EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP: How to Boost Focus and Stay Sharp
Sara Terrell
Seasoned school administrators will know all about the many demands of a school’s busy season. During these times, sustained concentration and focus are essential. After all, being able to maintain your focus enables you to be an effective leader and make sound decisions that positively influence your educational environment on every level.
However, no matter how many years of experience you have, it doesn’t really get any easier, unless you know how to optimize your cognitive function, manage your time, and maximize your productivity, no matter how busy you get.
1. Make Every Minute Count
Traditional to-do lists can be helpful when managing the numerous demands of school administration. With this said, these lists are easy to lose track of or forget. Moving beyond a basic to-do list will help you to maintain your focus, no matter what your list holds on any given day. University advisors recommend setting dedicated time blocks for your most pressing tasks. This can also help you to meet important deadlines and keep track of vital administrative responsibilities.
Another key strategy for effective time management is to identify your personal periods of high energy and motivation. Schedule your highest priority tasks, and the ones that need your full attention, during these times. This will simplify the process of completing them and allow you to finish them rapidly.
Using the right digital calendar, time tracking app, or virtual whiteboard for your needs can help you easily schedule and manage your time. These tools can all display time blocks and responsibilities clearly, ensuring that you stay up to date with them without having to remember them individually.
2. Minimize Distractions in Your Work Environment
School environments can be full of distractions, from the movement and chatter of students to teachers and other staff members asking questions and requesting meetings. Proactively managing these distractions will help you sustain your concentration, no matter how busy your professional life gets.
The first step to minimizing distractions in your work environment is to practice good digital hygiene. Before you start working, turn off all non-essential notifications on your computer, smartphone, and other devices. Close any open tabs you don’t need in your browser, and reserve checking emails and messages for your breaks or an allocated time slot.
Next, ensure that your physical workspace is organized. A neat, decluttered space can help direct your thoughts and mental processes. If you often experience interruptions from people walking into your office, set ‘do not disturb’ times if possible or use signage to indicate that you are busy. Alternatively, let your staff know about your preferred times and methods of communication during busy seasons. This will ensure that their needs are met without compromising your own.
These methods can help reduce mental clutter and allow you to engage fully with your priority tasks. They also minimize interruptions, preventing you from having to reorient yourself to a task once you have been disturbed.
3. Take Regular Breaks
While sustained focus is vital to complete important tasks like grading, it’s impossible to maintain a consistent level of focus for hours at a time. Taking breaks is the key to maintaining your productivity without burning out. There are many strategies you can use to schedule work periods and breaks in a sustainable way. For instance, the Pomodoro technique encourages you to work in short, intense bursts of around 25 minutes, followed by brief, rejuvenating breaks of 5 to 10 minutes each.
Focusing on work for long periods of time can cause mental and memory stagnation. You can prevent these challenges by stretching or walking during your breaks, or by enjoying a short, leisure-related activity between work bursts. These activities can include anything from having a friendly discussion with a colleague to meditating for a few minutes or watching an interesting YouTube video.
Taking frequent breaks during busy times can prevent mental fatigue and improve your retention of the information you are handling. It also helps you to maintain consistent focus and outputs, even over extended periods of time.
4. Focus on Hydration and Healthy Eating
Your diet and hydration status play an undeniable role in your cognitive function, concentration, and moods. There is a direct link between physical and mental health, and staying properly hydrated and adopting a healthy diet are the keys to optimizing both.
Drinking water is paramount for boosting focus. Even mild, asymptomatic dehydration can negatively impact concentration and memory. Keep a bottle of fresh drinking water with you at all times and refill it often throughout the day. If you struggle to remember to drink it, consider setting reminders to assist you.
Eating a balanced diet is equally important for supporting your cognitive abilities. Base your diet on nutrient-rich foods like lean protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. These foods provide a slow and steady release of sugars into your bloodstream, providing consistent fuel for your brain. Be sure to minimize your consumption of refined sugars and processed snacks, too. These foods can cause blood sugar crashes and subsequent brain fog.
5. Delegate and Collaborate for Success
There are many things you can do to boost your focus in busy times. That said, if your workload is excessive, you may struggle to complete it, despite your efforts to enhance your mental function. If your responsibilities as a school administrator are causing you stress or fatigue, consider delegating some responsibilities to your trusted staff members. Busy seasons often bring with them higher workloads, and sharing these loads can help you to maintain your focus while eliminating the risks of bottlenecks and burnout.
To delegate successfully, review your to-do list and identify tasks that you can assign to capable team members. This will reduce your workload and promote the empowerment and career development of your staff. When distributing tasks, be sure to provide clear instructions, deadlines, resources, and desired outcomes to your team members.
By delegating and collaborating with your team, you can vastly reduce your workload stress while promoting the development and growth of your staff members. It will also free up your energy and time to focus on vital leadership tasks that keep your school operating ideally during busy seasons.
Make Busy Seasons More Focus-Friendly
Handling demanding times in your yearly calendar requires a balance of persistence, endurance, and focus-boosting strategies.
Implementing techniques like proper time management, minimizing distractions, taking frequent breaks, nurturing your physical health, and collaborating with your team can increase your efficacy and productivity, without adding to your workload or stress levels.
Sara Terrell is a versatile writer covering topics from education to business.