93. New Year, New Habits: Time Management Tips 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 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.

Carol: Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat. It's Carol here and I am here to help you maximize your school counseling program while you keep your sanity intact.

Happy New Year's, my friends. It is 2025. If you are just joining us this year, welcome so much.

Welcome to the podcast and whether you're really feeling energized or maybe you're already overwhelmed, today's episode, it's for you.

I want to talk to you guys about time management because let's face it, time management, it's the ultimate juggling act for school counselors. I mean, between crisises and meetings and the occasional Can I talk to you for a minute?

Which, let's be honest, is never just a minute, it's easy to feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day.

And what if I told you that the key to better time management isn't doing more, but doing what matters most?

Now with this episode, not only is, I think timely for the new year, but it's something that this past week I have been focusing on a lot.

So if you've been following the podcast for a while, you know that I, working in elementary school and I share an office with my co counselor and we sit so close together in this little teeny tiny office that I can reach out at any time and touch her?

Well, starting this coming week, the week that this episode airs, I will no longer be able to reach out and touch my friend because she will not be sitting there.

So I want to just say for a moment too, Ash, if you're listening, congratulations. I'm hoping that you're loving the new job. And for those of you that are listening, Ashley took a new job as a middle school counselor and it's a great opportunity for her.

It's close to her family. She's having a little baby bundle of joy in the next couple of months that we're so excited to welcome into the world.

This was just an opportunity that she couldn't pass up. And while I'm going to miss her and I've already shed a lot of tears, it's something that just needed to be done.

But in her absence, we haven't hired a new counselor yet. In fact, I'm still waiting for the posting to come up. I know it's coming. It just hasn't been posted yet.

So right now we are going from two to one counselor. And so all of that work is, of course, it's two jobs being put on one person.

No big deal. We can make it work.

But when we're looking at something like that, the key to making it work is really time management.

And like I said before, the key to better time management isn't about doing more, but doing what matters most.

So we're going to talk about that for a little bit. So stick around because I have some practical tips, some little insights for you, and some best practices from some real big time management pros.

So let's start with the elephant in the room. Why does time management feel so impossible for us? Because here's the things. Our roles are inherently reactive. I mean, we can start the day with the best of intentions, but all it takes is one emergency and boom.

Your perfectly planned schedule is toast.

And let's not forget about the multitasking myth. I mean, according to the Harvard Business Review, multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%. 40%. Yep, that's right. Every time you try to answer emails while planning a lesson and calming a distraught kiddo, you're actually losing precious time.

But don't worry, because time management isn't about controlling every second. It's all about prioritizing effectively.

So I don't know if you've ever heard of this book, but Brian Tracy, he's the author of Eat that Frog.

I know, it's a funny name. Eat that Frog. But he says it best. If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day with the satisfaction of knowing it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day.

I mean, face it, who wants to eat a live frog? I don't know anybody that does.

So in other words, what you want to do is you want to tackle your biggest, your most important task first.

And for school counselors, this might mean setting aside some time for proactive interventions before the day spirals.

As I was combining our two schedules, Ashley's and mine, into one, I really had to look at what are the things that absolutely, positively had to get done first. And those were the first things that I scheduled in.

But how do we really make time management work when really our day is just so chaotic and so unpredictable?

I think one of the key things to also do before just scheduling in those big things first is to batch your tasks. I think grouping similar tasks together is really a game changer.

For instance, set us some specific times to respond to emails rather than checking them every 10 minutes. I mean, I have said this a gazillion times, and I know that I've talked to enough counselors over the years to know that most of you have those email tabs open all day long and you're checking them all day long.

Newsflash, they're not emergencies.

You can let them go.

So check them a couple times a day. I like to check them most of the time about three times a day. Once when I first get in the morning, I turn on my computer, I turn on my email.

That's like the first thing that I do then usually at lunchtime and then once again before I leave for the day. But if they're up all day long, I'm going to want to check them all day long.

And most of the time, there's really nothing there other than the spammy emails like, hey, come to this conference, or, hey, check out this new book, or hey, here's a webinar that this program that you've never heard of wants you to take a look at.

You know those emails. I'm sure you get them too.

So there's nothing that's a super emergency in there.

So don't check it all the time.

When you start to block things together, it really can also make a big impact. You're going to feel like, wow, I was able to get so much more done. I also like to really keep a block of time each day in my schedule for lesson prep and lesson planning, rather than squeezing in like five minutes before I have to go to a lesson, because that just really stresses me out.

So I know if I'm like, I have a lesson coming up on Friday, I have this block of time now. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to use that half hour and I'm going to get that lesson plan knocked out.

Now I'm me. And most of my lesson plans are actually already written for the whole year, but I do have to still look through them. Which one do I want to do today or this week?

Coming up, this month, coming up. All right. Do I really make sure that I have everything Is there anything that I wanted to change from last year?

