Clinical Skills Confidence: Balancing On The Hamster Wheel
Who can relate to the scene below?
You get to work an hour before you have to because you like to prep for the day ahead. You turn on your computer, check your work email (again), respond to the two that pop up. Open your schedule, realize you have to print something for an activity you’re doing today. Hit print, walk out the printer. On the way to the printer, you get stopped by Teacher X who asks you about Student X and you chat for a few minutes. Then you start to go back to your room, only to turn around again when you realize that you were originally headed to the copy room. Get to copy room, grab your stuff, head back to your room again. Get stopped by Teacher Y, who wants you to consult on Student Y. You say you’ll drop off the necessary forms and start mentally figuring out when you have five minutes of “free time” to observe the student. Head back to your room, all the while saying over and over to yourself, “get forms, get forms, get forms,” so you don’t get there any forget. Back in your room, your email dings and someone is telling your about a schedule change/field trip/special event that will necessitate more changes in your day. Before you’re even done reading the email, you’re mentally figuring out which groups you can flip flop to make all these moving parts work…hello!!! It’s only 9AM!!!
Now that might sound a little dramatic, but for a school SLP it can be reality. While I love the autonomy of my position in the schools, I don’t always love all the things that get piled on my plate. I really strive to have a “can do” attitude, and people have said I “make it look easy.” But I have to admit that 85% of the time, I feel like I’m on a this hamster wheel that just keeps spinning at a rapidly increasing pace. Even during the time that I’m providing therapy, my mind can be spinning, thinking about how I can better approach this skill and how I need to figure out a better way to do X.
So here are my tips for maintaining that “can do,” “I make it look easy” mindset:
1. Plan smarter, not harder: This year, I’ve moved to planning by the month instead of every week and it’s making my life so much easier.
2. Use post-its like it’s wallpaper: At any given time, you’ll see at least 5-10 post-its on my desk. As I get things done, I find great satisfaction in throwing that particular post-it away!
3. Rehearsal: I sometimes have difficulty with verbally presented things, so when people say things to me that I have to remember, I sometimes will need to rehearse it to myself until I can get somewhere to write it down. Auditory memory strategies at work!
4. Stand up for yourself: This year, I have a much higher caseload and simply don’t have the time like I did last year to be canceling therapy for meetings all the time or doing things that aren’t necessarily in my job description. I like to help out where I can and I like to be as flexible as I can, but there comes a point where I need to say, “I have to do this at this time because…”
5. Headphones: I’m in a shared room and sometimes it’s just not as quiet as I need it to be to write reports or do notes. I have taken to putting in headphones and throwing music or ocean waves on youtube, so I can drown out some of the extraneous noise.
6. Make leaving a priority: I don’t mind getting to work early, but at the end of the day, I’m tired and want to get home. Unless I have a meeting or something else, I work hard during the day to get things done so that I can walk out at the end of contract hours.
How do you stay sane on the hamster wheel?