Early in my career as a principal, most mornings began the same way: emails piling up, teachers stopping by with quick questions, parents calling, and unexpected new deadlines that I didn’t see coming. By midday, I’d realize that I spent the morning doing good things—helping, responding, solving—but hadn’t touched the work that truly moved our school forward: coaching teachers, improving instruction, or planning strategically.
I started experimenting with a process I now call MAP—meeting of alignment and priorities. I needed a way to stay focused and intentional amid the constant movement of school life. As Ryan Matt Reynolds writes in Undoing Urgency, “Urgency is seductive; intentionality is transformative.” That insight captured exactly what I was missing: I wasn’t ignoring urgent tasks, but I was letting them pull me away from the work that mattered most. MAP became my weekly road map—a reflective guide that helped me navigate day-to-day demands of leadership while staying aligned with our school’s greater purpose.