Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Principal JL is an educational leader who explores various topics facing educational leaders today! The Mission of this podcast is to inform and inspire other Educational Leaders on how to be their best for their Schools by honing their skills and talents so they may impact their teachers, staff members, students, parents/guardians, and community members positively for their School District! Come with a Growth Mindset as we journey through Educational Leadership!
Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Episode 33: Get Organized: Dr. Frank Buck’s Journey and Blueprint for Productive Educational Leadership!
What separates exceptional educational leaders from the merely competent? According to Dr. Frank Buck, it might be as simple and as challenging as reliable organization systems. His journey from band director to productivity expert reveals a crucial truth: educators aren't typically fired because students performed poorly at a concert, but because they forgot to order the buses to get there.
Dr. Buck's leadership philosophy centers on supporting teachers by removing obstacles to their core instructional work. With experience spanning classroom teaching, building leadership, and district administration, he's observed firsthand how systematic approaches to organization create environments where both teachers and students thrive. His fundamental principle? External systems for capturing commitments allow your brain to focus on what truly matters teaching and leading rather than constantly trying to remember countless details.
The digital revolution has transformed how we manage information, but Buck argues the underlying principles remain unchanged. Whether using a paper planner (his original "little book that impressed teachers") or sophisticated digital tools like Remember the Milk, the key is developing reliable systems where nothing falls through the cracks. Buck shares practical strategies for implementing digital task management, leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance productivity, and creating repeating task systems that eliminate the need to reinvent processes annually.
For aspiring leaders, Buck emphasizes mentorship and persistence, encouraging educators to seek administrative positions before they feel fully ready, understanding that the application process itself builds crucial networks and experience. His most powerful insight might be the simplest: "Good teachers come and stay if you treat them right." Creating systems that support teacher effectiveness ultimately creates the environments where students can flourish.
Ready to transform your leadership through better organization? Visit frankbuck.org to access free resources, join his email list, and discover how simple systems can dramatically improve your effectiveness as an educational leader.
Dr. Frank Buck's Website: https://FrankBuck.org
"Get Organized Digitally!: Here Are Updates To The Book"
https://frankbuck.org/get-organized-digitally-updates/
Dr. Frank Buck's social media links:
Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/DrFrankBuck
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drfrankbuck
Instagram: http://instagram.com/drfrankbuck
Facebook: https://facebook.com/@DrFrankBuck
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frankbuck.org
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Joining me today on the show is Dr Frank Buck, a veteran school leader and administrator. He has served as a band director, principal and central office leader. Dr Buck is a nationally recognized author, speaker and expert in organization, time management and personal productivity areas. Every educational leader can benefit from mastering areas every educational leader can benefit from mastering. He's the author of impactful books, including best-selling Get Organized Time Management for School Leaders and Get Organized Digitally the Educator's Guide to Time Management. Dr Buck has delivered powerful presentations at conferences across the United States, canada and even Australia, helping educators simplify their lives so they can better serve students. Now get ready for some practical wisdom, powerful strategies and a deep dive into systems that help leaders do what matters most. Now let's get to our. I have Dr Frank Buck. Welcome to the show.
Dr. Frank Buck:Thanks, jeff, it's a pleasure to be here.
Principal JL:All right, frank, I'm going to ask you the same question that I ask everybody what inspired you to become an educator?
Dr. Frank Buck:Jeff, we'd have to go all the way back to junior high school. I joined the band when I was in seventh grade and my original dream was to be a professional in a symphony orchestra. So I played flute. And then I read an article that said well, here are the 150 jobs in the country. You're going to have to wait till somebody dies for there to be an opening and there'll be 200 applications for that job. So I thought maybe I need a plan B. Well, every secondary school in the country's got a band needs a band director. I'm thinking those are a little bit better odds.
Dr. Frank Buck:And I grew up very near the University of Alabama. That was kind of the hub of all things band in the state at that time. So I was around a lot of the really good band directors and I was hearing the better bands in the state. And so one thing I was noticing early on was this Whenever a band director who had a really good program moved to another school, that next year that band was better, and the next year it was a lot better. And it didn't matter if it was urban, suburban, affluent community, large school, small school. When a good band director went into another school, the band got better. So the message to me was look, if you're willing to work hard, this is a profession where you can experience success, and experience it early in your career. So from like ninth grade, I said I want to be a junior high band director when I grew up, and that's exactly what happened.
