EPISODE #344

Hey, builders, before we jump into today's show, I need to know something. Are you and I connected on the socials? Because if we're not, we need to be. So connect with me. I'm on Facebook obinjackson. I am on Twitter. Obin steps. I'm on LinkedIn. Obinjackson. Let's connect, and let's keep the conversation going. Now onto the show. You're listening to the School Leadership reimagine podcast, episode 344. How do builders like us make a dramatic difference in the lives of our students in spite of all the obstacles we face? How do you keep your vision for your school from being held hostage by resistant teachers, uncooperative parents, ridiculous district policies, or lack of time, money, or resources? If you're facing those challenges right now, here is where you'll find the answers, strategies, and actionable tips you need to overcome any obstacle you face. You don't have to wait to make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. You can turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Let's get started. Hey, builders.

Welcome to another episode of the School Leadership Reimagined podcast. 

I'm your host, Robin Jackson, and I know today is Christmas Eve. Normally, I would have a rewind episode all queued up and ready for you, but there is so many something really important I want to talk to you about. So I thought it was important enough that I went on ahead and did a live episode, because I think you need to really hear this. You see, what is about to happen is something that happens to administrators all over the world. Anytime there is a break, we do one of two things. Either we are so exhausted, so tired, so worn out that we spend the entire break kind of, you know, just zoning out completely and out of just pure exhaustion. And I'm not judging you if you feel that way. I mean, it's been a tough year. It's been a tough decade. I mean, like, century. What are we in? I'm just saying, since the 2000s, since 2020, it's been tough. And so I get it if you feeling tired. I mean, I'm tempted to do it myself. You know, when I was. When I was getting, you know, pulling everything together to get ready for a break, I wanted to. All I kept telling myself was like, okay, two more days, two more. And then you can just go and lie on the couch and marinate in your own filth if you want to. I get that urge. And then the other Thing that happens is that, you know, maybe we spend a day or two doing that, but we feel guilty the entire time we're doing it.

Now I know there's somebody out there saying, not me. I don't feel guilty. And, hey, listen, kudos to you, right? But for a lot of us, because we are looking at this time and we're thinking about all the things we have to do, all the things we didn't get done before the break, all the things that are waiting for us after the break, and we think that the most productive thing we can do is to drag ourselves in and chain ourselves to our desk and just try to kind of eliminate the backlog. So we, you know, we feel we guilt ourselves into going into the office and then just kind of working our way through the pile of stuff in front of us and trying to clear our desk or get to inbox zero or knock out all the stuff that we have to do. Then some of us even get really productive. You know, this is me, right? I did buy the wall calendar. I did, you know, have fantasies of, you know, just being able to sit in and just kind of, like, planning out my next quarter and getting all my dates and ducks in a row and, you know, feeling very organized and color coding my files or doing something like that.

So we, as we kind of stand on the cusp of our break, there is the temptation to either just kind of zone out or try to push our way through the work or get hyper productive on stuff that makes us feel organized. But we all know that that color coding file system is going to fall apart in mid January. We all know that that calendar is going to be rearranged and changed with the first phone call that you get on January 5th. I want to talk to you about what builders do differently, and I am committing publicly to doing the same thing during my break, because this is how builders use their breaks in a way that not only helps them to kind of rest and restore, but also helps them to walk into the building the first day back ready to go, and with a sharper, clearer sense of where they're heading and a feeling of calm. So if you would like to be able to have the kind of break that recognizes your need for rest, also acknowledges the fact that you feel like you're behind and you feel like there's so much stuff waiting for you, and recognizes the fact that you also, because of just the natural cycle of January, want an opportunity to walk back into the school and feel renewed and refreshed and reinvigorated. And, and, and to kind of re. Tap into that passion that you had at the beginning of the school year.

This episode is for you. 

So let me tell you what Fielders don't do. First thing that we don't do is we're not guilting ourselves over anything, right? I think everybody should have at least one pajama day over break. Now, I call it one of my best friends, and I call it a pajama day. You don't have to literally stay in your pajamas. I mean, for some people, staying their pajamas all day would be more stressful than anything else. Like, that's my mom. My mom just does not know how to stay in pajamas all day. She gets dressed every day. Every day the sun shines, my mom's up and dressed. So if you're. That's you. It doesn't have to be a literal pajama day, but it's the idea that this is a day where you're going to do absolutely nothing except for what you want to do, what feeds you. If you want to sit down and, and spend the day in front of the tv, do that. If you want to spend the day watching sports, do that. If you want to spend the day baking or, you know, making jam or reorganizing your refrigerator or shopping or playing Scrabble with the kids or staring out the window, whatever it is that you want to do, I feel like you need at least one day during the break that you kind of hold to do that, to spend time doing something that has nothing to do with work. I know that some of my best ideas come when I'm not thinking about work at all. That when. When you give your nervous system a chance to reset and you give your brain the permission to take the day off, your brain is doing things in the background that are really important.

