What follows is a rough-edit of the episode, so please forgive typos and/or formatting errors.

All content is my own; requests to use this material – with proper citation – can be sent to [email protected]

Episode 90:  Cheers to Handling Our Fall Scheduling Grievances

Hello, music teacher friends.  Welcome to episode number 90 of the Beyond Measure Podcast!  I am super excited to have hit number 90, because it means episode number 100 is in sight!  Triple digits, friends!  We’ll be celebrating that one pretty hard – along with the two-year anniversary of the podcast, both of which should be happening in October of this year – that’s 2022, for finding me from the future.  Anyway.  Yes. Today, episode 90:  Cheers to Handing Our Fall Scheduling Grievances.  I am your host and self-proclaimed Anytime Piano Teacher Friend, Christina Whitlock.  So happy you are hanging out with me today.  We all need all the teacher friends we can get, and I hope you count me as one of yours.

You know those people – we all have them in our lives – who will tell you things like, “you are so lucky to have such a FUN job!” 😊  Like…. “it must be so great to be around music ALL day…”  and you always WANT to respond by giving them an earful about how much WORK it is to make your job look SO FUN?  😊

Truly.  I DO love my job.  And I DO count it a great fortune to be able to make a living doing what I do.  But we all know we do more than play all day.  And one of the HARDEST times in studio music teacher land is upon us friends.  I wasn’t originally going to tackle this topic on the podcast this year, but, as it often does, my Instagram community inspired me to change gears on my regularly-scheduled content, and today I bring you Cheers to Handling Our Fall Scheduling Grievances.

If you think I am going to be unveiling the secret to a painless way to schedule your students without headaches or screaming today… you’d be wrong.  I wish.  It comes down to the fact that pretty much every job comes with SOMETHING unpleasant…and this is one of ours. It just is. But here’s the thing.  It always works out.  Seriously.  Has there BEEN a year yet when you were defeated by your fall schedule?   Nope.  And you’ll come out on top of it this year, too.

Do you remember how I like to say there are three things people are more protective over than anything else?  Say them with me now if you remember: Their Children, Their Money, and Their TIME.  Well, this time of year, most studios are going to battle over that third one:  Their TIME.

Your families value their time and count it very important.  By the way – so do you!  And you need to approach your fall teaching schedule with the understanding that, of COURSE, your studio families are going to hunker down on options that are going to work best for them…. And you, my teacher friend, should do the same.

So.  Those who DO say they’ve found the magic answer to stress-free scheduling are probably going to say they use something like Fons or an open calendar in My Music Staff, or something else similar… and they set spots where they are available for lessons and they let parents just log in and book them for what’s available.  Many of you out there swear by that.  I get it.  I actually do that in My Music Staff for my SUMMER scheduling, but for the bulk of the academic year, I personally just want more say in my schedule.  See… my obsession over control in my studio hurts me here.  And maybe it does you.  BUT…

In addition to juggling logistics over how to fit a specific number of students into a specific number of spots, I also care WHO gets WHAT place.  For example…. You all know I actually LOVE a challenging student.  I really do.  Dealing with challenging students makes me feel like a more competent teacher.  There’s a whole episode on that, I’ll link in the shownotes.  But. You know what I don’t love?  A challenging student on a Friday.  Or at 7:30pm any day of the week.  It’s a bad plan.  I *love* a challenging student at 4:30 on a Tuesday.  Bring. It. On.  But 5:30 on a Friday?  It’s all over.  No way.  Not happening.  For MY sanity AND for theirs.

Likewise…. My first student of the week?  9:15am on Mondays?  Love her.  The PERFECT way to begin a teaching week.  Zero dread, all satisfying music-making.  It’s scheduling perfection.  😊

Now – sometimes that’s unavoidable, but I can’t begin to tell you how much of a difference it makes to schedule your MOST enjoyable students at the very beginning and very end of your day.  If this is not something you’ve ever considered, I’d encourage you to give it a try this year.  It’s not always just about WHEN.  Sometimes it’s also about WHO.

For example:  This year, I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to teach on Fridays.  I wanted an entire day open to creative work, and, in general, just a day to take it easy in the quiet.  Well.  It hasn’t worked out that way.  But it’s okay.  Because the handful of lessons I’ve scheduled on Fridays are ALL really enjoyable students, AND…drumroll please… it means I only have ONE HOUR of teaching on Thursday evenings this year.  Friends.  I can’t TELL you the last time I only taught one hour on a weekday evening, let alone on a THURSDAY.  It’s crazy.  And, honestly, THAT serves my family in a much bigger way than taking Fridays off would have.  ONE HOUR ON THURSDAY EVENINGS.  I can’t even….  I’m just so excited.

WHICH… actually…. Brings to me to my next point about scheduling:  it’s okay to be flexible with your scheduling goals – to a point.  I feel like we’re all bombarded with advice to be firm and unwavering in our boundaries…and that’s a message we DEFINITELY need to be reminded of often.  But.  Sometimes there is an even BETTER solution waiting for you on the other side of a concession.  If you have been following me in recent months you know, in response to a HUGELY over-committed year last year, I set several schedule-related goals for myself for the coming academic year.  I was determined to downsize my student load a bit, implement a handful of group classes, and commit to teaching NO MORE than two hours after school each night (originally taking Fridays off).  I also wanted two completely clear mornings a week to work on writing and composition projects.  As my fall scheduling is looking for now, for the most part, I’ve achieved that, and it’s been great.  But that little switch to plopping a few students over to Fridays?  It actually resulted in something that will end up being EVEN BETTER than what I’d planned.

