How to Find More Time in a Day

written by Paula E. Bird, ©2014

How to find more time in a day? Impossible, you say. Everyone is given the same 24 hours each and every day. How can we find more time?

Have you noticed how some people seem to get more done in a day? Perhaps you are one of those people who accomplish much in a day. Have you wondered why that is so? I have observed that I go through periods when I am quite productive, almost unstoppable in my ability to get things done on my never-ending list of things to do (lists, actually). And then there are my moments of sluggishness, when the urge to be phlegmatic overtakes me, usually during a holiday break. During those periods I marvel at how I got so much done in my productive periods, while I struggle to regain momentum and energy during my "down" periods.

I frequently lament that there are not enough hours in the day to do all that I know I need to get done. That is when I remind myself that it is indeed possible to gain more time in a day. The secret lies in how you think about time.

Finding more time is all about how you manage time, and being successful at time management is all about how you think about time. I like to think of the passing of time like a conveyor belt, which of course leads me to the memory of Lucille Ball and her cohort working the candy factory conveyor belt. If you recall that particular television episode, you will remember that Lucy let the conveyor belt get beyond her ability to do her job effectively, and the rest is comedic history.

Consider though how conveyor belts and assembly line systems work. Typically there are several people at work at one time. There are supply stations nearby with the necessary systems to handle overloads, problems, or repairs and maintenance. There are systems in place to address necessary work stoppages. Things rarely reach the point of disaster as they did for Lucy.

Most importantly of all, assembly line systems fall under a more general plan of oversight. Someone has designed the system's work flow so that things do go smoothly for the most part, and the system has possible problem scenarios built into the flow in case of unexpected (or in this case expected) work stoppages or interruptions.

How we manage time is about how we think of time. If we think of time as a conveyor belt system, one in which the belt keeps moving, then we may have the same problems as Lucy had if we are unprepared for our responsibilities on the assembly line. It comes down to what your plan is and what tools you use to achieve your plan.

Some of us have little in the way of a working plan. We sort of drift through our lives, reacting to the demands of others or managing our work load as it arises. Some of us have a general idea of where we are headed in our lives and a little bit of a sense of how we will get there.

There are those, however, who know exactly where they are going, why they are going that way, and how they plan to get there in the foreseeable future. It is this group of people that I would like to take a closer look at, because these folks hold the answers for the rest of us. How do these successful people get so much squeezed out of their day? How do they find the time to do as much as they do?

HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO IT

They have a goal. The goal may be as simple as a plan to get through a tough week or a demanding semester. The goal may be more long term, such as finishing school or completing a building project. The goal may be short term, such as preparing for a recital in a few weeks, or it may be sort of in the middle, such as learning all the pieces in a Suzuki volume. Whatever the goal may be, it is something specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, or "SMART" as we call it.

They have a plan. They have broken down their goal into smaller, more manageable steps. They have a blueprint of the steps to take along the road in order to reach their goal.

They take action. The goal setting or the plan of actionable steps is not the end of the exercise, but the beginning. The most important attribute of successful people is that they take action on their plan. They move. There is a time for thinking and planning, and then it is time to get going.

They spend a few moments daily updating their plan or thinking about it. They know that to use a few moments of the daily 24 hours will generate huge returns in the end. They use these few moments to consider the overall plan and to decide what steps to take action on that day which will bring them closer to achieving their plan.

They set milestones or guideposts along the way. Part of the fun or the challenge in following a goal plan is to note when progress occurs. How can we tell if we are getting somewhere? Successful people set milestones or guideposts along the way to help them measure their progress toward achieving their goals or to help them determine what course corrections they need. Milestones can include time period benchmarks, such as a weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly review, or they can represent certain amounts of things accomplished (5 pounds, 5K run).

They have focus. Setting goals provides a focus structure. It encourages attention to the goal and the goal plan. This attention to the goal helps to guard against distractions that take away from the goal path. Without this focus, we may drift off course or in general, which then makes us subject to the whims and goals of others rather than our own.