Our summer reading list came from just my reading books that had nothing to do with work. And yet as I was reading them, all these ideas started coming to me about, oh, this is how this impacts this, or this is how I can do that. And so I'm a big fan of at least one day during breakfast where you do nothing or any. Or something else, but you are not thinking about work at all. You have the complete day off. You're not thinking about. You're not feeling guilty about doing the work. You're not thinking about, well, I gotta do this then. I got this waiting for me. You're not trying to shoehorn in an hour of just, well, I'm just gonna check my email. Just give Yourself the day off completely. I like to do it early in the break because for me, that helps me to renew and have the energy to do some other things later on. It's up to you, but. But let's all commit to a pajama day. Now. The next thing that I think builders do during their break is they spend some time re anchoring in the vision, mission and core values. This is not redrafting the vision, mission and core values. This is not interrogating the vision, mission and core values. You're simply going to, at some point, pull out your vision, mission and core values and take a look at it and say, does this feel true? Does this still feel like what this work is about? And it's a great way for you to remind yourself why you're doing this work. It's a great way for you to put a frame around any work you do during the break because if it's not moving your vision, mission and core values, I'm not sure you should be doing it.

Now, the third thing that I'm going to say is going to feel a little controversial and, but hear me out. A lot of people think I need this time to clear the backlog. And I get it. The thinking is if you clear the backlog, you can start fresh. You have the energy to face the work. But here's what's going to happen. You clear the backlog and two days after you go back to work, the backlog has gotten backlogged again. So it almost doesn't make sense. It almost feels like you're doing all of this work so that you don't feel behind. But you know as soon as you go back to work, stuff is going to start piling up again. And the reason that this stuff piles up is because you don't know the systems in place. It's because the, the, the way that you are currently approaching your work allows for a backlog. So instead of just kind of repeating the cycle, maybe spend the break rethinking how you approach your work so that you don't have the backlog. I talk about this a lot with the folks inside of bu.

The difference between working in your school and on your school. 

And we've had several people in BU who have taken that to heart. And so they have regular appointments with themselves to work on the school versus in the school to get back and re anchor in their vision, to think strategically, to kind of look at data where there's time and not the pressure so they can really understand what information the data is. Giving them to do that strategic thinking and work that we rarely have time to do. And so what I'm going to argue is that instead of using the break to catch up, just recognize you're behind, whatever that means. You know, the other thing I tell people in BU all the time is you're not behind. You know, people always feel, oh, I'm so behind. And that comes with a healthy dose of guilt, which is, quite frankly, unhealthy. Right? So it's not that you're behind. It's. It's that you need better systems. It's not that you're behind. You're where you're supposed to be. Given the system that you have. If you don't like where you are, change the system. And so instead of trying to just plow through your backlog, leave your backlog alone. It's there, it's been there, you're used to it. And instead spend some time doing the on work, the strategic work, the thinking work that helps you build systems where you don't continually accrue a backlog that helps you build systems that keep you productive and focused and ready to go. So, yeah, I'm gonna. Builders.

We're not going through our backlog. If you could see my desk right now, I have a pile of papers this high. Now, I might spend 20 minutes, maybe an hour kind of tidying my office and putting some things in place, but only once I have the system down. So one of the things that I'm going to be working on over the break is that I got to get some better systems. We got a lot of stuff coming up in January and February, that first quarter. We've got some really cool things we're going to be announcing. And in order to make me ready to be fully present to show up, I need another system for how I handle some paper. And so I'm not just clearing my desk so that it can pile back up later on. I'm going to spend some time thinking about how I do my work and how I process paper and put a system in place so that I'm not giving myself a clean desk. I'm giving myself a better system. The last thing that builders do during break is that when we are planning, we're not planning what we are going to do. We are thinking strategically. So a lot of people say, you know, okay, so this is the break. This is. I haven't had time to think about my quarter or my year. So I'm going to sit down and I'm going to start putting Things in place. I'm going to put these meetings, meetings here, and I'm going to do this and I'm going to make sure I do that.

