Issue 271

If you're reading this feeling recharged and ready to tackle the year ahead, I'm glad. Hold onto that energy. You're going to need it.

January through March is when enrollment marketing kicks into overdrive. Open houses, application deadlines, decision timelines, anxious families, impatient leadership. The tactical demands are about to pile up fast.

Here's what I learned the hard way during my years in schools: this is exactly when strategic thinking gets abandoned. Not intentionally. It just quietly slips away while you're responding to the next urgent email, the last-minute event request, the "quick favor" from a colleague.

Before you know it, you're three months into the year and you've been entirely reactive. You executed a lot of tactics. But you're not sure any of it actually moved the needle.

So here's my encouragement as you start this sprint: protect your strategic brain.

Block time on your calendar right now for thinking. Not doing. Thinking. Even 30 minutes a week where you ask yourself, "Is what I'm spending my time on actually connected to what matters most?"

The urgent will always scream louder than the important. That's just the nature of this work. But if you don't schedule time to be proactive, reactive will fill every available hour.

I made this mistake more times than I'd like to admit. I'd end the enrollment season exhausted, wondering why all that effort didn't translate into results. The answer was usually that I'd been busy, but not strategic.

You've got a fresh start. Use it wisely.

Thanks,
Brendan

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