Don’t Schedule IEP Meetings in the Mornings and Other SLP Productivity Hacks
If you know me in person or follow me on social media, you know that I’m a serial consumer of information. Books, podcasts, the works. And not just SLP stuff (though that’s great too). Some of my favorite books are about business, psychology, how we build habits, etc.
in 2019, I read When, by Daniel Pink, and it. changed. my. life. Yes, I know that’s very cliche, but it really did. It completely reframed the way I got things done and changed how I looked at “productivity.”
Before reading that book, I used to think that being productive meant laser-focused forward movement on a single project to completion. When I was being “focused,” “disciplined,” and “productive,” I wouldn’t let myself move on to other things until I’d finished what I was “supposed” to be working on.
And yes, that’s a lot of quotes (and yes, I would use air quotes reading this out loud), but they’re there for a reason.
Because, in reality, I wasn’t being any of those things – focused, disciplined, or productive. Instead, I was fighting myself all day when I’d told myself what I should be doing but my brain was trying to do anything else. I’d be productive in the morning working on something but I’d spend my afternoon not allowing myself to switch gears to something different (because that felt like a “distraction”). Instead, I’d procrastinate in other ways and get nothing at all done. I’d have been better switching gears and by the end of the day I would have made progress on two things instead of only what got done before 9:00. I did this for years.
I’m going to try to summarize the takeaways from the book When, by Daniel Pink, in a paragraph, but if this interests you, I’d highly recommend you read it.
For me, the two takeaways as they relate to my work as an SLP are:
- Most people have a peak of brain power in the morning, a lull in the early afternoon (after-lunch slump anyone?!), and then a second wind later in the day.
- We do different types of work/think better at different times of the day. For most people, the morning is optimal for difficult, taxing, or analytical work, while the afternoon/evening is better for more creative work.
By really considering these ideas and starting to build my schedule with them in mind, I found I wasted a lot less time in my day, got more done in fewer hours, and left work feeling much more productive (aka fulfilled).
I am also going to put in the necessary caveat here that I know we don’t all have control over our schedules all the time. It just is what it is. But these are just some ideas you might consider if and when you have the option.
1. Schedule your IEP meetings in the afternoons (and save your mornings for writing them).
Here’s the reality. We do our best work in the mornings. For many of us, it’s the most valuable time of day for getting work done well and quickly. So don’t waste that precious time in meetings, if you can help it. We tend to be more social in the afternoon – so use that time for meetings, catching up with teachers, or reaching out to families. Protect your morning time for the hard stuff you need to do more independently – like that eval report that’s been hanging over you.
2. Stack your afternoons with sessions.
In my experience, an after-lunch break in my day (like for a prep period) is much more likely to be wasted away with procrastination or lack of focus than one in the morning. So I now jam-pack my afternoons with groups since they’re on a schedule and HAVE to happen, and put any administrative time in the mornings, when I’m more likely to use it well
3. Schedule articulation groups in the afternoon.
Since I obviously can’t only schedule groups in the afternoons (see Tip #2), I try to put mostly articulation groups later in the day and put the language groups in the morning. This may differ from person to person, but I find articulation groups to be more straightforward, less prep, and for me, easier than language groups. I often use similar activities for most artic groups in a day, and sessions are more consistent from week to week. This makes them a good fit for me in the afternoons, and I like to reserve my morning sessions for language. I’m my best analytical high-energy self for those language groups in the morning, and I can schedule back-to-back artic groups in the afternoons with minimal prep which makes my day go more quickly.
Also, on a related note, batching (when you group similar types of tasks together) is shown to improve productivity so scheduling similar-goal groups one after the other rather than having to alternate back and forth all day long is another benefit to this type of scheduling.
4. Schedule big things first and don’t let the small things run your day.
It’s really easy to spend an hour checking off 10 little tasks that have to be done (e-mail that parent, check in with that teacher, update Zoom…). But you know what’s hard? Finding one uninterrupted block of time to knock out that IEP. Some of our duties are much better done with a bigger block of time – so make sure you see where you can schedule that FIRST and protect that time.
The little tasks can get done in any one of the hidden moments throughout the day. Got a student coming to speech in 5 minutes “just as soon as they finish their spelling test?” Great. THAT is when you can knock out a small task.
5. Laminate, prep, and lesson plan in the afternoons.
At least for me, these are all tasks that require less intense brainpower. While lesson planning certainly takes thought, a lot of it is spent finding materials, getting organized, and working with systems we’re familiar with. Laminating and prepping are necessary, but not difficult. These are optimal tasks to save for the afternoons when we’re running a little more slowly. You’re better off working on these than trying to write that IEP and just procrastinating and getting distracted instead.
I hope this is all immensely helpful in giving you a framework for some small changes you can make in your schedule that will help you get the right kind of work done in a way that doesn’t stress you out as much as it may otherwise do.
For more discussion on this topic, you might love this Video Podcast I did with Lindsey from Speechy Things. You can find that here: Level A Hacks for When Life’s a B.
You may also be interested in this FREE daily planner designed specifically for SLPs with these productivity concepts in mind!