They have a support system. Successful people can achieve success without others, but it is so much easier when there is a support system in place to help. Support systems may include family members, close friends, a personal coach, accountability partner, or a support group. Knowing that we will answer to our support system may encourage us to keep on striving to achieve our goal. Our support system can provide a safety net in the event that we slip or fall on our goal path. Best of all, our support system can cheer us on when we are in most need of encouragement and motivation.

MY TIME MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Here are my particular time management or time flowing tools.

750words.com and the Morning Pages. I still use these tools even after the many years since I completed Julia Cameron's Artist Way, although now I find it easier on my hands to use the computer keyboard rather than actual pen and paper. The 750 words website helps me to fulfill this purpose. I have worked through many a puzzling problem through these morning pages, and I find that my days begin with an uncluttered focus if I have taken 20 minutes for myself to "clear the air" of any unresolved issues floating around in my brain. While I am whittling away at my daily 750 words, I keep many of the following tools close at hand to capture any stray thoughts that would pertain to any of the items normally handled by the following tools.

Calendars. I use a phone calendar all the time. I put every appointment on this calendar. However, there are things that do not seem to belong on a calendar because they clutter up the calendar and make it harder for me to see the important appointments already listed there. I prefer another place for these things, as I will discuss later.

While the phone calendar is most useful to me on a day-to-day basis, I do find it helpful to see a week at a time, and on occasion to note more than one week. So, I also maintain a beautiful journal from the Smithsonian that my father gifts to me each Christmas. In it I briefly outline my schedule for the week in grand scoping gestures. I do not list each individual lesson, as I would on my phone calendar. Instead I list time blocks spent in various locations. My husband finds this journal calendar very useful to know where I am at all times. I leave this calendar at home on the dining room table, and I refer to it once in the morning and evening. Its most helpful purpose, however, is to show me the week at a glance. I also use it to make general notes of particular projects or items that I need to take care of in a week. Time to pay bills? I make a note at the top of the first page of the week in the margin, along with other items that I know I need to address.

Reminders. I use a phone system for these because I find it helpful to use my iPhone's personal assistant Siri feature. If I need to remember to do something, I tell Siri to create a reminder. I try to consistently give these reminders a date, time, or location in which to alert me (Siri, please remind me to take the check out of my violin case when I get home). With this easy system, I know that all of my reminding type ideas are captured somewhere. I do have other systems that I use on occasion, but the phone's reminder system is what I choose to use most often.

Daily to do list. I have two very useful daily tools for keeping track of my daily activities. One is my daily to do list, and the other is my daily schedule outline. On my daily to do list, I include everything that I want to accomplish in a day. Following the rule suggested by Mary Kay Ashe, I may only complete 6 things on the list and feel that it was a good day, but often my list is a bit longer than 6 things. I try to keep the list to one side of the page, but things do spill over onto page two, and sometimes page two is my catch-all for things that occur during the day or for things that I would like to do if the right circumstances present themselves. I use a small notebook page from a product by Mead called "notes on-the-go":

Daily schedule outline. The next time management tool is my daily schedule outline, and this is something that I created for myself on a computer. It is designed to take up half a page, so I have two outlines on each page, and I make copies of this and cut them in half. This daily outline starts with "wakeup" and lists each half hour thereafter beginning at 8 am until 5:30 pm with an evening slot at the bottom. I use this form to plan out my day and to anchor in my mind where I have slots to do things. I find that this tool helps me the most to avoid wasting the time I have in a day. Instead of gabbing in the hallway at the university or frittering my free moments with emails, I have a reminder before me that I had planned to do something else during that time slot. When I create the outline at the beginning of the day, I note where there are some open moments, and I fill in those moments with a few items that I can accomplish in that time. Do I need to spend more than 5 minutes answering my colleague's request for a schedule of rehearsals, prepare an exam for an upcoming class, or make a necessary phone call? These might be a few of the items that I include in that empty slot. Here is an example of how my day looks today:

The Master List. The next two tools I use interchangeably and for slightly different purposes. They are useful tools in that I have several possible systems to help me to remember any thoughts I have about things that I need to do or things that occur to me while I am in the middle of doing something else. These tools may not be for everyone, but they serve useful purposes for me.

