I’ve only been back to school for two days, and I’ve already gone through several to-do lists.  I started my day by posting the following tweet to my Twitter account:

Today’s goals: unpack new #musictherapy equipment, organize office, prepare next week’s session plans, & burn classroom CDs. Yikes.

Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed when I arrived at school this morning. But I took a deep breath, rolled up my proverbial sleeves, and got to work. Funny enough, I tackled each task in the order listed in my tweet, beginning with unpacking my new equipment.

While I was away for the summer I received a brand new acoustic-electric guitar, Q-Chord, keyboard stand, bench, a dozen tambourines, fruit shakers, a few new pieces of recording equipment, and a few other small instruments.  I’m thrilled with the new additions to my program — my students are in for a treat! — but it was quite a challenge figuring out where to store everything in my tiny office.  It took me a little under 4 hours, but I managed to not only find places for everything, but also to make my office more space-efficient in the process.  What a feat!

After a well-deserved lunch break, I got back to work…this time, planning next week’s music therapy sessions.  It was much easier to work now that my office was in good shape, so planning did not take long at all.  I moved on to burning CDs for all 15 classrooms, during which I multi-tasked by filling out some paperwork.  By the time I made copies of song packets and distributed them to teachers’ mailboxes, I had only stayed 15 minutes past my usual departure time.  Not bad at all :)

I owe a good deal of my productivity skills to a book by the same name as this blog post: Getting Things Done, by David Allen.  It has completely changed the way I prioritize, break down big projects, and manage my time.  Oh, and while you’re collecting productivity pointers, I should mention my friend and colleague Kimberly Sena Moore’s free e-book, Music Therapy Maven’s Productivity Primer.  In my best infomercial voice: “You too can have awesomely productive days like the one I just had!”

I hope you have a productive yet relaxing weekend.  I’m singing in a wedding tomorrow, helping my mom become a WordPress guru (now that I have it figured out myself) on Sunday, and gearing up for my first full week of school.  Lots more to-do lists in my future!