And what are the printouts that I know that I want to use with them? What handouts do I want to give to the kids? Because I always like to have a little something for them other than just maybe me talking in a video and a PowerPoint.

So I always like to have something for them to do and work on. So I have to make sure that they're all there. And so blocking that time together to make sure that I have it is much easier than if I start and then stop and come back to it, because then I'm like, oh, I don't remember what I just did last.

So block your time, your task, block your time, chunk it into your calendar and try to avoid those distractions.

I know that when I'm working, I have to really sometimes close my door, and I know that's hard because I'm the type of person that really likes to talk a lot.

And my door is always open and anybody can come in at any given time. So if I am doing some really deep work and really concentrating, I have to keep the door closed so that I, I am minimizing those distractions.

Try it, because I'm telling you, when you're done, you're really going to feel like a superhero.

Another thing besides bashing your tasks is that you can really embrace the power of a really good to do list. But you want to make it smarter, because not all to do lists are really created equal.

There's this one, it's the Eisenhower matrix. You might have heard of it, maybe you didn't, but it's a productivity masterpiece. It's used by productivity gurus, and it's simple. Basically, you're just taking a piece of paper and you're turning it into four quadrants.

The first quadrant is urgent and important.

Then you have important, but not urgent, urgent but not important.

And then of course, neither. Neither urgent and neither important.

So if it's urgent and important, those are the things that you have to do it now. If it's important but not urgent, you're going to schedule it. If it's urgent but not really important, maybe try to delegate it.

And if it's neither, well, delete it. Save it for another day. You don't have to do it now.

So, for example, the new district report might be really urgent and important while reorganizing your office supplies?

Probably not.

It could be maybe making copies of that lesson plan. What do you think that might be?

It could be important, but maybe it's not urgent because I don't need it until, if it's Monday, maybe I don't need it until Wednesday so I can schedule a time to get that done.

Or maybe it's urgent but not super important and maybe I can ask one of the secretaries in the office if they could make them during the time that they have.

So don't be afraid to delegate some things.

Another little tip here for you is to really set some boundaries and stick to them. This one's tough, but it is vital. I mean, if your door is always open like mine, you might never finish a task.

So maybe consider setting some designated office hours for those non emergency drop ins. You're can even post a sign counselor in session back at whatever time. Because it's not about being unavailable, it's really about protecting time to serve your students better.

Now I made this beautiful schedule this week and I took all of Ashley's things and all of my things and I really put it through that Eisenhower matrix. I mean, I went through and I said, what's important?

Urgent and important?

What's important but not super urgent? What's urgent but not really important? And what can I just completely get rid of? I mean, it was a little tough, but the most urgent things and important things were I have to get IEP counseling done.

I mean, there's no ifs, ands or buts about it. That's the first thing that had to be scheduled.

And there's not a lot of kids. We only, between the two of us, we only have eight. But those are eight kids that I have to see now and I have to make sure that I fit them in in my week.

And then I have all of our lessons and we see every class every week. And that was important for me to make sure that that continued. So I made sure that I put all of those lessons in.

Granted, I probably could have went to every other week, but I thought, wow, our kids really benefit. I know that this is a game changer in our counseling program and we just recently did a survey with our kids about our counseling lessons and they also self reported that those lessons were incredibly important.

So I wanted to continue with those. To me, that's important and it's urgent. And so that went into my schedule.

And as we're talking about schedules, the other tip is to really use tools to save your sanity.

Because just having sticky notes and mental lists, it really only gets you so far. I really think a schedule is perhaps the best tool that you can use. When I made this schedule, I put in all those things.

I did have to cut out some of my groups and a couple individual sessions with kids that I have because I thought, you know what? I think these kids have actually kind of gone through what they've needed, and they don't need me as much anymore.

And so I can kind of weed them out a little bit.

And I put together the schedule, and believe me, it's pretty packed with all the things that I need. And I made copies of it, and I gave it to every single staff member, which there's a lot of copies.

But I know the teachers are posting it in their rooms by their desk, and that way they can see when I'm in a class lesson who I'm in a lesson with, if I have a group, because it'll say group.

Or if I have an individual session, it'll just say individual. There's no names on that. They don't need to have names. But they do need to know when and what I'm doing and really how busy I am so that they're not calling me constantly for a minor crisis like somebody's under their table right now, they just don't want to come out or they don't want to take their coat off.

It is no big deal. Like you, you can manage life without calling me for those two things. So. So you have to be able to use your calendar, create it and follow it, and make sure you hand it to the people that can help you protect your time.

So those are your boundaries. You need to stick with them. But there's other things, too. Like I use Google Calendar to add things into a Google Calendar for my meetings because I like to have the little ding, ding, ding, ding.

I like the little alarm bells that go off to remind me that, oh, this isn't something that I normally do. You really need to make sure that you go to it.

