As part of Educon 2.8, I was able to attend Dr. Spike Cook‘s session on mindfulness: Balancing Connection and Isolation with Mindfulness. I’ve been interested in the topic for several years, making it’s practice a goal that I’ve achieved with mixed success. Mindfulness is particularly important for school leaders as our workday is often filled with the shallow tasks of compliance while pushing the deeper work of educational transformation to the side.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally. It’s about knowing what is on your mind. Jon Kabat-Zinn
The session at Educon prompted me to reflect on my current level of mindfulness and my role as a school leader. I’m certainly no expert in mindfulness and have lots of room to grow in this area. However, I would like to share three strategies that have allowed me to be more mindful during the workday.
- Establish routines. My days are far more complex now than they were when I started teaching nearly 30 years ago. The profession of education is more complex, but the world is also more complex. Technology in particular provides us with countless opportunities for distraction that we need cognitive power to successfully manage. I have found that I can better focus on the present moment if I routinize as much of my day as possible. Granted, most of these routines fall outside of the work day, but they are still helpful to preserve energy to remain mindful during the workday. I routinize things like wake-up time, exercise, social media time, reading and meals (even down to the food that I eat). It is more challenging to establish routines during the workday, but two routines I have been experimenting with have supported my desire to be more mindful: no more than 4 hours of scheduled meetings in a workday; plan an afternoon mindfulness meditation break (explained in #3).
- Set clear goals. I maintain a set of personal and professional goals. As I go through my day and make decision in the moment, I ask myself whether a decision will move me closer to achieving my goals or will act as a distraction. For example, that notification that just came through on my phone – does it push me toward achieving one of my goals or distract me? If I’m invested in achieving my goals, I can make a thoughtful choice and mindfully prioritize that conversation with a colleague. Easier said than done, but possible with practice and a set of goals.
- Use a mindfulness meditation app. This is actually the most fun part of practicing mindfulness! Download any one of a host of mindfulness apps onto your phone and carve out a time to practice every day. I use the app called Calm. There is a free version and a subscription upgrade. The program contains many different guided mindfulness meditations that last from 2 to 30 minutes. Using the app has become one of my daily routines. Usually by the afternoon, my brain is overstimulated and ready for a break. I find a quiet place and 10 minutes to focus on mindfulness. I have found that afterwards, my mind is ready to take on the rest of the day and more easily stay focused on the work at hand.
As school leaders, mindfulness is an important practice we should embrace in a world where there is an endless pool of tasks competing for our attention. You may find these previous posts helpful in mindfully focusing on the significant, deep work required of all successful educational leader:
- What is your leadership focus?
- Are your interactions on social media shallow?
- 4 Steps to Break Free From the Shallow Work of School Leadership
- 4 Ways to Move Compliance to the Side of Your Plate
What other strategies do you use to remain mindful throughout the day as a school leader?
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