29/06/25 - Why is keeping track of things so hard?!

Keeping a record of your work and why it's so important!

As someone with ASD & ADHD, keeping track of things has never been my forte. I put my phone down and look away for a second, and the thing isn't there when I look back, or I'll lose my cup of tea the second I put it down to pet the cat...it's so annoying! But often, in relation to our vocal practice, the same thing can happen. We forget to keep track and so we lose our place, our progress.

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At the end of every lesson with my students I do a progress check with them. We make a point to discuss three things that went well, and one thing that could be made "even better if...". The reason we do this is to focus more on the positive aspects of what we did, rather than the negative. I try to steer clear of terms like "what went wrong" as it can often give the brain the wrong idea, weather we notice it or not, so putting a positive spin on how I develop my student's practices is my top priority.

I ask them to keep a self directed practice journal in the days I don't see them, as for some of them it can be up to 2 weeks without lessons. This means that no only do they have a record of what they've been getting up to, but it gives them tangible proof of progress or can reflect things that need to be worked on.

The Cycle of Practice

When I was studying to become a teacher, something that I was very drawn to was Kolb's Reflective Cycle of Learning. This particular learning mentality focuses on the following main principles: Experience, Reflect/Observe, Question & Experiment. This is the basis for my pedagogy as a vocal coach and what I based the structure for my students' lessons on.

In order to make this accessible to all my students, I have worked this cycle into their Self Directed Learning methods. As part of every student's survival guide we have a 7 step cycle to ensure a smooth practice session.

Keeping a journal

Something I've never gotten on with is diary writing or journaling. I've always found it really tricky & it feels so strange to me to think that I'm just describing what I've done in the day. So I pick it up and put it back down, pick it up and put it back down again, and then one day I go back and read the journal entry I did from 6 months ago and find that it's actually really nice being able to look back on those memories again and reflect on how I've grown or developed since writing them. And it's what I try and pass on to my students, the idea of being able to reflect on one's own work is so important for those days where you might feel like you're not doing enough or improving as fast as you'd like...because trust me, you are!

Something I also want to quickly touch on is the importance of understanding that it doesn't have to be a hand written entry. Many of my students also have issues with keeping physical notes, so I often suggest keeping track online, using Word or Pages (or something similar), as long as you're comfortable with it and it's easily accessible!

Mock Self Directed Learning* page:

Below is the page I give my students as a starting point for their own SDL* pages and it usually takes up an entire sheet of A4

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Date:

Goal:Tongue Placement

WWW:

EBI:

NOTES (This can be things you found, things you want to ask me, or any new terminology):

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Resource Reminder

Make sure that whenever you are looking at anything for SDL, that your resources are reliable and reputable, check citations (to mention or refer to something you are referencing in regards to research), is the site reputable, use your common sense! If it looks/feels wrong, it probably is! Be mindful of dates, don’t be afraid to question terminology (especially outdated terms - or anything dated before 2015, which was a decade ago!).

Something I always tell my students to do is, even if something is not quite right, to keep track of the fact that they looked at it, as it could come in handy later to either prove why we do something in a certain way or to rebut something said in another article.

I always ensure to remind my students that they should always gain information from multiple resources and not just rely on one person or one item of research - myself included!

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To gain access to more of this information, or to help plan your own cycle of practice, get in touch and let's put one together for you today.

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