How to get ahead of your workload this term

Welcome to Just One Thing. I recently returned from sharing at the Canadian Association of Principals’ annual conference in Toronto. It was brilliant to reconnect with almost 400 school and system leaders from across the country — plus achieve my annual quota of maple syrup at the same time! As we head into a new month, I’m here to unpack the concept of workload mapping, to help you to carve out a work rhythm that’s sustainable.

30-Second Version 

• We tend to work to a short-term horizon with a vague, looming sense of what’s coming. This means we ask too much of ourselves in a way that’s not sustainable.
• Workload mapping is a practical strategy you can use to avoid this.
• Visually pace through all your future commitments, week by week, and rate them for intensity.
• Ask yourself individually and as a team how you could smooth out the intensity peaks to make the workload more sustainable.

The Full Read 

In our roles, we tend to work in a reactive state as we move towards a short-term horizon. While we have a general sense of what’s coming at us, we usually have only a vague sense of how and when that will land, and what capacity we’ll have to meet it. This means we’re living with a sense of looming apprehension of what’s on the horizon, and not taking any agency around how we’ll manage it. We ask too much of ourselves in a way that’s not sustainable and often end up having to drop some things that really matter. Enter workload mapping — a practical strategy you can use to avoid this.

At the beginning of a fresh month or term, the idea is to take time to pause, pull out your calendar and assess the upcoming workload demands. Getting four to 10 weeks in front, visually pace through all your future commitments, week by week. Ask yourself for each one, “Overall, how demanding is this week? What will it feel like to be me at work that week?”. Then take each week and rate it on a scale of one to four based on the expected workload, with one being low and four being heavy — making a subjective relative judgement. 

As you do this exercise, you might notice an understandable spike in apprehension. Use this as a motivator to smooth out those peaks: Think about what could be pushed out or brought forward to balance out periods of lower or higher intensity. Consider raising with your team or a line manager whether something could be taken off you or given to someone else. At a minimum, you can plan ahead and design some things in your non-work life to build in rest and rejuvenation to sustain you. 

This process can be done individually, but it’s even better done collectively. As a team you can ask yourselves: “Could we step in and take something off a certain person at a certain time to try to smooth out the peaks?” As we understand what each other has got coming up, we’re better able to support each other. By addressing workload challenges early, you can make sure your workload for the term is sustainable, which means better performance, and much less risk of burnout.

Until next time,

Simon