One Teacher's Journey to Productivity: An Interview with Justin Hockey

Introduction Hello and welcome to the Teaching Space Podcast. It's Martine here. Thank you so much for joining me. Martine:      Today, I have a guest on the show and we're going to be talking productivity. Rather than have a big intro, I'm going to hand straight over to my guest, Justin Hockey. Justin, welcome to the show. Justin:             Thank you, Martine. It's great to be here. Martine:            I'm so pleased to have you on. Could you tell me, I'm going to get you to introduce yourself if that's okay, who are you and what in the world do you do? And where in the world do you do it? Justin:             That's a great question. With modern technology, anywhere in the world is just about possible. So my name is Justin and I'm a music teacher. I've been working in various countries around the world teaching music. India, Australia, and now South Korea, so that's where I am right now in South Korea. I teach at an international school. I'm also married and with a child. So that adds into the productivity mix, as I'm sure many of your listeners will also experience or know of. Martine:            Let's talk about productivity, because you and I both have a common interest in being the most productive people we can be. You said you're a music teacher. What is it about the role of a teacher that makes productivity such a challenge? Justin:             Gosh. I mean, I've had some notes about this. I wrote down three things to prompt me: people, processes, and products. People, I mean, as a teacher in any setting you're dealing with people, obviously your colleagues and supervisors, or bosses, or heads, depending on whether it's a further education setting or a school. For me, I'm at a school, and currently a junior school, or what some parts of the world call an elementary school or a primary school. So, I have over 300 students I see each week. And so, dealing with that many moving parts, people as it were, is a challenge. And then there's all the processes that go with that in terms of routines that are meant to happen but of course, in most schools no one week is the same as the next exactly. And particularly this time of the year when we're recording it, it's coming up to Christmas. And then I said the word product, which is not necessarily perhaps the best word. But I guess the outputs. What are we trying to achieve? We're not manufacturing devices or selling products in a store. We're shaping people's lives, and whether that's shaping adults' lives, young adults' lives or children's lives, that's something which in some senses is a never-ending job. So, it's very easy to, as a teacher in any setting, to feel like the work is never done. Because in a sense, it never is. There's always more to be done, and people can quite quickly burn out or become overwhelmed. And I know for myself and many of the listeners, we've been there and experienced those challenges. And so I'm excited about sharing some of my insights and journey so far. But obviously, like teaching itself, it's almost like a never-ending process of learning to be more productive. Like climbing a mountain, the higher you get, the more you realise is ahead of you and how far you've come. Martine:            You alluded to the fact that you have some strategies that you use. I'd like to kind of attack this from two angles. Initially, if we talk about the sort of general approaches and resources and things like that, and then go specifically into productivity apps and tools. So, if we start general and then sort of drill down into the detail, that would be great. So tell us what you do. Justin:             Great. What I thought I would do is approach this through three people that I've come across. These are not people I've met in person, but they're all ... Well, certainly one of them is a teacher herself, and the other two are people that I've seen referenced in productivity generally. So, the first one I'll start with is Angela Watson, and for a long time she was an instructional coach and teacher in the United States, and now she runs her website. She's got a number of brands, or a number of websites I should say. But I guess the key one is the 40 Hour Work Week Club for teachers where she essentially says, "As a teacher, it is possible to cut down your work week to 40 hours." And I signed up to her email list and blog and podcast at least five years ago, and she still offers this course as well as a number of other services online, which tens of thousands of teachers have signed up for and gained a lot out of. But four of the key things I gained from her are batching, lists, using the calendar and mindset. I mean, there's obviously other things that go with that, but I'll just touch briefly on each of those. Batching was such a ground-breaking concept to me. The idea that as a teacher, or any worker really, you've got a bunch of tasks that need to be done, and some of those tasks are actually similar to each other. So, for example, you might have a whole bunch of planning that needs to be done, or you might have a whole bunch of physically moving things around your workspace that needs to be done. And rather than trying to do a little bit here and a little bit there, if you can arrange your schedule or arrange your time such that you are batching these tasks, grouping these tasks together, you tend to get them done better during that time because you're not scattering your attention across days or weeks or even months. And you're also, by the fact of thinking through what types of tasks you need to get done, that tends to force you to think more carefully about what you're doing, and when you're doing it, and even perhaps why you're doing it. Martine:            I think that batching was a big game changer for me in terms of how I deal with marking. I think marking is one of those really, really good examples of where batching can just make you far more efficient, because I really have to get into a zone when I'm marking assignments and things like that. And it takes me a long time to get into the flow. So, if I end up doing a bit of assignment marking here and there, I never actually get into the flow of it at all. So, one of the things I always batch is assignment marking. Justin:             That's exactly it. Marking, writing reports is a big one which I'm in the middle of. Anything dare I say tedious. But also, whether it's involving other people or things yourself, batching is certainly a great way to start approaching things. And if there's nothing else that listeners go away with, that would be something, one I would say if you haven't tried it, start looking at how you can group your