Systems in Music Therapy: Nothing New to Report, But Getting Back Into the Routine of Things

My latest system revamp, my visual aid system, has stalled over the past several weeks. One of those weeks was a break from work, so I get some credit for not working during that week. One of the other weeks, I was alone in the music therapy clinic - my intern was sick, so I had to do my ENTIRE job and had less time to sit and move visuals around. This week, I have wrenched my back and cannot pick things up.

I know, excuses, excuses, excuses.

It is time to get back into this quest - the quest to have my visual aids arranged a bit more than they have ever been before!! I anticipate that I will be spending more time in my office starting next week, so it is time to plan the next steps in my journey to better organization.

First, though, it is important to see what I have already accomplished. I have filled up the boxes with visual aids that used to be in my cabinet. I am slowly finding card sets and am putting them in the card boxes with labels! I have decided how I am storing materials - by category - and, I also have the categories figured out. I have moved things from the cabinet into the boxes, and I have inventoried them as I have put them in the boxes. I have alphabetized one of the three boxes that I have filled - the visual box full of die-cuts and pictures only. These visuals are the ones that have no distinct therapeutic music experience (TME) association but can be used in many different TMEs to enrich conceptualization and illustrate multiple ideas for my clients. I organize these by categories, so there are folders for weather pictures, and pets, and wild animals, and the solar system, and all sorts of things in that box. The other two boxes hold tools and specific file folder activities. This is where I place my schedule boards, my thematic materials, and self-contained folder activities that require the use of the folder for success. Those have not been alphabetized yet, but they are contained in their own boxes, so, PROGRESS! I have labeled all the hanging file folders with numbers so I can indicate where each specific thing is located in each box.

The next steps include completing the inventory so I can include lists in the front of each box as well as making labels for the outside of the boxes. I also am about ready to go back into the alphabetization mode. I am enjoying the process of discovering the things that I have in my library. I have found projects from former interns that I had forgotten. I have discovered bulletin board sets that I picked up in one of my teacher supply store runs with my sister that I have tucked away with some ideas and then have not followed through. (That's a whole other system that needs some overhauling, but let's finish this one first!) I have some llama visuals that I am feeling called to use in my music therapy clinic, but I have not followed my own six things rule with these yet.

One of my biggest challenge with all of this is that I am easily distracted from the organizing part of things into the creative part of things. I am more interested in coming up with ideas than with finishing chores. I have to restrain my tangents during my work time to focus on the task at hand rather than following where my brain tries to take me. I still write down ideas, but that is all I do while it is organizing time...

[I just had a personal revelation about how to strengthen my home focus - using the idea of organizing time. I wonder if I will be able to transfer that idea into things that need to be done here at home...something to think about while I am driving to and from work today. (Not a big revelation, but a re-framing that may be useful for me...)]

I am pleased with how things have evolved in the past several months. I am striving to get this system working and up and running by the end of the regular school year (so, by May 20th). It will never be completely finished since I am still making up new visuals that will need to be stored, but it can be turned into a habit if I keep with it and organize it in a way that makes sense to me!

Happy Friday! 

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