I use a pad folio system for keeping a master list or at least capturing a list of items that I must include on my master list. I use a folio that is small enough to hold the smaller legal pads. I find that when I have such a tool handy, that I use it to capture stray ideas that surface during lessons, during meetings, or in general when I am out and about. It easily fits into my purse, so it is always handy. The trick, I find, is remembering to periodically look through it and deal with the items that I have written there. I put the items on the next tool and then deal with them.

Cloud Outliner or Mind Map. I currently use these two tools at different times to help me capture various types of thoughts, and I have both of these tools on my iPhone. If I am brainstorming ideas, I would use the Mind Map tool, where I would draw branches of ideas as they occur to me. Generally though, I am most comfortable with an outliner tool, and the Cloud Outliner app serves my needs very nicely. As projects or things I need to do occur to me, I write them on my outliner app. It is easy to list things and indent things. I used to use a paper master list, and I do carry around a pad folio to help me capture these things in meetings or while teaching, but as soon as I can, I transfer these things to my cloud outliner where I am able to break down these ideas into smaller action steps.

I maintain two master lists in my cloud outliner: backlog and active. I use a technique that I learned from the Quick and Dirty Tips Get it Done Guy [click here to read about it]. I cycle through the backlog list until I no longer find something that I want to work on. At that point I venture into the active list. When I do go back to the backlog list, I keep at it, maybe coming up with smaller steps. If I can reframe the item, then I put it on my active list. If not, I seriously think about eliminating the task or delegating it (with a followup step added to the active list). At some point my backlog list is eliminated. Then I rename my active list as the backlog and begin a new active list. This system really works to keep my focus on what I need to do and keeps me mindful about what is really a necessary thing to keep on my master to do list.

The Mind Map tool is not necessarily a time management tool, but I find it useful on occasion for brainstorming time management issues. Sometimes what holds me up from accomplishing things is some other problem that leads me to procrastinate. Perhaps my schedule is too busy, or perhaps I'm stuck trying to do something that is not quite ready for tackling. Maybe I need some baby steps. Maybe I need to explore the reasons why I am stuck. I find it helpful to use a mind mapping tool to puzzle through these issues. Because ultimately I can unstick myself after using this tool, I include it in my arsenal of time management tools.

When I use these tools on a consistent basis, I accomplish much. I am more mindful of how my time is spent, and I have a general outline and plan for accomplishing the things that are important to me. I did not find these tools overnight, and I have also tried many tools. I am still experimenting with various applications, planners, and forms, but after much trial and error, I find that these few tools are my most productive. I will still keep an open eye to whether there is something else out there that I missed, but in the meantime, I will continue to manage my time flow with these tools.

Everyone has their own particular systems. The best system is one that incorporates all of these basic time management items in some fashion that works for you. Please comment with some of your favorite tools and apps.

Monday Morning Check In: What Systems do you Need?

Written by Paula E. Bird, ©2014

Today is the first Monday of 2014. I like to greet my Mondays with thoughts about what I want to accomplish in the coming week. Since this is the first Monday of the first full week, I thought it would be a good idea to consider the systems that I need to have in place to make my year go smoothly. Here are my top three suggestions for creating important systems:

Financial Systems -- A good financial system will account for incoming and outgoing finances, including some of the following items:

• income register
• expense register
• tax-related items register
• bookkeeping routine
• bill pay reminders
• student tuition reminders

Filing Systems -- A good filing system will rely on some of the following items:

• file storage
• filing plan
• file management
• file retrieval

Scheduling Systems: A good scheduling system will include some of the following items:

• calendars
• reminders
• to do programs
• tickler file

What systems do you need? Identify what systems you need and set them up this week. Make a plan or routine to use your systems.

Enjoy your week!

Happy New Year!

Written by Paula E. Bird, ©2014

Happy New Year! It is time to get back into shape, eat healthy, and set up routines and systems to accomplish all that we want to do this year. Today is the first day of a clean slate, and we can make this year be anything we want it to be. Today is a good day for reflecting on our values and our accomplishments as well as thinking about those things that did not work out as well as we had anticipated.

