The last three posts in this series covered strategies for managing your time, organizing and prioritizing your work, and taking charge of your communication and your calendar. Now, in this final installment of this series, let’s think about how you take care of you!

We have all made this suggestion to the families we serve at one time or another because we know that we must first take care of ourselves before we can be any good to anyone else.  Now it is time to focus in on how to practice this yourself and here is the final tip and a few resources to help you get started:

Tip #10: Take Care of You!!!!!!

Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation provides relaxation and stress reduction resources. Below you will find a few examples of some resources found on their website:

• Stress Log Template (PDF, New Window)
• Talk Back to Your Unhelpful Thoughts (PDF, New Window)
• Taking Care of Ourselves (PDF, New Window)
• Mental Health Consultants Notes (PDF, New Window)
• Relaxation Exercises

Managing the Environment – The following resources are tools to help service coordinators manage their environment so they can successfully accomplish the many tasks they are working on in the manner that works best for them:

• We Could Learn a LOT from Crayons (PDF, New Window)
• Quiet Zone (PDF, New Window)
• Temporary Time Out (PDF, New Window)

Three Building Blocks of Reflective Supervision – ZERO TO THREE’s work over the last quarter-century has found that reflective supervision promotes and supports the development of a relationship-based organization. This approach expands on the idea that supervision is a context for learning and professional development. The three building blocks of reflective supervision-reflection, collaboration, and regularity-are outlined in this resource.

The work you do with infants, toddlers, and families is very important and can be very demanding at times.  Remember to build in enough time for you to accomplish each important activity that accompanies your role and responsibilities with the numerous families you serve each and every day!

What strategies do you use to make sure you take care of yourself first?  Have you used any of these resources?  If so, which ones are your favorites?

To read other posts in this series, click below:

Part I (getting organized and prioritizing your work)

Part II (managing your time)

Part III (taking charge of your communication)

Sarah Nichols is an Early Intervention Consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois (formerly the Illinois Early Intervention Training Program).  She has been working in the field of Early Intervention since the year 2000. She was a service coordinator for seven years and she has been a training consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program in Illinois since 2002. Sarah assists in the development of web-based learning opportunities, manages the Early Intervention Training Program website, facilitates state and national webinars, and develops and manages online workspaces for early interventionists, training consultants, and members of the Early Intervention-Early Childhood Professional Development Community of Practice (EI-EC PD CoP). Sarah is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) and she is currently a Co-Leader for the DEC Professional Development Special Interest Group (DEC PD SIG) .

The post 10 Tips for Organizing & Prioritizing! – Part IV appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

The last two posts in this series covered strategies for managing your time and organizing and prioritizing your work. Now, let’s think about how to take charge of your communication and your calendar!

Tip #7: Take charge of your phone calls

• Set the tone with your outgoing message
  • Manage caller’s expectations by letting them know when they can expect a return call time (i.e. within two business days)
  • Request information you need such as their name, a call back number, what they are looking for and the best time to reach them for a return call
  • Learn to control your conversations (avoid and/or tame “time robbers”)
    • Give an established time you have to talk or suggest a time to talk later
    • Ask close ended questions and use statements that signal end of call
    • Plan accordingly for return calls to those who you typically know require additional talk time
    • Use a phone/message log to document messages and establish a system for noting when the call has been returned and documented into your case notes

Tip #8: Take charge of your email

• Set up an automatic reply that manages expectations for a return response
• Set up filters so your messages get organized and stored accordingly
• Set up groups so you can communicate with groups easily without searching for email addresses
• Use the 3 minute rule to determine what you have time for
• Mark items as unread and/or flag them for follow up if you don’t have time to respond or follow through in the moment
• Consider cc or bcc yourself in on an email response if you think receiving a new message in your inbox will prompt you to complete any follow up activities
• Clean up your inbox at least once a week (delete trash/junk emails and sort/file other important messages that did not get filtered automatically)