tasks or processes together so that you're not scattering your attention and time across things like that. Another big thing that Angela Watson talks about is making lists. And this really comes into the question of apps. It's like, well, there are great apps out there. But at the end of the day, you need to have some sort of centralised list of tasks and projects and goals that you have, whether it is on an app, whether it is in an analogue form such as a diary or a notebook, or even a combination system, a hybrid. But somewhere to create lists. And then thirdly, calendar. Some system, again, of having a calendar, whether it's Google Calendar, a notebook, or again, a combination. And the fourth aspect that Angela Watson has brought up time and time again and has in fact written a whole book about recently is mindset. Because productivity, at the end of the day, shouldn't be just about getting more things done faster. Anyone who's been in the game long enough will realise you don't just want to be working faster, because you end up like a hamster on a wheel. But thinking about, hang on, what's this all for? What kind of mindset am I going into this with? A sense of dare I say sort of abundance or scarcity? Scarcity in the sense of, "Oh, there's not enough time to do everything, I'll never get everything done, and I'll just frantically try and put out all the fires." Or, of a sense of abundance, of saying, "I as a teacher am able to make choices about what's most important for my teaching, for my professional life and even my personal life. Because of course, you can't really divorce or separate your personal life from your teaching life. Those two are inextricably linked. So that's Angela Watson and some of her things there. Before I go into the other two, I thought maybe perhaps you have any questions or comments on that, Martine? Martine:            Yeah. I wanted to say that I'm a big fan of Angela Watson's work. I don't know if you know this, Justin, but I actually did the 40 Hour Teacher Work Week a couple of years ago, and it was a real- Justin:             No, that's news. Martine:            ... yeah, it was a real source of inspiration to me, and I really enjoy Angela's podcast too. And I will make sure I link to all of that information on the show notes, because I think it can bring lots of value to any listeners to the podcast. So yeah, totally agree with you, I'm a big fan. I also liked the point that you made when you were talking about to-do lists and calendars and things like that, getting focused on the process and not kind of getting into the apps first or the tools first, just having a calendar in any format. Just go analogue first to get used to what the tool is for. And then start thinking, "Actually, could I use this app? Could I use this tool?" Just start with the I want to say kind of productivity concept, and then look at the tools afterwards. Because you've got to get used to using a list and using a calendar. And those things are sort of at the foundation in my opinion of being more productive. So, I think that's really, really good advice. Justin:             It is great. And just as teachers, I mean, I'm sitting here thinking, yes, I want my students, I teach music, I want them to be able to use composition software or digital keyboards. But at the end of the day, if we don't have what in music, we call musicianship skills, in other words, being able to think musically without tools, devices, or even instruments believe it or not, then we sort of miss something somewhere. And I think productivity is quite similar to what you said about understanding the concept of the calendar in terms of physically having a calendar, or physically having a to do list puts into perspective what tool or what app you're going to use. Yeah. That's a great thought cycle there. Martine:            I like an app as much as the next person. And I kind of get a bit of shiny object syndrome if a new app comes out. I'm like, "I really want to try that. Apparently, this new thing's really good." But it's important to stop, work out what you actually, what the foundation you need to look at is first, and then get into the apps. So great point. Justin:             Excellent point, Martine. And you used a keyword there, stop. Which, you and I haven't talked about this next person yet, but Michael Hyatt is the next person I'm going to talk about. Martine:            Love Michael Hyatt. Great minds. Justin:             Yes, indeed. Michael Hyatt has written a number of books. And for those listeners that don't know who he is, amongst other things, he's been a former CEO of one of the major book publishers in the United States, and for the last almost 10 years now he's been running his own company. Which, amongst other things, focuses on productivity and helping people to succeed in life and be more productive, but being productive in the right areas. And I took one of his courses about two years ago. I signed up for the Free to Focus course, which is now also being turned into a book. And just think of the title, Free to Focus. He talked about productivity, that I mentioned earlier in fact, productivity not being a hamster wheel that we want to get on necessarily, but rather a question of other priorities. I mean, Michael Hyatt was the one who really clued me into this idea of freedom. We want the freedom to be productive and the freedom to focus, but not for the pursuit of just endless work. But rather freedom to achieve what we want to achieve, and then freedom to then go on and live our lives in a satisfying and successful way. So that's one big thing for Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus. He's also done a number of other books, and in some cases courses. Your Best Year Ever is about goal setting. Which, as he says, Free to Focus is about the day to day and week to week productivity, nuts and bolts. They think, "Oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed by to-do lists, and students, and emails and all of those things." That's like being stuck with the trees. But then if you want to look at the forest for a moment, his Best Year Ever course and book, and of course there's many other people who do this, looking at the goals you have for the months of the year and even for the year. Setting yearly goals is such a valuable thing to be able to do. And then he says even ... We talked about the trees, and then there's the forest, but perhaps you can look at the whole national park if you like, if want to use that picture. He's written a book called Living Forward, which is about writing a life plan. Which, until I'd come across the concept, I mean, who thinks of writing a plan for their life? Most of us a