Story time – My struggles to keep track of documentation each month
I don’t think you need to be a neurodivergent SLP to struggle with the paperwork side of our job’s responsibilities. I know I’m not the only one to dread or put off paperwork at the end of a long day. And I don’t know anyone who got into education because they just loved doing paperwork.
But I remember in graduate school one of my professors told us that if we didn’t document it, it didn’t happen. I don’t need to keep records to conduct speech-language therapy, but if I don’t keep the records, how do I prove that I actually did it?
Collecting data and tracking session logs are not the same. Data is not always needed every session – certainly we need to be teaching not just testing every time. But we do need a way to track or log the sessions we’ve completed.
I’ve seen people using papers in binders or folders to keep logs of the sessions they’ve done and that may work great for some people, but I know that I’m not a paper girly. Lots of paper that I have to organize and find later just doesn’t work well for me and I’d rather put my energy into something more important.
There’s online logging in google forms or SLP toolkit and that certainly helps. It just didn’t feel quite right for my needs. I wanted a way to see the progress of the service minutes I’ve provided for my caseload throughout each month. Rather my old system – checking every student’s data logs individually in the last week of the month and writing notes to myself on random sticky notes (again with the paper) to later lose in my pockets or computer bag. And then doing calculations to make sure I hit the right number for each student.
I hadn’t found something that really fit what I was looking for in caseload service minutes tracking. So I created it myself. And then I refined it throughout nearly an entire school year until I felt confident that it suited my needs.
Hacking my executive dysfunction
As an autistic person, I have executive dysfunction, and organization is definitely one of my weaknesses. I’ve been asked in job interviews how my organizational skills are or how I stay organized with all the paperwork necessary for public schools. And I have to be honest, so I answer that organization is not my strong suit, but because of that I’ve put a lot of effort into trying many systems to improve my organization. And I know that I can adapt my system to fit my current needs.
Because although my executive dysfunction deficits include organization, I have another executive function skill that is a strength. Planning. I love planning and scheduling and creating systems for that organization piece to happen. So I leverage my strength in planning to make up for what I lack in organization.
I designed this google sheet template to compensate for some of my executive function deficits and plan for times when I know I’m not going to feel like keeping up with the SLP admin. Here’s how I do it.
Reasons the google sheet works for my neurodivergent brain
Let me explain the reasons why the google sheet I created actually works for my autistic brain. Then once you understand why it works for me, hopefully that will help you determine if you think it’s something that could work for you too. At the end of this post there’s a link so you can access a free template for the current month so you can try it out yourself if you’re interested.
1. Most of the sheet is automatic.
I knew I needed to create something that would eventually save me time. So I spent hours and hours figuring out how to make a spreadsheet where most of the fields would update automatically.
There are very few fields you need to edit in the spreadsheet. Most of the elements update automatically, so updating the log is fast and simple. When you input your caseload on the first tab, all of the student names transfer over to each month automatically. This means you don’t have to spend time re-entering the names or copy and pasting each month.
You’ll still need to enter the expected service minutes of each student at the beginning of the month because services can change over time, but I usually copy-and-paste from a previous month and then update the few students with minutes that have changed.
Then all you really need to do is enter the minutes completed as the month progresses. Everything else updates automatically. Progress bars fill the screen, and you’ll see the percent completed, remaining minutes, and number of sessions remaining for each student. So you can easily visualize your progress throughout the month.
This visual aspect of using progress bars to track service delivery leaves me feeling much more organized without having to do a lot of work to maintain the sheet. Because I know that one of the things I dread about paperwork is the tedious act of filling in lots of boxes with repetitive information, like a student’s name. This sheet reduces that tedium.
2. The template is colorful and visually engaging.
This may seem silly, but I’ve learned that aesthetics are more important to me than I realized. Why? Because looking at a spreadsheet that’s colorful and aesthetically pleasing lifts my mood. Now tracking service minutes, a task that’s normally quite dull, suddenly becomes a pleasant experience in my day. Just because it’s colorful and “happy” feeling.
Each tab of the google sheet or each month of the year has its own color scheme/theme. Which was definitely extra work, but work that for me pays off given the positive effects the changing color schemes have on my mood. The changing colors for each month means that every month you get to experience a new color scheme. It gives the feeling that you’re progressing through the months. The sheet doesn’t feel monotonous as the color changes keep the brain visually interested.
Now instead of associating session tracking with tedious and boring, I’m associating session tracking with fun and engaging.
3. Progress bars are motivating.
I’m a very visual person; I primarily think in pictures. So the visual nature of seeing a progress bar advance is very motivating to me. I love to see the progress bars increase throughout the month. It motivates me to make sure I’m logging the services every day so I can watch the progress bars fill up the screen. That’s some good old-fashioned cheap dopamine.
The top of the sheet displays the overall percent of services you’ve completed for your caseload. Then by the time you reach the end of the month, you’ll see full bars of 100% completed minutes for each student. Eventually you’ll see 100% complete for your entire caseload for the month. How satisfying is that?
Having a visual cue of the progress you’re making throughout the month can help you see if you’re running behind at any point in the month so you can catch up sooner than later. It can also help remind you to plan for indirect service time or seeing students with fewer minutes who aren’t embedded in your weekly or biweekly regular schedule. These visual cues help me immensely, and again make me feel more on top of my caseload and confident that I’m not missing anyone.
