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Episode Summary
Take time to rethink, readjust, and thus renew yourself for the upcoming season. We’re not talking about setting goals – that comes later. First, let’s pause and consider what’s working and what’s not. Hear the story of Amy’s biggest pain point in recent months and how the reflection and evaluation process she went through can help you.
Items Mentioned
Episode 052 – Think Again: A Mindset for Getting (and Staying) Organized
Transcript
I’m Amy Chaplin, and you’re listening to episode 101 of the Piano Pantry Podcast.
This podcast is brought to you by teachers just like you who have teamed up to back the work happening here. If you enjoy and benefit from this content, I invite you to consider becoming a patron – like Ruby, one of my Insiders – so we can help this community grow together. Thanks, Ruby! Visit PianoPantry.com/support
As we kick off a new year, I want to challenge you to take a moment to consider anything that’s not working for you right now. We’re not talking about setting goals – that comes later. Do you have any particular pain points in your life right now? What’s working and what’s not?
In all transparency – one thing that I have been wrestling with over the past couple of months – and the biggest pain point for me that inspired this episode – was, honestly, this podcast.
While, on the one hand, it’s a free offering – a creative endeavor, a labor of love, if you will – it also requires a lot of time and mental energy. After seeing my fellow podcaster, Leila Viss, do a double-take this past year on her own podcast aspirations, I’ve been assessing my own endeavors.
Don’t worry – I don’t have plans to go anywhere at the moment – and I’m not trying to guilt anyone into becoming a patron – I just feel like the reflection and evaluation process I’ve gone through in considering the role this podcast plays in MY life could be really helpful as you consider your own pain points.
The lesson I learned and the thing I hope you will see today is that the thing you THINK you need to change may not actually be the thing you need to change.
So, here’s my story.
I’ve always liked the idea of weekly podcasts. Statistics show that you’re more likely to have consistency in listeners as it’s just part of a weekly habit. I also feel like, for me, it’s better to have consistency than to just publish when I feel like it once every 3-4 weeks or when I have time. Plus, whether it’s communication with my email list, products I create, or podcast episodes, I find I do better content when I have deadlines and not just open time-frames.
Perhaps counterintuitive to that, I can also be a bit of a slow thinker, decision-maker, and writer, and, believe it or not, sometimes a procrastinator. That, coupled with the fact that many of my podcast topics are inspired by happenings in my own teacher life or that I see occurring in other teacher’s lives “in-time” rather than just planning general content – means I’ve been making decisions from week to week on podcast topics.
I am guessing many of you are surprised to hear this about me. You probably assume I plan out weeks, if not months, in advance, but that has not been the case.
Including 8 guest host episodes last year was a good way to change it up and give me occasional reprieve, but I still found myself writing and recording each episode at the last minute.
This past fall, as I was considering the new season, I decided what I needed was a dedicated chunk of time during my week to produce content, so I loaded four days of students into Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays so I could have Fridays to do content work.
(Since you’re probably wondering, Thursdays are dedicated to things like church recording work, my lunch buddy mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters, a book club, and other Zoom meetings with teachers.)
Now, you might be saying – well, you just have to prioritize – put it on your calendar – make it a priority. But as you know, it’s not always that black and white.
Despite clearing Fridays, I found that leaving an entire day without students actually made it easier for life to take over rather than dedicating the day to content creation – especially on a Friday. My overthinking and procrastination, coupled with other things like designing a new presentation, two weeks of fall break, and being sick a lot in October and November, meant I was still pushing off podcast production into the weekend and even the night before publication.
In early November, I confessed to my mastermind that I was exhausted and had to figure out something different with the podcast. The only way I could see forward was to publish less often – every other week or once a month.
At the same time as my confession, I told them that one of my goals for that month was to try and commit myself to at least laying out and planning the topics for the final 8 episodes of the year. I knew I needed it for my own sanity. It was hard at first, but once I did, I couldn’t believe how mentally freeing it was.
So, lesson one: even though I often feel like I come up with my best ideas under pressure, it wasn’t worth the mental weight. From now on, I’m committed to planning and setting episode topics 4-8 weeks at a time.
