I hate clutter. Which is why Chrtistmas stresses me out. My otherwise “minimalist” house becomes a haven for snowmen, candles, mistletoe, and other paraphanelia to fill up flat surfaces.
When things are cluttered I just can’t reach my peak performance. And I’m not simply referring to household knickknacks… I’m also talking about the clutter in my head.
Sometimes It’s Just Too Much
And maybe you feel the same? Maybe your mind is inundated with all sorts of piano teaching strategies that you just can’t wait to implement; new games, activities, pieces, and manipulatives. In fact, maybe you have so many new ideas, that none are actually being successfully accomplished.
Cut The Clutter… and Relax
I’ve learned that too many “great” ideas are a problem. So each new year, I purge. I assess my daily lesson plans and cut everything that either isn’t working, or is just barely working. And then in their place I choose, from my hoard of great ideas, new strategies to take their place.
So this year, join me in my purge. Purging is important. By continually adding, but never cleansing, piano lessons become a scattered, rushed, and confused mass of hysteria…. And nobody want that!
Morgan says
I most definitely need this!!! Now… How do I go about it??
This post describes me to a tee. I really do need help with this. Please give me ideas on how to “purge” (and even in this context, I still cringe at that word).
Morgan
Andrea says
Hi Morgan – the easiest way is to take a look at you piano lesson planning and decide what is working and what isn’t… what are your students responding to the most?… what seems to fall flat?… what takes the most amount of your time that produces the least results? Sometimes it’s hard to let go of things simply because you’ve “always done them” but in these newly empty spaces you can add new and improved ideas. Purge is an awful word isn’t it?! But it really is what you are doing… out with the old and in with the good 🙂
Kayla Malczycki says
Does it bother anyone but myself to throw away books, simply because they are BOOKS?