Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers, Chapter 2 - Productivity Basics, with Guest Nick Dogas (Season 2, Episode 3)

Season 2 is back!!! After a series of technical difficulties and a busy concert/conference presenting season, Episode 3 is ready!

This week my choral colleague, Nick Dogas, joins the show to discuss basic productivity in the music classroom. Topics include: managing an active teaching schedule using calendar apps, staying on top of email responsibilities, where technology helps (and doesn’t help), the role of attention, and more.

This was a fun one to record. All of my other guests this season are experts on the topics of each episode. I was having trouble finding someone who wanted to talk about the not-so-glamorous topics of email and calendars. Nick joked with me that he could come on as a tech-NON-expert and I loved the idea. Considering how differently each of us approaches our work, this episode turned into an interesting counterpoint about focus, attention, the problems that technology solves for unorganized people, and when it is best to just turn off the computer screen and get work done.

Note: Due to some issues recording this episode on an iPad, there are a few awkward edits and audio issues.

Show Notes:

Sight Reading Factory - Excellent website for generating sight reading exercises for your students.

OmniFocus - Powerful task management for iOS and macOS.

Todoist - Collaborative, web based, and cross platform task management app.

Evernote - Versatile and cross platform note taking app.

Spark Mail App and Airmail - Two superior email apps for iOS and macOS.

Squarespace - Website platform that our music team used to build our website and publish our online calendar.

Google Calendar - The calendar service our music team uses to collaborate on classes.