At heart, educators are “samurais,” – “those who serve.” But with an overflowing plate, are you the battle rope being yanked in tug-o-war, instead of an energized warrior prepared to serve with excellence? 

Do you need a better plan?

Samurai scheduling serves you…so you can serve others. Realigning how you spend your time to reflect your life priorities increases calm and freedom in your life. You can breathe again.

#1. Start Between Your Ears

Your thoughts about scheduling profoundly impact the effectiveness of your schedule. Think about it – do you usually succeed wildly at something you dread? If you’d rather have a root canal than stick to a schedule, relentlessly practice new mini thought-steps to rewire your brain more positively. For example, “I can never stick to a schedule,” morphs into “I’ll begin with a basic plan to set myself up for success.”

#2. Prioritize Ferociously & Learn to Say "No"

Grab a notepad and list the priorities in your life. Include whatever comes to mind: important people, faith, meditation, work, academics, extracurriculars, chores, errands and the kitchen sink. Dump the mess of pressing matters from your brain to the paper. Now, rank–order your priorities. For each item, ask yourself: “Is this activity necessary at this point in time for me/my family’s health, development or well-being?” Gut-wrenching as it is, forced prioritization liberates you to say “yes” to the most important things and “no” to lesser priorities. Saying “no” to desirable opportunities that did not rank among my top priorities was one of the hardest life lessons I taught myself – and one of the most impactful. 

#3. Where's the White Space?

Did you list “white space” as a priority?

Productive white space requires creative, mental, spiritual or physical engagement. Infuse color and renewed energy into your life by exercising, reading, meditating, listening to audio books, learning a language or playing an instrument.

#4. Master Daily Routines & Flexibility

As you fine-tune daily routines, allow for the unexpected. Samurai scheduling flexes to incorporate car breakdowns, illness and spontaneous time-suckers you cannot foresee. If there is no flex-room in your master schedule to allow for uncertainty, you are doing too much. 

I have consistent morning and evening routines. My morning routine builds in white space – coffee, reading, kitty snuggling, playing the piano, a five-minute mini workout and calendar review. It clears my head and kick starts my motor.

What natural routines can you build into your day? 

#5. Discover Your “Black Belt” Calendar

Try different calendar formats until you light upon the one that speaks to your samurai scheduling style. I use an electronic calendar for appointments and future planning. Once a week, I update my paper calendar to reflect my e-calendar. This winning combo offers the flexibility of calendar access from my phone and self-generates a written “To-Do” list each day. Keep calm and calendar on! 

Expect to micro-adjust your thoughts, priorities, white space, routines and calendar until your schedule mirrors your life priorities and serves you. Then unleash your inner samurai energy into rocking your business and empowering the learners you lead.   

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this message.

We'd like to take a moment to welcome the edTeam's newest thought-leader, educator, self-published author, Krav Maga master, victorious homeschool Mama of two, and the Scheduling Samurai herself: Ms. D. I. Clark.

Okay, so first of all--edTonomy bytes? It's the kind of simple brilliance/quiet genius/humble wizardry that's so good you might just forgive or forget that serious oxymoron faux paux we just committed right there. ^

Can we get some snaps and a real round of applause for the newest member of the edTeam? Ya know, like this kind of round:

D.I., we're honored to have you join us in this journey forward, toward a new era in education–uplifting teachers, learners, families, and communities on our way.