EPISODE 344

What Builders Do During Winter Break

Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want to Miss:
  • You can't rest your way out of a structural problem. And you can't grind your way out of needing actual rest.
  • If your winter break strategy is 'disconnect completely' or 'catch up on everything,' you've already lost January.
  • Clearing your desk isn’t progress if the system that created the clutter is still intact.
  • Resting out of avoidance and planning out of guilt are two sides of the same trap.
  • You don’t need a better plan for January. You need a clearer mind for January.

During winter break, most principals fall into one of two camps: total disconnection or total overdrive. Either they collapse and avoid thinking about school until January, or they turn the break into a frantic catch-up sprint to “earn” a fresh start.

But there is a third option and in this episode you’ll discover why both panic-planning and panic-resting feel productive in the moment, but ultimately create more anxiety and more backlog down the road. 

Discover how Builders spend their break differently -- resting with intention, anchoring in purpose, and creating systems that prevent future overwhelm—so you return to January clear, focused, and ready to act instead of react #LikeABuilder.

Check out these highlights:
  • Why the two most common ways principals use winter break—total disconnection or total overdrive—both lead to more anxiety in January.
  • What panic-planning and panic-resting have in common, and how they quietly trap you in the same cycle of exhaustion.
  • How Builders use the break to reset systems instead of clearing clutter, so January doesn’t become a repeat of the fall.
  • Why re-anchoring to your vision, mission, and core values matters more than creating a brand-new plan for 2026.
  • The simple practices that help you step into the new year calm and oriented rather than frantic and reactive.
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