#21. Systems Series Part 1: A Simple System for Tracking CEUs
Keeping track of your continuing education hours can feel daunting, especially when your workday is packed with back-to-back sessions and little-to-no documentation time. Creating a system to track your hours can reduce stress, anxiety, and overwhelm--and it can help prevent you from scrambling at the last minute to find workshops and webinars to meet your hours!
As speech pathologists, our days are a whirlwind of responsibilities, leaving us feeling overworked and overwhelmed. Amidst this chaos, managing continuing education (CE) hours often becomes an added stressor. Having a solid system in place for tracking and fulfilling these requirements can significantly alleviate the pressure and prevent last-minute scrambles.
Before diving into the specifics of creating a CEU system, it's crucial to understand why systems are vital in our profession. Many of us have experienced burnout and overwhelm, leading some SLPs to consider leaving the field altogether. This is where effective time management and productivity coaching can make a significant difference.
Systems aren't an instant fix for all our challenges, but they do contribute to working smarter, lightening our load, and reclaiming control over our time and schedules. I want to emphasize that creating systems won't magically eradicate stress, but the cumulative effect can noticeably ease the pressure.
So, let's explore how to construct a simple yet effective system specifically for managing CEU hours.
Step 1: Organize Requirements
Begin by tracking the CEU requirements for the various organizations you're affiliated with. Jot down the number of hours needed, any specific topics or domains required, and whether the hours must be synchronous, asynchronous, in-person, or virtual.
Step 2: Note Deadlines and Costs
Next, detail the due dates for each organization's CEU submissions along with associated costs. Consider investing in ASHA's CE Registry, a somewhat controversial yet admittedly convenient tool, to simplify the tracking process.
Step 3: Plan Your Approach
Now, decide how often you'll tackle accumulating your CEU hours. Reflect on your preferences, personality traits, and work routines. Would you prefer to track your hours more frequently (say, monthly) or less frequently (say, quarterly)? Or is an intense but focused annual period more suitable for you?
Step 4: Choose Your Tracking Platform
Finally, select the platform for logging and monitoring your CEU progress. Whether it's using digital tools like Google Sheets or opting for a physical tracking sheet or binder, choose what aligns with your comfort and accessibility.
Final Thoughts
Remember, systems are not meant to be a one-size-fits-all strategy. The order in which you approach these steps isn't rigid. You may even consider additional steps that support your “workstyle” or removing steps here that don’t seem to fit. And if the idea of creating systems sounds exciting but you want more support in creating what will work for you, reach out and let’s discuss how I can help you.