Sep
22
2009
Managing Workflow ….
Posted by: greg.carroll in Web 2.0, professional learning, school leadershipI have been doing quite a bit of thinking recently about managing workflow. All school leaders have an infinite amount of work to do. There is always the tension between the important and the urgent.
But once you get down to it there are things I have found help me to actually get the work done. I am predominantly digital and much of my professional life is on my Mac laptop:
- I keep as much of my work digital as I can. I email a lot. My calendar is iCal.
- I use Growl – with lots of extensions installed – to let me know when new messages come in, when I have a new message on Skype, etc. I then get to read mail messages without flicking to the programme itself.
- Adium is a neat wee application that pulls iChat etc into one small window. Skype and Adium are on all the time and I use them in very transactional ways to connect with the people that I need to anywhere in the world.
- My Mail only checks once an hour to reduce distractions
- My inbox is a sort of ‘to do’ list. I use a Mail extension called Letterbox to change how Mail looks – into two columns – so I can read the message in one screen full for most messages. This saves a lot of scrolling and flicking around the screen.
- I have a notebook. A good old spiral bound analogue notebook. And I use this to keep all the business cards, notes, scribbles, etc that I need to keep track of. Lots of stuff glued in.
- I run a 20″ monitor plugged into my laptop with a nice set of speakers. I have music going most of the time and work on the big screen with mail open on my laptop. Two screens is great!
- ByteController runs my iTunes – a small application that sits in my taskbar, is easily accessed and enables me to mute, jump around or stop what is playing. Music helps me concentrate.
- I TRY to keep my desk as clear as possible. Vain hope most of the time, but it is a goal.
- I have a meeting table in my office and a toybox to keep wee people amused if I am needing to have a conversation with their parents. ….
- I tweak stuff. I have quite a list of Firefox extensions running as well as specific software installed that modify things to make them look and feel how I want.
- I have a palm Treo 650 phone that syncs to my laptop with its calendar etc using Missing Sync software. My pocket buzzes when I am supposed to be remembering things.
- LOTS of things go into my iCal – I link to emails and paste in documents etc as well so all the information is in one place. I keep meeting notes in particular events too.
So these are some of the tricks and tweaks I use that have fallen together over the years. They work for me.
What things do you do to manage your workflow? Lets share in the comments.
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Great post! We replied via a comment on our website at: http://www.slaughterdevelopment.com/2009/09/23/principal-workflow/.
You are of course correct that there is an infinite amount of work to be done, but the key challenge is find time to create ways to work smarter. You’ve leveraged your own workflow with technology, but you also recognize the importance of focus. This is only possible when remove distractions in time (like dinging email) and space (like a messy desk.)
Best of luck!
@robbyslaughter
Greg you must come and visit us at Freeville. We are disciples of Malachai Pancoast, an educational leadership guru. Our principals office is bare. Not even a desk. Just one big conference table. No computer just a phone. His secretary manages all his workload. He uses his laptop only when he needs it and then puts it away. I read your list and thought most of this my boss doesn’t even have to manage cause someone else handles all that for him. The aim is for him to be out in classes two days a week leading learning. Couldn’t do it if it wasn’t almost all digital of course.
Paul
Hi Paul,
A few things spring to mind for me …. And maybe Robby above would suggest Malachai-esque strategies as well?
I have heard Malachai speak at the Principals Conference and must say I was VERY underwhelmed. He has good concepts but asking that we closed laptops when he began his speeches was not a good start for me. I wouldn’t as I was intending to take notes and he simply stood there looking at those of us with them still open …. very analogue thinker, and quite confrontational in terms of his way or the highway.
I would also contest he is a MANAGEMENT ‘expert’ – leadership to me seemed to have little to do with what he was about. His focus with us was on systems and strategies to manage time and workflow. Not how to lead people, simply free the time for it through the systems he has.
His model also has a number of assumptions that are not necessarily warranted in a NZ context:
1. You are a non-teaching principal
2. You are a BIG school. You have the staffing and level of secretarial support to support a full time secretary/PA.
3. You have a principals PA with real skills, not simply a school secretary – which is what many schools have. One of the principals there who has embraced Malachais concepts did say he had to replace his person before the system worked
4. You have the physical space/s to enable the model. My office for example is also storage for office supplies and there is simply no choice as there is no other space in the admin area.
5 you have people capable of accepting the delegations necessary to free up the principal from admin work. This includes the management team as well as Office staff.
I feel much of what he is promoting is sound in theory, but for big schools and in a US (hierachical, top down) model of management. Watching him deliver had me cringing. It was like an infomercial. All that was missing was the Ginsu steak knives.
A couple of things I DID take from what he said were:
* to make sure “you are not the least interesting thing in your Office”.
* keeping the spaces clear and organized
* the focus on being ‘a leader of learning’ role and prioritizing getting into classrooms. Getting bogged in the urgent, rather than the important, is very easy in this job.
This all sounds very negative, its not meant to be. I am sure it is working for you, but I am not sure I am a deciple of the guru yet….
my 2c worth.
Hi Greg
A coupe of things I have recently changed that have helped me manage my time better:
1) Turned my Palm 650 in and bought an iPhone (long story but I managed to buy it so that now I am on prepay and are saving money = $10 month as I use my wireless setup from home). With my iPhone I have everything at my fingertips eg: Twitter using Echofon, skype, email, weather notices, music via itunes, yellow pages app, iCal, phone, messaging, notes, Docs to Go (I can edit Word and view/store PDF,XCL,PNG,JPEG, etc, etc), Linkedin app, dictionary, snow reports, contacts, bible, voice recorder, still and video camera……the list goes on (I have snuck a nice wee game in there to called “Need for Speed”) Just imagine your mac laptop in your pocket!
2) I used to have my calender setup with dates and then another task list going separate from the calender. Now I use my iCal for both. This way I plan the length of my meetings and how long I can need for each task all into the days calender. It is great as now I go to school with realistic expectations and complete what I have planned. I don’t come home and find I have barely started my “task list” and have to push them onto the next day.
So there is my way of doing things better :+)
Greg I was also in the audience for Malachai last year and have to agree with most of your points.
A few good tips (1 hour workshop?) that were spun out into three painful presentations. My radar always picks up when someone tells us that their programme will only work if it’s implemented wholesale – seems to me that if his “breakthrough” doesn’t work, then the it’s the user that’s faulty, not the advice??
One thing I took from him though (in addition to those that you’ve already highlighted) was “It is a leaders job to work on the system, not in the system”. That has influenced my thinking (and actions) quite profoundly. I don’t get so caught up now in reactive stuff and am getting better at looking at systems rather than events. So for that alone he was worth going to.
In terms of my workflow – I’m about to do a post on it which I’ll link to here.
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