Thoughtful Thursday: Taking Time to Get It Right - Or, at Least, Better
I often feel rushed. I feel like I never have enough hours in the day to get the things that I want to do done, and I want to do it all! Of course, I can't, but I still want to and sometimes feel inadequate when I am not able to live up to my own expectations. This is usually a signal that I'm heading towards illness or burnout. So, I take time to rest, reflect, and rejuvenate my body and my brain.
(Just for the record, I don't really feel that way at this point, but I am getting ready for a break, so I am making audacious plans that I will never get accomplished during the week I have to do them. I know there is a break coming!)
I guess, as I sit here, trying to make sense of what I am writing and what I want to convey, is that nothing comes to us without time and effort. If I do n't spend the time to do what I need to do, then things won't get done. If I rush through my session planning and documentation, those things really reflect that lack of time and engagement. If I take some time to do things right the first time, I save myself endless hours of "fixing" things. It's pretty interesting.
I spent some time doing something that I absolutely love. Last weekend, I spent two hours facilitating a Make and Take session with music therapists and music therapy students. We made file folder session schedule boards. Now, I make these all the time, and I love teaching others how I make them. The Western Region of AMTA took a chance and let me do such a session during their regional conference. I had about 25 people who attended, and we took some time to create.
We started with a learning project. I did not offer an example (on purpose) because I wanted to see what people would do with the instructions that I provided. After the first project was finished, I brought out the fancy papers and encouraged folks to try something different. They did. There were all sorts of ideas and things that came out of that session. I have lots of ideas now, courtesy of the attendees from last Saturday's session.
Anyway, it was fascinating to see my own struggles with time played out in the microcosm of that session. There were those who did not read all the directions. [Yep, I have times when I do that.] There were those who did read the directions, but did not follow those directions. [I argue with my GPS all the time - how dare this box tell ME where to go!] There were those who spent most of the time trying to see the second layer of instructions under the obvious directions. [I don't think I had any mystery layers, but I often find myself looking for motives in what seems too obvious.] Some folks took lots of time to finish their first board. Some went through it very quickly. It was fascinating to me.
I am going to take the time today to focus on the tasks that I need to do. I have an intern starting really quickly, so I have to coordinate lots of stuff for that program before leaving for Spring Break. I may need to go down to work sometime next week to finish things up - it depends on what we're going to be doing tomorrow at our inservice. More things that take up time and that need more time than I have available at this point.
When I take time to do things right the first time around, things seem to go better. There's my thought for today.
(Just for the record, I don't really feel that way at this point, but I am getting ready for a break, so I am making audacious plans that I will never get accomplished during the week I have to do them. I know there is a break coming!)
I guess, as I sit here, trying to make sense of what I am writing and what I want to convey, is that nothing comes to us without time and effort. If I do n't spend the time to do what I need to do, then things won't get done. If I rush through my session planning and documentation, those things really reflect that lack of time and engagement. If I take some time to do things right the first time, I save myself endless hours of "fixing" things. It's pretty interesting.
I spent some time doing something that I absolutely love. Last weekend, I spent two hours facilitating a Make and Take session with music therapists and music therapy students. We made file folder session schedule boards. Now, I make these all the time, and I love teaching others how I make them. The Western Region of AMTA took a chance and let me do such a session during their regional conference. I had about 25 people who attended, and we took some time to create.
We started with a learning project. I did not offer an example (on purpose) because I wanted to see what people would do with the instructions that I provided. After the first project was finished, I brought out the fancy papers and encouraged folks to try something different. They did. There were all sorts of ideas and things that came out of that session. I have lots of ideas now, courtesy of the attendees from last Saturday's session.
Anyway, it was fascinating to see my own struggles with time played out in the microcosm of that session. There were those who did not read all the directions. [Yep, I have times when I do that.] There were those who did read the directions, but did not follow those directions. [I argue with my GPS all the time - how dare this box tell ME where to go!] There were those who spent most of the time trying to see the second layer of instructions under the obvious directions. [I don't think I had any mystery layers, but I often find myself looking for motives in what seems too obvious.] Some folks took lots of time to finish their first board. Some went through it very quickly. It was fascinating to me.
I am going to take the time today to focus on the tasks that I need to do. I have an intern starting really quickly, so I have to coordinate lots of stuff for that program before leaving for Spring Break. I may need to go down to work sometime next week to finish things up - it depends on what we're going to be doing tomorrow at our inservice. More things that take up time and that need more time than I have available at this point.
When I take time to do things right the first time around, things seem to go better. There's my thought for today.
Comments
Post a Comment