Principal JL:All right, frank. So let's talk about. You know your teaching career. You know what. What did you teach? I mean band, of course, but you know, was there anything like I know for? I mean band, of course, but you know, was there anything like I know for my high school? We have band, we have orchestra. We have other opportunities for directors as well. So let's talk about classroom experience in this case. And then what are some things that you learn as a teacher?
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, I was lucky enough to be in a situation where my full day was banned I mean had a Cadillac schedule and I feel very fortunate to have started in the situation that I did. As I look back, I think even back then and we're talking, 1982 is when I started being organized was so much of it. Yeah, you need to be a good musician, that sort of thing. But let's face it, people don't get fired from their band jobs because the clarinets didn't quite play so well in tune at state contests. You get fired because you forgot to order the buses and it's time to go to state contests and we're all standing on the corner waiting for the bus and the bus isn't there because the bus had never been requisitioned to start with. So those are the kinds of things that get you in trouble. And those were the kinds of things where I was really strong. And of course you know you're also wanting to get along with the other faculty members.
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, if you turn your grades in late and the homeroom teacher can't put them on the report card, we're talking back in the days when everything was pencil and paper. You know, if you're doing that kind of stuff, you're not endearing yourself to your colleagues. So when you're handling your responsibilities, especially where they impact somebody else, things just go a whole lot smoother and, you know, gaining the reputation that look, this new band director we got. Yeah, he's young, but he's got his act together. You're not going to have to stay behind him and remind him to do this or that. Once you say something to him, once he's got it, he pulls that little memo pad out of his pocket, he jots it down and it's like a steel trap and so people begin to have confidence in you. And, looking back, that was such a big thing for me.
Principal JL:Yeah, I mean I agree with you. As a principal, you know having an organized director and you know choir and band and those are huge because there's a lot of moving pieces and they're not just working on the academic side but they're working on the extracurricular side as well. So they got a lot of things going on and you had to learn early how to manage those type of things. Let's talk about getting into becoming a school administrator, educational leader, a principal. You know what led you to pursue that role.
Dr. Frank Buck:If you had asked me my first year as a band director, fourth year as a band director or eighth year as a band director hey, you think you'd ever like to be the principal? I would have told you absolutely not. I do not want that headache. You give me my band program and you get out of the way, because I can control what happens in those four walls and I know how to teach kids. That's what I want to do for 30 years.
Dr. Frank Buck:Year number nine we got a new principal at our middle school, henry Clark, and what I saw, what one person could do in a situation where we already had a very high performing middle school. When I saw what one person could do to take the culture of that school and move it forward and just to get everything running on all cylinders, I began to rethink that. And so he was the inspiration. So I started taking the how to be a principal courses. Dr Clark kind of took me under his wing and did my administrative internship with him. He gave me responsibilities like cheerleader tryouts. Oh boy, did I learn a lot there. And then eventually he was a big one. That helped me get that first administrative job and I think you probably hear that from a lot of other people. There was that one person where you said, look, maybe I could do that and impact more people than what I was impacting there in the band room. And I never regretted it. I loved every day as a principal.
Principal JL:You bet, yeah, I mean you're kind of hitting on things that you know I'm shaking my head too, cause I'm like, yep, that that's kind of how I looked at it too. I mean, I taught in the classroom for 11 years. I was a math teacher, pe teacher, I coached, you know, um, you know several different uh, sports. So you know, for me to step away from what I really, I really enjoyed what I was doing, but it all came down to impact. I can have a bigger impact and for me, it was my wife's grandpa that kind of said hey, you're meant to do more. You really need to.
Principal JL:You know, think about being a principal because you do such a good job in this role. A principal because you do such a good job in this role you would even do even you know good things in this role as well. So I hear you on that. When becoming a principal, being able to have the impact yes, you get some headaches, but that comes with the job. But at the same time, being able to impact not just students but teachers and community is a huge deal when you're a principal. So let's talk about your principalship. What are some things that you learned through that process and you know about the leadership role, the people, any systems that you may have used in that time.
Dr. Frank Buck:Yeah, you know, through my experiences with Dr Clark, to me the biggest thing was hire good people and support them. You know, let them do their jobs. When people from the outside looked at that middle school and the way Dr Clark did things, you kind of had the impression that wow, wow, he has his thumb on everything because everything was so smooth. But when you were on the inside, you know where you were sitting down with him, one-on-one. It's amazing the flexibility that you had. I mean his. His philosophy was frank when it comes to band, you're the expert. If I came to him with an idea band, you're the expert. If I came to him with an idea Frank, you're the expert. What do you think he expected you to have thought it through. He didn't want to do the job for you, but if you came to him and you had a good idea and you thought it through, he'd support you on it. He'd say go ahead. If you need me for something, you let me know, but you go ahead. And to me that's the thing that separated the best ones that I had from some of the others. So I tried to take that philosophy with me.
