So much is swirling through your mind at any moment.
The next rehearsal plan. Programming the next concert. Call time, concert attire, standing arrangements. Intonation strategies, vowels and consonants, layers of meaning in the text. Communicating musical elements with the accompanist, being ready for your next observation, and making eye contact with the student texting who thinks you can’t see the phone in his folder. Thinking about the mental wellbeing of the one kid you’ve been guiding through difficulties – but, to be honest, every student you see every day. And the ones who graduated but you saw them struggling on social media.
In this state, it’s easy to lose track of what to do next. The swirl takes on a life of its own, and you can feel like giving up. The best thing to do is to clarify your next action. Good. Now, clarify it again. Even clearer.
Keep clarifying until it’s so clear you’d walk into it, if it were a sliding door. Then act, and start clarifying the next thing.
There clearer your next action is, the easier it will be to tackle it and complete it. Continue and suddenly the swirl doesn’t seem so overwhelming.