Resolution

Mon, 12/31/2007 - 13:43 — Alan

As the new year starts, my main resolution is to continue a resolution from last year. It has the one main aim of keeping me focussed and a side result of being a record of what I've done.

The resolution was two-fold
a) have a simple system for valuing work for a day
b) have a simple system for recording those activities.

I use a diary, not to record appointments but to keep a record of what I've done. It proved invaluable in helping me figure out how productive I was (or wasn't) being. Looking back at a week helps me understand what I want to focus on for the next week. It can make me think that I should do more or less in the following or focus on another activity. This results in me being more motivated for the next following weeks as I set some simple aims to complete each day.

I could choose from the following activities:

1) to write a new song/track
2) finishing a song completely resulting in having mastered files ready
3) creating a cd for agencies
4) going on a photoshoot and importing photos to the server
5) sorting through a previous photoset resulting in having images selected/rejected and the selected images ready for submission to agencies
6) write 2 non-shallow articles for this site
7) finish post audio processing for a production

Other tasks, such as company housekeeping, improving the company server, improving this site, planning a photoshoot, going to interviews, improving some skill or other could only count in combination. If all I'd done on a day was to improve the website, that wasn't sufficient.

Why weren't (1) and (2) combined? Well, I prefer to write and roughly mix on one day, then revisit the mix with fresher ears. I've found that gives better results than doing it all in one day.

The main reason for this was that I found that a lot of the smaller tasks would swallow up a day or two very quickly. While useful, they weren't necessary to where I wanted to be. Improving the website could quickly take a lot of time. So unless I'd planned a major overhaul, it was relegated to a minor activity.

There are 2 good side-effects as well:

Using the diary as a logbook helps at the end of a quarter or the year if I have to look to see where I was on a particular day. Very useful when it comes to calculating expenses at the end of the month.

The second side-effect is the Visual Inspiration that's provided on a regular weekly.

So this year, I'll keep the same motivation. I already have the diary.

If you haven't, then you can find a good, inspiring diary at Earth From The Air.

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Update 02/01/2008
Looking back at what I wrote for yesterday about my resolution, I feel there's yet more to tell.

First of all, although I do write in the diary each day, perhaps sometimes only 4 words so I know where I was, sometimes 30 words due to having achieved several activities, I don't review it every day. That's important. If you review it every day, as soon as you have an off-day, it starts to look bad. I find these that the peaks and troughs of productivity usually even out over a week. We've all had those days where it's easier to chat to friends at work or, even worse, when the computer monitor looks back at you knowing you're doing anything. Maybe that's just my conscience. But as far as I'm concerned, we all have days where we're more productive than others. That's the way of the world for me, and from what I see, it's the same for others.

So if you have a non-productive day, don't beat yourself up about it. Not the following day anyway. If you have a week of more non-productive days than productive days, then at least by reviewing the week, you're in a position of knowledge. Knowing you've not done much to get you to your goals is the first step in change.

The trick is that if the days don't even out, then you can take action the following week. You may not want (and it may be impossible) to recoup the unproductive days. Probably better just to treat them as a break. But you can decide your focus for the following week. Maybe your ambition needs adjusting in what you're able to do. For instance, I know it takes way longer than 3 minutes to produce a completely polished 3 minute track (some customers don't though), but how much longer? For me, the answer will most likely be different to someone else. There are a lot of variables, how many instruments, how much director-input, style, orchestration, tempo, type of instruments and so on. So sometimes, it will take me half a day sometimes more. Depends on how polished it needs to be as well.

And remember to plan in time away. If all your days are work, where's the time for family, friends, hobbies, enjoying yourself?

This was almost part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition. But the article is more about how I organise my time so I can create music.