Wednesday Reset: Attitude Adjustment In Progress

It is Wednesday again, and I am finding that I need a bit of an attitude check as I head into the busiest day of my week...every week. At the end of today, I will have done more group sessions than are ahead of me. That never feels like a good thing when it is 4:15 am on a Wednesday morning, but it feels great when it is 4 am on Thursday. We have seven groups today - six of the required groups and one that I have added because I wanted to do something more for some of my clients. Seven groups. This is also the day that I do the most group sessions in my clinic. I lead three of the groups, my intern leads three of the groups, and the last group is musical support, so we work together.

I have no prospective interns coming in this month or in January, so it looks like I will be returning to full-time therapy in the new year. In some ways, that role is easier than the role I have right now. I am both looking forward to and dreading that switch back into the full time therapist role - mainly because I enjoy working with interns but also because I love being a therapist.

I watch several bullet journal folks over on YouTube who use a weekly reset to help with organization and focus. They usually reset things on Sundays, but Wednesdays might be a better day to do this than Sunday, especially since this particular job doesn't happen on Sundays.

So, what does a weekly reset entail? Of course, it varies based on the person who is doing it, so there aren't any specific tasks or formulae to accomplish. Like most of bullet journaling, I will have to find what works for me. Often, a weekly reset means a review of the past week, some goals set for the upcoming week, and a bit of mindful thought about the time spent in work. 

For a music therapist, a weekly reset might include planning upcoming sessions or scheduling administrative task time. I have not written any of my TMEs this week so far, so that is something that I will have to plan and accommodate into my schedule. If I make this my pattern, I will add an attitude check into the reset - something to see how I am feeling about specific groups, clients, and tasks. This could be a good time to figure out some of the patterns that affect my attitude.

So, what will I do?

When I get to work this morning, I will do my documentation. I will sit down and plan out the sessions that I am leading today (I haven't done that yet). I will make a grid to help me figure out some of the questions that I have for myself, which are the types of questions that I often ask my interns. What is my biggest win for the week? What is my biggest challenge? How do I feel in the morning when it is time to head to work? How do I feel in the afternoon when it is time to leave? What do I want to spend more time doing in the upcoming week? What do I want to spend less time doing in the upcoming week? What is my session focus for the upcoming week?

That is a long list of questions that needs to be pruned down to something a bit more manageable for the space that I have available in my journal.

I started a new journal this week. It was time. My old one was almost full - not quite, but the start of a new month is a good time to start a new book. So, I have placed some Star Wars stickers on the front and the back. I figured out a way to arrange my weeks which includes some areas for a to-do list, TME list, and other things that happen. I am experimenting with layouts and formats, and now I want to change some things up. That's the nice thing about having a planner - you can adapt what you are doing to accommodate changes in your life or circumstances.

As a music therapist, I find that my book is more of a task to-do list than it is a session planner. I don't usually use my journal to record session strategies - I use post-it notes for that particular task because I can put them in the session area rather than in a book. I use my work journal to record sessions each day. I record completing my documentation each day. I also put in appointments, meetings, inservices, and the TMEs I finish writing. I used to journal in my planner as well, but I don't do that any longer. I also do some time blocking - I write out all of the non-session time that I have each day to track how I am using my time.

While I am thinking about music therapy session planning, I have had an idea for some of the blank pages in my old journal - I will cut them out and use them as bookmarks or session planning templates that I am going to laminate and reuse as needed. I have about ten pages that I could cut out of the old journal for this type of use. 

My Wednesday reset is turning into an entire list of things to do. I might be better served doing this at the end of the day rather than at the beginning. I have a short period of time after the last session to do this type of reset, and it would be after the majority of sessions are finished. That might keep my brain going after a long day of session work. It might not, but life is a constant experiment, right?

I will do the first round of resetting my brain and my attitude this afternoon. While I am watching my intern doing her sessions from my office area, I will be formulating the question list and figuring out how to complete this task.

It is time to get going on this day. I have already watched the season finale of Ahsoka three times because I have been up for a long time. My back slipped when I left work on Monday afternoon, so I spent yesterday at home, babying it. I took a nap which messed with my sleep last night. I was wide awake at 3 am so I have had lots of time to get going already. I still have to take my shower, get gas, and then commute to work where I will work with my clients to the best of my ability. 

Happy Wednesday.