Dr. Frank Buck:I was lucky enough as an elementary school principal to be in a building where the faculty it was a more mature faculty. It was a place people wanted to come and stay and it continued that way. Yeah, nobody ever left. So in the summer the hiring process was like, sometimes nobody, you know, nobody can. So you know, hiring good people, letting them do their jobs. And then the thing that I was really good at was, you know, like as a band director, being organized, putting systems in place and then doing the same thing as an administrator. What paperwork can we take off of teachers? What procedures can we streamline? What can we do that is not central to teaching students that teachers are doing and take that off of them? So it was just, you know, one thing after another and you know and teachers really appreciate that you know just putting those systems in place.
Principal JL:Yeah, I mean you're saying a lot of things there that you know a lot of people out there you know if you're not trying to, if you're not supporting your teachers, you need to Because in order to build that retention, even in the climate of today, they got to know that you have their back. And, just like you said, you know the teachers, like at the high school level, they're content driven, so they're the content experts. And I taught math, I taught PE, so I have that in my background. But when it comes to other things like you know band, when it comes to science, when it comes to English, when it comes to you know other, you know content areas I have to rely and, you know, support my teachers that are in those content areas, because I'm not going to be able to solve all their problems because they're the expert I'm not, but I can support them, I can help them along and maybe help them streamline some things that they're thinking about to make it a better system or a better process that they're working through, and I think having systems in place and streamlining things and trying to take things off a teacher's plates is huge.
Principal JL:One thing that I did just this past semester is. We piloted an AI product called Magic School AI, which has helped teachers differentiate instruction, but also it's reduced some of their planning time so they can focus on the engagement and the teaching of the content. And I have to spend so much energy, you know. You know thinking of all these different ideas and you know they even more experienced teachers were loving it because they're like, hey, there's ideas I'd never even thought of and I taught for 30 years, so you know, being able to find different ways to do that is huge as an administrator, as a principal, in this role, so I'm really glad that you hit on that. But there was a time you went from principal into the district leadership role. Could you talk about what that role was and what inspired you or motivated you to make that transition?
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, I had been at the same elementary school for nine years, was actually at a point where I could have retired, thought about retiring and going to another state and draw the retirement and cranking it up as a principal.
Dr. Frank Buck:But a job came open at the central office, or actually rather, was created at the central office. It'd been vacant, where our curriculum coordinator had left five years before and instead of filling the position, they just said Frank, why don't you just kind of do elementary curriculum plus run your school? So a curriculum position was created and I applied for it, got it. They also gave me special education because okay, because, after all, special education, that won't take much time, you'll do a great job, frank. And professional development.
Dr. Frank Buck:And it turned out if it wasn't federal programs or feeding the kids, it was me. It was a small central office but again, you know, I was the guy that could wear lots of hats and keep lots of balls in the air. So I think I was kind of the perfect person for it. And again, I'm supporting principals trying to use technology to reduce paperwork now on the entire school system rather than, you know, than just my school. And it was. It was enjoyable, I'd say not as enjoyable as the principalship. So so for the principal who's thinking about, hey, do I want to go to the central office? Think twice, think twice. You'll miss the kids, you'll miss the teachers. I know, as a principal, some of the most down days were those meetings at the central office. The central office it was like let me get out of this meeting and go back to my school and run my school and just walk up and down the hall and see what's going on in classrooms and forget some of this junk that we just went over in the principal's meeting.
Principal JL:Yeah, no, I mean I kind of hear you on that. You know I've been blessed. My superintendent doesn't require us to be at a ton of district level meetings. We have them. I mean they're there when we need them, but at the same time they know for us our best spot is in our buildings, with our kids, with our staff, every day, and if we need to go do some things, we go do them, but then we're right back to doing the things that we're designed to do and I think everybody's got a reason and a way to transition. But for you, you actually got to kind of do some of the principalship stuff and the district office stuff, and so that's kind of a unique challenge, and so let's talk about that. What are some things that were challenges when you're in that role, when you're looking at trying to support leaders in schools but also trying to run your school at the same time?
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, of course, you know, every principal has some ideas for how they want to run their school. So sometimes balancing, you know, this is what they really need to do with. Maybe that's not what they're comfortable with. For example, you have, some principals are more comfortable with technology than others.
