5 Things Piano Teachers Forget To Do That Would Save a Heap O’ Trouble

It’s so easy to get excited new things like Rhythm Cup Explorations® 2 which is where my mind has been lately. But there are frequently things that we forget to do that if we did them, it would save us a heap o’ trouble! This especially applies to tech issues!

Here are the 5 Things Piano Teachers Forget to do:

1. Update

Yes, maybe we need to update our clothes, our room decor, and our teaching techniques, but the thing I see that gets teachers in a heap more trouble than those things is NOT updating their computer software, iPad apps, browsers, and operating systems. In other words, how many times have you seen “update available” in the corner of your computer or how many of those red little update notifications are you seeing right now? If you are not completely updated, your computer’s security is probably in danger, things will start not working at just the wrong time, you can lose all your photos (yes there is really a virus that does that), and you may experience a whole lot more headache than you ever wanted!

Trust me. I know. I used to be the worst at ignoring those updates. My husband would regularly ask me, “Why haven’t you updated this yet?” usually in the midst of trying to help me figure out why I can’t see something on the webpage or why something isn’t loading, why I can’t get into my email, or why my computer has a virus. I’m much better than I used to be, but it’s still an issue.

Keep in mind that you want to be careful and not just click on something, especially in your internet browser that might say “update now.” You have to make sure it’s from the original source and if you are browsing on the internet and you see “update now” (especially in a box on a web page), don’t assume it’s safe. I’m not in the business of giving tech advice, but I thought I’d throw that in.

Computer security is a serious problem and all it really takes to avoid a heap of trouble is to saying “yes” to the real updates! More often than not, those updates are about security.

2. Organize your virtual files

Yes, this is me preaching to myself again. I get busy, busy, busy creating things, planning things, and then fail to take just 5 minutes to organize my computer files so that I know where I put everything. You’d be surprised at what a mess my files are frequently. And I know I’m not the only piano teacher with this problem because I frequently get cries for help from wonderful customers who have forgotten where their Rhythm Cup Explorations® is. 🙂 Most of the time, it is because it’s still in the downloads folder, so it’s easy to help. But, you might take a moment to make a new folder on your computer within your “My Documents” folder that’s called “Printable music” or “Piano Resources” or something like that. Then you can find your files as long as you move them to the appropriate place as soon as you purchase them.

I wonder how many hours, days, and weeks of our lives we waste searching for something that would have taken 10 seconds to drag to a new folder. Yes, we can search by the file name (like “rhythm cup”) if you know what you’re searching for, but you’d be surprised at what a horrible naming system I have while I’m in the middle of creating something. Maybe I’m not the only one.

3. Tweak Your Policy as You Go

During the year, through conversations we have with teachers, conferences we attend, and online business workshops (there’s one coming up–stay tuned), we learn that other teachers are experiencing much less stress in their lives because they have eliminated make up lessons, inserted paid sick days, loving their new “flex” days for weather, jury duty, and other issues,established a yearly tuition policy (in which they make a consistent monthly income), and much more. But if you are like me, when you are trying  to remember these changes you want to make, you can’t remember a thing!

So creating a document where you can list what you’d like to change can be really helpful at this time of year as you are revising your policy. If you use an online or smart phone calendar, you can create an event for the time you want to revise your policy and then just add what you want to implement to the notes section of that event. Don’t forget to set a reminder so that it sends you an email when it’s time to start revising.

4. Sharpen Your Saw

I’m sure you have heard about Stephen Covey’s story about the woodcutter who takes a periodic break to actually stop cutting and sharpen his saw. Covey talks about how in the end, this woodcutter gets much more done than the woodcutter who just keeps working.

There are many ways that we piano teachers need to sharpen our saw, but here are just a few:

• Attend a conference every few years. NCKP in July 2015 is a great one and I highly recommend it. But if you don’t want to spend money on travel, high conference costs, and hotels, consider an online workshop. There are two that will be coming your way soon (mostly likely one in April and one in the late summer), so stay tuned!!!
• Stop teaching and take a vacation. If you don’t have at least 6 weeks of non-teaching weeks in your year, you need to know that such a thing is possible and quite necessary to prevent burnout. Consider that the average school teacher who is teaching in the summer gets about 7 weeks off in the year. Teaching children takes great energy. You need some time off! Consider setting up flex weeks or attending the upcoming Best Stress-free Business Practices online workshop!
• Try just one new idea every few months. If you follow a lot of blogs or are on Facebook, you already know that getting too many ideas can be overwhelming and discouraging. I sometimes just have to stop looking at Facebook and blogs because otherwise it’s tempting to think that everyone else is doing every wonderful thing that I’m not doing. Teachers put their best face forward on Facebook, so just be aware that we don’t use all the ideas that we give out all the time. I find it’s helpful to make a note of the ideas that I think sound wonderful and then just implement a new idea every few months.

5. Say Yes” or “No more (you know who you are)

I have struggled since I was a child with saying no. I always said yes whenever anyone asked me to accompany them at church or serve in any way in an organization. But now with three kids, I have realized that I don’t have an endless supply of time (I didn’t then either) and I really have to pick and choose to what I say, “Yes.”

But maybe you are the other kind of person who never says “Yes” when your teaching organization asks you to serve in a position. Perhaps it’s because you feel that you aren’t qualified or wouldn’t be good at the job. There is a tremendous power in saying “Yes,” and you never know where it will lead, what doors will open up for you, or what skills you will develop.

So, only you know whether you struggle with the “No” or the “Yes.” But figuring out what you need to focus on can help certainly keep you from being tremendously overwhelmed (if you are a “Yes” person) or stagnant (if you are a “No” person).

6. Clear Your Box

[Sorry. I guess I had six, not five things.] Your inbox that is. Okay, so this is a bonus as I only intended to give you five, but this one is too good to leave out. I’m an “inbox zero” kind of person. I have only six messages in my email inbox right now and I clear it to zero every few days. Now, you may not be that kind of person, but here’s the reason you should consider it. You are very busy as a teacher, and sometimes you read things between lessons and don’t have a chance to respond to important matters. These can be emails from parents, downloading something you’ve purchased, or other things. Before you know it, you’ve forgotten about the email and then sometimes it’s too late – the opportunity has passed! But if you clear your inbox every few days by making sure you either respond, archive, or delete messages, then you know that everything important has been tended to.

If you are overwhelmed at the thought of cleaning out your inbox, perhaps consider just starting with today’s messages. For every email that comes in, either respond, delete, archive (with a label), or leave it unread so you know to come back to it. Here’s an article to read if you want to know more about how to achieve inbox zero.

What other things have you learned to do that save you from a heap o’ trouble?

I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

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