“What was it I said I had to do today?” “ Where did I put my phone?” “What have I forgotten?” “I had this music memorized yesterday, why can’t I play it from memory today?” Do any of these sound familiar? Sometimes older people call some of them “senior moments” but the fact is I, and I suspect many of you, have fallen victim to moments of forgetfulness like these long before you reached the age at which you could claim a “senior moment” for yourself. 

My topic today is not about forgetfulness related to age, but instead it’s about forgetfulness related to our behavior; things that we do that cause us to forget things, and that are under our control. I have come to realize that it isn’t from lack of ability to remember that I forget things, it is from a lack of intentionality. 

The result of working faster, not smarter

Over the course of my public school music teaching career, I had to learn to do most things quickly. I had to learn to transition from teaching kindergarten to eighth grade in minutes, to eat lunches quickly, to run attendance to the office quickly, to…you get the idea. And almost always, the next thing, and there’s always a next thing, was already running through my mind as I was doing the present thing. The result of this is that I got in the habit of thinking of one thing while doing another. In other words, I became used to working distracted. When I was actually teaching I was not distracted in this way. In fact I was laser focused. It’s during those in between times that distractedness took over. And therein lies the seat of forgetfulness. 

When I’m distracted, it is very easy to forget what I was doing before I let the distraction take over my thinking, especially if I’ve momentarily switched to the distraction, intending to return to the present in a moment. But then it vanishes. “What was I doing?” “What was I saying?” Or  worse yet, “where did I put that box of clarinet reeds?” That’s the worse one. Forgetting where I put something because when I put it down I was distracted thinking about something else instead of noticing where I was placing the object. 

“Please wait a moment”

Teaching is hectic enough for a single grade level teacher. Setting up a room in which I’ve just taught sixth grade general music into one in which I will teach pre-kindergarten three-year-olds in three minutes is much more so. Then when the sixth grade teacher is late picking up their class, and I have one minute to reset the room, forgetting where I put something becomes detrimental. The three-year-olds have arrived, and I’m not set up for them yet. “Please wait a moment while I finish setting up” is a terrible way to run a music room. So what’s the solution?

I can’t control the teacher being late picking up, and I can’t control the allowance of only three minutes between classes that I have to reset the room, and myself, for a vastly different student audience. But I can control how I move through that interval of time. I can control my own behavior. To do so, I have to get three things under complete control: Pace, focus, and intentionality.

The smarter way

On the surface, it seems absurd to think any pace but fast-as-possible is even an option. But it is. Move at a pace just under what makes you frazzled. Walk don’t run. Move efficiently, gathering everything that’s stored in close proximity in one trip to where you’re going to set it up, like an efficient food server in a restaurant servicing two or three tables in one trip. Proceed at a pace that allows you to plan each move exactly. 

Working that way gives you the time and ability to focus. You’re not thinking about the footsteps of the class you’re hearing as the children draw near to your room. You’re just thinking about what you’re doing in the moment. And when it’s set, you take another moment to look it all over to check that everything is in place. It only takes a moment. No one will even notice that you took it. Then, and only then, do you shift your focus to the children standing in line at the door. Focus keeps you on task. It eliminates distractions, and keeps things in the present. 

With appropriate, constructive pace, and clear focus, you create an environment for yourself that is intentional. Unexpected snags rarely if ever happen, and as a result, unexpected outcomes don’t happen either. You kept your pace and focus because you worked with intentionality toward a desired outcome; in this case, having your room set up in three minutes for the next class. It is easy to let time constraints dictate a faster pace than you can control, but it is important to cultivate the habit of resisting. 

But what about when…

There are times when things not under your control interfere with your ability to control pace,  focus and intentionality on what you have set out to do. Perhaps a fight breaks out in the hall, or a parent appears, delighted that they caught you between classes which they think is the perfect time to talk to you about their child in your class. In such cases, pace, focus and intentionality may need to shift instantly. Maybe. 

You might speak to the parent just long enough to say you’ll call them later. Or the parent can be redirected to the office where they can sign in and find out when I’m available to have a conference, or leave a note to call them. The fight might take care of itself before you intervene, or may stop as soon as you poke your head out the door, allowing you to quickly get back on track. Yes, sometimes we have to be able to “turn on a dime.” But we must always be able to turn back on a dime, as if we hadn’t been interrupted, with the same pace, focus, and intentionality.

The happy result and where it led me

I have found that when I stick to this, I forget much less, do a better job at whatever I’m working at, and have a much more cohesive recollection of what was accomplished when the task or class is done. In fact, the impetus for my starting this blog in 2014 was the habit I started of taking time at the end of each teaching day to write a reflection on how my classes had gone. I wrote down what went well, what went poorly, and possible reasons for both. I also revised lesson plans and wrote down things I’d do differently with each class where a different strategy was warranted. 

I found doing this was very helpful to me. After a while, I realized that if it was helpful for me, it might be helpful to others, and so I started publishing my reflections on this site. If you are a music educator and journal about your day in front of students, and you think your reflections would be helpful to other teachers, email them to me and maybe I’ll publish them. That is the spirit in which I began this blog–a gathering place for music educators.

An added bonus from my journaling was that I learned the value of taking time to reflect before moving forward. Taking time to consider, evaluate, and revise. It was not only helpful, it was motivating. I began to discover with enthusiasm better ways of teaching, and better ways of managing my time. With the students gone for the day, I had time to do this at a slow pace, stay focused, and the intentionality pushed me forward to continue doing it. Work with manageable pace, laser sharp focus toward intentional outcomes, and you will forget less and accomplish more, and in a more satisfying way.