105. Spring Cleaning--Counseling Style

Carol: You're listening to the Counselor Chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy. I'm Carol Miller, your host.

I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students. If you're looking for a little inspiration to help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place.

Because we're better together. Ready to chat. Let's dive in.

Carol: Hey there, counselor friends. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat. This is the podcast where we are keeping it real, we're keeping it practical, and tonight we are keeping it highly caffeinated.

I'm your host, Carol Miller, and today we are grabbing our brooms. Well, our metaphorical brooms and like I said, our very real coffee mugs. Because today we are doing a little spring cleaning, counseling style.

Yes, my friends, it is that magical time of year when the sun is shining.

Well, sometimes, and probably depending on what state you live in, and the test schedule is like going crazy. And we realize that our counseling offices, our calendars and our files, they might be looking a little too well loved.

So today we're going to be talking all about decluttering your counseling life. That includes your calendar, your files and your mindset. So we can wrap up the year with intention and maybe a little more peace.

Are you ready to jump in? Come on, let's go.

So you might have heard me say in recent episodes that we have a brand new counselor working with us. Well, she's working with me and this is her first job.

She just started and she is doing a fantastic job. And one of the cool things is that as a mentor, when you're showing them,

you know you're, you're a new person. Like some systems and organizational tips and tricks and things like that to help propel them for the long run, to get them through the long haul and to make this job more manageable, you kind of realize that maybe there's some things that I need to work on myself.

And I'll be honest, if your desk is starting to look like it's been painted by a preschooler with finger painting or actually with post it notes all over the place,

it is time to start cleaning up. Because you don't have to say yes to everything just because it's on your plate or maybe even someone else's plate. You don't have to.

We need to start to declutter a little bit. So here's what I want you to do. You need to really audit your commitments.

So pull up your digital or paper calendar, whatever you're using. And you need to ask what's essential,

what brings value to my program,

what feels like it's a recurring stress drain.

We have to highlight the non negotiables, then politely but firmly bow out of what doesn't align with our role. And I know that that's really tough,

but we can't fit it all in. We just can't.

And so it's okay to say no. And as we are putting together our calendars and looking at them and looking at the commitments that we have and everything else, we also have to be able to say,

are there things that I could be doing that might make my day more efficient?

Maybe it's combining a couple kids that you have and putting them into a group versus seeing them individually,

especially if they're there for the same reason purpose. And you think that you can have a really meaningful conversation with more than one person. I mean, that could free up half an hour.

That's a lot of time. If you do that with a couple kids,

that could be several hours in the week.

So you have to look at your calendar and see what you can combine, move around and say no to,

because you need to, my friends, build in breathing room. Let's face it, spring gets wild with testing, with meetings, with referrals. I mean, you name it.

So block out time each week just for you to regroup.

You can label it confidential student support if you need to, but do what you need to do to give yourself space to breathe. I know one thing that I am trying to be very conscious about is to actually also schedule time with my mentee so that we have time to talk and think about how the the program is going,

how what lessons went really well, what needs to be improved, what we want to do differently next time because self reflection is so important.

And my friends, as you're doing all this, I need you to prioritize with purpose. I mean, if it's not serving students,

staff, or your sanity, it's probably not urgent. And remember, a cluttered calendar leads to a cluttered brain. And nobody wants to be that counselor who shows up to the wrong classroom with the wrong lesson and a sticky note stuck to their forehead.

And I know I have been in the wrong classroom with the wrong lesson before,

so it happens. But we need to prioritize with purpose. And as we are doing that,

and we're looking maybe at your digital calendar, I want you to look at your email inbox. Is that a hot mess as well? And if it is, it's time to create some folders and things in there.

Because, my friends, you don't need 10,715 emails in your inbox.

And while we want to save a whole variety of emails, we don't need them all. I mean, we don't need them showing up. We can tuck them away in a folder.

I have folders in my email for every grade level,

for our elementary counseling team,

for parent meetings. You name it, I have it all broken down. And then I also have one that is the stuff to save. Those are like important emails that I might get from our district or maybe a new program stuff that I think that I have to have, but I'm not exactly 100% sure where else it can go.

I put it in the stuff to save folder and that has been really helpful.

And as you're cleaning out the Gmail suite, you also want to look at your drive and see if there are things that you can categorize into folders.

Folders can make a big difference when you are looking for stuff.

And it might take time to set it up, but it saves you a lot of time in the long run.

And that's going to lead me into the file catastrophe no more. So let's talk about your filing cabinet, shall we? Maybe that Google Drive one that you have as well.

it has the lesson plans from: 2017

student notes labeled to follow up.

And as you look at it, you're like, I don't even know who this is.

