Whether you’re starting lessons up in the next week or two or at the beginning of September, now is the time to start gathering ideas for the beginning of the term and get your space in order.
A few years ago, after my friend Christina Whitlock told me how she avoids scheduling madness by doing only group classes in August, I’ve been doing it ever since! (Well, at least the first week or two.)
The first lesson of the year – whether private lessons or group classes – are a great time to focus your entire studio on learning to play Happy Birthday.
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
Dear Amy –
Help!
I have these enormous binders from college many years ago.
I know I need to toss a lot of it, but there are definitely resources in there I don’t want to get rid of (and would love to make more easily accessible to review).
Any advice?
-Christina W.
Hey, Christina!
I would hedge a guess many-a-teachers are nodding their heads in agreement – me being one of them. Ha!
You’re beating me to this task as it’s one I’ve also had on my list for years but never seems to move up in importance. Bravo to you for tackling it!
That being said, I went through a similar purge of all my MTNA American Music Teacher and Clavier Companion magazines last year.
8 years’ worth and something like 5 magazine file boxes was weighing me down mentally. Why? Because how does someone utilize any of that information or recall what they need to from stacks (or binders) of information.
You don’t!
That’s when you decide (as we did) that enough was enough.
How did I tackle it?
A little at a time – not putting pressure on myself to use one of my days off to do it all.
I placed a small stack next to the couch and every day – either first thing in the morning during my brief quiet reading time or at the end of the day’s downtime – I would flip through one or two magazines.
It’s surprising how much I remembered what articles I enjoyed and found benefit in. (It helped that the first time I read them years ago, I folded down the page on my favorite articles. š )
Step #1 – Find a time frame that works that feels achievable, not overwhelming.
Step #2 – Flip through, skim, and determine what is most beneficial moving into the future.
(Have high standards – only the best information/articles. For me, that was no more than 1 or 2 per magazine – sometimes none!)
Next, I used the Scannable app to scan the articles. (Genius Scan is another favorite app for scanning).
When you scan with Scannable, you can choose to save it in either PDF or image format into Evernote, or “send” it into another program.
So, even though Scannable is an Evernote product, you could use it to scan items and send to any of your file managers such as Google Drive or iCloud Drive.
Step #3 – Scan and save in the best digital management place for you.
Remember that simply saving articles digitally will not do you any more good than the physical ones if you don’t make them easily accessible – that is, easily searchable).
One of the reasons I absolutely adore Evernote is because Evernote Premium gives you additional search powers. It can search the text of PDFs as well as your handwriting on hand-written notes! I find that amazing (and incredibly helpful).
Without Evernote Premium, it will only search the titles of notes and text typed in the notes themselves.
If you don’t want to pay for Premium, or if you prefer to use a cloud file manager such as Google Drive or iCloud Drive to save all of your stuff, the best way around this would be to make sure you title the document thoroughly for what it’s about.
Sometimes I add additional words outside of the title – ones that I might use when searching for information on that particular topic. This will make it much more searchable in whatever digital storage place you use.
Here’s an example (from an online article/resource):
Natalie Weber has a composition resource called “The Psalms Project.” I might title the file name (or Evernote note) like this:
The Psalms Project_Composition_Composing
Otherwise, if I saved that PDF file and was looking in my digital files for a composing activity, using the word “composition” is not in the original article title.
I hope that makes sense!
If you use Evernote, you can also tag every item with a multitude of things. So I might tag that one note with the tags:
composition, bible, summer camp
Then, that one note/file will show up under each category without being duplicated in Evernote.
Step #4 – Make sure the materials you are converting to a digital format are easily searchable and thus useful.
Once you make your choice of what’s worth keeping. The last part may feel a little difficult…
Trash the rest.
It’s time.
You didn’t look at it for 10 years anyway, right?
Is it really that important?
I don’t think so.
Feel the weight lift from your shoulders? Ahhh…
Sweet relief.
Step #5 – Let it go. The trash is your friend.
~Amy
P.S. Please recycle.
P.S.S. If you’re interested in diving into all the great ways that Evernote can work for you and your business, check out the Evernote for Independent Music Teachers series here on Piano Pantry.
Please note that Piano Pantry is an Evernote affiliate, which means I earn a small percentage back if you sign up using my link at no extra cost to you. See all disclosures here.
This post is part of a series calledĀ Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
P.S. One of the resources I share in the podcast is my favorite digital recipe manager: Paprika. I just saw they are having a big Thanksgiving/Black Friday Sale that will get you 40-50% off both the apps and desktop versions. I LOVE having the desktop version as well as the app – totally worth it!