And so we're, we're calendar driven, right? And everybody's buying a new calendar right now. Or if you don't use a paper calendar, you're starting to kind of Open up your 2026 Google Calendar and start slotting things in and taking a look at stuff. And I'm going to tell you not to do that. What builders are going to do is that during this break, we are not going to be planning, we are going to be sitting down and getting really serious about our number one constraint. Now, those of you in BU you know, we have the process. We use a buildership model to help you kind of narrow down your number one constraint. And so you can use that process to think that through. The rest of you, I want you to just ask yourself the question, if I could solve one thing in the next 90 days and everything else stayed exactly the same, what's the thing I solve and how does that make my life easier? And really think about that. Because a lot of times the reason we feel so overwhelmed is we're working hard on the wrong problem. We're not working on the problem that needs solving, the problem that makes everything else easier.

Remember, there's really only one constraint at a time. 

And if you can figure out what's the one thing that's holding everything else back and you can remove that constraint, everything else gets better. We don't spend enough time thinking about that. We try to tackle everything. And the problem with tackling everything is that when you try to tackle everything, your energy is dispersed across 20 different initiatives rather than really focused, which is exhausting and it's not even productive. The second thing that happens is that when you try to tackle everything, you spend as much energy on something that's not going to move the needle as you do on something that might move the needle as you do on something that will absolutely move the needle. So you're wasting a lot of energy, you're wasting a lot of effort. What if instead you spent laser, like focus on the thing that will move the needle. And we never take time to do that kind of thinking first. And so I like to spend some break, some of my break staring out the window again, metaphor, just like pajama day staring out the window.

When I was teenager, early, you know, like college, something like that, I got a summer job working for a guy who owned a logistics company, and he Had a big company, multimillionaire guy making big decisions. I was the receptionist in the office, and I would go home and just talk to my dad about what was happening. And I was like, dad, all he does all day long is he just, you know, it seems like he spends so much time just staring out the window, like he's the head of a company, and all he does is sit in his office staring out the window. And my dad said, he's not staring out the window. He's making multimillion dollar decisions. I never forgot that. We think that in order to move things, we have to be busy all the time. But you do need time to sit back and stare out the window. And so if you're going into the office, instead of saying, okay, I'm going to go in, I'm going to plow through my work, why not go in your office, close the door, get real quiet, stare out the window, and start thinking about all the pieces? You know, a lot of. A lot of our work has been so compartmentalized that we've lost sight of the full picture. And this is a great opportunity to reconnect with the full picture, to connect all of the dots that are going on so that you can understand what's really happening in your school. So I'm going to challenge you to spend an hour or two staring out the window.

Now, you don't have to literally stare out the window. If it's going to be distracting for you and that's not your thing, don't do it. But literally, just nothing. No, the computer's not open. You're not looking at. You're just sitting still and thinking. Builders. Real quick, before we get on with the rest of the episode, I want to talk to you about the 100 collective. If you are interested in becoming a builder and developing that 100% mindset, then the 100% collective is for you. Not only do we have monthly masterclasses, live masterclasses, where I show you how to take some work that you are already doing, but do it like a builder. Do it in a way that is more effective, more efficient, in a way that takes the work and stops it from being drudgery and makes it actually something that feels meaningful, that moves you forward. We also have done for you toolboxes with all the tools you need to be able to implement. And we have step by step playbooks that lay out the entire process for you so you don't have to even think about it.

You just take the playbook and you can implement it right away in your schools. 

And we have a supportive community. So this is a safe place where you can bring your challenges. And there are other people, other builders just like you who are encouraging you, who are applauding you when you win, and who are giving you their experiences as well so that you can learn from each other. If you are tired of just kind of going through and doing the work the way you've always been doing it, and you're ready to stop being a leader and to start building something amazing, the 100% collective is where you need to be. Join us@brewershipuniversity.com community now. Back with the program. You know, I was talking to a colleague of mine. She's super smart, Alison Zamuda. I think Alison is such a good thought partner. And we have, you know, we've been talking for, like, almost 20 years now. And every time I talk to Allison, I feel like I'm getting smarter. And one of the things that we were talking about was that in this age of faster and more automation, in this age of AI, one of the things that we both worry about is that people are losing their ability to think and solve problems. I mean, think about it. Like, I have a problem now.

