How to Discover and Set Your Priorities

In my last article (click here to read), I discussed the issue of shifting priorities in the context of parents' struggles to find time to practice with their children. I related two stories of building a foundation on shifting sand or rock. Here are some questions to help parents uncover and focus their priorities and attention.

Four Questions to Discover and Set Your Priorities

Here are four questions to discover where your treasure is and to set your priorities:

1. Where do you spend your time?

In order to find out where your treasure is, you need only look at where you spend your time. Fill out an activity log or hourly calendar this week with every activity that you do, including work, driving time, sleeping, and watching TV. Do this for one week and you will most likely be amazed at what you discover. Of course, what you choose to do about your discovery will also be interesting. Are there pockets of time that are wasted? Do some activities drain your time? Where could you yield more satisfactory results with your time?

2. What do you want to accomplish?

Do you know what you want to accomplish? Do you have a set of goals or even one thing that you want to see happen this year, this semester, this season, this month, this week, or even today? I usually have a few goals floating around each year. I have them written down. Sometimes I go through periods when I refer to them often or on a daily basis, but I find that once I have written my goals down, I usually remember them. There have been several instances when I wrote a list of goals and forgot about them only to rediscover my list later and realize that I had accomplished everything on the list. I believe that writing down your list of goals is the key to accomplishing them. (Here is an article about my 90-day goal setting approach).

The purpose of having a list of goals or any goal is that you will be more in control of how you spend your time. You will be more aware of when others take you away from your goal path and when and what activities drink up the time you could spend on your goal plan. Think about what you want to accomplish.

I have three scheduling tools, and they each serve specific purposes:

• iPhone: this digital tool allows me to check my schedule at all times and far into the future, and I can share it with others.
• Planner: I keep my appointments here with occasional note reminders of important items that have a time specific aspect to them. This tool serves two purposes for me: (1) I get a “global” view of the week to come, and (2) I can quickly see where I have pockets of available time to accomplish things related to my goals.
• Bullet journal: this is my weekly and daily schedule plan and my working tool. In this tool (Leuchtturm 1917 dotted medium), I design my week and my days to come. I identify my top goals for the week, and I use this tool to capture stray thoughts, notes, reminders, and other useful information. Because I refer to this particular tool often every day, I stay on top of all my priorities and goals for the day and the week. This tool is a great way to keep track of many different things. There is an entire community of avid bullet journal users to draw ideas and inspiration from. For more information about how I use a bullet journal, here are some previous articles and podcast episodes:

• Bullet Journals for Suzuki Parents
• GTD for the Music Teachers, step 3, Organize!
• Episode 42: The Bullet Journal and Other Tools

3. How will you reach your goal?

Do you have a plan? Having a list of goals is a great step, but developing a plan to reach those goals is an even stronger step. Figure out what steps need to be taken and in what order. I currently use my bullet journal to work through ideas and steps for a project, and I have also used a project notebook to jot down ideas related to my goals, but any notebook, sketchpad, or legal pad would do. I devote a page of the notebook for each project idea I might consider. Then I pull out one project sheet at a time and carry it around with me. I jot additional ideas down on my project sheet, and sometimes I turn them into lists of action items. Here is an article I wrote recently to outline my use of the 90-day square to accomplish my goals and projects over a 90-day period and to provide more balance in the major areas of my life: There Comes a Journey.

4. How Can You Get Started?

Remember the Nike slogan, “Just Do It!” This is the best advice I can ever give to any parent or student. My other favorite unspoken part of the slogan is, “stop whining,” or as I like to tell my university students, “stop why-ning” (Why do I have to play scales? Why do I have to go to this concert? Why? Why? Why?). Yup, stop the "why-ning" and just get started! The time it takes to think of creative excuses is time that you could use for something more productive, like practicing with your child!

I hope that my readers will take some time this week to consider where their hearts truly are and what treasure they seek to find. Are your priorities built on rock or sand?

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you found this episode (or any episode) of the podcast helpful, and you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here. My efforts to write and produce the Teach Suzuki blog and podcast do not generate income except through the generosity of those readers and listeners. I really appreciate your support. Just click here for a direct link to PayPal to support the blog and podcast.

Getting Ready for the Fall Semester

About this time, folks are planning the fall semester and getting ready for school to go back in session. Here are a few tools to help you:

Podcast Episodes

Get Ready for the Fall: This podcast episode is devoted to helping parents (and teachers) plan for a successful start to the fall semester.

How to Teach Your Child (Practice): This podcast episode discusses how to practice with your child and offers the tools to help practices be more successful.