I remember when a teacher asked master Suzuki teacher Ronda Cole what she does when one of her students starts slacking in her practice routine. Ronda Cole's answer was that she turns on the heat. "They will either cook or flee." The student will either become more serious about practicing and learning or decide to give up.

Sometimes we drift. We start out on a good road that is filled with momentum, energy, enthusiasm, and promise. Then life gets a little cloudy and muddy. We become busy with other concerns. We stop pressing forward and instead sit down for a little rest. We lose sight of the direction we were headed in the first place and why we even wanted to go there. We stop thinking about what we want and start reacting instead to the things and people that push and pull at us. We lose our power to decide what we want and instead begin working for other people's goals.

I propose that we turn up the heat this year. I propose that we make some decisions about whether to cook or to flee. I propose that we spend today thinking about the things that we want to accomplish this year, and that we come up with a plan to follow.

Parents, have you lost sight of the reason why you decided to have your child take music lessons? Perhaps it might help if you scrolled through the archives and revisited some earlier posts about the importance of music lessons and spending time working with your child as he or she works to develop an ability and skill.

Parents, have you lost track of your commitment to practice with your child on a regular schedule? Perhaps it is time that you set up a new calendar system that will help you to keep a solid practice routine that occurs on a very regular basis. You will discover that practicing daily and allowing no more than 1 or 2 days of missed practice will actually help your practice with your child. Many of my studio parents tell me that the time they have problems working with their children is directly related to the number of missed practice days, and that when a daily practice habit is established, practice sessions go smoother.

Teachers, have you lost the will to teach? When we teachers allow ourselves to get too busy, we open ourselves up to burnout and stress. We must remember to allow ourselves some time off for reflection, meditation, and rest. The fact is that when others are enjoying a holiday break, we musicians are working. From the end of the Thanksgiving weekend until today, I have pretty much been working nonstop with performances and rehearsals. I need to remind myself about taking breaks too.

Teachers, have you allowed yourself to fall behind in paperwork or studio upkeep? How about scheduling a work day (or half a day) to deal with these issues? I have stacks of papers and music that I need to file. When the studio had a new carpet installed, I had to empty my music cabinet in order to lighten the cabinet enough for me to move it. When it came to putting my music stacks back in the cabinet, I quickly stuffed things in and did not take the time to reorganize the cabinet. I have paid for that ever since. Now might be a good time to take care of that, before I fire up the studio for the coming semester.

Teachers, have you allowed yourself to continue with some students who might do better elsewhere? I have difficulty letting go of students and will do as much as I can to help turn around an unpleasant teaching situation. I try to encourage parents to make a serious commitment to music lessons and to the value of practicing regularly with their children at home. I have many resources and ideas to help parents with this charge. Unfortunately, there are families who do not share the same value and commitment to learning an ability or skill to play a music instrument that I have. Although I try to turn this around, these families do not work alongside me and seem to want things to be easy, when in truth, things like this are never easy in any area of life. Perhaps it is time to let these families leave the studio or seek another teacher elsewhere. I do not enjoy these types of conversations with parents. I survive them mostly because I remind myself that there are other families out there who do share my values and commitment to music education and who want to become members of my studio. By allowing families to remain in the studio when they clearly do not wish to be committed members, I am in effect denying these other families the opportunity to learn in my studio.

Today is a good day to think about these sorts of things. While we think about these things, let us reflect with the perspective of turning up the heat and really doing something about what we think. Let us really cook this year.

Quick Parenting Tip: Let Them Practice it for Themselves

Sunday I bathed eight dogs. Yikes!, you are probably thinking. Uh huh, I have eight dogs in my home right now and three puppies. I had nine but one little guy got snapped up today.

I did some heavy duty cleaning and dust busting on Sunday afternoon. After mopping the floors, I thought that it might be a good idea to wash the dogs too, in case they were helping to spread some of the dust around the place (Texas had a drought last summer, which has helped me to understand The Grapes of Wrath in more depth myself).