Everybody I know is like, oh, if I have a problem, I just go ask ChatGPT. And so people are even talking about ChatGPT like it's a real person. Like, they're like, oh, chat GPT told me to do this. ChatGPT. You know, AI, you know, CL, whatever. There we. We are outsourcing our thinking now. I am not anti AI. We have AI coaches inside of bu. I'm building more AI tools. I think it's a tool, but it is no substitute for thinking. AI is great at recognizing patterns. AI is great at taking a lot of the grunt work and making it fast and easy so that you have more time to think. We can't outsource the thinking part. And for those of you who are principals or those of you who are heads of departments, that is the gig. That's the role for you to do the strategic thinking. That is the purpose of the role. But we think the purpose is to move paperwork. We think the purpose is to make sure everybody else is doing their jobs. We rarely step back to consider that our role, the thing that makes our role unique and necessary is that we need to be doing some strategic thinking. We need to be stepping back and taking a look at the big picture. And so over break, instead of just plowing through paperwork, instead of cleaning off your desk.

Instead of catching up or instead of just avoiding it all and like staring at Netflix for 10 days straight. Do some thinking. Stare out a window, metaphorically. Give your brain an opportunity to connect the dots, put the pieces together and make it make sense. I can't wait to do that myself for the break. There are so many things that so many balls in the air right now that I just need to go back and connect the dots. I am working on a new book and I need time not just to write, but to think. Because writing is an expression of thinking. So if I'm not doing the thinking, then I have nothing to write. So spending some time thinking and facilitating that thinking. So maybe it's for you, it's staring out the window for me. Sometimes I need to stare out the window. Sometimes I need to grab a pen and a blanket page of a notebook and just write everything that occurs to me because that clarifies my thinking. Sometimes I need to sit down at a keyboard and open up a clean, blank document and just type out all these ideas. Sometimes I need a pen and I'm sketching out ideas.

The point is that you need to take some time to think. 

For some of you, that thinking is going to be exclusively about your vision and understanding what the biggest constraint is to your vision. For others of you, that thinking really should be about what it is you want to do next year. We're in the middle of the year. I talked to so many aspiring principals who are reluctant to go ahead and throw their hat in the ring and start thinking about becoming principals. And you need to think about that. What's holding you back? What are you, what. What. What makes you reluctant or afraid and unpacking that so that you can move forward. For some of you, there are bigger career decisions that you've been kind of avoiding for a while, and you need this time to really think about it. Because for some of you, it's time for you to start writing. It's time for you to start. Start the. To start creating either your book or, you know, starting to put articles out on LinkedIn or creating YouTube videos and sharing expertise with the world. For some of you, it's time to stop hiding out in your current position and step into the next level because you're ready and because you're needed. For some of you, it's time for you to stop, you know, sitting on this wealth of information you have and start. And to answer a call for proposals and present at a national conference.

So yes, I want you to think. And sure, I do want you to think about your school, but some of you need to be thinking about what it is you want to do. What's the difference you want to make in the world? How do you want to show up every day like a builder instead of staying stuck in leadership? And so now's the time. Now's the perfect time to be thinking through that. So let me just kind of recap. This is what builders are doing in the break. First of all, we're probably, we're going to have at least one pajama day, maybe more. Maybe we have a couple of pajama day half days, a pajama hour, I don't know. But we're going to take some time to let our nervous systems reset to spend some time being human again. Right. You are more than just your job. So for me, I am going to. I just learned the waffle stitch, so I'm going to crochet a waffle stitch blanket over break. I've got some old yarn I've got to use. I'm gonna do that. I'm going to bake and cook and put some things in the freezer because as you know, I believe vehemently that everybody ought to have emergency cookie dough in the freezer. I'm out.

So I'm gonna put some emergency cookie dough in the freezer because I know sometime in January or February, I'm gonna need a cookie. And so I am taking care of future me by doing that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna take walks, long walks with my dogs outside. And I don't. I want to. I want to just breathe that fresh air. I'm going to spend time with my husband and my family and I'm going to be laughing and not thinking about work at all. So I got pajama days all planned out for the break. Then the second thing we're going to do is we're going to spend some time re anchoring in the vision, mission and core values. So I'm going to spend some time thinking about our vision that we help every person we serve achieve their 100% vision in three years or less. What are the constraints of that vision? Do I still believe that's our vision? I want to be thinking about our mission.