Tip #9: Take control of your calendar

• Use a week or a month at a glance so you always know what is coming up
• Build in enough “office” time each week to make sure you can follow through on administrative tasks
• Schedule appointments in a way that will minimize your drive time (i.e. group neighborhoods and regions as best you can for home visits and meetings)
• Don’t book back to back meetings or appointments if it will jeopardize your ability to fully participate in each meeting or create a challenge for you to complete necessary documentation and administrative tasks
• Consider required time and emotional energy needed for each home visit/family meeting and don’t over extend yourself

Don’t miss the last post in this series about taking care of the most important aspect of your work – YOU!

What strategies do you use to keep caught up with phone calls and emails? How do you manage your calendar? What kinds of electronic devices or apps do you use to keep organized??

To read other posts in this series, click below:

Part I (getting organized and prioritizing your work)

Part II (managing your time)

Part IV (taking care of yourself)

Sarah Nichols is an Early Intervention Consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois (formerly the Illinois Early Intervention Training Program).  She has been working in the field of Early Intervention since the year 2000. She was a service coordinator for seven years and she has been a training consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program in Illinois since 2002. Sarah assists in the development of web-based learning opportunities, manages the Early Intervention Training Program website, facilitates state and national webinars, and develops and manages online workspaces for early interventionists, training consultants, and members of the Early Intervention-Early Childhood Professional Development Community of Practice (EI-EC PD CoP). Sarah is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) and she is currently a Co-Leader for the DEC Professional Development Special Interest Group (DEC PD SIG) .

The post 10 Tips for Organizing and Prioritizing! – Part III appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Last week we posted 3 tips to help you get organize and prioritize your many work duties. These tips involved organizing lists, prioritizing your work, and using tickler systems. Here are 3 more tips for managing your time!

Tip #4: Follow the 3 minute rule (or 5 minute rule or whatever time you set for yourself)

• Will it take 3 minutes or less to complete without breaking my workflow?
• Decide if you can do one of the following in 3 minutes or less:
  • Act on it
  • Refer or delegate it
  • File it
  • Set it aside to read for later
  • Throw it away if it isn’t something you need
• Bonus tip….this rule works great when deciding to accept/return phone calls and/or emails!

Tip #5: Take a temporary “time out” or establish a “quiet zone” when needed

• Sometimes a time out is time for a mental break and sometimes it is a scheduled block of quiet time that you give yourself on a daily and/or weekly basis to play catch up on miscellaneous activities and/or activities that require extra time.
• If you work in an office where there is a lot of activity you can create a fun and/or quirky sign that you put on your door (or the back of your chair if you don’t have a door) to let others know that you wish not to be disturbed at this time.

Tip #6: Save 30 minutes at the end of each day to wrap-up your paperwork

• Use this time to finish documentation for the day’s activities or reply to emails and phone messages. This helps you stay on top of your work and avoid getting “behind.”.
• Block off this time in your calendar to avoid scheduling other activities at the same time.
• If it works better for you, block time at the start of the day.
• Another option might be blocking one afternoon a week to catch up on paperwork. However you do it, planning time for completing your desk work can be a great way to stay on top of it!

The next post in this series will describe tips for taking charge of your phone calls, emails, and calendar!

What strategies do you use to manage your time? How do you keep up with completing your paperwork?

To read other posts in this series, click below:

Part I (getting organized and prioritizing your work)

Part III (taking charge of your communication)

Part IV (taking care of yourself)

Sarah Nichols is an Early Intervention Consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois (formerly the Illinois Early Intervention Training Program).  She has been working in the field of Early Intervention since the year 2000. She was a service coordinator for seven years and she has been a training consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program in Illinois since 2002. Sarah assists in the development of web-based learning opportunities, manages the Early Intervention Training Program website, facilitates state and national webinars, and develops and manages online workspaces for early interventionists, training consultants, and members of the Early Intervention-Early Childhood Professional Development Community of Practice (EI-EC PD CoP). Sarah is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) and she is currently a Co-Leader for the DEC Professional Development Special Interest Group (DEC PD SIG) .

