I used to think this was a boring and useless topic. I did not see the relevance of having things “out of my head” after all my successor at some point will want to “do their own thing”. And then several years ago I was working with a business coach (I highly recommend doing so) and he recommended writing Standard Operating Procedures.

We began to outline Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to help the business run smoothly  when ANY key player is absent for a period of time. I completed a comprehensive outline and set it on the back burner. Fast forward to fall 2024. I slipped and broke my wrist in 2 places and have been slowly recovering from that break! This episode opened my eyes to being prepared to be unavailable or unable to work.

I have been slowly adding the meat to the bones of the documents. I started by re-tracing my daily activities as well as the actions of other early childhood educators everyday to write a comprehensive document for Administration and one for Educators.

The outcome so far is a deeper understanding of how I spend my time during the day and better time management as a result of this. Documenting this important information has freed up my time to see where process improvements could be made. The document also makes me feel more secure that in case of an emergency there are protocols and procedures that anyone could follow.

My takeaway is do the “boring stuff” it could really save the day!