Every kid deserves to be successful in school and every teacher deserves to be a master. 

Teacher wouldn't be thinking about that. That's our mission. And then I'm going to be thinking about our core values. Drama, free work environment. Figure it out. Do the right thing, even when it hurts. And do those still feel true? Just gonna be thinking about it. I might be thinking about it as I'm walking my dogs. I might be thinking about it as I'm, you know, baking my emergency cookie dough. I might be thinking about it as I am sitting with my emotional support petaphors watching an episode of Home Show. I don't know. But I'm going to spend some time thinking about that. Third thing that I'm going to do is that I am going to instead of trying to kind of plow through stuff, I'm going to figure out what systems do I need that are going to make my life easier. And if I feel productive, I'm going to put those systems in place. And then the fourth thing I'm going to do is that I'm going to spend some time staring out the window. I'm going to spend some time dreaming and thinking and trying to figure out what our biggest constraint is. Trying to understand that I'm going to do some work on. On Buildership University, on mindsteps, on me rather than doing it in the. In the, not in work. I'm going to be doing on work. And who knows what that's gonna mean. Well, I know it's gonna mean something amazing. I just don't know what exactly that amazing thing is yet. But that's how I'm spending the break and I'm gonna challenge you to join me.

Everybody else is creating stuff to do. Either they're completely disconnected and tuned out or they are panic planning. And both of those things fill productive, right? Disconnecting says ah, because after I get back in January it's just going to be more of the same. So I just need to take this time now or I'm going to panic plan now. Because who knows, it's going to be facing me in January. Both of those things feel productive and they are ways of self self soothing. But are they really going to make things better in January? No, they're not. And you know this because you've done it before and you've seen the results. Builders spin breaks differently. We're a lot more strategic about it. We recognize and acknowledge our need to rest and we build in time to do that. But we also recognize and acknowledge our need to take a step back to re anchor in what's important. To set ourselves up to be more productive and effective and to spend some time staring out the window to dream. To think about who we are and what we want to do. To think about what we're building and what's getting in our way and what needs to be removed. Now, I told you. I didn't. I'm not telling you to go and figure out how to remove the constraint.

I just need you to understand what it is. Because once you understand what it is, your work takes direction again. And you understand, okay, this is the work. This is the work for me right now. If you don't do that, you're just all over the place. But builders are doing that because we know that when we take time to do that, not only does it feed our soul, not only does it reset our nervous system, not only does it set us up for success, but it helps us to step more fully into the work and the role that we've chosen. It helps us to have hope that we actually can make the difference that we want to make. It reminds us of our humanity. It reminds us that we're more than just our jobs, but it also reminds us of how important this work is. And if there is some misalignment, if when we're staring out the window, we realize we're not in the right place, it helps give us direction so that we can go get ourselves in the right place so we can make that difference.

So that's what I'm doing over the break, and I'm inviting you to join me as we do it together. 

Because if we do 2026, better look out. Because here we come, fully rested and restored, refocused, re energized, and re anchored. Because instead of frittering away our break or torturing ourselves and guilting ourselves over break, we decided to be intentional about how we spent our break, and we chosen to spend our break like a builder. I'll talk to y' all next year. Hey, if you're ready to get started being a builder right away, then I want to invite you to join us at Buildership University. It's our exclusive online community for builders just like you, where you'll be able to get the exact training that you need to turn your school into a success story right now, with the people and resources you already have. Inside, you'll find our best online courses, live trainings with me, tons of resources, templates, and exemplars, and monthly live office hours with me where you can ask me anything and get my help on whatever challenge you're facing right now.

If you're tired of hitting obstacle after obstacle and you're sick of tiny little incremental gains each year, if you're ready to make a dramatic difference in your school right now, then you need to join Buildership University. Just go to buildershipuniversity.com and get started writing your school success story today.

Hey, real quick, before you go, if you enjoyed today's episode and you know someone who would really benefit from what you heard here today, maybe they're struggling with a thing that we talked about on today's episode. Would you take a moment and share this episode with them? Me? You see, not only will it help us get the word about Buildership out to more people, but you're going to look like a rock star because you're going to give people something they can really use to help them get unstuck and be better at building their schools. Plus, it would mean the world to me. Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.