Urgent vs. Important

The #WolffWay

W- Work ethic

O- Off time

L- Lead with integrity

F- Find your passion

F- Find a way

Prioritizing your tasks can be difficult. There is only so much time in each day. Often we have requests coming from every direction. We have professional and personal demands. It can be overwhelming.

A few tips to help you find a way to get the job done:

Learn to say no. This can be a difficult be necessary action.
Break apart large initiatives into pieces. Attack them one by one. This often requires multiple tasks occurring simultaneously.
Identify what is urgent. What requires immediate attention?
Identify what is important. What is important to you, your students, your team, or your organization?
Identify urgent and important. What is important AND requires immediate attention? If you are new or established with the team/organization, activate your colleagues. Talk to the veteran members around you. Use the organization's vision and mission to guide you.
Identify the resources available to you and your team. Know your strengths AND your weaknesses. Identify the strengths of your team members. Strengthen your team when possible. Identify other resources you have at your disposal. Do not be afraid to "get off the porch" and take healthy risks.
Plan your work, work your plan. Put the urgent AND important matters to the top of the "to do" list. Create timelines, deadlines, implementation plans, and calendar invites for you and your team.
Seek feedback, use data, revise and refine as needed. Listen to the feedback, analyze the data, and make adjustments. Do not be afraid to recognize when something is not working BUT do not pull the plug too quickly. Most things take time to determine the effectiveness.
Execute, maintain, build. Execute the plan, maintain the plan, look for ways to build on the plan.
Celebrate your team, take the failures. If you have success always celebrate your team. If it fails, it is on you as the leader, manager, principal, or teacher.