Creating a Weekly MAP to Guide Your Work as a Principal

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.

I first developed MAP as a solo practice, seeking to make sense of my workload and focus on what truly mattered for students and teachers. Each week, I stepped back to see where my time went and what drove results. Over time, I invited my leadership team into the process. What began as personal reflection became a shared practice of alignment. Together, MAP became our weekly road map, helping us stay on course while navigating the inevitable detours that arise in a school day.

The MAP Process in Practice

MAP doesn’t begin by listing tasks. It begins with re-grounding—taking a moment to reconnect with your school’s vision, mission, and strategic priorities. Only after that grounding does the actual planning begin. In an hour or less, here’s a process you can follow to start making an immediate impact on your school each week:

1. Reground in purpose—vision, mission, and strategic priorities (5 minutes). Before planning anything, pause and reconnect with your school’s guiding principles. Ask yourself and your team:

• What is the work that truly matters right now?

• How does it connect to our vision, mission, or strategic goals?

This moment of grounding sets your compass for the week. It’s not about deciding what to do just yet—it’s about remembering why we’re doing it. When you start from vision, everything that follows is filtered through that lens.

On busy weeks, this moment of grounding has reminded me that supporting teachers and advancing equity for students sit at the center of our strategic plan this year. Simply naming those commitments helps me enter the week looking for opportunities to encourage, coach, or remove barriers—especially for the students who need us most. That clarity often sharpens my focus before I ever start listing tasks.

2. Reflect on last week (5–10 minutes). Look back at what had the most impact. What worked? What didn’t? Take a moment to celebrate progress—even small wins—and capture lessons learned. Reflection is how MAP doubles as a leadership learning tool, not just a planning session.

My team and I typically do this step verbally, taking turns summarizing our work from the previous week. These quick reflections often surface patterns we might miss on our own—habits that consistently move us forward or recurring distractions that pull us off track. Naming these patterns together turns reflection into problem-solving, helping us refine our approach week after week.

3. Capture everything on your plate (5–10 minutes). With a purpose set, list everything coming up—meetings, deadlines, follow-ups, teacher or parent needs, ongoing projects, and operational tasks. This isn’t about labeling urgency yet; it’s about getting it all out in the open. Seeing the work in one place reduces mental load and creates clarity for real prioritization. Occasionally, something clearly misaligned with our mission falls away here, but the deeper evaluation comes next.

4. Prioritize with the Eisenhower Matrix (10–15 minutes). Using the classic Eisenhower framework, sort tasks into four categories by asking two questions: Is this urgent? and Is this important?

• Important and urgent (Do First): These are mission-critical tasks that need your immediate time and attention, such as a safety incident in the school.

• Important but not urgent (Schedule and Protect): These are strategic priorities that drive long-term impact—like analyzing student achievement data to inform instruction; block out time in your calendar to ensure that these tasks get the time they deserve.

• Urgent but not important (Delegate): Tasks that demand attention but don’t advance core goals, such as coordinating routine operational tasks like ordering supplies, can be delegated.

• Neither urgent nor important (Eliminate): Low-value activities that don’t contribute to your mission can be removed, such as attending nonessential meetings that don’t align with school priorities.

Filtering your tasks through this process ensures that high-impact work is protected and helps urgent tasks from hijacking your week.

5. Assign ownership and track (5–10 minutes). Decide who owns each task and when it will be done. Even if you’re a team of one, writing down commitments makes them visible and actionable. A shared spreadsheet, digital tracker, or whiteboard works equally well.

Why MAP Works

MAP is powerful because it’s flexible. The five steps I’ve shared offer direction, not rules, allowing new needs to appear without derailing progress. Instead of treating unexpected events as disruptions, MAP helps you view them as detours that might shift your route but don’t change your destination. A quick midweek check-in can help you reroute with intention, keeping the work grounded in purpose even when the path changes.

Whether you’re leading alone or with a team, MAP adapts easily. Solo administrators gain a weekly habit of reflection that keeps them focused on what matters most. Leadership teams gain alignment—clear priorities, defined handoffs, and shared ownership of the work. What begins as a planning routine quickly becomes a learning routine that turns the noise of daily demands into clarity, direction, and forward movement.

Leading With Intention

Adopting MAP has changed how I approach leadership. High-impact work now gets the attention it deserves, and decisions are made with clarity and confidence. Weekly reflection helps me notice patterns, adjust strategies, and refine my approach. Perhaps most important, it encourages recognition of progress—both large and small—which fuels motivation and morale.

With a clear road map each week, I now feel empowered to tackle urgent challenges and strategic priorities with focus and intention. Whether it’s a last-minute parent concern, a student issue, or shifting priorities, I stay grounded in what truly matters and can respond without losing sight of our bigger goals. This structure allows me to protect energy for the people who matter most; spend more time coaching teachers, supporting students, and strengthening school culture; and follow a plan that advances our strategic priorities.

Other administrators who try MAP can expect similar outcomes: a renewed sense of clarity in a busy week, more confidence responding to competing demands, and the knowledge that their efforts are moving their school forward. It’s a simple practice, but it creates space to reflect, notice patterns, and make small changes that add up to meaningful progress over time.