Talking About Organization

One of my work cabinets - this is the instrument cabinet

Last evening, I was joined by several music therapy interns from around the country to talk about time management and organization. We have seminars every other week on topics that seem to be common to all interns no matter where they work or what they are doing in their internship. I try to offer ideas to help out with some of the more concrete jobs of a music therapist. We will be talking about things like leadership, self-care, having crucial conversations, and how to market ourselves as music therapists. We spend some time talking about these things because I have found that many of my own interns have struggled with these skills. I have also found that I continue to struggle with some of these skills, so I think we, as a group of music therapists, should talk about them a bit more.

Last evening's topic was mostly centered on organization. There are lots of decisions that you have to make when you are trying to stay organized in a music therapy place. We therapists often have lots of stuff - especially if you are a therapist who works with a diverse population of clients or with children. If you tend towards packrat-ness (like me), you tend to have even more stuff that you need to keep organized.

PET PEEVE RANT COMING NOW...

One of my pet peeves is when a music therapist stops the music in order to go find an object, instrument, visual aid, or something else during the session. Now, I am guilty of this, but I try VERY hard not to stop the music. If I don't have something out of a cabinet that I want for a therapeutic music experience (TME), I figure out a musical stimulus that can happen while I am obtaining those materials. Also, if it takes more time than 30 seconds to get out of the cabinet, I don't get it out. My students can move from engaged to defiant or aggressive, bored clients in less than 30 seconds if the musical stimulus stops, so - KEEP THE MUSIC GOING ALL THE TIME!!

End of rant... I really hope.

So, when I am organizing my stuff for easy use, I have a couple of tips that I recommend. Here are some of the things that I have found to be most useful in my clinic areas this past year as I have been a bit more of a traveling music therapist:

1. Keep an inventory of what you have.
2. Get multiple sets of materials so you don't have to lug stuff all over creation.
3. Color-code storage to help you easily transition between different groups and different sessions.
4. Keep things that you need with you always in an "always bag" or box. If you always use shaker eggs in all of your sessions, then keep them in a bag or box that you can take with you everywhere you go. I also recommend that you keep some marketing materials in that "always bag" for elevator conversations. You never know when you might want a pamphlet or a business card for chance encounters.
5. Brainstorm as many uses and TMEs for everything that you use in a session as you possibly can. What are all of the things that I can do with scarves with my younger students? What are all the things that I can do with my older students? Write those things down on a small card to prompt you in those moments when you realize that you have 24 minutes left of a session, and you have run through everything that you planned to do.

Organization is my downfall and my deepest dream. In my fantasies, I dream about my dream home. Someday I will live in a place that has a large, open area with lots of storage around the perimeter of the walls, but lots of space in the center. Everything will have it's own, labeled, custom-built space, and I'll be able to find anything I want in a moment's notice. For the moment, however, I'll keep trying to organize my music therapy life, my home, and everything else around me, one box and bag at a time...

Off to try to organize something today. Maybe I'll take on my craft room some more...