Systems in Music Therapy: Time Management and Organization Thoughts

I am working on a handbook.

It is geared for music therapy students and interns and is going to be focused on internships. I have been working on this project, off and on, for about 8 years now, but this is going to be the year it finally comes together, so here it goes.

Today, I am going to talk about my tricks to organize my time and my stuff. As with most of what I write, these are things that work for me and may not work for anyone else in this music therapy world, but just in case they do work for you...

Here goes.

I use a logic-based organization system for my music therapy clinical area. How does this work? I group my instruments based on how I usually use them. For example, my rhythm sticks, jingle bells, and shaker eggs go into the same container because I like using that combination together and because my clients like choices. I separate things out when I have therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) that go with only one of the instruments, but I tend to use them together most of the time, so it makes sense to me to put them together.

There are boxes of different configurations. I put the plastic instruments together during 2020 so I could spray them with disinfectant that would eat away at the wooden instruments. There is a box of plastic maracas and another with all the other plastic instruments. When we have an increase in COVID in my work area, I take out the plastic instruments, spray them all down, and use them with my clients - cleaning in between uses.

I use a similar logic organization system for my visual aids. I have folders full of large die-cut pictures that I use with clients as TMEs arise. I have written about my visuals and my constant quest to get them into a clear organization system several times over the past year. It is still in process... 

ANYWAY...

I group my visuals together in the same sort of manner. When I have multiple copies of the visuals (which I often do because I know my clients and want some convenience and time savings), I group them by theme. For example, I have a folder of pet pictures that contains dogs, cats, fish, gerbils, guinea pigs, turtles, snakes, rabbits, mice - all sorts of things that my clients might have as pets. There are some dog pictures in another folder labelled "dogs" so I can find what I want as quickly as possible.

That is the purpose of any organizational scheme - being able to find what you need as quickly as you can.

So, for me, the first thing that I do is figure out my organization structure. Once I know how things are put together and stored, I can work on my time management patterns as well.

Another trick that I use for both organization and time management is my always box.

The always box (or bag when I am going places and have to walk) is my way of keeping things together. I make a box that contains things that I use or want to have available for every single session of the day. Often, the box has my laptop, my bluetooth speaker, my session documentation, and my marketing materials (cards, flyers, etc.). There is always a pen and an pencil as well. Often, I also have a dry erase board and marker for those moments when I need to make a quick communication board for clients. This is the one box that goes into every session.

Now, I use other boxes for my different kinds of sessions. When I am working with groups of clients who share similar clinical goals, I tend to create session strategies that are very similar. Everyone is working on fine motor skills through manipulating castanets - for example. I place all the castanets in the box for that type of group. Groups where I am doing something different will have different materials, so their boxes have different things.

I like this system because it gives me a way to track all sorts of things. First of all, I can keep track of where materials go astray. If the preschool group box started off with 16 shaker eggs and ended up with only 15 eggs, then I know that I can skip the older adult group locations in my search for the missing egg. Next, I can avoid taking irrelevant materials into sessions where it is just more weight to carry on my already taxed and tired body. Last, it makes me make a session strategy and figure out how to use the materials I have with me to their fullest. If I plan TMEs that only take up 20 of the scheduled 30 minutes of time for a session, then I have to figure out a plan that accommodates my clients' clinical goals while making use of the materials I have with me. This helps me become more efficient with my TME planning as well as my ability to meet client goals.

There is absolutely no reason why I should not be able to use any material in my clinic for many different TMEs and client goals, yet I find that interns and students are often of the opinion that they use shaker eggs for one thing and one thing only. By the time they are experienced interns, I bring this type of thought process - multiple uses for targeted materials - and they are astounded. (I find that funny, but a consistent experience, so I know that this is something that is not taught across almost all educational programs.) One thing for one instrument and one goal. I find that boring, to be honest, so I do whatever I can do to show music therapy students and interns that there is so much more to music therapy than one song - one goal - one thing.

My sister always gives me a hard time about this topic for several reasons - one, because she knows that I am not the neatest person to live in the world, second, because if I forget a webinar, it tends to be this topic... ironic, hunh??

Anyway, I find that these systems help me so much in my day to day work. Thanks for reading.