1% Better, Every Day

by Nancy Motley

March is usually when I start my countdowns… 57 days left of school, 11 more Fridays, 5 more staff meetings, etc. I find myself focused on finishing, likely as a way to lower the stress that I feel during this time of year. In the midst of state testing, end-of-year meetings, and finalizing grades, professional growth gets lost. Unlike at the beginning of the school year, when I am energized to try new strategies and reflective about my practice, I am currently in survival mode.  

Here is the good news: Improvement can still happen during the countdown days! In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear writes that all it takes is focusing on getting 1% better each day (2018). Generally speaking, we might think 1% is insignificant. A 1% increase in a test score, for example, doesn’t seem like much. If we remain focused on small and consistent improvements over time, however, the results can be staggering. Clear explains: “If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.” (Clear, 2018, p.15). This sounds very appealing to me! Almost forty percent growth just by focusing on a teeny tiny change. Even in March countdown mode, this feels doable.

So what does 1% look like for us? While the ideas are endless, I’d like to offer a few concrete, small moves that are quick and low-to-no prep. Any one of them could be the 1% adjustment that, when implemented with consistency, can have a significant and positive impact on both you and your students. Most of these ideas come from my book, Small Moves, Big Gains.

Relationships

• Smile more. Be mindful of showing students, even your challenging ones, a joyful face.
• Pick one student. Be intentional about engaging with that student in a positive way. . 
• Ask a question. Be curious in your conversations with students and colleagues.

Preparation and planning

• Color code. Use specific colors for a purpose, e.g., all new vocabulary is always blue.
• Pick a number greater than one. Challenge students to generate that number of responses to extend their thinking.
• Set a purpose. Offer clear and specific desired outcomes even for small tasks.

Teaching and Learning

• Walk with intention. Move to students who need support rather than circling the room. 
• Touch to teach. Physically touch visuals, anchor charts, and other resources.
• Target the talk. Offer students stems or key words to use in partner/group conversations. 

My hope is that the ideas above actually do seem like a small move, a tiny hack, a 1% adjustment. Once you select one of these or identify your own, the next step is determining how to automate the move into a habit. Let’s use “Smile more” as an example. Wanting to remember to smile more isn’t enough to turn this 1% improvement into a habit. Life will get in the way. So, how do we turn a small move like smiling more into an automatic habit? Here are a few ideas:

1. Find an accountability partner.  Let them know what your goal is and ask for their help.  This could be a colleague that you ask to “smile really big” across the hall during passing periods. Or you can ask your class to make a smiley face gesture to you if they notice that you seem irritated.
2. Try habit stacking. Identify habits you already have and attach the new small move to them (Scott, 2014). For example, if you always use popsicle sticks to randomly call on students, when you pull the stick (existing habit), smile (new habit).
3. Create a visual. Just like we cover our walls with visuals to help students remember the content they are learning, we can also use visuals to help us. Put a smiley face on a sticky note at the top of your computer, above the doorknob to your classroom, and right next to the wall clock. Each time you see these, it will cue you to smile more.

The beauty of focusing on 1% is that it meets you exactly where you are—even in the home stretch of the school year. So, keep counting down those Fridays if you must, but don’t count yourself out. There is always room for a 1% shift toward a better day for both you and your students.

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Penguin Random House.

Motley, N. (2022). Small moves, big gains: Teacher habits that help kids talk more, think more and achieve more. Seidlitz Education.

Scott, S.J. (2014). Habit stacking: 97 small life changes that take 5 minutes or less. Create Space.