How to Take Notes at the Music Lesson: This podcast episode explains how to take notes at the child's music lesson and offers reasons why parents will want to do this.

How Parents Can Help at Lessons: This podcast episode lists 8 ways that parents can help their children at music lessons. I talk about some of the silent messages that parents may unknowingly give to their children, and I talk about the importance of enthusiasm to help motivate children to want to practice and learn how to play a musical instrument.

Top 10 Things a Suzuki Parent Should Know: This podcast episode lists my favorite top 10 things that I think Suzuki parents should know. I believe that these 10 things are the foundation steps to have a successful music education journey.

Are You Listening?: This podcast episode talks about the importance of listening to impact how fast a child may progress in learning how to play a musical instrument. Sometimes a slight tweak in the listening program at home will have an enormous impact on the child's progress. This episode relates several interesting research and personal stories that illustrate the tremendous power of listening.

The 6 Suzuki Philosophy Points: This podcast episode sets out the 6 fundamental philosophy points to the Suzuki Method and discusses why it is important for parents to believe these points. This is an episode that parents and teachers may find helpful to review often.

Blog Articles

How to Recover from a Practice Break: Everyone takes a break now and then. The trick is getting back on track. Here are some useful ideas.

Back to School Checklist: A checklist that will help parents get back on track and get ready for the new school year.

How to Add More Music to Your Day: It is important to do a lot of listening in order to make good progress in learning how to play a musical instrument. Here are some suggestions for adding more music listening to your day.

Listening Magic: Another good article about listening. This one shows the power of the listening program and relates a personal story of one of my students and how he made extra listening work for him.

Music Listening Resource List: This article lists several excellent resources to help add more listening to the child's environment.

The Weekend Plan: Here is a suggestion for those tough weekends when it is difficult to schedule practice sessions.

Squeezing Practice Time into a Busy Family Schedule: Sue Hunt wrote this article, and the information is always valuable for busy families.

Resolutions for Suzuki Parents: Another post that offers valuable information that is pertinent all the time.

How to Get Started After a Break: A short article that offers quick, helpful advice about starting up a practice routine after a break.

These are just a few of the numerous podcast episodes and blog articles posted. I hope that everyone's new school year and fall semester start off with good energy, enthusiasm, and motivation! This is going to be a terrific year!

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird

GTD Tools and Resources

I have been writing a series devoted to how to use the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology developed by David Allen in the music studio. We have covered some basic introductory information and the first two big steps in the process (gathering/collecting and clarifying). Before I move into the next big step -- organizing -- I thought it was time to discuss the various tools that are available to studio music teachers for these next phases.

There are as many possible capture and organizing tools and resources as there are different styles of people. I myself enjoy using both analog and digital tools, and although my history has shown that I favor using digital items because of their portability and convenience (Palm Pilots, original digital calendars), I have found myself gravitating and appreciating anew the beautiful simplicity of using analog tools also. Here are a few ideas, and please feel free to comment below with some suggestions of tools and resources that you prefer.

Calendars

Leather Gallery Planner & Frixion Pen

I have worked the gamut when it comes to calendars. The problem is compounded for music teachers in that we maintain a schedule that impacts several people at once. Many folks prefer digital or online calendars or programs because of the convenience of scheduling across the board for a number of students. Digital calendars allow others to swap lessons, sign up for offered makeup times, and receive reminders. There are several programs that music studio teachers might subscribe to for the purpose of running the studio, but for many of us, we prefer simpler models. I find that the smallest number of "gadgets" and "tools" that I can use are best for my situation.

I have tried to use a Google calendar, but since this calendar does not integrate well with my iPhone calendar (iCal), I find I do not use it much. I still experiment with a studio calendar, but frankly, I find it easiest of all to send out calendar invitations from my iPhone calendar. I do not find it helpful when parents have so much control over makeups and swapping because this also affects me, and if the parents have this power then I am not able to control or schedule things in the way that I prefer.

Weekly Calendar Glance

So what do I use? Frankly, I use too many things. I use the iPhone calendar because I am able to enter events years down the road. Also, it is handy for a quick check of things, and it integrates with my Apple Watch. However, I prefer using my Leather Gallery weekly desk planner. A colleague recommended this to me, and it took me two years to finally try out this antiquated paper calendar system, but I am so glad that I did. There is something so elegant as using a planner where I can see an entire week at a glance. I do not use this planner as anything other than a calendar though. It shows me my appointments. If something is tentative, then I put it in parentheses. I have a pencil attached in a pen loop, and I also have an erasable color Frixion pen that I use to mark things a little more permanently and colorfully. Occasionally I actually plan things, but generally I use this as the place to schedule fixed appointments, students, rehearsals, and other time sensitive matters. I know others use planner systems, and in fact there is a huge planner community on Pinterest, YouTube, and Facebook, but I need to stay focused on my business as much as I can. A colored pen and occasional highlighter is about all the distraction that I can afford.

