How should a principal plan their ideal week?
Start by identifying the recurring commitments that structure your week — meetings, duty posts, arrival and dismissal — and block them on a template. Then schedule your classroom visit blocks around them, treating visits as non-negotiable appointments. Finally, fill remaining time with processing blocks for email, tasks, and administrative work.
The key insight is planning around mental energy, not just time. Your highest-energy periods should be reserved for classroom visits and professional conversations — the work that requires your best thinking. Email processing, paperwork, and routine decisions can happen during low-energy periods.
Your ideal week won't survive contact with reality — interruptions are guaranteed. But having a template means you know what you're deviating from, and you can get back to it. Without a template, every day is improvised, and the most important work consistently loses to whatever is loudest.
More on Personal Productivity
Why do principals get so much email, and what can they do about it?
It's a structural problem, not a personal failing.
What does "inbox zero" actually mean, and is it realistic for school leaders?
Inbox zero doesn't mean you've done everything — it means you've decided about everything.
How does a clean desk help me get into classrooms?
Physical clutter occupies mental bandwidth.
What's the best way to manage tasks and to-do lists as a school leader?
You need one trusted place where everything goes — every request, commitment, idea, and deadline.
Answered by Justin Baeder, PhD, Director of The Principal Center and author of three books on instructional leadership.