Bulletproof Your Schedule: Time-Blocking for School Counselors

Carol: You're listening to the Counselor Chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy.

I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students.

If you're looking for a little inspiration to help help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place. Because we're better together.

Ready to chat.

Let's dive in.

Hey there counselor friends. Welcome back to Counselor Chat. I'm your host, Carol Miller. I'm a school counselor content creator and your organizational strategy gangirl and someone who also once wrote a to do list that said,

make a to do list.

Well, today's episode is going to be super practical and maybe even just a little therapeutic because we're talking about something I think every school counselor struggles with time.

Or more specifically, how to protect it. Like it's your last cup of coffee on a Monday morning.

That's right.

It's time to bulletproof your schedule using time blocking so you can stop reacting to every interruption and start focusing on what actually moves your school counseling program forward.

Now trust me, before you roll your eyes and you say, carol, I don't even have a consistent lunch break,

let alone the time to block anything.

Hang tight because I promise my friends this episode is all about real life,

messy, schedule tested strategies that you can actually use.

Let's dive in.

So first of all,

what is time blocking and why should counselors care?

Okay, what is time blocking? Time blocking is a method of planning your day or week by assigning specific chunks or blocks of time to specific tasks or category of tasks.

Instead of keeping one long to do list that haunts you like a ghost from uncompleted tasks. Pass.

You're giving each priority a home on your calendar.

Think of it like assigning seats in your classroom.

If everyone just wandered around aimlessly, it's chaos.

But if you give each task a seat.

Ah,

now you have some order.

And here's an expert tip.

Productivity guru Cal Newport.

He's the author of Deep Work.

He swears by time blocking to protect mental energy and to really prioritize high impact work.

And productivity coach Laura Vanderkam. She reminds us, if you don't plan your time well, someone else will.

Does that sound familiar?

So why do counselors need time blocking?

Well,

I'm sure you already know this, but we work in a reactive profession.

One phone call, one student meltdown. One. Can you just cover this class for just five minutes on our whole day? It can derail.

And time blocking it doesn't stop those interruptions, but it does give you a map to return to,

the permission to prioritize,

and a visual reminder of where your time's actually going.

And that's the key to protecting your time without guilt.

Step one in this is to define your counseling buckets.

Because before you can block time, you've got to know what you're blocking.

Let's break it down into what I call our counselor buckets.

Bucket one is direct services. That's your individual counseling, your group sessions, your classroom lessons.

Bucket 2 are your indirect services.

Those are your consultations, your parent meetings,

your referrals.

Bucket 3 is your program management.

This is for data tracking, planning,

creating resources.

Bucket five,

responsive services.

This is crisis response, conflict resolution or behavior check ins.

And bucket five are your professional duties. These are your meetings, your emails and your school duties.

You can look at your Ask A National Model categories for a cheat sheet.

Yes, I said it. Use the model like your time budgeting bff.

And in case you didn't know, there's now a fifth edition of the Ask a National Model. And Ask A has it right on their website that you can download for free as a PDF so you don't have to pay the $16.99 or however much it costs.

You can get a copy for free right now.

Step two in all this is to block it like it's hot.

Now that you've got your buckets, here's how you build your weekly plan.

1. Pick a consistent time to plan, whether it's Friday afternoons, Sunday evenings or Monday morning.

2.

Use a digital calendar like Google Calendar or a print planner like the perfect counselor planner,

whatever planner you're actually going to look at.

If you need a good printed calendar, I've got one for you. I will drop the link in the show notes and color code your blocks by category.

Green equals direct services,

blue equals planning.

Red equals your crisis, flex, time,

et cetera.

At the bottom of my printed planner,

I have all those categories. I have my big buckets and I color code everything that goes in into the planner so I know exactly where my time is, what I'm doing and how it's being spent.

I also suggest that you start with the non negotiables.

Do you have lunch duty that you can't get out of? How about 504 meetings or lesson times?

Maybe you know that you have IEP counseling that you have to do.

And I know that some of these things are not appropriate school counselor duties,

but sometimes we have to do the job we're being paid for and not the job we're being trained for.

So you have to start with those non negotiables, put in all those things that you know that you have to do.

Once you have all those non negotiables in, you have to add in your ideal weak blocks.

So for classroom lessons,

where's your block for classroom lessons? Is it every Wednesday from 9 to 10?

Is it every morning from 9 to 11?

Where are you going to schedule those from?

What about your group sessions?

Are you going to hold those on specific days? Maybe it's Tuesday, Thursday afternoons.

