Principals often have administrative duties that take them away from instructional leadership and other big-picture ideas and changes. And yet, "running a smooth ship" and effectively managing those day-to-day operational tasks might actually make school leaders better. Hochbein looks at 100 years of research about how principals spend their time and concludes that the most effective leaders learn how to balance their time and treat administrative duties as learning experiences that contribute to the overall culture, safety, and learning environment of their schools.