Dr. Frank Buck:So whereas one principal would say, you know, I say, well, you know, there's several ways that you could do this. And that principal would look at me and say, well, how did you do it? How do you do it Because it's working for you? Tell me what you're doing. I want to do the same thing. And then there would be, you know, another principal that was like no, I've been doing this a long time, Just sort of leave me alone. You know, that's one of the things about the central office your influence is broader but the power is less. You can suggest things, you can present things, but the ultimate decision maker in so many cases is the principal in that school, which I think is the way it should be, because we do hold the principal accountable for so many things. So I think so much of the final word needs to be there with the principal. Again, it goes back to the same the support, you know the support for teachers if you're a principal, the support for principals if you're in the central office.
Principal JL:Yeah, I mean you keep coming back to supporting. How are you supporting your teachers? How are you supporting the school principals and using those experiences? And I know for me, like, yeah, I can draw on my experiences, but at the same time, it's not about how I would do it. It might be how can I help you do it to the best of your ability?
Principal JL:And those are things that I've done as a principal or school leader in my time to help my teachers and help my students, and basically that goes back to hey, you're the content expert, what do you think? You know, I'll come with an idea and you're like going no-transcript. I'm empowered by this because I'm taking ownership in it, so I think that's really great.
Dr. Frank Buck:Yeah, and Jeff, one thing I want to interject. So many people talk about the kids. Think about the kids. We're all about the kids and absolutely yes. Kids, the kids, think about the kids. We're all about the kids and absolutely yes, kids come and go through the years. But good teachers come and stay If you treat them right. And good principals come and stay. And if I'm, if I'm a principal, the best thing I can do for the kids in my school is put a great teacher in that classroom and then ditto, when you're in the central office. How do you get the very best teachers? You can attract them to your schools and your school system and then put some, put the things in place that cause them to want to stay there.
Principal JL:Yeah, and I think that's huge, even like even in the times we're living today, where you know you have teacher shortage, administrator shortage, I mean. I mean it's it's. It's a very tough time and I've been lucky that I only had two staff members this year not come back, one to retirement one. I'm running a building of about 84 certified certificated staff, 130 total staff, and so just to have two turnovers and then I filled all my vacancies. I'm like oh and yes, I'm like, you know, that's like got me pumped up, right.
Principal JL:So you're right on creating a place that people want to come and stay and be a part of something that's bigger than themselves, and it's something that I believe and something you're kind of hitting on there. So you're hitting everything right on that one there. Let's talk about you know, somewhere along the way you decided I'm going to become an author, all right, and let's talk about you know. It looks like you have a few books. Get Organized Time Management for School Leaders you have two editions of that and then Get Organized Digitally the Educator's Guide to Time Management. So let's talk about what inspired you to write these books and what was it that you said? You know what. This is something that others may need, and kind of talk about that.
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, kind of that story began when I was working on my doctorate. Between the band director time and the principal time was four years as a middle school assistant principal, and so during that time I got my doctorate. During the time that I was a middle school assistant principal we got the dissertation. So from what everybody has listened to so far, it's like yeah, well, frank's the organized guy here. So no surprise that I decided to do my doctoral dissertation on time management. It was a study of the time management practices of Alabama principals, and so one of the things that I ran across was you know, there's so much that's written about time management for the business world, but especially at that time there was very little written directly aimed at educators, and so you know you could read business books and gain some ideas from that. So I thought, well, let's go the other way, let's write our stuff for educators, and if doctors and lawyers and other people want to look over our shoulder and steal our ideas, hey that's fine. So did the dissertation and during that time also put together a little workshop for teachers and administrators based on the things that I was doing and the things that I was learning, and that started to grow and grow and grow.
Dr. Frank Buck:So I walk in my office one day and there's this email. It's an email from Bob Sickles, at that time the president of a company called Eye on Education, and what he said was Frank, I read a review that you did on one of our books, so your name was, kind of you know, front of mind with me. And then I read this article that you wrote for Principal Magazine and I said to myself, wow, that's the same name I just saw on this review. I googled, you found your blog. See, I've been blogging for about a year. And he says have you ever thought about writing a book? And if you have, I'd love to work with you.
Dr. Frank Buck:Now, probably all of us at one time or another have said you know, I'd love to write a book when the time is right. Well, the time doesn't get any more right than the president of a publishing company emailing you saying, hey, I want to work with you. So basically took the workshop, put it together in the form of a book and six months later it was ready to go to press. And about six months later, because you got to pick the cover and all kind of little things that have to happen. So another six months and it was out.
