Every month or so I take a look back at my weekly timesheets (via the excellent Thrive Solo 1) and try to see how I can improve on the current schedule yolk. Alittle OCD I know but having worked on my own for the best part of the past decade I’ve found this to be the best way to work progressively on several projects at once. How it basically breaks down at the moment is morning hours for graphic/web design commissions and the afternoon for music related stuff. Taking into account music related stuff equates to; guitar practice, songwriting, poster/merch design, marketing, music production(ele), harmony/theory study, music video dev and life drawing this leaves things pretty thinly spread so I’m keen to try and make the best use of the time I have for each.
What makes a productive day? For my own two cents worth I’ve found; getting a decent nights sleep, starting work early, not looking at Facebook, only checking/replying to emails in the morning, getting outside for an hour after lunch, not looking at Facebook, making sure I cook a solid meal once a day, avoiding music gear related sites/links and not looking at Facebook. I can manage about half of these on a good day. I’m still not sure if I’d be more or less better off working in an office environment with other folk. Moods are another big factor especially when it comes to doing something creative on your own. When there’s little or no enthusiasm its damndably hard to progress on a project. I’ve often found thou when in such a situation to fall back on an easier task. Rather than cursing the gods and going for another tea break, do something simple that none the less can generate interest. For e.g when working on an elctronic tune I wont bother trying to write new melodies or rhythms I’ll just spend the two hours browsing thru alternative presets for a synth/drum machine.
On the study front I finally finished taking notes on this book. I’ve started in on finishing the optional extra units in the Cinematic Orchestration course folder. After which I’m gonna take a short course on Counterpoint. Well worth it for 60 bucks I reckon. When that’s done I plan on writing a few tunes to test out the harmony stuff I’ve learned. Really looking forward to this as it’ll be the pre-cursor to the soundtrack I have planned for a collection of short stories :)