Have you ever experienced a feeling of giddy elation over finding the “perfect” (insert: piano, piece of office furniture, studio equipment, or teaching chair)?
It’s amazing how the physical things around us affect how we move and interact in our spaces.
When I first opened my studio I remember being on the hunt for MONTHS for the perfect piece of furniture to place next to the piano to help store all the items I liked to have within arms reach such as pens, stickers, teaching tools, etc.
I purchased it initially from Walmart.com for $79, but it has also been available in the past on Amazon for $65.
Unfortunately in both places, at the time of this post, it’s unavailable. (Sorry, I didn’t share this sooner!) I did some searching though, and currently, you can get it here:
There are lots of options for this kind of thing out there, so here are a few things I love about mine you might consider as you search for YOUR perfect teaching table.
This post is part of a series calledĀ Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
Iām trying to set up my RSS reader so I can get my email under control.
If I add Piano Pantry to my RSS reader and unsubscribe my email, will I still get the Secret Letters? Ā I donāt want to mess everything up!
Thanks!
-LB
Hey, L!
Yea for RSS! You’re going to love it. I’m also glad to hear you’re enjoying the Secret Letters and don’t want to miss them! š
That being said, if you unsubscribe from my email list, you will NOT get the Secret Letters. That’s why they’re called “Secret.” š They’re not available to find anywhere online and only go to those on the email list.
RSS is about feeding new blog posts into one spot so you can visit one website and see all the new content from your favorite websites at one time.
I still stay subscribed to a lot of email lists because most of them nowadays send more than just blog post updates. To keep all of those subscriptions out of my inbox I use Unroll.me which I then set up to send me a Daily Digest.
~Amy
Itās all so confusing!Ā How does one know if itās an email list or a blog post update?Ā I suppose I will have to figure it out!Ā Iāll take a look at Unroll.me.Ā My inbox is out of control at the moment.Ā I was doing well in the email department but somehow I got behind and now itās a MESS!
One more question for you – how do you remember where to find something later?Ā It might be in the RSS reader, it might be in an email, it might have been in a Facebook group.
Do you have a way to put what you glean all in one place so you arenāt trying to remember where you saw it?Ā No way do I have enough brainpower to remember all that! Ā (Iām guessing you might say Evernote, but I still thought Iād ask!)
-LB
Hey again!
Great question and yes, it CAN be confusing!
You can’t always know until you sign up for a list, what types of emails they will be sending. If you notice a subscription is only sending you posts to your inbox (and you’re already seeing new posts in your RSS reader), then you can unsubscribe.
RSS isn’t so much about completely getting rid of all of your newsletter subscriptions as it is giving you a place to read website content in one location rather than relying on your time in your email to be when you see and read new content.
As far as saving and retrieving your favorite articles for later, Feedly (my RSS Reader), allows you to save (and search) articles – so that’s one good option. You can also send articles from Feedly directly into Evernote.
I try to be very picky about saving too many blog articles, but if I do, you are correct – I save them into Evernote and then tag that note by whatever it’s about such as “group lessons” “apps” “lesson planning” etc.
The search function of programs like Feedly and Evernote is really great so you really don’t have to get super caught up in labeling and tagging articles too much. Just type a keyword into the search box and it will usually find it.
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions that readers like yourself have asked of me over the last few years.
Hi, Amy! I keep getting emails from Google saying that I am close to being out of Gmail storage. Of course, they just want me to buy some. Is there a good way to free this up?
-MC
Great question, M,
Yes, you can take some easy steps to free up some space!
First, make sure it’s actually Gmail taking up your Google account space (and not Google Drive or Google Photos).
Once you know who the culprit is, you can decide where you need to clear space. Since your question was about how to free up space in Gmail (and we assume that’s causing the trouble) here are some steps to follow to clear out your email.
1. Permanently delete LARGE emails
Go to ‘All Mail” in the sidebar (which is basically your “archive”)
In the “Search mail” box at the top type: has:attachment larger:10MB
Hit “Enter“
Select the emails you don’t need, then click “Delete”
Continue the process by replacing the number “10” with higher or lower numbers” subsequently.
2. Empty your trash
On the left, click “Trash” (You might have to select the down arrow for “More” to expand and find “Trash”.)
The fastest way to clear the trash is to hit “Empty Trash Now” which will delete anything older than 30 days.
Please know that you cannot retrieve these emails once you delete them from the trash. However, don’t let that scare you. You deleted them initially for a reason!