Dr. Frank Buck:Get organized Time management for school leaders, first edition. So when people say, hey, frank, how do you contact publishers and pitch to publishers, I'm like I have no idea. I was the lucky one that just checked his email and they want to work with me. But loved the process that first book did very well, opened up a lot of doors, speaking engagements and national conventions and especially, being a practicing principal at that time and a practicing central office administrator, national conferences were like come on, come on. Now, once you retire and you become well, this is Frank Butt, president of Frank Butt Consulting Incorporated. They're not, as you know, they're really looking at those practicing administrators. So word to the wise out there for anybody thinking about you know, the side hustle sort of thing Start it while you're actually in your job, where you're walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
Principal JL:Yeah, I mean that's really great advice there, frank, and you know, like for me, I want to just help other principals and other school administrators out there. That's why I started my podcast. Yes, I'm still a practicing principal and I plan on being that for a while. I still got 12 years before retirement, so I got some time here. So you know, I'm 18 years in, I got 12 more and then we'll see how things go. But yeah, I mean that's really great advice that you could give other people that may look to want to have something like that in the future. So let's talk about just your books in general. What were the goals of the book? How do they help people? What are some big takeaways people can get from reading your books?
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, the two that are out there right now. The second edition of Get Organized Time Management for School Leaders is written with this idea in mind that if someone picked up that book 50 years from now, it would still be relevant. It talks about practices, principles of organization and time management definitely more on the digital side of things, but you won't see the word Apple in it. You won't see the word Apple in it, you won't see the word Google, you won't see the word Microsoft in there, because technology changes a good bit. But what I talk about in there are things that you could do, regardless of what the tools are.
Dr. Frank Buck:Get Organized digitally took the opposite approach. My publisher actually came back to me in 2020, and we all remember 2020, don't we? Yeah, we do so. Covid schools are out. If it wasn't for technology, we wouldn't have had school anywhere.
Dr. Frank Buck:So now, what had been nice you know, being fluent in technology those things that had been nice were now crucial. And they came back to me and said, would you do another book and just approach it from the digital side? So I said yep, and I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Instead of the general principles that are going to be relevant 50 years from now. I'm going to talk about the specific tools that I'm using today. And if six months from now, one of them goes belly up, hey it happens, we'll publish something that'll kind of keep people up to date.
Dr. Frank Buck:And so we wrote get organized digitally. So if you want to know, well, frank, what is the digital task manager you use Bam. It's there. Exactly how I use it, how do you keep your digital notes? It's there. Best email practices, it's all there. And then I've got a blog post that kind of has said OK, here's what's changed since the book was published. And you know, between buying the book, reading the blog post, you know you're right up to date. So it was a very different book, but one I'm very glad I did, because it does get so specific in terms of here's exactly what I do on a daily basis and these are the tools that I use to do it with, and most of them are free.
Principal JL:Yeah, so what are some big changes that you have seen since you wrote the Get Digitally Organized?
Dr. Frank Buck:Gosh. Okay, the big changes? Well, of course, it's little things like Evernote has done a lot of things much better. Now they have really, really expanded the things that they do, but they cut their free plan back. So whereas I was saying, hey guys, you know this is what you can do for free, well, you can't do quite so much of that for free now, but there's a lot of other things that you're able to do. But I'll tell you what we'll do. Maybe we can put the link to that blog post in the show notes. As soon as we get through recording this, I'm going to go. I should have talked about this and this and this, because those are the biggest free changes.
Principal JL:Yeah, frank, that's what we'll do. Well, we'll go ahead. We'll take a link to that blog if people are interested. We'll do. Well, we'll go ahead. We'll take a link to that blog. If people are interested, we'll put it in the show notes so people can can read about it. I was just curious because I know you've done your work on writing a book and I know you're trying to update people on that and so you know how is kind of ai change things when it comes to getting people organized and being a platform people could use in that digital space.
Dr. Frank Buck:Yeah, there are a lot of possibilities out there for people. One is sort of using it as a Google enhancement. You know, we come to you, put a couple of keywords into a Google search and then here are a bunch of sites that you could go to and hopefully one of those is going to answer your question. Now you just talk to ChatGPT or you talk to Claude, just like you talk to another person, and instead of giving you a list of sources, it just tells you your stuff. You know how do you fix whatever it may be? Think about Facebook groups where somebody says gosh, I'm going to be interviewing for a job as a principal. Can somebody give me some sample questions I need to be ready to answer? Well, don't ask a whole bunch of different principals for that. Type it in chat, gpt, just like that. I'm going to be interviewing for a job and get specific as a middle school principal in a rural community, I'm going to be replacing a principal who has been in that school for 20 years and describe a little bit about the community. What are some questions I should be prepared to answer? Bam, and there it is for you.