Progress bars have been a game-changing discovery for me. I think just about anyone could benefit from the visual cue a progress bar provides.
4. The built-in calendar helps with calculating minutes accurately each month.
I’m sure many people have a calendar hung on the wall by their desk that they can easily reference throughout the day. When I was in-person, I had one too. But I didn’t always remember to reference it or I would open another browser tab and open my google calendar to reference instead of just turning my head.
Truly a ridiculous habit, but I’ve learned to accept that it helps me immensely to just have a calendar to reference in the same screen so I don’t waste time opening another tab or worse, trying to find my calendar tab that I know is already open among a sea of browser tabs I’ve accumulated throughout the day, or week.
Since each month looks a little different, I added a mini-calendar for each month. This way you have an easy reference for calculating service minutes for any students with weekly or biweekly minutes. Without the need to open another tab on your screen. If your school strictly uses monthly service minutes and you don’t need to calculate monthly minutes, the mini-calendar can still be nice to reference the last day of the month and see how many days are left in the present month.
I don’t need a large calendar, the mini version meets my needs for referencing the start and end days of the month, whether there are 4 or 5 weeks in the month, and note how many days are left before the month finishes.
5. View entire caseload across multiple schools on a single page.
Since I work in secondary education, I’ve never had just one school. It’s always been 2-3 schools and then sometimes included alternative private placements. I like the ability to see my full caseload on one page.
Typically in the applications used by public schools, I would have to click through several pages to see all the students on my caseload. I wouldn’t be able to see my full caseload on one page or screen. Now, I always have a separate document that lists my full caseload, but it is nice to have another document where I can easily view my entire caseload.
6. Bonus feature – Quarterly progress report tracking
As the school year progressed, I realized I also wanted to keep track of the quarterly progress reports I’d completed.
Since I complete progress reports in small spurts between sessions and other tasks, I don’t always remember which progress reports I’ve already filled out or not. So I have to go back into the system and check on each student individually. Which is tedious and unnecessarily wastes time. Can anyone else relate?
With multiple schools came multiple deadlines for progress reports, and some case managers wanted their progress reports in sooner than others. As a result, I found myself confused and forgetting which progress reports were completed and which were still remaining.
So I added a tab on the google sheet template for tracking my quarterly progress report completion. Now I simply check the box next to each student after I enter their progress reports for the quarter, and I can quickly reference that information later. Having a document to track my progress reports is incredibly useful and I recommend it if you don’t have one!
Reflection after using the Monthly Service Minutes Tracker for ~7 months
I’ve used this template for tracking my monthly service minutes for about seven months of the school year. And I can honestly say that all the work I put into creating this sheet was worth it.
I feel so much more confident and at ease with knowing where I am in my service delivery at any time in the month. I feel significantly more organized and it’s so easy to reference this one document, (as long as I update it regularly). I find that I actually do update it regularly because it makes me feel good whenever I update it. A built-in incentive.
There’s something about watching progress bars increase that is just so satisfying. And I will gladly accept any extra little hits of dopamine to get myself through one of the more cumbersome aspects of keeping up with the paperwork.
Free Template – limited features
I’m going to be up front that the free template is just a small piece of the full spreadsheet. This took me hours to design and months to refine, so I feel like it’s fair to charge for it.
However, I didn’t want to only post a link to a paid template. I want anyone to be able to benefit immediately regardless of your circumstances. So I created a free template page (with limited features) so you can at least try it out and see if you find it useful.
I will try to update this post every month so you can access the free version of the template and start using it right now, for this month. If you want to use the template for the next month and you don’t want to purchase the complete version, you can return to this post next month and pick up the updated template. (If I forget to update for some reason, feel free to message me and I will send you the updated template and make sure I add it this page.)
You can access this month’s free version of the template every month if you really want to, it will just have more limited features compared to the full template I use. You can also download the free template and then reuse it for future months by changing the date-related information yourself.
If you care more about saving money than saving time, go for it and take advantage of the free templates! If you care more about saving time, then I recommend checking out the full spreadsheet on TPT with all of the features I’ve explained above.
Full Google Sheet Template – all features
The full Google Sheet template works for any year, not only the current year so you will be able to reuse it as many times as you wish. Buy it once, and reuse it forever, seriously. No need to search for and purchase a new template for next year. Just make a new copy and update the calendar with a couple clicks. Or you can simply re-download the PDF from TPT again next year as I’ll be sure to update the template for the next school year. Still, you don’t need to rely on me as I show you exactly how you can update the calendar for the new year.
Since I put so much time into developing it, I figured I might as well make different versions for different types of caseloads, so if you purchase this template, you will get access to 9 different sheets. The sheets cover caseloads of ≤60 students up to 110 students for clinicians with 1 school, 2 schools, and 3 schools. (Although no one SLP should have nearly 110 students, I know it can and does happen, especially if there are multiple SLPAs providing services.) I didn’t want to leave anyone out! It’s a lot easier to delete extra rows than add extra rows, so I decided to err on the larger side to cover a wider range of needs.
If you purchase the full template and need more customization for your unique caseload, reach out to me and I’ll see if I can make it happen. I truly want this template to serve the needs for anyone that wants to use and can benefit from it. I’m always open to feedback and suggestions for how to improve my templates, so if you have any thoughts you want to share on this one, I’d love to listen.
If you found value in this post, please let me know by commenting below, thanks!