Your To-Do List Would Like a Word With You

Dear Colleague,

Your to-do list would like a word with you.

Apparently, you have been leaving school without finishing it. It has noticed you eating lunch, talking to colleagues, and occasionally going home.

It finds this behavior concerning.

Before you accept its evaluation of your performance, consider this:

• Has your to-do list ever mentioned that you helped a crying child return to class?

• Does it show how you talked with a worried parent who left assured?

• Is the fact that you made a student feel welcome enough to come back tomorrow on the list?

No. It mostly sits there making more of itself while you do amazing other things.

Become a Detective

This week, I invite you to evaluate your work on your own. Close that to-do list for five minutes.

Then open a blank page and write:

“Evidence That I Am Getting Somewhere.”

You are now a detective. List five pieces of evidence from this school year that you are succeeding. Small ones count. A student who used to shrug now gives you a sentence. A teacher says, “I tried that question.” A group member asks, “When do we meet again?” You handled a difficult conversation and still had enough energy to laugh at lunch.

The Really Important Piece

This is the really important piece:

“What did I do or think about that helped make that possible?”

“Nothing, really” does not count!

• Did you listen longer?

• Remember something important that the person did well recently?

• Give someone another chance?

Those actions deserve your attention. They are evidence of what is working. They are the exceptions in your school counselor successes.

Your Experiment

The deal then becomes:

“How can I do more of this, just this week?”

That is your experiment. Give it a try and notice what happens to you.

You may discover that some of your most useful work has never made it onto your to-do list. But it should, because those are the solutions