My journey with faculty leadership and management.

There is so much on the go.  I really need to sort my daily routine out so I can be much more productive and effective than I was in term 2.  Particularly towards the end of term 2 I would spend large portions of time looking at my endlessly growing To do list, but not knowing where to start. Currently there is about 80 job on the list, some of which are small tasks that will take 30 minutes or less to complete, others are large projects running over weeks.  Problem was I could not find a place to start work and would get distracted by solving computer issues or re-arranging my desk.  Neither fit in the formula for effective work.

I am also critically aware of my large periods of absence from my faculty and staff.  To me this means I need to be visibly involved in faculty leadership and management work whilst I am there.  If I spend large amounts of time achieving little, then am absent on regular occasions there is a real possibility of developing the perception that the faculty is of reduced importance in the range of roles I work within.  I needed to develop a planned work flow to enable enhance productivity.

To do this I’ve gone back to the age old advice from the first Deputy Principal I worked with.  I was only in the same school as her for a semester but she has had a profound impact on my professional life.  My favourite catch phrase of hers is “Just make sure your own world buzzes, the rest doesn’t matter.”  This is something I have kept in my mind consistently, and in reality is probably on reason I continue to put my hand up for projects that come my way – simply because I enjoy being involved and working within a range of teams.

Another catch phrase she used to say was “Always clean your desk before you go home.”  Now until recently I took that literally, as her desk was always pristeen.  But I am now thinking about it a little more metaphorically.  My desktop includes the actual desktop, my intray, email inbox, thoughts, notes in diary and default evernote notebook and my whiteboard.  If the desktop is clean but the rest still cluttered, then organisation of the following workday is a challenge.  So this term I am focused on cleaning my entire desk before I go home.  To achieve this I will need to revisit a theory I have blogged about before – “Zen to Done.”  Specifically the ubiquitous and complete capture.  I need to devote an hour at the end of each day to “process” and plan for the following day.  I believe if I can come into work with an achievable list of tasks written on my diary then my stress and procrastination may reduce.

Why written notes?  I put a lot of information on my computer and in the cloud.  I think I need to list the working goals separately to reduce distraction.  And I need to realise my achievable list may have few, or even single items on it.  I will never get all the hours allocated to me to complete work. As a leader and manager I need to plan for interaction and problem solving with staff.

So wish me luck, hopefully I leave term 3 under a deal less stress than I did term 2.

A critical factor in successfully managing others is efficient management of self.  Over the years I have tried quite a few models of personal management, but am quite happy with the process I have working at the moment.  I have followed the “Getting Things Done” methodology but found it too verbose and time consuming to actually categorise all my tasks.  In my reading I have come across “Zen to Done” which although built on the same principles is a lot easier to implement.

Every leader / manager has a “pile of work” that is waiting to be completed.  Some may have more than one pile.  To me the most important step of Zen to Done, and my personal management, is to capture everything I need to do into a single list. That means getting all the paper notes, voice mail messages, calendar reminders, email inbox, physical inbox etc, and creating a single list.  When you do this for the first time, don’t worry about sorting.  I like digital lists, and have become a fan of Toodledo.com which I sync with Ultimate ToDos on my iPod Touch and through a toodledo widget on my iGoogle.  The advantage to Toodledo for me is its calendar view of tasks.

Having a single list of tasks allows me to plan for task completion more effectively.  However this plan also relies on me being realistic about my time.   I have come to learn that as a leader / manager you don’t own all of your time.  Even though I have 630 minutes of lesson time where I am not teaching during the week, that does not mean I get 630 minutes to work on my tasks.  There will always be interruptions, questions to answer and problems to solve.  This is why I like ZTD’s idea of most important tasks.  Have categorised in your task list a number of mot important tasks you know you can complete in the week.  I limit myself to two (2).  If I finish them and get to work on others, then that is a bomus.  This also provides some perspectve and allows you to decline some requests for extra work, and provides a chance to be able to agree to that extra work you are actually interested in.

In order to effectively complete my MITs, I need to have a routine for work completion.  For me this means developing a calendar of personal and work committments, and seeing where there is space to work relatively uninterrupted.  I tend to stay at school after 3pm a couple days a week to get that uninterrupted time.  However if doing this, its important to have a cut-off time.  For me this is easy, as its important to be home for dinner with the family.  To do this I have to leave by 5:30pm.

When I feel I am in control of my working life, I feel more confident to lead and manage my staff, and less stressed generally.  I encourage you, read Zen to Done but most importantly develop a plan that works for you.