Every once in a while someone will ask me about my routines or daily structure at work. This is typically built from the fact that I seemingly get a lot done for my district and in the educational space at large and they are looking for a tip or a hack that I MUST be using to get ahead. They simply want to know how to get more done!
My answer has always been the same – do less.
The response is not typically what the other person is looking for. I understand that the answer seems counterintuitive. The mere fact that they were asking me the question implies that they think I am doing more than them in the first place and here I am telling them to do less.
It is the truth, however. I think that one of the things that has best benefited me in my career is figuring out what to spend tens of hours on and what to spend tens of seconds on. The ability to discern what is vital and important versus what is perceived as emergent and timely is my biggest strength in terms of being productive.
The way I frame this in my brain is always to determine whether or not what I am doing requires my skills, expertise, or positional power. If the answer is yes, then I ask whether or not completing this activity is required and/or will move the organization closer to its goals. If the answer is no to either screener, then I typically just move on after using about three seconds of brain power and do not waste energy on things that are not of value.
When I explain this, most people push back and want another piece of advice. To which, I say never leave the office with anything in your email inbox. This one really blows the mind of some people (like some of you) with 2,391 emails unread in your inbox. Occasionally, this will lead to someone calling me out and asking how I can get to ‘zero inbox’ and still being “doing less.”
To be clear, zero inbox is not a requirement to be efficient or successful. For me, however, it is a requirement to relax and being able to relax is a requirement for me to be creative and think of new solutions to existing problems.
The question still persists, however. How do you get to zero inbox and still do less? The answer is simple. First, I am not afraid to hit delete and move on. Second, the mindset I go into opening every email that has a task designated to it is who in the organization would MOST benefit from doing this work. To be clear, it is not who would do the work best. This gets me in the mindset of helping someone build their capacity and not just off-loading my work.
If I can re-route the work, I will. In the email doing so, I always BCC myself on it. As soon as it comes back to my inbox, I delay-deliver it to myself for whatever amount of time I deem appropriate and move on. Instead of spending time on a project that my skill set is not required for, I build the overall skills of my team. Even knowing that sometimes doing this costs me time up front, it ALWAYS pays me back ten-fold over time.
Even with this advice, most people making a steadfast effort will find that they still have a lingering number of to-dos or emails to get to each day that seem to persist in their inbox no matter what. There are two key things to take away from this. First, whatever the theme of the tasks may be is likely an area you need to work on building your skills and capacity. Second, for 90-plus percent of people these persisting to-dos have something to do with holding someone accountable. Almost always, the meaningful conversations are the ones that are not occurring in real-time.
Ironically, not engaging in these conversations will only create more work and stress. So, I guess my advice needs to be modified. Do less, unless that involves holding someone accountable or having a meaningful conversation. Then do more, faster. Every day there are battles to be fought. Do not walk past work and conversations that you know need to take place for your own comfort. Doing so is not only selfish, it is a failure to lead.
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS TO GUIDE SOME THINKING
- What conversation do you know you should be having that you are avoiding?
- What things do you spend time on that you find neither productive nor enjoyable?
- When you look at your peers do you find that you spend far more time on something than they do? Is that thing helping you achieve greater results? If not, why are you spending time on it?
- How can you make your efforts and time better align toward one goal instead of pulling yourself in multiple directions?
- Why do you spend time doing something if you have no idea of the return on investment of doing so?
THE BEST THING I READ/WATCHED THIS WEEK
The Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni
This is a rare non-education or leadership related book recommendation. For anyone that This is a prototypical Lencioni book that is fable-based and has an extraordinary amount of leadership nuggets throughout. The premise is that all of us have different types of working genius and when our job demands do not match our genius it leads to dissatisfaction and burnout. As leaders, therefore, it is incumbent upon us to know our people well enough to match their job descriptions to their strengths whenever possible. This is a highly recommended read.
RECENT PIECES OF MY WORK
NEW PODCAST
Anchored in Education with E. Scott England – The Unfinished Leader
AND
WRITING
Where Has All The Writing Gone – ThinkCerca
Leading a Digital Transformation – Ed Tech Magazine
A Three Step Process for Evaluating Costly Investments – Edutopia
NEW COURSE ON ED LEADERS NETWORK