I know what you are thinking….”Why would Jacealyn share her week with me? Why would I care about what she does in a week?” Well, the truth is, you probably don’t really care. But I wanted to share my week with you to give you some systems that I have put in place that have helped me become more balanced in my personal and professional life. This week by week system has changed the way I lead, the way I parent, and the way I talk to myself. These habits that I have instilled, as a busy mama of three (who are very active in sports), a leader of a school, a wife, and a person who is passionate about her ‘me’ time, have made me way happier and way more balanced. That is why I want to share my week and why I think you might be interested. If not, well, that’s ok too, but maybe you might want to use one of these habits to fit your own life.
Things look a lot different for me now then they did a few years ago. I made these changes because I was burnt out, stressed out, and emotionally unavailable for my own self and family. I was on autopilot and getting nowhere. Not to mention I was not as healthy as I should be. I finally made changes after talking with a psychologist, my doctor, researching experts, and looking into my own values and beliefs to figure out what really mattered. Let’s face it, being a leader mama or having a life outside of your career isn’t easy. These revelations and habits I am about to share will help, but it is never easy.
I am going to share some life lessons I learned along the way, some tips along the way, and the good, the bad, and the ugly of a typical week for this leader mama. So let’s get started!
I am going to share my week from Sunday to Friday with you because that is where the rubber really hits the road. Let’s be honest, Saturdays well…..those are mine and I get to do whatever I want on those days and you probably wouldn’t be interested in that…
I start my week Sunday night after I have spent Saturday and Sunday in me time and family time. About a half hour before I go to bed, I head into my home office and I pull out my Full Focus planner by Michael Hyatt and I open up my computer to Asana, a project management tool that I use to keep me on task, focused, and dedicated to my personal and professional life. I have learned a lot from watching other entrepreneurs, leaders, and my mentors, and seeing just how they plan and prioritize and execute and live life throughout the week. It’s significantly influenced and inspired how I set up my week. I take about 20-30 minutes to get hyper clear about what my week is going to look like professionally and personally. The Full Focus planner also helps. It guides me to reflect on what happened the week before and whether or not I accomplished what I had set out to do and then it helps me set up my week that is coming up. When I go to set up my week, I set my WEEKLY big 3 for the week. These are the top three most important and pressing things that must get done by the end of the week. It helps me to be way more intentional about what I need to be working on in order to gain traction and build momentum. Let me walk you through this past week so that you can get a really clear picture how this all works. So for me, the first of my weekly big 3 was to team teach an hour a day with one of our KG teachers. Being visible in classrooms is a top priority for me and I have set up weeks throughout the year where I will team teach with a teacher on a top priority of theirs. We do pre meetings to determine and plan how we will work on this priority and then we teach throughout the week with a post meeting at the end. I don’t do this every week only certain weeks throughout the year and this particular week contained this admin/teacher team teacher workshop as one of my weekly big 3. I had to carve out time to have a pre-meeting which I had already done with the teacher the Friday before and then carve out the time when I would be in her classroom and how we would quickly meet to plan the next lesson and debrief. Therefore, I had to schedule in time each day from Monday to Friday.
The second big thing on my weekly big 3 list was to meet with my admin team to do the AERR report. This was a report that we have to do for the division that asks us to reflect on the year past and provide proof and evidence of how the actions we said we were going to implement that year affected student learning and teacher growth. Next, it requires us to set actions for the following year. I needed to schedule that in and so I chose Thursday for us to do this while teachers were busy with parent/teacher interviews. Usually, we’ll get together and we’ll look at, what does the year look like? What do we want to work on? What’s coming up in the new year? What are some of the professional development we’re going to do and what are our top priorities?
The third thing on the Weekly Big 3 List was meet with grade teams and our admin team to go over their praxis work. Each grade team chooses a top priority and three actions they will do to tackle that priority throughout the year. Our admin team books two different days throughout the year where we provide a sub and we meet with each team for 45 minutes to discuss how it is all going, some proof of implementation, next steps, and how we can support.
We’ll have a day that we meet with each of them and they come with their own agenda. They ask us questions. We brainstorm. And there are typically conversations around each of the grade team’s praxis work and the project they are working on.
The reason we meet with each team is if the grade team is clear about their projects—they have the answers they need. They have the support they need—they’re able to help us move toward those goals. So those one-on-one meetings are really important, and we do them twice a year. This particular week, we booked this day for Tuesday.
