Start a “Blessings” email thread with yourself and your secretary. Once a day, reply with one specific blessing from school life. Keep it unread as a running reminder. Invite another administrator to help keep you accountable.
Pull a birthdays report for faculty and staff from your LMS. Strip it down to names and dates, then keep it on your wall or desk and mark them off as the year moves along.
Rearrange your desk so a transparent desktop cover holds what matters most: a family photo, emergency codes, required daily tasks, and key information you should know by heart.
Buy a standing desk riser—and actually use it.
Schedule three email-check times during the workday. Put 20-minute blocks on your calendar and honor them.
Disable all email pop-up notifications on both your phone and desktop.
Create a master list of your duties: must do, should do, would like to do, always do, and should not be mine. Reassign what does not belong on your plate—and start following the list immediately.
Once a week, walk the building on purpose. Make sure every teacher has basics like a stapler, tape dispenser with tape, scissors, markers, and erasers. Be seen as an encourager and provider.
Clean your office.
Keep a heater, fan, or blanket in your office—something that helps you stay comfortable without borrowing from anyone else.
Buy a quality toolkit that stays in your office.
Keep a ball pump in your office.
Call your school while disguising your voice and see what the caller experience is actually like.
Double-check your voicemail greeting and make sure it is current.
Design a branded thank-you postcard in Canva with your school’s name and look.
Send one thank-you postcard each week to a school stakeholder—through internal mail or with a real stamp.
Visit every classroom once a year, read a 20-minute story to students, and send the teacher out for a quick coffee on you.
Call down five random students and ask how they perceive the spiritual climate of the school.
Get the office crew some swag no one else has—and include yourself.
Put a tear-away calendar with a daily dad joke in your office.
Kneel and pray in your office for five minutes after lunch each day. It is okay if someone sees you.
Sit in the hallway between bells near the lockers. If you do it often enough, students will stop seeing it as unusual—and start seeing you as present.
Spend two hours working alongside the janitorial staff.
Ask one teacher each week what the weakest part of your leadership might be—or how you could support that teacher better.
Sit on the floor with your youngest students during reading time.
Throw away five things that should have been tossed a long time ago.
Read one research article each week.
Scroll back through your phone and smile at a picture of your family.
Practice with one of your teams or clubs.
Listen to an episode of The Christian Principals Podcast.
