Being a school principal is a twenty-four hour job because the school is constantly in your thoughts. It has to be because, as the leader, you are responsible for faculty, staff and, most importantly, the students. Sometimes you lay awake at night thinking through a difficult problem; other times something prevents you from sleeping well or enters your dreams.
In many ways you are always “on the job” even when you are off or away on vacation, but to maintain your sanity and a healthy family life you must make every effort to draw a line in the sand, delineate work from home, and make time for your family, especially doing things to let your own children know that they are just as important (and hopefully more important) than those kids at school.
5:00 am:
Wake up time. Take a brisk, quick shower. I bring in the morning paper and eat breakfast. This will be the last “me” time of the day. It gives me a chance to read about the news, to check out the sports page, and fuel myself because breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day for principals too. I get dressed, check in to see my kids sleeping, and give them each a kiss before I leave for a long day