I was coaching a brilliant principal recently who is battling a massive wave of student tardies.

We’re talking 3,500 tardies since October.

She’s sending letters home, but she told me she hates using the rubber signature stamp. She feels it’s lazy.

So, every Monday morning, she sits down with her special purple pen.

She hand-signs every single letter so the parents "know that she took the time".

It only takes about five minutes a week. Doesn’t seem like much, right?

But we did the math.

Over a school year, that is three full hours of her life spent signing pieces of paper that parents might not even read.

Moral of the story: Your "personal touch" is often just procrastination in disguise.

We tell ourselves we are doing the "caring" work. But really, we are doing the $10/hour work because it feels safe and productive.

But you can’t be a Ruckus Maker if you’re drowning in purple ink.

Here is the pivot: Three hours of your leadership could be used to coach a teacher who is struggling. It could be used to build a strategic plan. It could be used to observe a classroom.

If you give that task to your admin assistant, the letters still get sent. The message is received.

But you get your brain back.

You have to decide: Do you want to be the principal who signs the slips? Or the principal who solves the problem?

If you are ready to stop doing the busy work and start doing the meaningful work...

Then I invite you to set up an exploration call with me to explore private coaching or our mastermind community.

We will help you delete, automate, and delegate the low-leverage stuff so you can focus on the work that actually moves the needle.

Keep Making a Ruckus,

Danny