At least ten times a year, I watch Jimmy Valvano’s speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards. Every time I shed some tears. Every time. His words were straight from his heart, and the were raw with emotion. And they were so true. I watch the video to remind me of the fact that life is short, and that every day is an opportunity to make life matter. I just watched it again yesterday. It got me to thinking about those daily daily things in my life. Coach V said that everyday, we should laugh, cry and think. To quote the man himself, if you do those three things, that is a full day. I couldn’t agree more. During the summer months, I vow to establish a routine that had several goals. Each day, I wanted to do some professional reading for my own growth. I also wanted to get more in the habit of writing for this blog, so that got added to the list. Finally, I was determined to make exercising a priority in my life. After determining which items would be in my routine, I looked at my daily calendar. I scheduled these items as a repeating event on my Google calendar, so that every day at 9 AM I did my professional reading. 11:30 AM, right before lunch, was work out time. Every afternoon at 2:30 was my time to write for my blog.
During the slower months of summer, I am proud to say that I have been pretty good at establishing and keeping these routines going. Now, however, I am beginning to think about the start of the new school year. Not only do I want to keep these routines going (but probably NOT during the day!), but I also am thinking about what routines I want to add once school starts. Here are the things that I have added to my routine so far:
- Visit at least 10 classrooms.
- Post something positive about our school on our social media platforms.
- Walk every hall at some point.
- Look for one way to have an impact on someone’s day.
As a school Principal, we all know the demands every day brings. Well, we really don’t know from day to day what demands are coming, because there are so many of them. But I am determined to carry the momentum of my routine building into the new school year. How can you create your routines? Belle Beth Cooper wrote a great blog post a few years back, describing “The Daily Routines of 7 Famous Entrepreneurs and How to Design Your Own Master Routine”. You can learn something from Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill and President Barrack Obama on how to design a routine that works best for you. Then it becomes up to you to determine what works best for you and how you want to incorporate that into your day. Christina DesMarais, in her blog post “20 High Achievers Share their Daily Routines”, has some excellent ideas of things to add to your routines.
If you are still unsure of where to start, it might be beneficial to track your time for a few days. This will give you an idea of where you are spending your time, what habits you may have unknowingly developed and where you could improve. After you analyze the results, Elizabeth Larkin wrote a great piece called “5 Steps to Create a Daily Routine That Works For You”.
Now is the time to create that perfect (or excellent) daily routine to carry into the new year. Let me know what items you are putting in your routine.
A Principal's Life 