[Must Read] Excel Tool to Track IEP Minutes and Work Tasks

As some of you  know, I worked in substance abuse before pursuing a career in school social work. Early in my career we charted EVERYTHING by hand. I can’t begin to describe the pangs of hand charting three groups of 15 clients every day. This was in addition to any individual sessions, phone conversations, staffings, etc.

 

We also had to track the minutes of all services (with their frustrating, impossible to remember codes) on a separate form for billing and record all of our activities that weren’t direct services on a productivity log. The process was so time-consuming that I wanted to add a “time spent filling out productivity log” section to the log itself!

 

In my last two years as an addictions counselor, I was blessed by the agency’s adoption of client management software. Even with all the glitches and bugs, I loved being able to track all of this information electronically and have all the information in one place.

 

When I left my job to start my school social work internship, I discovered, to my dismay, the school did not have such a tool. I was able to utilize excel to track students and tasks, but it was messy. Data needed to be entered into multiple sheets for one service. For example, I would have to enter group attendance in one sheet, add the service to the sheet that tracked the student’s minutes, and add the time I spent providing the group in the productivity sheet. Messy and time-consuming.

 

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I can minimize Excel file clutter and still electronically track my students and my time in my new position.

 

In my search I came across an incredible tool for tracking your time and services: EZAnalyze Time Tracker.

 

The EZAnalyze TimeTracker is an Excel-based application (Macro-enabled Microsoft Excel workbook) that provides you with the ability to track of how you spend your time with students (and not with students), record notes, and quickly and easily generate reports on your work.

 

Here are some screen shots:

The application was developed by a school counselor educator (why does all the great stuff seem to be coming out of the school counseling camp lately?) at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. The application is free, but you will need Microsoft Excel 2010 or later to run it.

 

In the days of data based decision-making, this tool can save you time (and maybe your job) with its rich set of features for collecting and reporting data. The creators have video tutorials and step-by-step guides to getting starting with EZAnalyze Time Tracker. Having played around with the application for 30 minutes, I can say that this tool is easy to use and immensely valuable in tracking how we spend our time.

 

Do yourself a huge favor and head over to https://www.ezanalyze.com/tracktime/. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email address for a free copy of the application.