Guest post by Jane Core Yatzek
As we welcomed in a New Year, many of us participated in the age-old tradition of creating New Year’s Resolutions. I have set goals over the years for more sleep, more exercise, more time with those I love, more professional reading, more of any number of things. But as we find ourselves in March – almost 12 weeks into the year – I am looking at resolutions that are sagging in progress or worse have been forgotten. I find myself wondering what about less?
With the same 24 hours a day in 2018 that you had in 2017, you are not going to have more time for anything unless you have less of something else. Administrators in education today have such complex jobs – they are data analysts, organizational managers, team motivators, vision setters, all while acting as in loco parentis for hundreds of students daily. How can you possibly let go of something?
Research has found that letting go of something or declining a request maybe the best way to get ahead as it relieves anxiety and helps us set (or reset) priorities. Recent studies on scarcity reveal that when time gets limited we feel more pressure to take on more commitments, when realistically we should be minimizing commitments to balance our schedules. So, if you are ready to get some of your time back, what will you try to do less of? Here are some ideas to get you started:
*Let go of working through lunch – get up and eat lunch in a new spot without answering email, checking voice-mail, proofreading the newsletter. You can also multi-task this “let-go” by reconnecting with a known colleague or meeting a new colleague as your lunch buddy!
*Let go of a project that you can delegate – Hate how the front bulletin board always need attention? Picture schedule needs to be redone? After school tutoring data needs collecting? Give the basic parameters to budding teacher leaders and let their creativity fly and skills grow!
*Say “no, thank you” when someone asks you to be a part of something – and be fine with watching from afar or not watching at all.
*Need a baby step? Try letting go of something for a week. Reflect on Friday if it can be a more permanent “less”; either way you had less of something and more time for something else for five days!
Less may very well be more, let’s spend the next part of 2018 finding out!
Jane Core Yatzeck is a doctoral student in Curriculum Leadership at William & Mary School of Education. She has 20 years of experience in education; first as a special education and general education elementary school teacher, and then as a school administrator at the middle and elementary levels. She can be reached at jacor2@email.wm.edu or on Twitter @jcoreyatzeck.
Resources:
https://hbr.org/2010/01/say-yes-to-saying-no
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/5_research_based_ways_to_say_no
Like this post? You might find Lisa’ Nelson’s Stop, Continue, Start visual template useful in planning. http://seeincolors.com/stop-continue-start-template-a-visual-tool-for-productivity/