Time Mastery for Musicians

Boost your productivity

Time mastery is the very essence of the Renegade way.

Most days I work anywhere from 10 to 12 hours, and the notion of being productive for only a quarter of that time is a thing of the most horrifying nightmares. I’m behind on projects as is, and the consequences of failing to show up and produce on any given day would be angry clients, exhausting conversations, and lost income.

I can get away with the occasional “off” scatterbrained day, half-day, or “putting out fires” day. I even take one day off per week. But if I “winged it” for more than a few days, I could find myself in hot water.

Now, I’m not saying that this is the model to follow. I’m the kind of person that thrives on variety and opportunity. Most people would look at what I do and feel very unsettled if they weren’t on their way to having a heart attack.

I’m not advocating for my approach to building a music career or business, nor am I saying you should follow my example.

What I’m saying is you’re nowhere near as effective you could be in the time available to you. You can do more. But your access to greater productivity must be unlocked.

We need to give ourselves the best possible shot at making the most of the time we have, and the only way we can do this is by setting aside time for breaks, rest, meditation, sleep, vacation, refueling, and of course, exercise.

As I’ve been living out of Airbnbs for three months, I’ve been making it a point to walk for an hour per day at 2 PM. It took a bit of experimentation to figure out that I didn’t want to walk at 3 PM, because at that time of day, kids are getting out of school, and I like to walk and think alone. The less traffic and noise on the trails, the better. You learn from your mistakes.

The point is you’ve got to put breaks into your schedule and follow through on the intentions you’ve set to the best of your ability (because it’s always easy not to step away from the desk for 15 minutes of meditation). Even with a neatly organized, timeboxed Google Calendar, you’re still not going to do everything at the time you set out to do it. You’re not going to do it all perfectly. But as it has been said:

You must determine what you’re going to do with your time. But it’s not going to do you any good to obsess over the glitches that occur as the days unfold. That just makes you want to give up on planning altogether.

This will make a lot more sense as you’re living out your daily plans.

So, what must we do to ensure we’re always at our best for when it counts?

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute health advice. Seek out a qualified professional if you have questions.

We’re artists. We love to follow inspiration and start things from scratch.

But we must adjust. Starting from scratch is messy. It’s costing us time, and time is costing us income. This puts a ceiling on what we can accomplish on a given day. And weeks, months, and years are just days added up.

In the last few days, I’ve published at least three blog posts per day on Music Entrepreneur HQ. The reason I’ve been able to do this is because I’m not reinventing the wheel, even if I’m saying something old in a new way.

I’m not suggesting that you suppress your creativity. Far from it.

But just as building a house begins with a blueprint, you should have pre-built frameworks for activities you carry out on a recurring basis. In other words, if you know you’re going to be doing it more than once, make a template, swipe file, checklist, or framework for it. This is good backup planning too — you can give your checklist to a band or team member when you’re not able to handle the task or want to delegate it.

You’re smart enough to figure out how and where this will apply to your situation, but I will offer a few examples to get you started:

I’m a laid-back guy. Some have even referred to me as the “master of Zen.”

But behind the scenes, I’m not thinking to myself, “no worries — there’s always more time.” I’m doing what I can do today to advance the projects in my queue.

I have several rules I follow. For instance, I only dedicate one hour per day to email and communication. I batch all the emails, messages, and calls I possibly can in that one hour, moving as fast as I can (not to the detriment of accuracy, mind), because I know I will only have an hour to return messages.

It’s nice to think there will always be more time to do what you need to do. You might look at your schedule on Thursday and say, “Look at that, it’s 2 PM and I only have one thing left to do. It’s not even due until Monday. I’ve worked hard. I’m going to reward myself and chill the rest of the day.”

I get it. These opportunities may be rare. But you can’t possibly know how you’re going to be feeling tomorrow, let alone what will happen between Thursday and Monday. Move with urgency, especially if you’ve got energy left over. New opportunities could show up tomorrow and then you will wish you had completed the task on Thursday.

The 95% always put things off until tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. There are times to take a step back, but you don’t want laziness to become habitual.

This is another doozie for creatives. We want everything to be “perfect.” When we deliver a film score to a client, a demo to a label, or a YouTube video to our fans, we want everything to be just right.

Look, there is a time and place for making something as good as you possibly can make it. Unfortunately, I know far too many artists and creatives who are held back by perfectionism. They never get around to their first blog post let alone launching their website. They never get around to their first song let alone their full studio album.

I’m happy to offer coaching to anyone who’s stuck, but I can’t steer a parked car. You’ve got to get your vehicle in motion so I can help you adjust course.

Once you’re overcome the perfectionism trap, and you’ve spent a few years developing your skills, the next step is to determine what’s “good enough” in every situation.

If your financial ledger contains all the data but you’re not happy with how the columns look and want to use bold fonts and add color, you’ve passed the point of “good enough.”

If you promised an acoustic number to one of your crowdfunding pledgers, and you’ve captured all your parts in pristine studio quality but proceed to add synth and organ parts that were never a part of your intended deliverable, you’ve passed the point of “good enough.”

Again, there is a time and a place for over-delivering. Do it when you can. It is very Renegade to over-deliver. But I don’t know too many people who say “look at all the time I have left over” at the end of the day.

Your “good enough” will be above and beyond in the eyes of most.

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