TME Tuesday - The Database

How do you organize your Therapeutic Music Experiences? You know, the things that you do with your clients? Do you organize by music? By goals and objectives? By something else? How do you keep track of your ideas? Do you keep them all in your head? Or do you write them down?

I write many of them down, but not all of them. I make my interns write theirs down as well. Once they are written down, I had to find some way to organize them - hence, the database...

Currently, my database is simply an Excel workbook. I list the TME title, the goal areas addressed, the original author/composer, and the person who developed the TME. My TME database is never going to be complete, but it is as complete as possible at any given time. I try not to print out things on paper anymore, but the TMEs are all hyperlinked to the database so I can click on the link, read the TME, and print, if necessary. This is how I currently organize my "bag of tricks."

It isn't enough for me, though. I want more.

I think about a database where I can search based on goals, types of music, themes, and other kinds of organizational information. I am trying to figure out how to do it, but I am wondering what others do out there.

So, what do you do to organize your thoughts?

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