Ok so Monday morning, I get up super early. It is absolutely my most sacred time to get things done. And it is meant only for me. I grab my energizer drink, put my runners on and run on my treadmill. Next, I jump on my computer with a coffee and I work on my passion project – my digital course business for mama leaders. I then get myself and the kids ready for school and we head there for the day. As soon as I get into work, I get started on my start up routine (which you can read in more detail at another blog post.) I also have a free guide that explains my start up and shut down routine in more detail which you can download here. In a nutshell, I go through the pressing emails only and I set my top big three DAILY priorities that need to get done and then I schedule when I will do them in my full focus planner.
In the Full Focus Planner, every single day, you’re going to choose three tasks that, no matter what, you’re getting these tasks done. And to be more intentional, these three tasks should all be tied to your quarterly or yearly goals. And of course, I’m going to get more than three things done today, but these are the most important that deserve my full focus.
The first thing for me today is I am going to spend one hour in the kg classroom team teaching with the teacher. Next, I am going to spend some time writing up a debrief using my digital notebook in the app called Notability. I keep all of my notes, work samples, pictures inside of there and it acts like a notebook and a scrapbook. It helps me keep everything all in one place. If you remember, this was a part of my weekly big three so this actually doesn’t count as my daily big three. My daily big three for this Monday was to workout and do a run on my treadmill, set up an agenda, schedule, and sub for the grade team meetings that were happening on Tuesday, and I had a wellness meeting that I had to attend for the division.
Monday night, I always start my shut down routine a half hour before I leave from work. This is where I clear out my inbox to 0, check whether or not I got my daily three done, and plan my next day in my planner. I also do a quick check on Asana to ensure everything is up to date. As I looked at my day today, I notice that I am really starting to make working out in the morning a part of my daily routine. I am realizing how much it energizes me and it is getting easier for me to make it happen. The team teach was a little mucky today and we debriefed and brainstormed some ways to organize the students at the carpet and pace our lesson quicker so they weren’t so restless. The wellness meeting was a success and we determined how we would deliver the wellness dimensions in an efficient way to the rest of the teachers so that it wasn’t another new thing. So overall, Monday was a success because I got the daily three done! So my night is now dedicated to hockey arenas and finally some ‘me time’ watching Yellowstone.
Tuesday, my daily three are workout (which I went to the gym first thing to get it done), meet with the grade teams (which was part of my weekly big three), but today is where I make it happen, and do a facebook live with my private leadership facebook group.
Tuesday night, I am exhausted from all of the meetings with grade teams and having to be on for the facebook live group but I am thrilled with what the day produced. Each meeting was fruitful in it’s own way and it really gave our admin team a look into the amazing work that is happening in our school. I made a lot of notes in my notability app and made sure to send them off to the teams and made sure that the start up and shut down routines happened. My facebook live was ok….not going to lie, I would have loved more people to show up for the live but I know that eventually it will all come together. As long as I reach one person then that is enough. I typically end my work day at 4 and then start my shut down routine until 4:30. This Tuesday, I am running off to yet another arena and then cooking dinner and hanging out with the kids. I always make sure I have things automated whenever I can and so I subscribed to a weekly delivery of 3 family meals so that we eat healthy and it takes the guesswork and time out of figuring out what to eat each night. After dinner, I usually do something for me and tonight it is reading a book called Passion to Purpose but it wasn’t long until I feel asleep!
Wednesday I woke up still really tired but got my workout in anyway and it definitely energized me. Today’s workout was a bike and core strength. After, I worked on my sales page on passion project to sell a membership for School Leader Mamas to find more balance yet be productive and efficient leaders and mamas. Stay tuned for that one! After we got to school, I set up my daily three. The first one was team teach in KG and meet afterwards, next I wanted to set one hour aside to plan next month’s staff meeting and ed council, and third I wanted to batch write 3 blog posts. I always suggest batching content or tasks whenever you can. It helps to focus you and get more done because you are only focusing on one thing vs. doing a little bit here and there.
Wednesday evening, I check in with it all during my shut down routine. The teaching in kg was a breakthrough lesson for us and we figured out a pacing and a seating system that really connected and engaged the kids! I was able to get both ed council and staff meetings planned although it took longer than I wanted. To be honest, I am struggling right now with motivating and engaging teachers through zoom to have more meaningful conversations. So I did a lot of research to plan our next staff meeting and came up with a more effective way for teachers to coach each other on their praxis plans without making it too much work for them. Fingers crossed that it is successful! Stay tuned… I also managed to set two hours aside to batch content for my blog but it was a slog. I had scheduled it for after the kids went to bed (like after 8) and I really was too tired to do it then. Next time, I will schedule it in for an early Saturday morning with a really fancy coffee and when my mind is fresh. So all in all, I did get my daily three done. However, I did not schedule enough down time so that was an issue today.