The post 10 Tips for Organizing & Prioritizing! – Part II appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Do you ever feel like you have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?  Do you ever have one of those days or weeks where you feel like everything is merging together and you don’t remember where you left off or where you should begin at the beginning of each day or week?  Have you ever had an IFSP review sneak up on you for one of the families you serve and you haven’t even begun to coordinate the meeting or prepare the progress report?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to know you are not alone and perhaps you can benefit from one of the following strategies to help you stay organized. Or better yet, maybe you have a tip you’d like to share with others!

Over the next few weeks we are going to provide several blog posts that give you tips for balancing priorities and the multiple tasks you have to complete on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. We know that there is not one right way for everyone to stay organized and therefore we encourage you to post your strategies along with us!

We will start with the first three tips to help you organize and prioritize!

Tip #1: Use multiple lists….if you think it then ink it… or better yet…plug it into your notepad, calendar or reminders on your mobile device!

• Break your lists down into subject categories so there is a place for everything (i.e. 6 month review, annual IFSP review, phone calls to return, etc.)
• Establish a focus for where the list and the items on your list fit with your current priorities (high priority/medium priority/low priority)
• Review your lists often (daily/weekly) and transfer, add and purge as needed

Tip #2: Prioritize deadline sensitive items base on due dates (i.e. upcoming meetings) and periodically ask yourself:

• If I can only do one thing what should it be?
• How much time do I need to allow for each activity…and how much time do I have?
• Is my environment conducive for what needs to get done?  Do I need a quiet place to work to accomplish the task at hand and if so is it quiet?  Do I need technology/internet to complete the task and if so do I have those tools available to me right now?
• How much energy do I need to complete the task and is now a good time to start the task?

Tip #3: Use a tickler filing system (paper, electronic, or both)

• Used to keep track of all children/families you are serving and document all meetings and activities that take place during the course of a calendar year
• Can use a three ring binder or recipe card box divided by the 12months of the year and each child/family has a print out or index card that includes pertinent information (i.e. birthday, initial IFSP date, 6 month review due date, annual IFSP review due date, referral for transition due date, etc.) and the child/family information gets filed according to the next month that something is due
• Takes time to set up but once it is set up it is easy to keep up as long as you review your current month and upcoming months frequently
• Can be done electronically using an electronic calendar if reminders are installed for upcoming activities and due dates for each child/family you serve
• Click here for an example of a Tickler File (PDF, New Window).

How do you stay organized in the midst of your busy job? Do you have a tickler filing system? Tell us what tips, tricks, tools, or systems work for you!

Don’t miss the next post in this series, Part II, about managing time!

To read other posts in this series, click below:

Part II (managing your time)

Part III (taking charge of your communication)

Part IV (taking care of yourself)

Resources:

Visit the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center’s Tools of the Trade page for more tools to help you stay organized, such as tracking charts, checklists, and excel calculators!

The Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois’s Resources page is also a great place to find resources related to your work!

Sarah Nichols is an Early Intervention Consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois (formerly the Illinois Early Intervention Training Program).  She has been working in the field of Early Intervention since the year 2000. She was a service coordinator for seven years and she has been a training consultant for the Early Intervention Training Program in Illinois since 2002. Sarah assists in the development of web-based learning opportunities, manages the Early Intervention Training Program website, facilitates state and national webinars, and develops and manages online workspaces for early interventionists, training consultants, and members of the Early Intervention-Early Childhood Professional Development Community of Practice (EI-EC PD CoP). Sarah is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) and she is currently a Co-Leader for the DEC Professional Development Special Interest Group (DEC PD SIG) .

The post 10 Tips for Organizing & Prioritizing! – Part I appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.