[S2E19] Calendar Blocking for Directors

Here's the problem.

The problem is that you have plenty of time.

You just think you don't.

Most directors don't actually have a time problem.

They have a priority problem.

I know that sounds unfair because you're probably genuinely busy and you, not probably, you are genuinely busy.

You may be working 10 hour days.

You may be answering messages before you arrive and after you leave.

You may be covering a classroom, interviewing teachers.

following up on tuition, talking with parents, trying to increase enrollment, handling staff conflicts, ordering supplies, doing tours, putting out fires.

So yeah, you are busy.

But being busy and making progress are not necessarily the same thing.

And that's where calendar blocking becomes important.

Because if you don't deliberately assign time to important work, important work gets replaced by urgent work.

And in a preschool, urgent work is everywhere.

Urgent work has a loud voice.

Important work often doesn't.

Someone coming to your door and saying, I need to talk to you right now feels urgent.

Reviewing your enrollment pipeline may be important.

A parent complaint feels urgent.

Analyzing your staff schedule for next month is important.

a child needs immediate attention, planning next month's family engagement strategy is important, a teacher calls out, updating your onboarding process is important, a licensing issue comes up, reviewing your classroom observation schedule is important, and if you aren't careful, you can spend your entire day responding to urgency.

Then you leave at whatever time you leave and realize, I didn't get anything done that I wanted to do today.

That's not because you're lazy.

That's not because you're inefficient.