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One school of thought in time management is that if you get the right system in place, and if you follow it well enough, then you’ll be able to do all of the things that you’re supposed to do. You can get it all done. This is not a school of thought that I subscribe […]

In 1955, civil service worker Cyril Northcote Parkinson invented a beautiful truism called Parkinson’s Law in an article of The Economist. The law describes “the commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” While you can almost see the wry smile on his face from the tone of […]

The next time you’re sitting with a stack of papers, I want you to imagine that I knock on the door, walk in, and sit down next to you (awkwardly). I put my hand on the stack of things that you’re grading, and I say, “Hey there, colleague. Question: Why are you grading that?” If […]

There are two ways of pursuing productivity. The first way asks, “How do we produce as much good as possible in our work and in our lives?” The second way asks, “How do we get as much done as possible in our work and in our lives?” I think that most of us start out […]

Recently, my students participated in their sixteenth pop-up debate of the school year. (Pop-up debates are most thoroughly treated in Chapter 4 of These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most. You can also get a quick overview of them here. While my goal each school year is to hold a […]