The Art of Time’s Illusion

In the whirlwind of being a teaching principal, it is easy to believe that doing more all at once is the key to success. I certainly thought that when I started. If I could keep ten plates spinning, surely that made me more productive, right? But over the years, I have learned the opposite is true. Multitasking, as tempting as it looks on the surface, just leads to a lot of half-finished tasks and a lingering feeling of never really being present.

The Multitasking Trap

I remember one morning in particular when I had three things on my plate: I was checking emails, drafting a board report, and trying to listen to a student who had come in to tell me something important. In my head, I thought I was handling it fine. But the reality was different. I missed the nuance of what the student was saying, skimmed the emails without truly reading them, and ended up with a board report that needed major fixing later. The student walked away feeling unheard.

“Multitasking is really just task switching. Each time we shift our focus, we pay a cognitive cost, and the quality of our work suffers.”

It is ironic, because in education we often idolise busyness. We wear it like a badge of honour: the longer the hours, the bigger the pile of papers, the more meetings juggled in a day, the more committed we must be. But that culture of constant busyness leaves very little room for depth. It encourages surface-level skimming across a hundred things instead of diving into one thing with real clarity.

The Power of Boundaries

What changed the game for me was giving myself permission to slow down and set boundaries. I realised that being effective was not about doing everything at once, it was about doing the right things at the right time. That is when I began carving out clear blocks in my day. There is a time when I am fully present with my students, and there is a time when I put on my leadership hat to focus on planning, emails, and the never-ending admin of running a school.

Once I started doing this, I felt the difference almost immediately.

“Children always notice. They can tell when you are grounded and truly listening.”

The quality of my decisions improved, my stress levels dropped, and perhaps most importantly, my students noticed.

Tools That Help Me Slow Down

Part of slowing down is about mindset, but it is also about systems. I rely heavily on digital tools to hold the noise for me, so I do not carry it all in my head. Each morning I start by opening my daily note in Capacities, which acts as my hub. Everything I need is there, my schedule, my key tasks, and my reflections.

Email used to be one of my biggest distractions. Now, using Superhuman, I batch it. Emails are snoozed until the time I have set aside to deal with them, so I am not constantly checking.

“Instead of my inbox hijacking my attention, I control when I engage with it.”

Even my commute has become part of the ritual. Instead of using it to stress about the day ahead, I use it to listen to a podcast or reflect quietly. By the time I arrive at school, I am calmer and more ready to connect with whoever needs me.

Depth Over Surface

One of the lessons I have learned from slowing down is the value of depth. When I try to skim across a dozen things, I never reach the kind of deep thinking or problem-solving that makes a real difference.

I remember once sitting down with a group of Year 5s to read. Normally I would be half-thinking about the next meeting or the emails waiting for me. But on that day, I had deliberately set everything else aside.

“That single-tasking win stayed with me far longer than any to-do list tick.”

The difference in the conversation we had about the story was remarkable. They went deeper, asked more questions, and I found myself genuinely enjoying the moment.

The Cultural Shift We Need

The bigger challenge is that education culture still idolises the hustle. Teachers are praised for going the extra mile, staying late, and juggling multiple jobs at once. Slowing down can almost feel rebellious.

“If we want sustainable careers in education, we need to model something different.”

We need to show that depth matters more than surface activity, that presence matters more than speed, and that taking care of our focus is not selfish but essential.

What Slowing Down Has Taught Me

Slowing down has taught me three key lessons:

1. Presence is power. Whether it is a child telling me a story or a staff member sharing a concern, the best gift I can give them is my undivided attention.

2. Boundaries make you braver. By carving out clear spaces for tasks, I have become less reactive and more proactive.

3. Depth brings joy. The work feels lighter when I do it deeply and well, instead of rushing through it half-aware.

A Final Thought

If I could give other educators and leaders one piece of advice, it would be this: stop seeing slowing down as doing less. See it as doing better. When we slow down, we give ourselves the chance to connect, to think clearly, and to do work that really matters. The to-do list never ends, but the people in front of us, our students, our colleagues, our families, need us now. And they need us present.

“Slowing down does not make us fall behind. It is what allows us to lead, teach, and live at our best.”

Try this

Choose one part of your day where you normally juggle three or four things. Tomorrow, commit to doing just one. Put the phone away, close the email, and give your full attention to that single task or that single person. Notice the difference in how you feel, and notice the difference in the result.