Dr. Frank Buck:It's, you know, uh, in in my own work. Now, you know I'm, each week I do a blog post. It's also a youtube video and I repurpose it as a newspaper column. Well, to write, to write the text, I just grab my phone and I'm dictating into my phone. So I need to kind of clean that up for a blog post. I can take the text, throw it in, claude, and say please correct the grammar errors of you know, kind of fashioned it into a blog post, put appropriate subheadings, please suggest five titles that will be intriguing for people. Oh, and give me a keyword that will be SEO friendly for the blog and give me a meta description that contains my keyword.
Dr. Frank Buck:And while you're at it, could you refashion the blog post into a newspaper column, so forth? And I need about five tweets and put some hashtags and emojis in there. So it's still it's me composing the ideas in the content, but instead of spending all the time with okay, now I got to revise it for the newspaper and I need to make it about 600 word, ai is doing that for me and all the little times where you know you've written an email, but it sure would be nice to have somebody else read it and say it's coming off a little harsh Throw that sucker into chat, gpt or into cloud and watch it say this statement might be a little offensive to people. Why don't you say this instead? So it's like having that other person beside you, that really smart person that's calling on the world's knowledge and going to give it to you free.
Principal JL:Yeah, I mean you kind of hit a lot of ways that you're talking about using it. I use it as well. So if I'm putting out an email, I'll have it. Help me clean up my email. It's still my words. I'm having it presented in a way that I need it to be presented.
Principal JL:Tone, especially when you're sending out like parent emails right, you want to make sure the tone is right. You're getting the point across, but you're seeing what needs to be said, but in a way that they can accept it and not get offended by it or get all up in arms about the email that you put out. I prefer to just have phone conversations when I can, but there's times when you need to have emails and having something to help you not develop it, but to help you just streamline it or make it just better than you would have out of your own head sometimes. So I kind of utilize it in a lot of different ways that you've talked about it as well. So let's talk about you know some strategies people can can use. Are there favorite strategies? You have to help people get organized.
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, this is the kind of question that I guess asked a lot. You know, where would you start with someone? Well, you know, if you'd asked me that question in 1982, I would say get yourself a memo pad, stick it in your pocket Every time something comes your way that you need to remember. You have something to put on the calendar, something that needs to be done, an idea that you want to be with, something to put on the calendar, something that needs to be done, an idea that you want to be with. Pull that thing out, write it down, and when you stick that memo pad back in your pocket, you've earned the right to forget about it. See, for me, forgetting is a good thing. I don't want to have to keep all this stuff in my head and so, luckily, that was something that I've been doing my whole teaching career and one of the things that helped me be so organized. So, 1982, put the memo pad in your pocket. So now it's 2025.
Dr. Frank Buck:Pull the phone out of your pocket, hit one little widget on the home screen and speak whatever it was that you have written in. You know, call Bob about the XYZ project, get milk at the grocery store. Put the phone back in your pocket. It does the remembering, and so you just give everything a date. So it's just like a, you know, just like a paper planner. Really. Everything has a date, and so I'm never getting up in the morning going, okay, what do I need to do today? You know, let me take a blank piece of paper, make a list. No, that stuff is already there and it's coming back to me on the days that I want it.
Dr. Frank Buck:So, first of all, just having a good digital task manager I use Remember the Milk, and even the free version is amazing. You know, like, think about all the repeating tasks that you have as a principal, all of the things that you're going to be doing the month before school starts and you were doing those same things last year a month before the school starts. And so once you've got those, you know, you just throw it in there and go gosh, I'm going to be doing that same thing a year from now. Make it a repeating task, or I've got to do this every month. Put it in there once, tell it when to repeat, and these things just keep coming back to you exactly when you need to do it, because I think you know the hard part about our jobs is not so much that the individual things are hard. What's hard is keeping up with them all. Let's use technology to do the keeping up with them all. Make life a little bit easier for all of us.
Principal JL:You bet. I mean, I think that's kind of where we're at right. We want to be able to utilize technology to help us be more productive, and I like how you talked about getting things written down. I know just the way the brain works. If you could take what you're thinking about and write it down somewhere if it's on a scratch paper, if it's on in your phone just being able to have it written down then it allows your brain to go.