Or maybe you even have the folder that's simply titled Important things. And you look at it and you're like, I don't think any of this stuff is important.

It's time, my friend.

Let's. Marie Kondo this situation.

So here's what you need to do. You need to either archive or you. You need to eliminate it. Do you have old caseload notes? Archive that. Do you have a small group outline from five years ago that only made sense to you at midnight?

Well, eliminate it. If it hasn't been used in two years, it's either out of date or maybe it was never really that helpful.

So don't be afraid to get rid of the stuff that you don't like.

You also want to create an end of year folder, and you want to do that now.

Make one place to drop your most used resources, maybe your student data, lesson plans, parent contact logs. Because let Me tell you you'll be thanking yourself in August when you go into that folder and you find exactly what you were looking for.

It's also great to color code or tag smartly.

In my Google Drive. I have now started using emojis as well as label colors to label all my folders.

And I always put an emoji for those ones that I want to pop up to the very beginning because otherwise they'll just show up alphabetically. But I know emojis will come before that.

So I might have a son or I might have a picture of like an emoji kid or a heart or whatever it is.

Use some emojis and get those, but only save those for the ones that you need to access all the time and you don't want to dig for.

You also really want to tag your things and do it smartly. And whether it's digitally or physically,

you need to kind of organize things by category. In my computer drive, I have a series of folders in there as well as my hard drive that I use for my computer at home.

And I have those all categorized by lessons, by individual counseling, small groups,

our counseling data. I have one for letters, one for kid notes, one for parent emails. And I save all my things in the appropriate folders. And even with lessons, I go ahead and I break them down by grade and then by subject area because I want to be able to really find them easily when I need them.

And so break them down. And you. It's also okay to put folders and folders and folders, whatever you need to do to keep yourself organized.

And my friends, you really don't need to be full on like a Pinterest beautified board. Just create a system that you can stick with. But. But please, let's delete the 43 versions of lesson dash plan dash, final dash revise dash actual file.

You know, the one that has the super long name that you don't even know what the heck it is. You can get rid of that.

The last thing that we really need to talk about as we're clearing out the clutter is to wrap up everything with intention.

So let's talk about intentional closure. It's really important as we're wrapping up the year, to reflect on the year, you need to ask yourself what worked really well this year?

What was draining?

Where did I make the most impact?

Jot it down, because this is gold for your end of year report as well as for your own growth.

And then plan a soft landing. I mean, it's Time for you to schedule your final lessons, your group sessions, and your final check ins now,

because you don't want to leave them to chance in the swarm of the end of the year. You know, with everything that's going on between the testing and the magnitudes of field trips.

And you never know who's in the building and who's gone for the day.

So while all those things are already in probably your building's master schedule, go and take your calendar up to that, put all those things in there, and then start planning your end of the year so that you can account for that whirlwind and confusion that the end of the year can sometimes create.

And while you're at it,

don't forget to really celebrate your wins. Whether they were big or small,

you have to celebrate your victories.

I said this early on, at the very, very beginning of the year,

we don't celebrate our victories enough,

but we have to.

We have to share those victories with others. Whether it's that one student who finally opened up after maybe saying hello to them all year, and every time you walk by them, you said hello and they just like turn the other way and they finally one day said hello back.

Or maybe it's that teacher who let you lead a circle.

Or maybe it's that time you didn't cry during your third data meeting of the week. I mean, celebrate that too, because you did that.

And finally, my friends,

last but not least, I want you to leave some breadcrumbs for next year for you.

Write a note to the future you. And in that note, here's what I want you to include. I want you to include what worked.

What do you want to do differently? And then I want you to also remind yourself that you're not a magician, you're a counselor. And that's more than enough.

Just leave it there on your desk. Or maybe tuck it in a lesson plan that you know that you're going to do sometime in the middle of next year again.

So that when you open it up, there it is, just looking for you with that friendly little reminder.

So there you have it. Your spring counseling cleanup checklist. You ready? Here it is once again. Declutter your calendar.

Clean up your email inbox, Organize those files and reflect and wrap up with intention.

Because remember, spring cleaning, it isn't just about tidying up. It's about clearing space for what really matters.

Friend. What really matters is, is that you are making a difference.

Even if your files are still a little messy and your calendar has more reschedules than actual sessions.

You've got this.

So thank you for joining me today on Counselor Chat. If you like this episode, I hope that you share it with a counselor friend who might need a spring cleaning boost or maybe just a reason to finally tackle that miscellaneous folder.

And until next time, take care of yourself.

Maybe your files too,

but take care of yourself. And until next time, I hope you have a great week. Bye for now.

Carol: Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and at counselingessentials.org forward/podcast. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Want to connect? Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at Counseling Essentials until next time.

Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.

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