As I washed each of the eight dogs, I noticed that I got more efficient at it. I discovered which actions made my chore go swifter, and I hit upon a sequence of steps that offered the best use of my time and efforts.

As I perfected my technique and sequence, I compared this experience with that of practicing and learning how to play the violin. Too often parents and students play through something one time and then seem to consider that a sufficient practice. I have made little practice vignette recordings lately on my phone for students and parents to practice with, and everyone seems to enjoy them. I especially like the results that I see lately. I get these results because I make a recording that actually asks the student to practice. We may go through a sequence of steps as many as four times in varied ways. This is what I consider practicing.

But I digress. My post today was about "letting" students practice things for themselves. Rather than follow along with the teacher's recording or the parent's instruction, I suggest that students be allowed to discover themselves how to do something. Not everything, but some things. Not completely alone, but with guidance.

Today's tip stems from my experience the other day with two of my fun students, Jamey and Elliott. Jamey had to change his strings on Monday, and Elliott had to change his strings on Tuesday. We have changed strings together in the past, and I thought it would be a good idea to let them learn how to change the strings by themselves (while I was there to encourage and guide them). Jamey opted to use most of his lesson time to change to a new set. Here is how I structured the string changing lesson:

• I helped him sort out his materials first. We laid out the new strings on the table and decided which order to change them. We labeled the string package with today's date and discussed saving the used strings so that he would have a quick, easy replacement if he ever had a string break.

• I began the process of changing one of his strings. As I changed it, I talked aloud about the string changing process. At first Jamey was eager to jump in and do the whole thing himself. He was sure that he remembered all the steps to change the strings himself. I let him grab onto the process, but I knew that he probably would not remember everything that we planned to do.

• As I changed the first string, I asked if he had done the other steps that go along with changing a string. In this case, I like to put peg compound on the pegs (to prevent slipping and sticking) and pencil graphite in the grooves of the nut and the bridge (to prevent wear and tear on the string in these places). He had not remembered to do them, so my question was a gentle reminder.

• For the next string, I let him do the string changing bit, and I took on his role with the peg compound. I asked him whether he did the pencil thing because I had "forgotten."

• I did not help at all on the third string. I just sat there and watched, maybe doing the "back seat driver" bit occasionally. (Remember to hold the string taut, like when you tie your shoes, etc.).

• I do not even remember if he changed the last string, because I was busy cleaning up. I wrapped the used strings and put them in the dated string package to store in Jamey's case. Then I helped him to tune, although he did most of that himself.

I know we did not spend much time having a "lesson" per se, but we had a great lesson. Jamey will feel completely competent to change his own strings in the future if he wants to, although I expect he will opt to share the experience with me. We did have a good time. In Elliott's case, we had a good time too, but I know that Elliott will enjoy sharing the time together to perform this menial task.

So parents, I know it is easier to do things yourself. It speeds things along if the expert tackles the chore. However, if the student can perform at least 80% of the task passably well, it will be worthwhile for the parent or teacher to allow the student to experience the task for themselves. Yes, it takes time, but it is time very well spent. One really learns when one experiences.

Plini: "Experience is the most efficient teacher of all things."

Julius Caesar: "Experience is the teacher of all things."

Tacitus: "Experience teaches."

Monday Morning Check In: Checklists for the New Year

Good morning and welcome to the new year 2012!

Like me, you have probably been recently inundated with emails and articles about goal setting and resolutions. You do not need me to add another level of information to a topic that we have discussed repeatedly throughout the year. Of course, if you do want to revisit those blog posts, just search for goal setting or goals in the search box above.

Today is the first Monday of a new year. For my recent readers, I devote my Monday blog posts to more general topics that will aid us to become better teachers. In the past my topics have sometimes included goal setting. Other times I focused on organizational tools, practice planning, or anything that crossed my mind in a general way and which I thought might help us to improve our effectiveness as teachers.

Weekly Checklist

Since it is Monday morning, let me start out by asking whether you have done your homework for the week? Have you thought ahead to what your schedule will be this week, and have you figured out what you need to accomplish? Here is a general checklist to consider:

• Have you scheduled all your necessary appointments or lessons for the week on your calendar?