So.  Set goals and boundaries to protect YOUR time.  Absolutely.  But hold them with an open mind, because you never know when an alternative may present itself that is EVEN BETTER.  And – furthermore – if you end up making a concession you didn’t originally want to make… work in a reward for yourself (like a clearer Thursday evening!).  Maybe you have to teach later on Wednesdays than you want to, but you reward yourself by scheduling to meet up with a friend each Wednesday evening for ice cream.  Oh man.  That’s a good idea…

For those of you CONSIDERING a change to your schedule you’re not entirely sure of:  If you’ve listened to my episode on Making Exceptions, you’ll know, when it comes to changing your boundaries, I recommend thinking into the future.  If you’re going to feel resentful for accommodating someone’s schedule this fall, don’t do it.  Think about this:  if you decide to teach a student at a time you don’t particularly want to….imagine how you would feel if that student decides to leave the studio mid-semester this year.  Are you going to find yourself thinking, “she’s quitting? After I bent over backwards to teach her late on Wednesday evenings?”.  If that’s the case, don’t do it.  Feeling as though your students owe you something or like you’ve done them a huge favor is the fast track to the land of miserable teachers.  Remember, we’re after SYMBIOTIC student relationships here.  Things that work for them, and for you.  Good for all involved.

PS: It’s worth mentioning that, if you have a studio FAMILY who is made to feel like they are doing YOU a huge favor, that, too, is a recipe for unhappiness. Keep that in mind, too.

Again, we are ALL protective of our TIME.  It’s a precious, precious commodity.  Some of us are better at guarding it than others.  Ahem.

Here’s the thing:  we – as a profession – are really good at over-committing.  We are competent in many areas, we have skillsets people like to put to use, and we are just really good at being BUSY.  Because so many of us have portfolio careers, where our income is generated by multiple sources, I want to share some insight with you regarding our obsessions with being BUSY.

To illustrate my point, I’ll tell on myself, because that’s what I do on this podcast:

Remember a moment ago when I was so giddy over the fact that I was only scheduled to teach for one hour on Thursday evenings this fall?  Well, as this revelation came to light, I happened to be in the midst of a text-exchange with my friend, Amy Elmore.  Amy’s Instagram handle is @keystopraise.  Lots of you know her.  She’s awesome.

So anyway, we were texting the other day… and I mentioned how tempted I was to go ahead and schedule an additional group class for a second hour on Thursday evenings since I could technically make the time to do so.

And – in her infinite wisdom – she said:  “I think you have to ask yourself: why do I keep adding things to my schedule?  Do I really love it or do I just feel bad saying no to people? Do I really need the money?  Or am I trying to prove my worth through my busyness?”  Ugh.  Her point was made.  In love, of course.

To answer her questions, yes, I really do love what I do – but it’s important to note,  I love time with my family even more.  To her second point, yes, I *do* feel TERRIBLE saying no to people, but we all know THAT’S not a good reason to add an extra class.

So – Do I really need the money?  Not really… I mean, it’d be great… crunching numbers on adding another four-student group class for an extra hour’s work is REALLY tempting… but to throwback to an episode a few weeks ago, I think my TIME that evening is worth more than the income I would make from the class….

And finally – that last question?  Am I just trying to prove my worth through my busyness?  Sigh.  Bullseye.  Now – that’s a personal issue for me, and that’s something for me and my therapist rather than you and I here in this space.  BUT – I also know enough musicians who struggle with the very same proving-your-worth-through-your-busyness thing (clear throat) that I found those questions worth answering.

I think most musicians understand the whole fear of, like, feast-or-famine.  It’s how many of us grew up in our careers.  Make the money while you can, because you never know when the source is going to dry up, right?  Well, the truth is…. Many of us who live that way are NOT in a time of famine.  We are not starving or strapped to make ends meet.  We are, instead, a wee-bit addicted to the hustle.  The busy-ness.  To the ways our students love us and feed our sense of self worth.  Oh yeah.  I went there.

So – maybe I just revealed WAY too much about myself – BUT – as you approach your fall schedules this term, I do want you to heed Amy Elmore’s advice.  Why are you taking on the things you’re taking on?  Do you enjoy them?  Are you just avoiding saying NO?  Do you really need the money?  Or are you trying to prove something by driving yourself to the brink of sanity?

That’s some good food for thought, friends!  And, while you’re sitting with those very excellent questions, I am going to raise my glass and give a toast to you.

Music teacher friends of the world, I need you to extend extra kindness to yourself this time of year.  The decisions we make this month can set us up for a year of great success, or one of great struggle this year.  Remind yourself that scheduling is a priority for ALL of us, including your studio families.  We all roll our eyes at the families who say they can only come for lessons on Tuesday at 4:30.  I mean, who DOESN’T want lessons on Tuesdays at 4:30?  😊  But instead of getting frustrated with them, try understanding they are just advocating for the best use of their time, and know, to some extent, we all need to do the same thing.  By the same token – those BELOVED studio families who give you lots of available times and show LOTS of flexibility?  Be sure to let them know how much you appreciate them and their willingness to cooperate in a difficult situation. My pal Melissa Slocum – who podcasts over at Sounds of Encouragement – often reminds teachers to call out the behavior we want to see.  Praise it, because this helps you shift your attention – even temporarily – to the families who are making your life EASIER, instead of obsessing over the tricky ones.  As this wild season of fall scheduling descends on us, I hope you can feel me CHEERING YOU ON from here.  Cheers to you, my resourceful music teacher friends.  Here, here.

That’s episode number 90!  Thanks for joining me today.  Don’t forget to join me on Instagram and Facebook.  As you’re setting your new studio budgets for the coming year, I hope you’ll consider joining the Patreon community for the Beyond Measure Podcast.  You can opt in for either $3 or $6 per month, and doing so just helps keep this podcast rolling out each week.  I appreciate it so very much.

Okay. Onward and upward to new and improved schedules, right?  Thanks, friends.  We’ll meet up again soon!