Going Back to the Actual Work Building Today...I think I'm Ready

 I am getting ready to head back to work today after five days at home. I have a list of things to do in my bullet journal - take the laminators so we can laminate stuff; change the authentication for my work drive to my phone so I can share things on that account from home; talk to my senior intern about an upcoming interview; schedule Zoom meetings with day students for a bit of live programming; record new videos; put all the other videos into the Zoom account; finish up some of the choice boards for our residents; and then sending those same boards up to the residences.

I am looking forward to being in my classroom for a bit, even if students are not allowed to come to the building. I anticipate that I will be spending most of the time sitting on the floor, either laminating things or cutting out laminate. In fact, I have a whole stack of laminated things that need to be cut out that I can take with me. It's an absurd time, to be sure.

I am taking care to notice things about this entire process that work as well as the stuff that doesn't work. For me, I tend to do more things when I divide my work day into 30 minute slices. A timer is the best tool for me during work hours. Every 30 minutes, I sit down, record what I finished and make a plan for the next 30 minutes. I try to vary my tasks - 30 minutes of video production and editing followed by 30 minutes of material review followed by 30 minutes of planning new video content. At the beginning of the morning, I identify the major tasks that I feel are priorities for the day. I use that list to arrange my 30 minute time slots. I find that tracking what I have finished is a good way for me to see if I am working in an effective manner.

To be honest, sometimes I do get lots of things done, and other times I just don't work well. I am looking forward to seeing if the changes I have made to my computer screen help my attention level and ability to complete computer tasks. My Wednesday will be interrupted due to a visit to the Worker's Compensation doctor, but we will see how Thursday and Friday go. At the moment, I have a bit of "too much to do - where do I start" stuff mucking up my brain, so going to work will be a good change of pace. The only problem with going to work right now is the lack of clients. I feel so much more isolated when the students are gone from the building. I would much rather be dealing with a classroom full of angry adolescents than sit in a meeting or try to keep myself occupied with busy work.

Truth is, I don't like busy work. I am engaging in lots of that type of work these days because I don't have the client interaction that I love. If I can keep myself working on tools that I can use directly with my clients, I feel less like a useless lump and more like a contributing staff member. The nature of music therapy does not lend itself well to worksheets. My students are getting worksheeted by every other service. I am working more with videos and playlists to incorporate music into their days. Some of those playlists will be made by me while others are made by other people. I hope that my clients will use these to get some music enrichment during these quarantine times.

All I can do is produce the content - it is up to my clients to interact with the content...

I want to do music therapy again...I miss it horribly. I don't think what I am doing now is actually music therapy, but it is what I can do at the moment. So, I will sally forth and get something done today. Thanks for reading.

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