So between these two items -- the iPhone calendar and the Leather Gallery planner -- I am covered about the calendar schedule thing. There is an entire planner community out there on YouTube and Pinterest that can offer even more planner suggestions. I run a business and really do not have the time to spend on too much creativity. I will offer a creative idea near the end of this article if you want to hold out to learn about that.

Digital Tools and To Do Lists

I also use several other digital tools for GTD purposes. I used Things once upon a time, but it did not quite do all that I wanted it to do. I currently use Omnifocus 2 on my iPhone and my Macbook Pro. It may also be on my iPad, but I only use it on my iPhone mostly. Sometimes the laptop but rarely. This tool allows me to add thoughts instantly as they occur to me with the touch of a digital button. I can tell Siri to remind me about a task, and the task will instantly move from my iPhone's reminders list into my Omnifocus 2 inbox. I can also forward emails to my Omnifocus 2 inbox. From this point on, I do a series of things that I find helpful when done regularly:

• I assign each inbox item to a "project" file (if this is part of a series of steps to take), or I assign a "context" to the item (if this is a one step item).
• I assign due dates if applicable.
• I can assign deferral dates, if this is an item I want to be reminded of at a later date but is not necessary to remember now.
• I can assign the item to show up on a repetitive basis, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually.
• The program also provides for a weekly review, and this is the best feature of all. It reminds me to look at each item at least once weekly.

I also have Evernote. I use this program to clip things from the internet, such as articles or information that I want to remember. This is the program that I use as a reference storage area or digital filing cabinet because it is easy to search my iPhone for this information. If I want to reference a document for later, such as a warranty or set of instructions, I can take a picture with my iPhone and store it in Evernote. Many people use Evernote in a way similar to the way I use Omnifocus 2 or Things.

There are many other digital programs that help with the clarification and review-remember stages of GTD, but these are my main programs for my personal use at this time.

The Bullet Journal

Monthly Bullet Journal Spread

Now I promised a look at another type of system, and that is a bullet journal. I recently began using a bullet journal at the beginning of July 2016 because I needed some sort of analog system that helped me get a handle on paper and helped me with tickler systems. A tickler system is a reminder system. Law offices use them regularly as a way to stay on top of items on a court docket. I tried a notebook tickler system, but it was too cumbersome. I needed a way to store paper in the filing cabinet but still have a way to visually see what I needed to see at a glance.

Enter the bullet journal. I use a Leuchtturm1917 dotted A5 with Frixion clicker erasable color pens. This little journal notebook is about the size of half of a regular sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper,and it has been wonderful for planning, reminding, and scheduling. Although I will always use my calendar planner as the official calendar, the bullet journal will help me to plan my weeks, my months, my quarters, my goals, my editorial calendars, and just about anything else I can think of.

Bullet Journal Index

Although there are many digital options out there for to do lists, and I have tried many of them, I still find it more helpful to put things down on paper. The bullet journal helps me to gather my thoughts and keep my notes in a permanent place that is easily referenced in the future or that I can continue to augment. And it all fits in my purse!

Bullet Journal Weekly Spread

I promise that I will post something with more detail, perhaps a video, about my bullet journal system later. For now, I will tell you that I have used over one-quarter of my journal in one month alone. It goes everywhere with me, along with my indispensable calendar, and I love, love, love using it! The color pens (erasable) add just the right amount of color to make the whole thing a pleasure to look at. If you would like to learn more about the bullet journal, visit the original site and video at: bulletjournal.com.

In my next article, I will spend some time talking about the third step in the GTD Methodology, which is organizing or putting things where they belong. I needed a great deal of help with this step, and there may be other teachers who stumble over this as well. If you are interested in looking into David Allen's GTD book and how his methodology got started, click here.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing! (or GTD'ing)

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird

Some of the links listed above are affiliate links, which means that there is no additional cost to you. I already own the book and the other items and highly recommend them, and if you are also in the market for this book or the other items, I ask that you consider using this link. Doing so will give a benefit to the blog and help me continue to podcast and write.