The next surprising thing that happened that made me rethink and readjust is that, for a random reason, a crew of 4 siblings ended up doing their lessons one week on a Friday morning rather than 2 coming on Monday afternoon and 2 on Tuesday afternoon. They go to a private school and thus have more flexibility on Fridays.
That week felt so good, having medium load teaching days on Monday and Tuesday with time to do the podcast, a hefty load on Wednesday, a change of routine break on Thursday for all my miscellaneous work, Friday morning full of students with the afternoon open to either calling it an early week or getting some final work in for the week. I felt so much more balanced and had a nice blend of work rather than trying to compartmentalize and get all my students in over 3 days.
Now that I freed up extra time on Tuesdays, I am completing the episode for the following week a week in advance rather than over the weekend or the night before.
Lesson two: I thought I needed to compartmentalize work to allow for large blocks of creative time, but what I really needed was a more balanced schedule allowing for podcast recording time earlier in the week rather than at the end.
Lastly, I realized that one final thing I need to do is to try to simplify the content a bit. This just means a little shifting of the order of things. You may not even notice much. Rather than having a 1-2 minute teaser followed by an intro or ad, then the content, then a tiny tip outro, I’m going to try and simplify it a little. While I will still share tips, fun finds, and things that make me happy once in a while, I don’t anticipate having a dedicated separate segment every single week.
Ultimately – the thing I thought I needed to change – cutting back on published episodes – wasn’t the thing that needed to change. There was a deeper problem that needed to be addressed. I had to rethink and readjust other things – like simplifying, being more proactive in planning, and setting myself up with a better schedule – so that I could be renewed to continue in this next season.
Yes, you’re hearing this from the person you know as the queen of piano teacher organization world. LOL. Even I struggle sometimes. Here’s the thing, though, every season of life is different. In 6, 8, or 12 months, I might be singing another tune depending on where life brings me – and that’s OK.
As a matter of fact, while we’re on the topic, you might consider taking 10 minutes to go back and listen to episode 52 from this time last year, where I talked about some of these same things. The episode is called Think Again: A Mindset for Getting and Staying Organized.
You’ve heard my story. What’s yours? What’s that one little pain point that may need to be addressed to help you move into this next season?
Maybe you think you’re overwhelmed with students, but all you need to do is spread them out a little more. Maybe teaching for 2 hours on Saturday morning wouldn’t be as bad as you think because your family likes to sleep in any way.
Maybe you’re tired of trying to promote your studio on social media. So, instead of promoting, you need to just take a little different angle and start celebrating beautiful things that are happening to the students in your studio instead of advertising open spots.
Maybe you think you need to make a policy change because everyone keeps taking advantage, but really, all you need to do is be more firm with your own policies.
Maybe you have a student who wears you down, but rather than just assuming you need to let them go, you need to move them to a different day so they are the first student and not the last, giving you more energy to teach them.
Maybe you’re tired of students not washing their hands before they come into the room. Instead of relying on them, maybe as you greet them, you hold out the bottle of hand sanitizer and squeeze it into their hands while chit-chatting without even talking about what you’re doing.
Let me ask you one final time:
What do you need to ReThink and ReAdjust so you can be ReNewed for the upcoming season?
Before we go, I wanted to let you know that registration is open for the winter session of my online digital management course. This small group coaching series is limited to a small handful of attendees.
The content is the same as what I do during the summer retreat I host in my home and is a great way for someone who may not be interested in coming for an in-person event to get the same content.
You’ll get coaching on how to clean up, organize, and manage six areas of your daily digital work life, including devices, email, file management, and more.
Beginning on January 22, we’ll meet on Mondays and Tuesdays over a three-week period from 12:00-1:00 pm Eastern time, covering one area each day. Then, on Wednesday, you’ll have access to an open office hour where you can come and ask questions and be accountable for tackling the work together.
Early bird registration is $83 and ends on January 12. After that, it goes to $97. Start your semester off right by getting your workspace under control! Visit PianoPantry.com/digital
If you’d like to follow up with anything I’ve mentioned on today’s show, including links and a full transcript, head over to pianopantry.com/podcast/episode101
