Time Management Tricks That Have Worked for Me Lately

Yep, this is another time management post from me because I am still figuring out how to manage my time at work. I've pretty much given up on the idea of managing my time at home because I am just tired all the time so planning tasks for a future me is a complete waste of time! At work, though, I am using some time management strategies that seem to work at the moment. I am feeling more productive, but who knows if I actually am more productive.

As I am sitting here writing this, I am remembering that I did not do Wednesday's documentation, so I have behind. So much for feeling like I have everything finished. Maybe this topic isn't the best one to be doing after all.

I will continue, however, because I am feeling more productive these days than I have in a long time.

I finished my first interactive presentation for my clients yesterday. My original goal was to finish this presentation by the 31st of August, so I only went two days past my original goal. Hooray! This was not a required work task by any means, but it is an advancement of my own skills in telehealth happenings, so it took some learning and lots of programming time to get things ready to go!

The presentation is all about jobs. I decided to start with a digital file to support a theme that I could address with all of my clients. Thematic programming is the easiest way to coordinate sessions in one presentation. If I did sessions based on things other than a theme, I would not be able to condense things into one presentation without some confusion for my clients. A common theme helps me to organize thoughts and still offer multiple levels of interaction and tasks to accommodate the educational and therapy needs of my clients.

September's theme is vocations.

I started the presentation off with an explanation of specific icons - the home icon and the yellow arrow icon. The home icon gets folks back to the home page each time while the yellow arrow icon sends the presentation to the next page. There are six slides in total for this presentation. One the second slide, I have a picture gallery with links to four different music-based jobs. We explore a bit about how to be a composer, a conductor, a sound engineer, and a musician. Slide three has several songs about working. These will have related lyric sheets printed out and available for individual use. Slide four contains a bunch of songs (both by others and by me) about specific types of jobs. Slide five directs clients to find the color-coded envelopes for some paper/pencil tasks about vocations. Slide six includes additional application links for music games and activities if there is time. That's it, but it took lots of time investigating the links that I wanted and putting together the flow of the presentation. I enjoyed the process and am looking forward to do it again for this next month.

I have played with this on the ProBo so I know links work and things happen as planned, but my clients have not tried it out yet. That will happen during the last week of September when I am gone for a family memorial service. I will not be around when they try things out, but I will be around in October (or maybe they will use the October presentation when I am gone for AMTA). I don't know yet. That's future MJ's problem, you know??

Egad! How did I get so far off from my title??

Back to the purpose of this particular post...

I have been trying really hard to fit the design of these interactive files into my work days. I like to do these types of things, so I often do most of my product design and production here at home rather than using work time to complete them. The reason behind this at-home work is two-fold. The first is that I want to offer it to other music therapists, so I feel like I need to be using my own time rather than work time to accomplish this. The second is that all of my creation stuff is here rather than at work. If I need a specific color of paper, it lives here at home instead of at work. My clip-art is here. You get the idea. It is easier to create here where there is a bit more space uninterrupted by the presence of other people expecting music therapy interactions so I can leave materials out until they are finished. These files, however, are only to be used with my clients, so work time is appropriate.

I am working to increase my individual caseload, so I am filling up as much of my work time as possible with individual and dyad sessions, but I am also reserving time specifically for content creation. I have just now decided that I will introduce all of these interactive files in the music therapy room and then offer them for use around the school for the teachers to use after I have introduced them. So, since these files are meant for work use, work time is appropriate for their development. I am reserving time on four out of my five work days for this type of work. When my current intern finishes her time, I will have time on each day of the week for working on this project.

So, the first thing that I am doing is blocking off specific amounts of time to work on tasks. The second thing is that I am going into my planning strategy and am making my task lists. Right now, these task lists are happening in my ideas and TME books with my reference calendars are right there as well. In my at-home project books, I have some pre-printed task lists, and I am thinking that I will eventually make one of these for my idea books (I print them off on address labels so I can easily stick them into the books). I just need to do another couple of presentations so I can solidify the process into a timeline or task list. The last step is to make sure that I use that time for the task at hand. 

My books are my record keepers. I brainstorm - all thoughts go into the idea book. I refine - all changes go into the idea book. I compose - ideas start in the idea book and then move to the TME list when they are ready. I change my mind - all the time, and those changes are housed in the book. (I am thinking I may need to buy more idea books than anything else. Hmm. Tangential thought there. Better make a note to measure and find a source for when it is needed.) The calendars are there for reference if needed and for registering what is available for each month's programming. I was able to add my Vocations file to my Digital resources page for the month of September! It was oddly satisfying.

Time blocking and task lists as well as (sometimes) forcing myself to work on things that I may not want to work on at specific times are things that are helping me finish my current learning experiences.

What are the best time management tricks that you use in your music therapy life? Comment below!!