This month's blog revisits a special request from one of my supervision clients:
"How may I effectively manage my time during the Christmas period so I'm not overwhelmed and can enjoy time with my family?"
It's easy to see why the question comes up. For school leaders, the run to Christmas pulls in every direction at once. There are end-of-term events that somebody has to hold together, governors' meetings and parental concerns, staff who are running on empty after a long autumn, and a steady stream of everyone else's festive problems arriving on your desk.
At home, the demands rise at exactly the same time. There are presents to buy, food to organise and a house to decorate, along with an expectation that you'll have a "jolly Christmas" whether or not that comes easily to you. Plenty of it is joyful, and all of it takes time and energy.
I should warn you that this blog may not give the answer you're hoping for.
Yes, I will share some time management tips below. However, my client's request arrived while I was reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, a fascinating look at how we perceive and experience time. It makes our attempts to control and manage time look rather ridiculous, because humans are finite. We can only do so much in the time we're given.
Which leads me to the central question:
What do you choose to give your attention to?
Time management, in the end, is about choice. That's where I'd start.
1. What are you not willing to say no to?
It is possible to say no to some things. I know that's hard when you’re a school leader, particularly when school doesn't leave much room for your wellbeing or your time off. Even so, it's worth asking yourself: what are you not willing to say no to?
At home, that might be your own child's Christmas concert, your local carol service, or a glass of mulled wine in front of the TV on a Wednesday evening with no guilt attached.
At work, it might be the parts of your role that you care about most. If you're passionate about your work as a SENCo, for example, you may decide that stays on the list, and that other things have to give way around it.
It's your choice where your attention goes. Once you accept that you can't do everything, however hard you try, it can be a relief to decide what you will do.
2. Put you in the diary
Once you know what you're keeping, protect it by putting it in your diary. Things that are written in are far more likely to happen.
It also helps to hold you to account, especially if you tell someone else your plans. Then let yourself look forward to it.
3. Make a realistic list of priorities
With the important things in your diary, look at your priority tasks for the run-up to Christmas and the holidays themselves. For each one, ask yourself:
How long will this take?
Once I know, where does it fit in my diary?
How realistic is it to finish this before Christmas?
How will I be feeling when I reach that point in the diary?
Will I have the energy, the workspace and the time to do it to a standard I'll be pleased with?
Take a hard look at your diary as you go. Run your list through those questions a few times, and expect it to change. Some things may need to wait until January. If that happens, go back to the first question and check how much each task matters to you. Letting something wait is a sensible result of looking honestly at your diary.
Sometimes it's the little things that count the most
Now that we've covered the central idea, which is choosing where your attention goes, here are three smaller techniques that help with your workload over the festive period and into the new year.
4. Pomodoro it
The Pomodoro Technique breaks your work into chunks and builds in breaks, so you stay rested and in flow. I use it all the time in my own work.
You set a timer for a standard stretch of work, usually 25 minutes, then take a break, usually five. I give myself ten!
Adapt it to the gaps in your day. If you have a free hour between meetings, that's two Pomodoros. I recommend an app called Focus To Do.
5. Use body doubling to get things done
You know the task on your list that you really need to do, but you never get round to it? Or you squirm and wriggle and find something else to do instead? That's when body doubling helps.
Body doubling means working alongside someone else, either in the same room or virtually. You each agree on a task and sit down to do it together. Alternatively, the other person is simply there for moral support.
It gives you something to anchor to, and it's lovely for the times the role feels lonely. It also gives you accountability: you've told someone what you're going to do, so you're more likely to do it.
One caveat. Choose your body double wisely. You want to get the task done, not have a natter with your work-wife or husband. That's for your reward afterwards
6. Set a reminder to log off
At the end of your working day, end your day at work.
That sounds obvious, but it's easy to slip into more work in the evenings or over the holidays, because the job is never finished and it sits at the back of your mind. If your work email is on your phone, you're also inviting school to interrupt you outside of school and take priority again.
So set yourself a reminder to log off, and remind yourself why it matters to you. By saying no to more work this evening, you're saying yes to something else, like watching Christmas films with your family or writing Christmas cards while singing along to Wham as loudly as possible.
Remember, you get to choose where your attention goes.
If you'd like to work through this with your own diary open, alongside other school leaders doing the same, it's the focus of this term's live session in the Sustainable Leaders Membership: What Needs Doing Before Christmas (and What Doesn't), on Thursday 19th November, 6:30–7:30pm. You can find out more and join here.