7 Habits for Super Productive Music Teachers
I’ve always loved setting big goals (and then achieving them!) but I’m starting to realise that creating positive habits is even more effective. We all know how important it is to cultivate good practice habits, so it makes sense to use the same strategies in our studios. Adopting these weekly habits for productive music teachers will definitely make your life better!
Maintaining habits isn’t easy, but even if I only manage to complete a couple of these tasks each week, I know my music studio (and life!) is going to be a lot more organised and productive.
Write Down Your Weekly Tasks
Getting into the habit of writing down your weekly (or daily) tasks makes it so much more likely that you’ll A. remember them, and B. complete them.
Whether you prefer to organise your thoughts via paper or digital, there are so many planning options around you’ll definitely find one that suits you. Although I love Notion for staying organised, I need a paper planner for keeping track of my many (many!) lists and goals. I love using a bullet journal, and a regular notebook for a daily task list too.
Action Step: make a list of your top tasks in your planner, then add any specific tasks to your daily or weekly to do list.
Read More: 6 Genius Organising Tools for Music Teachers
Plan Dinners for the Week
Working out what to have for dinner every. single. night is one of my least favourite parts of being an adult. Planning meals in advance definitely makes this more bearable, but I’m always looking for ways to make it even easier. Here are a few ideas to try:
- Have themed cooking nights (like Taco Tuesday or Friday Pizza)
- Get ahead with some meal prep on the weekend
- Learn to love your slow cooker
- Join a meal subscription service
Action Step: grab your planner and write down what you’ll be having for dinner every night this week.
If you’re looking for inspiration, then check out Pinterest for some ideas. Here’s a collection of easy meal ideas if you don’t know where to start:
Meal Planning for Teachers
Plus lots of other ideas for music lesson activities and resources:
Pianosaurus Rex on Pinterest
Check Your Schedule & Appointments
Make sure you have a master calendar or planner where you can record all the appointments and events you have scheduled through online calendars, Facebook events, emails, school newsletters, paper invitations…
I love Google Calendar for keeping track of what’s happening over the next few months (it syncs with Facebook events, Music Teachers Helper, and My Music Staff to make life even easier).
Action Step: look through your calendars and notices for any appointments or events happening this week, then make sure they’re all included in your master calendar.
Get Ahead with Lesson Planning
There are so many elements and activities to include in music lessons, and trying to fit everything into a 30, 40 or 60 minute block is a challenge! Having an effective method for planning lessons makes everything easier, and means that you’re more likely to find the time to cover everything you need.
Action Step: write down a couple of activities to try with each of your students this week.
Read More: How to Streamline Lesson Planning
If you’d like to get your hands on this template then become a member of the Music Teacher Resource Library (it’s free!)
You’ll receive instant access to the Lesson Planning printable, plus 30 more resources including music theory games, worksheets, activities, and planning tools.
Sign up here!
Prepare Teaching Resources
Does this sound familiar? You come across a great new resource or activity that sounds perfect for one of your students, save it (to Pinterest, Evernote, or your computer) then promptly forget about it. By making a regular time to review, and then actually prepare the amazing new resource, you’ll be able to use it with your students this week!
Action Step: check through the resources you’ve recently saved and choose one. Download/print/laminate/work out how to use it, then have it ready to go for your first lesson of the week.
Get organised and keep an updated record of all of your music studio resources. Lesson planning becomes so simple when you can easily find the resource to fit the exact topic and level you need!
All the information is kept in one convenient place in the Notion Music Resource Library.
Get it here!
Update Your Studio Accounts
Confession: once I avoided reconciling my studio accounts for a whole year! I use (and love) Zoho Books, which is connected to my accounts and automatically uploads transaction details, so a lot of the work was already done for me. But tax time was a lot harder than it needed to be!
Since then I make the effort to look over my accounts every week and keep on top of entering any payments, invoices, and receipts.
Action Step: check your transactions for the previous week, then reconcile (or enter the details) in your accounting software.
Read More: 6 Strategies for Mastering Music Studio Finances
Schedule Marketing
Regular marketing is so important for a thriving music studio, but it’s easy to forget about it until we have spaces to fill in our lesson schedule! Instead of ignoring marketing unless we really need it (guilty!) it’s a much better idea to focus on regular updates.
If you’re not sure what needs your attention, then pick something from this list:
- Schedule a week’s (or month’s!) worth of posts on you studio Facebook page
- Update one page on your studio website
- Ask a former or current student for a testimonial
- Update a business listing you have on another website
- Update your marketing plan
Action Step: choose one or two marketing tasks, schedule some time and get them done!
Spend less time figuring out what to post on social media with this collection of inspiring quotes about music and music practice.
Schedule these done-for-you posts on your music studio’s page, no further effort required!
Get it here!
Remember to check out the Music Teacher Resource Library for more organising and planning tools for your music studio.