• Is there anything you want to accomplish this week that needs to be broken down into manageable steps over several calendar days?

• What major projects or goals are you working on this week?

• What materials do you need to gather to complete a particular project this week?

• What steps can you take this week to move yourself forward on your goals?

• What can you do today to make some forward progress on your goals?

• What phone calls do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to make those calls?

• What emails do you want to make this week? Do you need to schedule time to write those emails?

• Are you waiting to hear back from someone? Have you scheduled the day when you will follow up with that person?

• What errands do you want to do this week?

• Have you scheduled time to do those errands?

• What materials do you need to gather together to complete those errands?

• Have you sent out your tuition bills for the month?

• Have you done your record keeping from the previous week (or month)?

• Have you scheduled your practice time for the week? Maybe I should move this item further up the list, because I think it is an important daily item.

Monthly Checklist -- January

Because this is January, and we have just completed 2011, this is also a good time to begin gathering your documents and records to get ready for tax preparation season. So here is a checklist to begin the tax records process:

• Gather your income records into one folder.

• Make a list of the next steps you will need to take to put this information in a form that you can easily use or access when you prepare your taxes.

• Since I maintain a simple income register log with a new page for each month, I simply add up each month’s figures and ultimately add up each month for the yearly total.

• Gather your expense records into a master folder.

• Make a list of the next steps you will need to be able to access this information easily when you prepare your taxes.

• I have several subcategories related to the main studio category, and I have a folder for each of those subcategories. To get ready for tax preparation time, I go through my master folder and sort out these various receipts into their respective folders. Ultimately I will total up the subcategory figures.

• As part of the new year, I make sure that I have set up the studio record keeping system for the coming year. This involves adding new monthly sheets to my studio notebook for the year.

The Japanese have a tradition of cleaning their homes on New Year’s Day. This might be a good time to consider whether there are any areas in your studio that need attention aside from general housekeeping:

• Are there any piles of music that need to be refiled?

• Are there supplies or teaching aids that need to be sorted, cleaned, or put away?

• Are there any toys or books that need to be repaired, cleaned, or put away?

• Does your piano need to be tuned?

• Do you need to buy any new supplies or equipment?

• Do you need to replenish any studio necessaries, such as paper towels, drinking cups, or toilet paper?

• Do you need to repair anything or do anything to maintain your instrument?

• Are there any student records that you need to update?

• Are there any new students that you are beginning this month?

• Do you have a record for the new student in your income register?

• Have you updated the new student's contact information?

• Are there any other places that you need to update your student's contact information (such as your phone, computer, or website contacts list)?

• Have you set up your budget for the month?

• I highly recommend YNAB to help you get your finances in shape so that you learn to live on last month’s income.

• http://youneedabudget.com

• Have you arranged to pay your bills at the end of the month?

• Have you planned for your quarterly IRS payment?

• 4^th quarter for 2011 is due January 15 (maybe January 16).

• While you are thinking about this, go ahead and calendar the other quarterly payment due dates:
• April 15 (maybe April 16)
• June 15
• September 15
• January 15, 2013
• Check with http://irs.gov for the exact due dates, because sometimes a payment date is extended a day or two to accommodate a weekend

• Have you set up your semester teaching schedule?

• Have you put your teaching schedule on your calendar, including any semester break or vacation?

• Have you notified your students and their parents of the semester’s teaching schedule?

• Have you determined the group class dates for the coming semester?

• Have you notified your students and their parents of the semester’s group class schedule?

• If you maintain a studio newsletter:

• Are there any news items or event information to include?

• When do you plan to publish the next newsletter issue?

• Have you calendared the dates related to publishing the newsletter?

• Look ahead to the studio’s next recital date and put that on your calendar.

• Make a list of the items that need to be addressed for the recital and schedule dates on your calendar for those items.

• When is the deadline for securing a recital location?

• Who will be the accompanist?

• When do you need to contact your accompanist?

• When do you need to provide music to the accompanist?

• When do you need to schedule rehearsals with the accompanist?

• Will you need to schedule a recital dress rehearsal?