Thursday morning I woke up, got a weight session in at the gym, and got to work on my sales page again for my leadership mama membership. It is a super big job and finishing my sales page was at the top of my daily three list for Thursday. I also had team teaching in KG once again and doing a post meeting with that teacher to go over the week. Next, I had the AERR meeting to finish the AERR report. Remember that was one of my weekly big 3 and so we scheduled that into our entire afternoon for Thursday. Today I really wanted to focus on what I could outsource to someone else. I am a big believer in setting up standard operating procedures whenever and wherever I can. These templates and procedures help me to delegate with support and without me always having to be there. Today, I also wanted to take a deep dive into my calendar and outsource a few things so that I could be more productive and efficient and grow more leaders in our school.
Thursday evening, I did my shut down routine and reflected on my day. I had a great post meeting with the KG teacher and she had some great revelations from the week that she would like to carry forward. As far as the AERR report, we did not complete it fully and still have to set some time aside next week for that. There was some unanticipated hurdles for gathering data but we did get a lot done. I did not quite get done my sales page so I moved it over to Friday but I know that it will get done by tomorrow. As far as digging into my calendar to see what I could outsource for the day or the next few days, I realized that I could work with a few of the teacher leaders in my group to help with coming up with some sentence starters and questions for our coaching session at our upcoming staff meeting where teachers will be coaching each other on their praxis work. This is an opportunity to provide a leadership moment to these teachers and get their input on how to make the most of the coaching session rather than me doing all of the research and guessing what they need. They are the ones who are in the thick of it and know how to make the most impact with the time we have. Therefore they will take the lead with the staff meeting. It is a win win for all of us and I know that I will learn a lot from them as well.
I have a rare night off so I am taking it to spend time with the kids and we are going to set up Christmas. After, I am going to curl up by the fire with Yellowstone and some wine. After, it is a good book and bed!
Friday morning, I get a run and stretch in and head straight to finishing up my sales page. Now, normally, I don’t always work on my passion project in the morning. Sometimes it is all about meditation, reading, journalling, or whatever fills me up. However, I always gravitate back to working on my business because It gives me so much fulfillment. So do whatever works for you in the mornings. My daily three consist of a learning support meeting with the learning support team, getting my hair done (best thing ever for me!), and sitting in on a professional learning meeting in the afternoon with the french immersion team on neurolinguistic approaches to learning second languages. Fridays are always good days for me and usually I keep my daily three pretty light on this day.
Friday evening, I take a look at how it all went down. My sales page is complete and it feels so good to get that out of the way. The professional learning meeting went well, although it was on zoom and I couldn’t support the teachers like I really wanted. I always lead meetings or support meetings by presenting an outcome of what I would like us to know, articulate, and do by the end of the meeting. That way it sets a clear pathway for the purpose of the meeting for the attendees and the quality of work we are looking to produce. I also end with an action step so that everything we learn actually gets implemented. My hair appointment was, of course the best part of my day and I wasn’t going to miss that! So the daily three got done! Friday evenings are mine and usually consist of a glass of wine, buttery popcorn, and a good movie.
Let’s wrap up this week with my Sunday recap of whether or not I actually got the weekly big 3 done. If you remember, they were to do a week long team teaching workshop with a kg teacher, finish the AERR report, and to meet with grade team to go over their praxis work. Overall, two of them got done and the AERR report….well…..it is almost done! When I reflect on my week, I realize that I was not as efficient with the AERR report because I am not as focused when it comes to administrative work. To be frank, it really doesn’t interest me. Lately, I have been feeling like I am behind the ball with the day to day things happening around the school, the covid protocols, and the administrative duties. So that tells me I have to be more intentional about carving more time out for those tasks to get done or they will build up. Then the overwhelm creeps back in. Next week, I will be focusing my weekly big 3 more on administrative tasks which are also a necessary part of being a leader mama! Oh and I also might organize a drawer or two in my bathroom for one of my daily 3. I also go back into my Asana project planner and look at whether or not I got done what I set out to do and delegate where I can.
Another lesson I learned this week is the power of connecting with people and how that always needs to be at the top of my list. I also realized I did a pretty good job of closing my laptop and unplugging completely at night. Setting a timer or alarm on my phone has really helped with that. Some weeks are better than others though.
So there you have it! A week in the life of a leader mama trying to find balance, purpose and joy! Thank you for coming along on this week with me. I hope that you can take some nuggets from my own experience to help you find a little more balance and intention in your week so that you can start to take back your life. My balance is also a work in progress but each week I get a little better at managing it all.
I would love to know how you find balance in our private facebook group called Principals and Leadership! Also, don’t forget to download my free guide on starting up and shutting down your day to boost your productivity and efficiency!
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