Things You Can Control by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

Your life as a principal involves a fair amount of control (as well as understanding what ISN’T under your control).  Part of being productive is taking control over those areas where you can exert some control. So, take control over:

1. What you wear. I’m assuming that if you are subscribing to these weekly Top Ten Productivity Tips, you are an adult. So you get to choose what you wear. Choose well.
2. What you think. Exert the executive control that is part of the mature human’s brain.  Get control over your thinking.  You can, you know.
3. With whom you associate. We are defined partly by those with whom we associate. It has been said that others know who we are if they know who we “hang out” with. Associate with the best.
4. How you spend your time. You have 168 hours each week…just like everyone else. It’s the great equalizer. What makes the difference is how you spend (or invest) that time.
5. What you do with your money. You get to decide where your money goes. Really.
6. Where you work. If you find yourself complaining day after day, week after week, month after month, or (heaven forbid) year after year about your job, your boss, your profession, then make a change. You choose.  Unending complaints about any or all of the above indicates that you are not taking control.
7. Your responses to others. You can control whether you allow others to offend you, make you mad, give you joy, insult you, inform you, or….
8. Your attitude. As an adult, you get to decide whether you are positive or negative, open or closed, and so on.
9. Portions of your environment. Take control over the aspects of your environment that you can (lighting, colors, clutter, etc.)
10. What you ingest, including food and drink. By the time you are out of your teens, you have a pretty decent sense of what food and beverages work for you and which ones don’t. Have more of the ones that work for you and less of the ones that do not. No one is forcing you to do any differently. It’s under your control.

My belief is that we all have more control than we think we do…at least over those items that I’ve listed above. Be thankful for the control you have and use it in a productive manner.

And if you want to get your current semester organized or prepare for the next, I highly recommend If You Do Nothing Else This Semester. With the strategies I present you will get the strategies you need to not only have a successful semester, but a successful year.