You know, if there's a meeting, like an IEP meeting or maybe a counselor meeting, I want to have that little alarm to remind me I gotta go. And I, as much as I try to keep work things off my.

My personal cell phone, I do use the reminder and the Notes app a lot. So I will set reminders on my phone for little things. Like there's a faculty meeting in the morning, you need to get up early, or you have this.

So make sure you. You wanted to do this lesson and you wanted to bring, I don't know, tin foil with you for it. So make sure you pack the tin foil, something that I have to bring from home, or an apron or whatever it is.

So I will set reminders of little things that I might need or have to put together or reminders of. Like I said, get up early for that faculty meeting.

So use the tools that you have available to you. There's also some really great project management tools like Trello or Asana. So if you're doing some like big school wide events or maybe you want to track student interventions, a program like Trello or Asana might be something that you want to look at.

And you can share roles and responsibilities with other people as well.

There's one more tool out there and it's called delegation.

Yep, you heard me right. Delegation is a tool. If you have interns, student helpers or supportive colleagues, let them take on some tasks like maybe organizing your bulletin boards or creating handouts, making copies for them.

I mean, you don't have to do it all yourself.

I know in because I am solo right now. I did a little call out on Facebook the other day for I said if you're in CNY and you are looking for an internship, let me know.

So listen, if you're listening to this and you are in Central New York and you need an internship this semester, call me, call me, call me, get in touch with me, send me a little email.

I want to hear from you because I'm going to delegate some tasks off to you this year.

And once that posting goes live, yes, my friends, take a look at olas, which is our program that our district uses for employment ads. So keep checking because ROAM is going to be looking for a counselor soon.

Remember my friends though, tools are only as good as the habits you build around them.

So before we go today, I really want to talk about habits too, because you want to build lasting habits. You know, they say it takes 21 days to form a habit, but really science actually suggests it's closer to 66 days.

So don't beat yourself up if change feels slow because you do definitely want to start small. I like to habit stack. I like to build habits on top of a habit I already have like batching your emails or setting your office hours.

So some things that I have batched together is when I come in in the morning, one of the first things that I usually try to get there a few minutes early.

One of the first things I do is I always go and I make coffee.

So what I have learned to do is before I leave for the day, I have the lessons that I'm going to be doing the next day, usually sitting on my desk.

And with each Lesson I like to have like a handout or something, coloring sheet or a workshop sheet, an activity for the kids. And so I will have those papers on my desk at night.

And when I go to make my coffee in the morning, I'm going to bring those with me. So when I get to the faculty room, I'm going to throw those in the copier and then I'm going to go over with my little coffee pot pod and make coffee in the Keurig.

And if there's a teacher in there while those copies are being made and I'm my coffee is brewing, I'm going to talk to them about maybe a kiddo or whatever else.

So I'm accomplishing a couple things at one time, but I did stack those together, copies, coffee before I leave, getting my stuff organized for the next day.

So those are just little habits.

You can do things like that and usually they don't take a long time to put together.

The other thing, my friends, is as you're building habits, make sure you celebrate those small wins. If you stuck to your to do list, give yourself a high five and maybe enjoy a coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or your favorite coffee place rather than making it in the Keurig that day.

And don't be afraid to reflect and adjust because if a strategy isn't working for you, tweak it. Time management isn't a one size fits all.

I've talked about this before, but the book Atomic Habits is awesome and the author is James Clear. And that habit stacking, that's one of the things that they talk about in Atomic Habits.

But James Clear also says you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.

So what we really want to do in our program is to really build systems that work for you.

So my friends, if there are some time management tips that you have that I haven't shared, share them with me because maybe there's some things that I could do a little bit better.

But I do hope that this episode was helpful for you, especially if you're feeling really worn down and discouraged and like, ugh, it's only midway through the year. I hope to get through the last, because sometimes we do.

We have to change things up a little bit so that we can get through whatever life throws at us.

Now, if this episode really resonated with you, I hope you could share it with a fellow counselor who could use some time saving hacks too.

Remember, it's not about squeezing more into the day.

It's about focusing on what truly matters. My friends, I know that you are doing amazing things. You are amazing.

Your work is necessary. It's needed. The impact that you have is so important and we might not be seeing the goals or we might not be seeing outcomes at all.

But let me tell you, you're planting the seeds that are making a difference.

So thank you my friends, for tuning into Counselor Chat. I'm going to drop a link in the show Notes for Atomic Habits so that you could check it out. It really is a good book.

I don't know, maybe we can do. Let me know if you're interested in maybe doing a like a book club on that because it's a really good book. It's not a a difficult read.

It's pretty fairly quick. But maybe we could all talk about it together. That interests you, let me know. But my friends, I hope that you have a great week.

Until next time. Bye for now.

Carol: 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. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Want to connect?

Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at Counseling Essentials. Until next time. Can't wait till we chat.

Carol: Bye for now.