Episode 100: Your Email Inbox Is A Chronological List Of Everyone Else's Priorities
The Private School Leader Podcast
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Show Notes
So, I want to ask you a question about something that you do several times each day.
Let’s say that you are out and about in the school, walking around, solving problems, handling student issues, talking to teachers and maybe attending a meeting. So here’s the question: When you finally come back to your office and sit down at your desk, what is the first thing that you do?
About 90% of private school leaders do the same thing. They open their inbox and respond to a few emails.
There are some very valid reasons we do this. Your brain is craving a dopamine hit because you just expended some emotional energy and some physical energy while walking around your school. You also have a little decision fatigue and your cognitive load has increased. Unfortunately, your brain doesn’t know the difference between a high value task and a low value task. Your brain just knows that it really needs a dopamine hit.
On today’s episode of the Private School Leader Podcast, I am going to help you understand why dipping in and out of your email inbox is the least productive thing that you can do because Your Email Inbox Is A Chronological List Of Everyone Else's Priorities.
Thank you for taking me along with you when you are walking the dog, driving to school or running errands. I appreciate you and what you are doing for the lucky kids and teachers at your school.
Thanks so much for listening and thanks for making a difference!
Mark Minkus
If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1.
I help my clients overcome imposter syndrome, set boundaries between work and home and how to actually get important things done instead of having your day ruled by the tyranny of the urgent. Sounds impossible right? It’s not. I can teach you how to make it possible.
I would love to be your coach and I have a few spots open. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/coaching to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.
Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget.
That can lead to you feeling tired, discouraged and stressed out. I’ve been there. That’s why I created THRIVE Academy just for you. THRIVE Academy is a digital course that will help you get out of survival mode and get back to feeling energized at school. To learn more, go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/thrive
I want to give you a FREE gift called 7 Strategies To Effectively Deal With Difficult Teachers. Sometimes we need some courage and confidence to deal with difficult teachers. What you need is a plan! This guide is a step by step plan that you can use to help one of your difficult teachers improve their performance and improve their attitude. Go to theprivateschoolleader.com/difficult to grab this free guide!
I am excited to share a brand new resource with you. It is a 9 page pdf called: “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” What is “Verbal Judo”? "Verbal Judo" is a communication strategy that focuses on using words effectively to de-escalate conflict, resolve disputes, and achieve positive outcomes in various interpersonal interactions, particularly in high-pressure situations.
George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins wrote a book called Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art Of Persuasion. So, I have taken several important strategies from the book and applied them to your life as a private school leader. Grab your free copy of “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/judo
I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! You can grab this FREE GUIDE at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/meeting
I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. You can pick up your free guide by going to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/guide
I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. Go to www.theprivateschoolleader.com/parents to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!
Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode100
Please write a review of this podcast and help the algorithm push this content out to more leaders. I would love to get your feedback about the podcast, ideas for future episodes and hear about how you are implementing these strategies in your life and at your school. You can email me at [email protected] Thanks!!
I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the private school leader podcast, where private school leaders learn how to thrive and not just survive as they serve and lead their schools. I strongly believe that it is possible to have a long and happy and fulfilling career as a private school leader. And my passion is to help you figure out exactly how to do just that right here on the private school leader podcast. And I'm your host, Mark Benkus. • • So I want to give you a scenario, and then I want to see if you, • • um, do the thing that 90% of school leaders do • • in this same scenario. So here's the situation. You're out in the school, • you're doing things. • You're perhaps dealing with a discipline issue. • • Um, maybe you're supervising a class change, • popping into a classroom. Maybe there's a maintenance issue. • • Uh, maybe someone in the main office has, um, a question. • And so you're out and about in the school doing some things, and then you, um, are out for a little while. You know, half hour, whatever it might be, maybe an hour. Um, you know how these things are. You're out, and you expect to be gone for a few minutes, and you're gone much longer than that. But you come back to your office and you sit down, • • and you're just kind of sitting there, and you're looking at your computer, um, • • screen. • • And my question is, what do you do next? • • • • So I want you to imagine this. You're out in the school, • out and about. You come back to your office, you sit down, you're staring at your computer. • What do you do next? • • • • Well, about 90% of school leaders • • • open their email inbox, • • • and • • that's okay if you're in that 90%. • • But I want to help you see today on this episode why • • • • it's completely understandable • • • why you would do that. It's also a lot of psychological factors that are causing you to do that, • but it's also the worst thing that you can do. • • You want to be productive and actually get work done on your priorities instead of on everyone else's priorities. • • So there is a better way. And on today's episode of the private school leader podcast, I'm going to do two things. Number one, I'm going to convince you that your email inbox is a chronological list of everyone else's priorities. And number two, I'm going to teach you how to engage with your email • in a way that will still allow you to get your important work done. • • • •
This is the 100th episode of the private School Leader podcast
But before we get into that, I want to celebrate with you because this is the 100th episode of the private School Leader podcast, and I'm super excited about that. I want to say thank you to those of you that have been listening for a long time. I talked to a couple different, uh, listeners this week, • • • • got, um, some emails and just people that have been listening for a long time. • Super excited about it, and just excited to be able to serve you with a hundred episodes of content that's specifically for you, to try to encourage and inspire you as you lead your school. And to celebrate the hundredth episode, I'm excited to tell you that I'm having a special three day sale on Thrive Academy. • • And that's going to be if, um, you're listening to this in real time, we're talking Tuesday, September 16, Wednesday, • September 17 and Thursday, September 18. • And the special sale is $100 off of thrive academy for three days