• Have you notified your students and their parents of this date?

• When do students need to have their music selected, learned, and memorized?

• Now is a good time to think about what your summer plans will be. Add a page to your notebook, label it “Summer Plans,” and start making a list of ideas, including:

• Attending an institute

• Setting up a summer camp or workshop

• Visiting with another teacher and his or her studio

• Organizing a studio event-performance-trip

• Planning a vacation for yourself

• Schedule time to review the systems you have set up. One idea is to consider your lists on a weekly basis. Why don't we plan on this every Monday morning? [See below].

I am a big fan of checklists and systems and project notebooks. I draw up a plan, type it up, and stick it inside a plastic sheet protector. I use a dry erase marker to check off items. The dry erase marker is easily erased, and the checklist can be used again. If I need to include some new item I had not thought of previously, I just add it to my checklist. At some point I will retype my original checklist if it has gotten messy.

Something I would suggest we add to our list of weekly things is time to think about the things I have listed above. We need to remember to schedule time to reflect upon our lives. Consider scheduling 15 minutes every Monday morning for the purpose of checking in here with our blog community of teachers and parents and committing to the next week or renewing your commitment to growth as a teacher.

I love setting goals. I love accomplishing things. I enjoy the feeling of satisfaction I get when I turn around and contemplate what I accomplished in the past, whether last week, last month, last year, the last marathon I attempted, or the last long hike I trekked up a mountain. I enjoy the journey better if I have a good sense of where the starting point is. I need a record in order to remember. So I create checklists that can be used again and again.

I have many goals for 2012, as is customary for me in every new year. Some may fall by the wayside as I discover on my yearly journey that a particular goal is not as important to me as I had anticipated on January 1. That is okay too. One goal that I think would be good for all of us to adopt is the goal of simplifying our lives. Making checklists and project notebooks will go a long way to help us to simplify our lives in the future.

I hope in this next year that we will build a sense of community together. Please comment with your ideas or questions. I hope you will  contribute to our checklists.

And, if I have not said it before, I hope your holiday was a blessed one, and that your new year is fruitful and prosperous.

Happy New Year!

How to Improve Your Teaching

Teaching is not a mystery. Teaching is something that we can all do. Before we had the ability to print books, we learned by emulation and imitation. We apprenticed ourselves to others who were more expert than we, and we followed the advice of mentors. If you are a teacher, or a parent, this blog post is for you. Yes, if you are a parent, then you are a teacher. You teach your child many things before the child even reaches school age:

• How to dress

• How to eat with utensils

• How to show manners ("please" and "thank you")

• How to pray

• How to pick up toys

• Any number of other things depending on your situation. My mother taught us to swim at a young age. I have read of other parents who teach their toddlers how to ski.

In a previous blog post (http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com/2011/06/quick-teacher-tip-how-to-digest-song.html), I discussed how to analyze a song for the purpose of revealing the song's teaching points and generally considered four areas:

• Left hand skills ("Finger, bow, go!" Dr. Suzuki said, so left hand skills ranked first in priority)

• Right hand skills

• Preview (how to teach or introduce the song)

• Later problems (the deterioration of skills that happen over time and how to identify them and correct them, or better yet, how to prevent them)

However, there is another step that would improve a person's learning in order to be a better teacher: the ability to see the big picture. Here is how I suggest we do that. After going through the above exercise to determine the teaching points in each song in the Suzuki volume, I suggest we make these additional summary lists:

• What left hand skills are learned in this book or could be learned in this book?

• What right hand skills are learned in this book or could be learned in this book?

• How can we use this current material to prepare for the next book or next set of skills?

• How can we use this material to cement the foundation of things we have learned already (review program or group class activities)?

When we study a particular volume of teaching material, we tend to think about individual pieces as presented in the volume.  When we consider the volume as a whole and how it fits within a larger picture, and we make a list of the general skills learned in totality in the volume and how these skills relate to future learning, we see a different progression of skill development. I suggest that these summary lists be revisited frequently, because as teaching experience grows, so will the discoveries, and the lists will need to be revised to reflect these new discoveries.

