Do you feel a bit stressed when you think about the many events and concerts in the 2nd semester? Then I would like to recommend the following to you: If you start well planned, you’ll be stressfree! I know, this isn’t something new, but it is really worth to plan carefully!

Good planning helps us to keep overview. It is important to embed the tasks to be completed – divided into substeps – well thougt out into the available time. If you are well planned for the second semester, you will experience a busy but a stress-free time until summer. You will have achieved your goals at the end of the semester without being completely exhausted! Today I would like to introduce you to a little „helper“, which makes it much easier for me to plan and overview my important dates and deadlines and tasks.

The Planning-„Tool“

My planning tool is called „Kalenderpedia“. It’s not really a tool in that sense. Kalenderpedia is a platform from which you can download calendar templates free of charge in any form: annual calendar, monthly calendar, weekly calendar, biennial calendar and much more are available in various variants and file formats. There are calendar templates for Austria, Germany and Switzerland, always adapted to the respective holidays. There are even calendar templates for every single German state. You can find out by clicking the link to this platform below. For  english-speaking people among us there is a platform called „Printable 2018 Calendars“. I’ll also link it below.

Wide Selection

First, you can choose between the file formats Word, Excel or PDF. After downloading, you can either save the calendar template and later fill it out on the computer or print it out and fill it in manually, as you prefer. I like to work with a half-year calendar (there is a yearly calendar divided into two half-years) and a monthly calendar with small numbers so that I have enough space for my notes.

Half-Year Plan

First I start with the half-year plan. Most of the dates (concerts, studio recitals, teachers training courses, competitions, conferences, etc.) for the semester are already fixed. I now enter these dates into the half-yearly calendar. Now I already have an overview.

Monthly Planning

In the next step, I take a close look at all those events that require a longer preparation, such as: studio recitals, concerts or competitions. I calculate how many rehearsals are needed and I think about what time before the event they should take place. After agreement with all persons involved, I can already set the rehearsal dates and enter them into the calendar. For this step I prefer the monthly calendar. This simply offers more space for notes. Here you can see part of one of my monthly calendars:

Of course you can – if you like – also enter your private dates and other appointments, for example, your personal daily practice time, your visit of the gym, the birthdays of your family members, and things like that. Do not forget to include personal recovery times, like a weekend trip to the thermal bath or a meeting with friends in a cafe …

The completed monthly calendar is then similar to a ToDo list, which can be done calmly day by day and step by step. So make sure that you have a reasonable allocation of dates and tasks through the planned period, and that there is still some room for unforeseen events!

Too many Dates and Tasks?

What to do if too many dates and tasks pile up in a short period of time? Think carefully about which tasks and commitments you accept. There are often so many great orchestra-jobs and teaching-responsibilities that one would like to accept all. But since the day has only 24 hours, we have to decide. A decision for something is always a decision against something else that we would have liked to do. We have to be aware of that.

Well planned is …

So it is in our own hands how we plan our next months. Whether we can consciously experience and enjoy our days and our tasks, or whether at the end of the day or semester we only feel exhausted. So – make your planning well, take the necessary time for it, because your planning has a great influence on your experience of life in the next few months!

I wish you a well planned, successful, stress-free and enjoyable semester with all your protégés and all your tasks!

Sincerely,

Andrea Holzer-Rhomberg

By the way, here are the links:

www.kalenderpedia.de

www.printable2018calendars.com