And make sure that you add a block in for your data entry or for notes.

I like to schedule mine for Fridays at 1 and make sure that you also have blocks in there for crisises. I like to call these our flex blocks.

So I have a daily 30 minute buffer that accounts for when stuff hits the fan.

Last year,

my friends, I blocked 30 minutes after every classroom lesson as a cool down and notes section.

This was my block,

cool down and notes. And it was a game changer. I mean, I stopped carrying six fifty notes in my pocket and I remember to actually log my time.

Why?

Because I already had it blocked in.

I am doing that this year with our attendance data.

We weren't as intentional as we wanted to be. And this year we have decided that if we want to make attendance a priority in our building and tackling all those attendance issues,

we have to schedule the time that we're going to meet as a little group and look at all that attendance data and decide how we're going to handle it. So we have built in a block.

It's just once a month, but we have that block built in.

Step three is, is to protect the block.

This is where most time blocking plans, they fall apart. I mean, the interruptions come, the emails pile up,

your plan flies out the window. Here's how to hold the line.

Use auto replies like I'm in a student session until 11,

but will return emails after lunch.

Let your staff know your availability.

I mean a sign on the door, a standing schedule in your weekly staff email,

even a shared calendar link.

I put out a monthly calendar for my teachers and staff every month. Every month they get a new one. They know exactly where I am at all times.

Well,

mostly at all times. They see all the things that I have blocked and they know where I am.

That helps because I'm not interrupted a million times when they can look at the schedule and say oh she's in a class right now or oh, there is meeting time block on this calendar.

You also have to have, I think a parking lot list.

This is when someone asks you to do something that's not really urgent.

You can write it down and deal with it after your current block because it doesn't have to be done automatically.

And here's a counselor truth bomb being available 24 7.

It doesn't make you a better counselor, it just makes you exhausted and less effective.

Step four in this blocking business is all about review and adjust.

Because you won't get it perfect the first week.

And my friends, that's okay.

You want to build in 10 minutes each Friday to review what blocks worked, what got overrun,

where did time leak that could be patched.

Because this reflection, it helps you tweak and improve,

not just abandon the whole thing.

And here's a mini hack for you.

Use a sticky note tracker on your desk. Every time something unexpected pulls you away,

jot it down.

You will quickly see patterns and can even start planning for those interruptions ahead of time.

Now if you're wondering what a counselor schedule might look like,

let me paint you a quick little picture, give you a little snapshot.

So it could be like this and this could just be a Monday.

8 to 8:30 morning check in and crisis. Crisis buffer.

8:30 to 10 classroom lessons.

Notice how I specifically schedule a time in the day for that. Notes and emails.

10:30 to 12 individual counseling.

12:30 to 1 lunch duty.

1 to 1:30 lunch.

Because my friends, it's important that you take that time to eat.

1:30 to 2 I'm going to have a walk in block. This is when people can walk in if they need to see me.

2 to 2:30 going to do some group planning and some small groups. And 2:30 to 3 I'm going to leave time to debrief and answer parent calls.

I mean this is flexible,

but it's also intentional.

So some final thoughts for you.

Time is a tool, it's not a trap.

And let's be honest, there will be days where your blocks are blown apart by chaos,

vomit, a surprise fire drill or all three.

But time blocking, it's isn't about perfection.

It's about intention.

It can help you focus on what matters,

track what's actually happening and communicate your boundaries without being the no fun counselor who hides in their office.

And when you start managing your time like the precious resource it is.

You get more done,

you're going to start to feel less reactive.

And honestly, you'll be way less tempted to write your Data reports at 10pm With a cold slice of pizza and regret.

So there you have it, friends. Your crash course in bulletproofing your schedule with time blocking. And whether you're a Google Calendar guru or a Sticky Note Planner kind of soul,

the point is to be the boss of your time before it bosses you around.

If you love this episode,

would you guys do me a favor?

Can you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram with your favorite time saving hack?

Tag me counselingessentials so I can cheer you on.

And hey, if you've got a wild scheduling story or a tip that saved your counselor sanity, shoot me a message.

I might just feature it in a future episode.

And until next time,

schedule the time for what matters.

Protect it like your peace depends on it.

Because honestly, it does.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat.

Go block your time, my friends. Go block your time.

And until next time, I hope you have an awesome week.

Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat.

All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and at counselingessentials.org podcast.

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Want to connect? Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at Counseling Essentials until next time. Can't wait till we chat.

Bye for now.