Thursday, April 15, 2021

Good things take time

Karen Lau on Unsplash

"Everything good needs time. Don’t do work in a hurry. Go into details; it pays in every way. Time means power for your work. Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly."

Source: From the essay "A Successful Novelist" in How They Succeeded (sorry - I've lost the hyperlink to this source but the quote stands).

In my current position, I am very aware that I am time poor for my job. This is basically because we are understaffed and so I cover a lot of ground: supervising classes; teaching an English class; taking a form class; splitting concentration between two campuses (or three campuses for 9 weeks of this term).

There is always a price to pay. In this case (spreading myself thin) it is less time to devote to other aspects of my job and quality slips, even if other people don't see it, I know I could do better.

This is nothing new!

When I was Deputy Principal at Cambridge High School I really struggled early on because I suddenly made loads of mistakes because I was rushing through things.

I've learned to live with that feeling to a certain extent. I'd still like more time though.

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