine times over the years.

Earlier this school year, I decided to join a Facebook group called Principal Productivity, Becoming a Productive Principal. I have been working on this for my entire principal career. Considering that there are more than 1,200 member of the group, I guess this is a widespread issue. Anyway, to get into the group, I had to write a productivity challenge statement. Here is what i wrote:

"Getting into classrooms and doing the other stuff later while still seeing my children everyday."

Over the past few years, I have gotten increasingly better at getting into classroom (more on that in another blog post). I get most fo the "other stuff" done at some point, and I see my children and spend quality time with them throughout the week. Now, I am not perfect at any of this, and some weeks are far better than others. Over time, I think that I have a decent record due to a bunch of strategies and tools/

To stay organized and be productive, I use a variety of methods.

• I keep my email inbox empty with liberal use of the snooze feature and with forwarding to a to-do program or Evernote. 
• I keep an Evernote doc going with next week’s staff email memo so that I can edit it quickly and get it out on Thursday nights.
• I keep a digital to-do list using Toodledo. The free version does everything I want, and they update frequently. I especially love being able to email items, schedule a future start date, and sync between devices.
• I also keep a physical to-do folder where I put a sticky on each paper identifying what actions I will need to take with that paper.
• My secretary/admin assistant passes papers that need my attention in “The Folder.” Most staff have learned that the folder is the best way to get a quick response from me. I look at the folder several times throughout the day and either act of stuff immediately (if it will be quick) or save it for later when the students are gone.
• I track longterm goals and projects in Evernote because I have been using it for years (there are frequently articles talking about other note apps and why they are better).
• My google calendars know more about me than anyone in the world - my wife included possibly. I share calendars with my secretary and my wife. This way, my two bosses can always know where I am supposed to be and add appointments for me.

Keeping all this going does take a little bit of time to maintain, and it has been worth it. This year has been one of the smoothest of my career with more documented classroom visits then ever before. I recently made another change so that I am spending longer periods of time in a classroom. I walk in with my to-do folder and my laptop (MacBook Air), then I sit somewhere in the room and work on whatever is pressing (or sometimes I get some old thing done). I stop my work frequently to listen to the classroom chatter and to ask students what they are learning.

All this is to say that time spent planning and organizing helps me to be more productive which helps me spend more time with the things that really matter.

Firing Positive Neurons: Gratitude at BCS

Throughout this school year, the BCS Faculty has been studying Teaching Kids to Thrive: Essential Skills for Success by Debbie Thompson Silver and Dedra A. Stafford as part of our work on improving the social-emotional skills of our students. At a faculty learning time meeting a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the chapter on Gratitude. After a debate about whether gratitude was in fact something that can be taught, we decided to heed the words from page 221, “When we purposefully practice gratitude, we are firing positive neurons.” We agreed that a couple of days later, at DENS (our weekly k-8 advisory groups) we would complete a simple gratitude activity mentioned in the chapter. Each student would write down something at school for which she is grateful. Then, we would post all the papers on a gratitude board in the hall.

Well, I’d forgotten that I was not going to be at school that Friday. Also, I forgot to prepare the activity (oops, too busy for my own good sometimes). Turns out, there were a number of other staff absences so we canceled DENS altogether that day. So, with this reprieve in hand, I put off creating the activity for a few more days. The following Friday, I was saved once again by the huge amount of staff absences this time of year; we canceled DENS again.

Finally, this past week, I remembered to create the papers, clear the bulletin board, and make a sign. The papers are simple: 1/3 of a page with lines, the BCS logo, and the words “At BCS, I am grateful for…” Since I had time before a Board meeting, I wrote a memo with the very simple instructions. Friday morning, I handed out the memo and the papers to all of the DENS staff (all teachers, most paras). They handed the papers back to me later in the day. I hung them in a brick-like pattern at the suggestion of Chloe.

All afternoon, students and staff stopped to look at the gratitude wall. No surprises, but I think the cook got the most mentions.

The kicker to all of this is that this week had been one of the toughest all year in terms of student behavior. The gratitude that we started the day with helped us end this hard week on a high note. I guess that all that positive-neuron-firing really works.