3. Permanently delete emails in Spam
On the left, click “Spam”. (You might have to select the down arrow “More” to expand and find “Spam”)
At the top, select the checkbox so it will select all the emails on that page, then click “Delete Forever”.
You will likely have pages and pages of Trash and Spam items. It makes it much less tedious if you view the maximum number of emails per page as possible.
You can change this setting by clicking on the Settings gear at the top right of the page, then “See all settings”. Under “General settings > Maximum Page Size, you can select the number of conversations per page up to 100.
If you find you still need space…..
4. Delete your oldest emails
Go to āAll Mailā
In the top right corner, click on the gray text that shows how many emails you have (i.e. 1-100 of 9,617) If youāre only seeing 25-50 emails at once, you can change how many you see per page by going into the Settings.
Select āOldestā (This will sort your emails from oldest to newest, making the oldest emails more easily visible to you without having to scroll through pages and pages of emails.)
At the top, click on the empty selection box that will select all the emails on that screen at once. Once itās selected all the emails, click āDeleteā
You can continue this for as long as you need to make more space.
If you decide after all of this that you do want to purchase space…
The good news with Google is that you get more free storage space (15 GB) than with anyone else!
If you do happen to decide to buy more space with Google, luckily, it’s the same cost as Apple’s iCloud Drive or Microsoft’s One Drive.
Google Drive (15GB Free ā 100 G $2/month)
iCloud Drive (5GB Free ā 50G $0.99/month)
One Drive (5GB Free ā 50G $2/month or FREE with Microsoft 365 Subscription)
Dropbox (2GB Free ā 1,000 G $10/month)
Most of us will never need more than 50GB, and for $2/month with Google, you get 100GB, which is a TON of space.
As the years go on, the number of items I purchase on Amazon has slowly increased. With the current times, for many, it has increased exponentially.
If you’ve never done so, it’s kind of fun to go back through your Amazon order history and see how it grows and evolves from year to year and even decade to decade!
My first Amazon purchase was one item in December 2003. I find it interesting to see how quickly that changed – especially in the last five years.
2005 – 2012: 8-10 orders per year 2013 – 2014: 20-25 orders per year 2015 – 2018: 30-40 orders per year 2019: 60 orders 2020: 41 orders (thus far = by August)
Amazon is really good about not only letting you know how often you’ve purchased a product…
…they also make it really easy to “Buy It Again” directly from your order history page.
Today I want to share with you six items I’ve found myself buying for my piano studio again and again on Amazon.
Perhaps not surprisingly, they are all consumable office supplies!
Don’t get too excited, I’m not about to give you all kinds of financial advice on saving money or doing taxes as an independent music teacher. (I figure we have our dear Wendy Stevens at Compose Create who has shared a lot of great stuff like that over the years. š )
I’m going to stick with my strength and talk to you today about organizing and managing your incoming bills, expenses, and receipts. Yea!
Let me introduce you to the best thing that has happened to me in our daily financial management process and that’s my file folder system.
It’s not complicated and it makes ALL. THE. DIFFERENCE.
Isn’t she beautiful? š
First, a little back history on the straw that broke the camel’s back and made me come up with this system.
Quicken
My husband and I have used Quicken for years and love it. If you’re not familiar with the program, it’s like a check register for all your finances in one place including loans, 401k’s, credit card bills, checking, and savings accounts. We manage both our personal and my business finances through this.
Budgeting has been important to us through our entire marriage and Quicken has a lot of tools to help you track expenses and manage a budget properly. If you keep up with it on a regular basis, keeping expenses categorized makes life a whole lot easier when it comes time to do taxes as well.
When this book first came out, I immediately put it into my Amazon shopping cart. A year later I finally purchased it, and a year after that I finally got around to reading it. (That’s par for the course for me. LOL) Of course, as soon as I read it I kicked myself for not reading it sooner.
In this post, I’ll share with you one big reason why I love this book, seven of the most impactful points I took away, and a few habits I’ve built both in my piano studio and personal life.
One Big Reason I Love This Book
One big thing I love about this book actually has a lot to do with its layout.
Every chapter has a summary at the end that highlighted 6 major points to take away. This was an incredibly helpful visual recap. I tried to force myself to highlight just one or two of those points in order to focus my takeaways even more.
At the end of the book, he even provides bonus chapters for how you can apply these principles to business and to parenting.
Besides the fact that they’re sturdy, I especially love that they’re a little narrower than conventional magazine holders.
This matching desk organizer also made it into my Amazon cart and has been a great addition to my desk space.
