In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown highlights a paradox that people often encounter as they progress through their careers. Here’s how it goes:
Phase 1. We have clarity of purpose and we do great work that aligns with out strengths
Phase 2: We have success in our work and this leads to increased options and opportunities.
Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities—aka: demands on our time and energy—it leads to diffused efforts, spreading us thinner and thinner
Phase 4: We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our initial impact has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our impact in the first place.
When I read this message at the start of 2024, it really resonated for me. But I didn’t act on it at the start of the year. Unfortunately, this inaction hasn’t helped me.
Considering Phase 1… if there’s anything that I’m good at, it would have to be this: Clarify, Codify, Communicate.
I go down deep and complex rabbit holes of educational research and practice and I try to sift the wheat from the chaff, clarifying what it is that really makes the difference for students. I then try to consolidate these findings into frameworks that are both understandable and memorable. That is, I codify them. And finally, I communicate this information to others, through writing, podcasts, and more.
This is what I have done with Cognitive Load Theory, distilling it into the ABCDE of CLT. It’s what I did in Tools for Teachers, summarising tens of discussions with world leaders into things such as the P.I.C model of explicit instruction and the Three M’s of leadership. It’s what I do at Steplab through continually refining both our resources that outline quality teaching, and our frameworks for quality coaching. And it’s what I’ve been doing recently at the Explicit Mathematics Program, working with the team to refine the effective teaching of mathematics down to its essence and capture it in an easy to use format for both teachers and students. It’s also what I try to do each month through the Education Research Reading Room Podcast, deeply reading edu texts then quizzing the authors both for my own understanding, and for the benefit of listeners.
This process of clarification, codification, and communication is what I feel I’m good at. It’s also what I find fundamentally rewarding, I simply love reading and thinking deeply, and trying to boil down complex ideas to their fundamental mechanisms in interesting and accessible ways. For me, this is a truly enriching experience.
But as time has gone on, I have found myself pushed from phase 1, to 2, to 3, and now to phase 4. I have found myself contributing to many, many projects, to the point that in 2024, I have barely had time to do any clarification and codification, instead simply communicating to different audiences and in many different forums. An example of this is that I have been trying to write a coaching book all year, but have only managed about 10 pages on it! This is in stark contrast to 2020, 2021, and 2022, in which I managed to put together a book each year.
Thus, I’ve come to the conclusion that, for 2025, I need to be really conscious about where I spend my time, and what I do and don’t make space for. I need to focus on the projects that I truly believe are going to have impact for the long term. The three projects that I feel I must allocate time to in 2025, and that will have commpounding positive educational benefits for years to come, are Steplab, the Explicit Mathematics Program (EMP), and the Education Research Reading Room Podcast.
This will also mean saying ‘no’ to a number of things. For example, whilst there are many ways that schools and individuals will still be able to engage with me both asynchronously and virtually, I don’t plan on taking on any additional in person speaking or presentation opportunities in 2025. This has been a really hard decision for me, as I recognise that appearing at conferences and events is a valuable way to contribute to the profession. But ultimately, to continue to do my best work, I need to begin to protect the time needed to do my best work.
Whilst not taking on any additional engagements, I will still be doing a lot of talks and presentations. I will be running a large number of intensives with Steplab, as well as the Certificate in Coaching Leadership. I’ll also be doing a mini Aus tour with Craig Barton in June or July on Maths teaching (details to come), as well as probably running some PD around the EMP.
I wanted to publicly share this commitment to help me to stick to it. This has been a super hard decision for me, but I think it’s ultimately one that will allow me to have an even greater impact in the long term, and to play to my strengths in doing so.
As we enter the final few months of the year, it’s a good time for all of us to pause and think: ‘What am I really good at? What is it that really fulfils me? How can I make time for more of this in the year to come?’
The decision to cut, slash, and restrict is hard, but it’s the only way we can make space for what truly matters. Good luck!
Announcements and Opportunities: Four things from Steplab
It's action stations at Steplab. Here are four ways to be part of the evidence informed Instructional Coaching movement in Australia!
Intensives: We're running four different full-day Instructional Coaching Intensives between now and the end of 2024. They'll be in Perth (Oct 21st), Sydney (Oct 28th), Adelaide (Nov 11th), and Melbourne (Nov 13th) . Come along for an unforgettable crash course in Instructional Coaching with yours truly and Rory McCaughey!
Certificate in Coaching Leadership: Following a hugely successful cohort 1, we've just opened applications for cohort 2 of our year-long CCL program. Watch the video then find out more about this transformative opportunity and apply here. Here’s the vid again, for your convenience:
Teach Like a Champion now on Steplab: You heard it right, Steplab has partnered with Doug Lemov and the Teach Like a Champion team! Now you can find all the Teach Like a Champion Content converted into bite-sized action Steps for use in your coaching program, in your school. Find out more.
Come work at Steplab! Steplab Aus is growing fast, so we're hiring for an operations and admin team member 🙂 Apply here, or send any questions to ollie@steplab.co
I hope to see you at one of our events soon.