Hello again!
In the last two weeks my schedule has made some big changes as I have begun co-leading! With co-leading comes much excitement and exceedingly more responsibilities, so I thought it might be beneficial for me to share how I keep organized as an intern.
So, here it goes!
Every week I have one assignment and one repertoire check. My assignments have included composing songs, recording songs, and learning 12 new terms associated with working at a hospital. My repertoire checks (or rep checks) are completed by playing at least two preexisting songs memorized for my supervisor(s). In addition to my predetermined assignments I prepare at least one song or intervention for almost every student or group.
The tools I use are…
1) A monthly calendar
2) A lined journal
3) A weekly schedule with who I see at what time.
4) A word file where I keep documentation, planning, and a practice list
and my new addition by my supervisors request…
5) A song binder
Monthly Calendar
I use my monthly calendar to record only my assignment for the week, my repertoire check songs, and major events. I save daily to do lists and ideas for another place. This keeps my monthly calendar clean and clear to read and allows me to foresee the big picture for what my week, month, and internship will look like as a whole.
Lined Journal
My journal is my go to for almost everything. I keep lyric ideas, short notes, and abbreviated in the moment documentation here. Most importantly it is my ever-growing to do list. For some people a more structured hourly system may work very well, but I prefer a much more flexible system where I can look at what I need to complete for the day and mark it off as I go. Also, I like to use nice and heavily bound journals, because they hold up well as I toss it from my backpack to shoulder bag, to purse depending on the day.
Weekly Schedule
My weekly schedule is simply a schedule of who I see at what time each week. I only put things here that don’t change from week to week so that I very rarely have to go back and update it.
Documentation File
My documentation file lists the days of the week (Monday through Thursday) and who I see in order. For each student I have their plan for the current session, a paragraph form documentation, and a plan for next session in addition to what I am to prepare for the next session. Each week is a new file where the only thing I have to transfer over is my plan for that day. At the top of this file I keep a running list of what I am to practice with a letter indicating the day it is to be prepared for, i.e. (M) for Monday. This is easily the most complicated of my organizational tactics but it works very well for me as I can keep all of my documentation and plans for the week in one file. This ends up being a major time saver for me!
And of course…
Music Binder
My music binder has every song I have done in repertoire checks, assignments, supervision, and with clients. The purpose is that as I build my repertoire I sit down and put every song into this binder so that I have them all in one place. It has already been very handy as I don’t have to lug my computer around and keep ten tabs up to practice all of my music, but I can simply take my binder and get to work.
I hope some of these tools can be as helpful to you or an intern you know as they have been to me!
Thanks for reading!