Principal JL:Okay, I know where it's at, I'll get to that when I need to, but it allows you to basically allows your brain to free up so you can manage other tasks that are coming at you. So I really you know, no matter kind of how long you've been in this or where you're at in your journey getting things written down or organized in a way to where you don't forget it is huge because it does take a load off you mentally because you got a lot of things coming at you and sometimes you feel like you're drinking through a fire hose some days when you're a principal. So you know it's good to have some sort of program or technology that can help you stay organized in those things, and so I really appreciate that kind of advice that other administrators can take and utilize, and it's something you can do now. It's something you can do today. You know something pretty simple as that can actually help you out tremendously.
Dr. Frank Buck:So yeah, and it is so teachable. One experience when I first became a principal and so this was 1997. So at that time I mean I didn't have the phone. Back then I had my paper planner and it was my signature tool. If you saw me, you saw that little book. So kind of the buzz with the faculty is what is he writing that little book? Dr Buck, he's always got that little book and they started to see real quickly that whatever got written down in that book happened, it got done. So they were really intrigued by the little book.
Dr. Frank Buck:So one of those professional development days when we had to come up with something I just said we're going to talk about the little book this morning and so I showed them exactly how I used it to keep up with everything and to keep up with phone calls and notes from one-on-one conferences, for how I could get back to it easily Used a day timer at that time and the day timer corporation actually sent me little samples where everybody could try it free for a month and then most of the faculty. They wound up like this is life changing and they wound up subscribing to day timer for a while. Because it is so teachable describing the day timer for a while. Cause it, it it is. It is so teachable and it really makes life so much easier when you're not keeping up with all these little things in your head and then beating yourself up about how dumb you are because you forgot this little thing.
Principal JL:No, no, I mean that's awesome. I mean I would say people, if you're not doing those things, start, because it will help you tremendously when it comes to trying to stay organized and keeping things that you need to get done on time and on task and things like that. I know what you're talking about. There's times I'll forget something and I'll feel like, oh geez, you know, I feel stupid because that and you're not, it's just you have so much going on and it does help you to stay organized. So, Frank, what are some things that you are working on today in your educational consultant role?
Dr. Frank Buck:Well, I've got two courses out there right now that are independent book studies aimed at Alabama school principals because, part of renew, each one is eligible to be a professional learning unit. So I've got those out there and so I'm constantly working on those, improving those. I would love to expand that to some other states as well. Speaking engagements you know, since 2020, we all learned how to how to use Zoom. You know, since 2020, we all learned how to use Zoom. So it's really opened up opportunities for professional development where I can be here instead of getting on an airplane to go somewhere else. So providing professional development to other people has gotten so much more affordable and I love to do that sort of stuff doing some one onon-one coaching and just having a good time helping other people find an easier way to work and play.
Principal JL:Frank, let's talk about aspiring leaders. Do you have any advice for people that are looking to get into the educational leadership role, and what advice would you give them?
Dr. Frank Buck:First of all, have a mentor. You know I mentioned Dr Clark and then also my very first principal, harry Anderson, who taught me how you go about supporting teachers, because anybody in that building would tell you that that man had your back. That was one of those places. People wanted to come and they wanted to stay because they knew they had a friend in the principal's office. He told me the first day I came to work. He says Mr Buck, my first job as principal of this school is to help you with the discipline in your classroom so that learning can take place. Wow, and he meant it. He was as good as his word. And, yeah, he helped establish an environment where learning happened, because people were in their seat, listening with their materials, so forth and so on. So definitely have a mentor. There's so much to learn without trying to learn it yourself and make the mistakes yourself. Learn from other people. Let them tell you about the mistakes they made and the better way to do it, so you don't have to go and make those same mistakes again. And you know, and as I look at people who were successful and you start to talk to them, they start to talk about the mentors that they had. That helped them when they got started. And they tell you about you.
Dr. Frank Buck:Know, gosh, I applied, like Dr Clark. He said I applied for nine different administrative positions before I ever got one. And he said and Frank, your day is going to come and when it does, you're going to be glad you didn't get some of these other jobs that you applied for. And he was absolutely right. So have a mentor, go out there and apply for those jobs.
Dr. Frank Buck:You know, if you want to get into school leadership, don't wait until the time is right. You're not going to get the first job, but you want people to move from thinking, oh, frank Buck has applied for a principalship, you wanted to move from that to. I wonder if Frank's going to apply for this next principalship to. You think Frank's going to get this next one. People are thinking of you as that teacher who's successful and you want them to start thinking about you in a different light. And then the next thing, you know you're the one who gets that job. And then, once you get the first administrative job, then it's easy to go from there. So go ahead and put in the application early and you're getting to know people, you're getting experience with interviews, and then that's going to happen for you interviews and then you know that's going to happen for you.