So, in addition to the four quadrant dissection that I advocated in my earlier blog post, I suggest making a summary list of the quadrant of skills developed in the volume of material. With each step backward or "zoom out" step we take to consider a bigger picture, we will uncover a broader list of skills to develop and focus on. The more "big" pictures we discover, the bigger our arsenal of teaching ideas. This ability development -- the skill of seeing the big picture -- is what will improve our teaching ability.

Monday Morning Check In: Systems

I have discussed the importance of habits and how to build them. I am a firm believer in habits. I may have picked this up from my dad. I recall one episode when I forgot to take my driving learner's permit to school on the day I had driver's ed class. I realized my error as soon as I had gotten to school and I phoned home. Dad was the person who fielded that call, and he was not a happy man when he arrived at school to hand me my forgotten permit. Along with the permit, he handed me some timeless advice: when something is important, you should build a habit around it to make sure that you take care of it properly. In this case, my permit belonged in my wallet, because my wallet would likely be with me during any of the times that I would need my permit as well.

I followed my dad's advice for other things, and I still do. I keep my keys in the same pocket of my purse. That way I always know where to look for them. I do not need to waste time looking for them somewhere else because I ALWAYS keep my keys in the same place. This little useful tidbit of advice can apply to eyeglasses, bills, shoes, pens, and homework.

This idea of a place for everything and everything in its place is a "system," a set of activities that work together, so to speak, to form a more complex whole. Systems are related to habits, and I create a great number of systems to keep my busy life flowing in the right direction as smoothly as possible. There are many possible areas in a person's life that would benefit from having a system, and I recommend that you invest the few minutes of time that it takes to create a system list or a systems notebook. A system frees up your mind from having to remember what should be done next, and in many cases, a system will help you to save time over the long haul.

Borrowing from an idea that I learned from flylady.net, I have three basic systems hanging in my bathroom, which is also my wardrobe and dressing area. I have a morning list, an evening list, and a weekly list. These lists are the basic activities that I need to complete in order to get out the door in the morning (my morning list), to get to bed at a reasonable hour (my evening list), and to finish out the week with the most necessary chores taken care of (my weekly chores).

I typed out giant versions of my three lists with large boxes to be checked off when I complete the tasks. I placed each list inside its own plastic sheet protector and hung each list on the wall along with a dry erase marker. As I complete an item on any of my three lists, I mark it checked off the list. At the end of the day, I wipe off the marks I made with a tissue so that the lists are ready for use in the morning. Here is an example of my morning list:

• Heat water (I put a glass measuring cup of water in the microwave for making coffee)
• Take dogs outside (I have 6 grown dogs and 6 little puppies right now)
• Make coffee (aaaahhhh!)
• Writing-Thinking-Planning time (I do morning pages, a bible study, and my day's activity and to do lists)
• Exercise
• Feed big animals (donkeys, horse, alpacas, chickens, and outside cats)
• Feed little animals (inside dogs and puppies while I also make my own breakfast, which I will eat on my way to work)
• Clean something (wipe kitchen counter, empty or load dishwasher, scour sink)
• Shower and dress (maybe clean a portion of the shower while I am there)
• Put something away (because I have a propensity to clutter and can always find something)

My evening list looks like this:

• put out clothes for next day (including running clothes if I am running; I also plug in my running watch for charging)
• put something away
• swish and swipe something in the bathroom
• review next day's schedule
• pull together things I need to take the next day
• back out my schedule on my whiteboard hanging on the wall (I have a dry erase board where I back out my morning activities from the time I must leave so that I allow enough time to complete everything I need to do; everything on my morning list is assigned the time I need to start that activity in the morning)
• get food together (I plan my day's meals the evening before so that I have my packed lunch or dinner ready to go in the morning)
• take dogs out for last time

My weekly list includes things like remembering to trim my dogs' toenails, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, laundry, grocery shopping, bathroom cleaning, and similar activities. Once I've done them for the week, and the activities are checked off, I'm done for the week with regard to chores. I give myself permission to relax and enjoy the rest of the week or weekend.

Try setting up your own systems. They can be great time savers.

Have a great week!