Procrastination is the mother of panic.
Time is a valuable, non-renewable resource. Every day we are allotted, we have an opportunity to better our communities, our environments, and ourselves. But occasionally I succumb to putting things off until I’m forced to do them, and I wind up with a result that, while passable, is mediocre to my eyes. Being in a time crunch can be a good thing. I’ve written some of my best work while under the stress of a looming deadline. However, there is a difference between a time crunch you’ve signed up for, and a time crunch you’ve created for yourself. And this year, I’m striving to mitigate the second scenario. So how am I going to tackle this procrastination problem? Maybe I should think about it and come back to it later… Below, I’ve made 3 tasks to get myself in line and make sure I’m progressing as a student, a composer, and as a life-long learner. Feel free to use these tips and join me! 1: Hold myself accountable with a detailed schedule. Something I’ve found helpful is to keep track of every hour in my day. I write down what I’m doing when, and schedule in some daily downtime for eating, relaxing with friends, or even a game. The key here is to know where my time is going to, and to compose every single day! 2: Set monthly, weekly, and daily goals and write them out in a planner. Setting goals is the premiere rule when it comes to achieving great things. By breaking my life down into small steps, I can help myself accomplish the little things that add up into a larger life goal. 3: Always ask “Why?” Finding the ‘why’ behind a task or a goal is essential to give it value and meaning. I’m planning on doing this with even the most mundane tasks. For instance: “I need to do laundry. But why?” “Because if I don’t have clean clothes, the professional impression I’ll make on everyone is Phew! Does her music stink just as badly??” All joking aside, asking “why?” or “why music?” is essential for remembering the reason we fell in love with our craft in the first place. The reason for asking ‘why’ is to cultivate that love endlessly. This year, I’m striving to better myself and effectively eliminate procrastination; I hope these tips help you too! Check back soon for more updates!
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It may be that high school AP English has stuck with me for far too long.
Don’t get me wrong, I love writing. And learning to write academically and coherently is one of the best things that happened in my life. However, I’ve noticed that each time I go to write something new, I compulsively save my blank document. Then, I head over to the font settings, and meticulously change the Calibri default setting to Times New Roman, the overbearing Champion of Academia. Finally, I adjust the font size ever so slightly to 12-point rather than 11, because 11 is just a hair too small, and besides, 12 is (for some reason) so much better, as agreed upon by professors, writers, editors, and the like. It all seems a bit overkill, especially when I’m going to be putting the content in a whole new format later on, but I do it nonetheless. Why am I rambling about font sizes and Word documents on a music blog? It’s because this process—this setting everything up perfectly before even beginning to get creative—has saved me a ton of time; not only in the English writing world, but in the music composition world. Whenever I open Sibelius or Cubase or any software, I automatically preset my score. I make sure I have my instruments and sounds and fonts loaded, I make sure I’ve saved my blank score, I make sure all of my settings are easy to find and exactly the way I like them. If there’s one nugget of knowledge to share on this first blog post, it’s to always establish your settings the way you like, so that what you hear in your head is not forced out by the mental energy it takes to find a breath marking for that one vocal phrase. The same goes for setting up a rehearsal, a recording studio, or a business meeting. The best thing you can do to be ready is to prepare everything you can control. Even if it seems a bit silly when you’re by yourself in front of your computer with no one’s expectations riding on your shoulders, giving yourself the best set-up possible will only make your creative ideas flow more easily down the road. It might seem peculiar to make a post about preparation the point of a positively preposterous paper. Alliteration aside, I could think of no better way to begin this journey than to talk about preparation and presets. It’s a reminder to myself to always go back and establish a firm foundation for any project I’m working on. That’s all for now; check back often for anecdotes and updates! |