Principal JL:Yeah, frank, you said something in there that I think it's really important to bring out. You will learn something as you go through the process, when you want to, when you're looking for that administrative position, and so every interview is going to be valuable. Every contact and connection you get is going to be a lead to the next thing. If you don't get that position and that's kind of what happened with me my first principalship was because I interviewed for a principalship that I didn't get, but I impressed the superintendent in that one that was leaving for another superintendency that had an opening for a principalship and asked us to apply for that. And through that process is how I got my first principalship. And then, when I wanted to step out of the small rural school and go into a more of a bigger suburban or urban size school, you know the connections that I have from being and being a principal helped me with getting that job as well, and so those connections that you make and the things that you learn through those processes are really important.
Principal JL:And I agree having a coach, because even today people are getting into these seats with very little experience Now you'll have a lot of experience when you get into principalship. But I'm talking about they may not have been in education very long when I'm talking about they may be in your one, two, maybe three years and now you're being asked to lead a school. Having somebody to guide you through that is very key, because when you have somebody to bounce ideas off of, it's going to be very valuable, because you may be a principal in a small rural school and you may not have another administrator. You may have your superintendent bounce ideas off of them. You may have an elementary principal to bounce ideas, but to have people from outside of that network is huge when you're becoming a new principal and you want to do this job well.
Principal JL:And I think learning from other people is another huge key, because that's how I learn. I don't make some mistakes because I learn from other people that made those mistakes and so I know what to stay away from. And so I think that's very valuable as a principal that you need to learn from other people and take their lessons and try not to repeat them, because there's a reason why it didn't work the first time, so try not to do you know, don't want to beat your head against the wall. Don't do something that you know is not going to work, and be there to support your staff and support your kids is super important as well. So, frank, we've talked about a lot of different things today. I really appreciate you being on the show. Is there anything that you would like to leave our listeners, and how could they connect with you if they want to learn more?
Dr. Frank Buck:Absolutely. Thanks, jeff. Come over to my website. It's just my name, frankbuckuckorg. First thing, when you get there, you'll see a little spot where you can join my email list. You're going to get two free gifts you're going to want.
Dr. Frank Buck:One is what's basically the first chapter of my book get organized, going to show you how to get your desk clean, get the paper going in the right place, and then, several days later, you get an ebook on how to set up and you use, get the paper going in the right place, and then, several days later, you get an e-book on how to set up and use Remember the Milk the way I have mine. They go very detailed and then you know once a week. From there, you get a little e-mail from me every Tuesday at 11 am Central Time. That just gives you tips, gives you ideas, kind of keeps you up to date with what I'm doing. Just gives you tips, gives you ideas, kind of keeps you up to date with what I'm doing, what's new on my website, what's new in my blog, so forth, so on.
Dr. Frank Buck:So, frankbuckorg, join the email list. Hey, binge out on the blog post. There are plenty of them there, and you know, just enjoy, just enjoy. You know, jeff, this has been such a pleasure and I hope that the audience gets a lot out of this.
Principal JL:I really got a lot out of this. I learned a lot from you today and that's what makes doing these podcasts so much fun is I get to learn from other people that have been there done that, and then I get to share that out with the audience so they can learn from people like you that are doing the work and helping administrators become the best they can be. But, frank, before we go with you, being from Alabama, is it Roll Tide?
Dr. Frank Buck:or is it War Eagle? For me it's definitely Roll Tide Grew up near Tuscaloosa. I still remember the bear.
Principal JL:There you go, there you go, there you go. So don't don't take it out on, frank, if you're a war Eagles, because I have a lot of people out there that are both either Auburn or Alabama fans. So you know, I just wanted to know. It's like stuck in my head, I had to know that. So you're a roll tide guy, which you know. I'm a Nebraska corn, nebraska Cornhusker guys. So here we go. You know, frank, it was great to have you on the show today. I appreciate everything that you shared and all your links and things will be in the show notes for people to make it really easy for them to click on. So I really appreciate you being here today and thank you.
Principal JL:Wow, what a conversation with Dr Frank Buck. His expertise and practical strategies to help us get organized, manage our time and lead with greater intention. Whether it's using digital tools more effectively or developing simple systems that stick, dr Buck reminds us that productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters most. If today's conversation resonates with you, I encourage you to check out his books Get Organized and Get Organized Digitally. Visit frankbuckdogorg for more resources, such as his blog and tools to support your leadership journey. You can find these resources in the show notes. Until next time, be 1% better.
