I have received more reactions from the e-mail I sent just two days ago than from any of the monthly messages. The idea of not just moving through the day, but really making it count for something is something I think is significant, yet poses a constant challenge. I am obviously not alone in that feeling.
Perhaps I need to practice what I preach and share with you my day.
Today was a holiday for our school system. It was a day when, for once, the sun was up before I was. Davonia and I cooked breakfast together, something we had planned to do. I love days when there are no deadlines facing me, because those are the days when I can devote the time to a project that it needs, and trying to accurately predict that quantity becomes a real moving target.
During the morning, I clicked quite a few routine tasks off the BlackBerry. Davonia and I chose to have lunch at a sandwich shop near our home. While the food is quite good, our going there has as much to do with the owners being great people whose hearts are in the right place and who are trying so hard to make a go of their business. In a way, just going there to support them could be justified as making today count.
I am a little over a week from a presentation for a large middle school faculty and a little under a month from a presentation at a national convention. Putting the finishing touches on the handout for both presentations and planning some tweaking of PowerPoint slides was time well spent.
The focus of the day evolved during mid-afternoon. Some time ago, I had identified some very meaningful posts from one of the blogs I had maintained as a principal. The idea was to republish those posts on our district blog. Today was the day I made that happen. At one sitting, I copied, edited, and posted every one of them. Blogger allows me to set a date for each to be published, so I now have quite a few posts which will automatically appear on the district blog over the next month.
Reading some of those old posts reminded me of what a valuable communication tool that blog had been. Reading those posts made me think of one particular first-year middle school principal who is doing a beautiful job of informing, inspiring, and supporting his staff, parents, and students with a set of blogs he maintains. Finally reading those posts called my attention to an item that has been sitting on my task list for far too long--writing an article on why principals should blog.
Today, those three motivators collided. The result was a draft of that article. When the day opened, I had no idea writing that article, which had been a good intention for a long time, would appear on paper before the day ended.
No, the article is not finished. I am a firm believer that great things happen during a good night's sleep. The subconscious somehow figures out just the right words.
That's my day, or at least the highlights of it. It did not go exactly as I had planned; it went better than I had planned. I can hardly wait for tomorrow!
2 comments:
I think a good question to ask yourself constantly is – “Am I using my time as effectively as I can at the moment”. I think that by constantly asking yourself this question is a good step towards living each day with meaning, purpose and making today count.
Kell,
Well stated.
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