jL |In Practice - Love Letters Explained

Written By Jeff Jones

Hello Friends,

Had a dear friend ask a couple of weeks ago how I write my ‘love letters to my future self’ (to try to only make mistakes once - if you want to see the whole thing, I’ll drop it below the signature).  

I do two things to help cement those ideas to future me:

  1. I write a real email to myself and schedule send it for about 49 weeks in the future. 😂

    1. Ok…I know this is an inefficient way (see bullet 2), but I find it cathartic and amusing on both the writing and receiving ends.  Sometimes I copy the staff so they can a) see how weird I really am, and b) help my future self not forget.

  2. We keep a GSheet of all major and minor projects - I call it the Annual Timeline (spent quite a bit of time workshopping that one).  While this is the real, long-term solution, #1 helps get my attention next year and ensure something happens.

    1. The Timeline includes several items in every row: 

      1. Sort Column - Month & 1st or 15th Code - 1, 1.5, etc

      2. Month - 01 - January, 02 - February, etc

      3. 1st or 15th - helps with the sort and indicates if this needs to happen on Jan 1 or 15th

      4. Event Name - what is the event we’re working on?

      5. Staff Member - HBD, ABD1, ABD2, ALL, etc - I know these labels are impersonal, but that is the point.  This sheet is designed to keep the student experience flowing.  At some point (whether my ego wants to hear it or not), we’re all replaceable, and I want that transition to be as smooth as possible.

      6. Description - a short description of the task

      7. Support Docs - this might be the most important field - we link documents in here that hold all the details - draft emails, agendas, itineraries, etc

      8. Notes - what else could future me need to feel successful on the first try.

    2. It isn’t fancy, but it can work (see Remember below) ;). See attached for a screenshot of our layout - pls don’t judge (ok…don’t judge a lot)

Remember:  this is a really cute idea but it is COMPLETELY worthless unless I ACTUALLY TAKE TIME TO REVIEW IT. 🤣 I have a reminder on my phone and notes in the first and third staff meetings of every month to review it.  

Let me know how I can help - have an AMAZING week!

Jeff

PS - at some point I’m going to take a break from bothering you every Sunday night.  I’m honestly not sure when, but I’m writing this here to give myself permission to take a week or two (or three) off.  If you’re missing me, you know where to find me - happy summer!!!

BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE -

jonesLeadership | This Week in Practice - 5.10.26

Hey Everyone!

Here is a quick Sunday night musing about what I’m focusing on this week.

In the classroom - a Commercial Success: Our final concert is Tuesday night.  We’re playing a lot of new music and (like always) we could certainly use a few more rehearsals.  For years, I would get extremely stressed and (more often than I’d like to admit) I would take it out on the ensemble.  We could play easier rep, and it would certainly be tighter, but I’d rather do it this way.  

A colleague once taught me that we’re not searching for a squeaky clean performance this week, but rather a Commercial Success.  If the kids and their families leave on Tuesday night humming a tune or two, with big smiles on their faces from the moving experience of a night of inspired music-making, then we’ve won.  Will there be a couple of moments that don’t live up to my expectations?  Could be, but the cost of getting it there isn’t worth it to me anymore.  

Please don’t misunderstand; I want it to be exceptional (and some of it will be), but most importantly, I want kids who are walking off the stage for (possibly) the last time to remember the feeling of making music and being part of something bigger than themselves.

Behind the scenes - Love Letters to my Future Self: I have a new pen pal.  This time of year, I’ve learned to write (love) letters to my future self.  When something catches me off-guard, I add it to my annual timeline, but more importantly, I schedule send my(future)self a quick note explaining what happened and reminding them how to avoid ending up in that space again.  It is extremely therapeutic (I can be pretty snarky and funny to future me 😛), but more importantly, if future me actually listens, it can save me the frustration in year 27!

Let me know how I can help - have an AMAZING week!

Jeff

Jeff Jones
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jL | In Practice - Remaining Relevant