Memory comes up in almost every evaluation we do. But “memory” is a broad term — and the more specific we can get about which kind of memoryA bit ago now, two different school districts asked me to present on the same topic for their school psychs: workflow. Not a surprising ask, as how efficiently we work is always on our minds. But it got me thinking about what “workflow” actually means, because it’s one of those words everyone nods along to without always defining.
I landed on two angles.
The workflow of an evaluation. Referral, assessment plan, testing, data gathering, report, meeting. Lots of steps, lots of hands. There is paperwork and legal requirements. What comes first and what comes second? Who does what, and by when does all of this need to be completed? This type of workflow can be helped or hindered by systems.
My personal workflow. How efficient am I with my own time? Am I planning my week, or just reacting to it? Report writing was always the task I procrastinate the most. The testing felt urgent because a student was in front of me; phone calls felt urgent because someone was waiting. Report writing felt like something I could do “tomorrow.” Tomorrow has a way of turning into, “I guess I am staying up late now.”
Here’s what I’ve noticed: people often want the strategy before they’ve named the problem. Someone hears “batch your report writing” and tries to add it onto their week without asking whether that’s actually where the breakdown is. Then the strategy doesn’t work, and it starts to feel like a personal failing instead of just the wrong tool for the wrong problem.
So before we talk strategy, ask yourself: which problem am I actually trying to solve? Is it the system around me? Or is it my own habits, such as the planning, the procrastinating, the way my day gets hijacked?
Sit with that question this week. That’s where we’ll start.
Want to keep working through this together? Join the Prepared School Psych community. This is where we are gathering the data to determine exactly where the breakdown is and then identifying the strategy that solves the problem.
