Discussion Forum > Organisation of time as a musician
Wow - I feel exhausted just reading your post! But congratulations on having achieved so much.
I think a very important question you need to ask yourself is just how organised do you want to be? You are already achieving an immense amount, and to some extent you have a natural filter in place which is choosing the things which are really important to you. So one answer is just to accept that you are never going to be completely organised and that what doesn't get done doesn't get done for a reason.
It sounds as if you have already put some sensible rules in place. In your sort of very varied life circumstances you might find it easier to work with an open-ended To Do list in the way which I described in my post on August 1st "Procrastination Buster". In that way you can just feed in everything that you feel you want or need to do and process it efficiently. Do keep the list well weeded though, otherwise it will grow faster than you can action it!
With commitments, remember that just because something is valuable doesn't mean that you have to do it. I use the example of a restaurant menu in my books. Out of all the delicious dishes on offer, you have to choose a meal that you can eat.
Practice falls into the category of project which I call "Continuous projects", i.e. ones which consist mainly of repetitious actions and which have no fixed end goal. I describe them and how to deal with them in Chapter 14 of "Do It Tomorrow". Basically you should schedule in a fixed time each day. If it's impossible to have the same time each day, then at the beginning of each week work out what times you are going to practice each day and stick to those times. Treat them as sacrosanct - nothing is allowed to interrupt them. Also get into the habit of starting practice exactly on time, and finishing it exactly on time. In other words, give the practice just as much priority as if you were giving a student a lesson.
Finally, if you are finding office work difficult then employ a part time secretary or virtual assistant. I use a virtual assistant myself to do my invoicing (which I hate) and some other jobs, and that has taken a lot of pressure off me. If you don't know what a virtual assistant is, google the phrase.
I think a very important question you need to ask yourself is just how organised do you want to be? You are already achieving an immense amount, and to some extent you have a natural filter in place which is choosing the things which are really important to you. So one answer is just to accept that you are never going to be completely organised and that what doesn't get done doesn't get done for a reason.
It sounds as if you have already put some sensible rules in place. In your sort of very varied life circumstances you might find it easier to work with an open-ended To Do list in the way which I described in my post on August 1st "Procrastination Buster". In that way you can just feed in everything that you feel you want or need to do and process it efficiently. Do keep the list well weeded though, otherwise it will grow faster than you can action it!
With commitments, remember that just because something is valuable doesn't mean that you have to do it. I use the example of a restaurant menu in my books. Out of all the delicious dishes on offer, you have to choose a meal that you can eat.
Practice falls into the category of project which I call "Continuous projects", i.e. ones which consist mainly of repetitious actions and which have no fixed end goal. I describe them and how to deal with them in Chapter 14 of "Do It Tomorrow". Basically you should schedule in a fixed time each day. If it's impossible to have the same time each day, then at the beginning of each week work out what times you are going to practice each day and stick to those times. Treat them as sacrosanct - nothing is allowed to interrupt them. Also get into the habit of starting practice exactly on time, and finishing it exactly on time. In other words, give the practice just as much priority as if you were giving a student a lesson.
Finally, if you are finding office work difficult then employ a part time secretary or virtual assistant. I use a virtual assistant myself to do my invoicing (which I hate) and some other jobs, and that has taken a lot of pressure off me. If you don't know what a virtual assistant is, google the phrase.
August 3, 2007 at 8:27 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Dear Mark
Thank you very much for the advice. A very clever technique that you wrote about in the procrastination buster article. I will definitely try that.
I already programme in my practise in advance. As I know my orchestral schedule and freelance schedule pretty much 6 months in advance I try to keep the practise schedule in place just as far ahead as I don't want to over-schedule myself so that I don't have the time to prepare for my playing obligations!
I will though be looking at my commitments regularly for a while now and asking myself the question "Is this something I absolutely must do right now?" and "Is this something I can do at a later point in my career?", and possibly also "Is there something I should and want to be doing less of, and if so what and how is this going to be possible?"
I will look into a virtual assistant. I've never heard of this!
A current project for me is definitely to revamp my personal system so I will also be re-reading your books (aepecially Do It Tomorrow-it is very complete and sensible)
So thank you and I will keep you posted on anything I discover and thank you for all the good advice and help you have given me.
All the best,
Simon
Thank you very much for the advice. A very clever technique that you wrote about in the procrastination buster article. I will definitely try that.
I already programme in my practise in advance. As I know my orchestral schedule and freelance schedule pretty much 6 months in advance I try to keep the practise schedule in place just as far ahead as I don't want to over-schedule myself so that I don't have the time to prepare for my playing obligations!
I will though be looking at my commitments regularly for a while now and asking myself the question "Is this something I absolutely must do right now?" and "Is this something I can do at a later point in my career?", and possibly also "Is there something I should and want to be doing less of, and if so what and how is this going to be possible?"
I will look into a virtual assistant. I've never heard of this!
A current project for me is definitely to revamp my personal system so I will also be re-reading your books (aepecially Do It Tomorrow-it is very complete and sensible)
So thank you and I will keep you posted on anything I discover and thank you for all the good advice and help you have given me.
All the best,
Simon
August 4, 2007 at 9:51 |
Simon
Simon
I have just recently read two of your books (Do It Tomorrow, and Get Everything Done) and have been really impressed by the things you write. In fact I've been thinking about the way I organise my time and commitments, and ways to concentrate and fight procrastination all summer and have read three other books too in order to get an impression of a variety of ideas. I must say that your ideas appealed greatly and suited my ideas and needs in many ways.
The reason for my writing to you here is to describe to you my work situation as I feel that many of the strategies apply to people working in offices, or that do office type work.
I am a classical musician. I am a cellist and have a principal position in a major Orchestra in Norway. It is common (through my position), and also recommended (to inspire and maintain levels), to do freelance performing. I have been and am quite active in that field. I appear regularly as a soloist and do recitals and also get asked to guest lead cello sections in orchestras. I have also recorded a solo CD. In addition to this I love to teach and I am very interested in pedagogy (i'm constantly writing articles on various aspects for myself) although I at present only have one permanent student, I teach masterclasses regularly and hope to teach more permanently with time.
Now this may sound like an awful lot of commitments, but I asure you that this is perhaps not common for all musicians in my position, but there are quite a few as active as i am, many perhaps more so.
I also have a wife and daughter of 3 years old. My wife is also a musician with a permanent position in an ensemble, but not so active as a freelance musician.
My work time is divided into
Rehearsals and concerts for the Orchestra (approx 21 hours a week, there's the travel to and from in addition of course)
rehearsals and concerts for freelance activity
My own personal preparation on the cello (4 hours daily approx)
My teaching (2 hours weekly)
Office time - answering emails and post, dealing with issues from within the orchestra (As I'm a principal on my instrument there are always issues), creating programmes and trying to promote them. Writing about cello playing and practice, preparing for teaching sessions, planning practice.
I am aware that in relation to commitments and time management it doesn't look good, but look at it this way:
I need the job financially.
I cannot stop doing the freelance things as this is what gives me the greatest personal satisfaction.
I feel that it is important to do my teaching as one day it may lead to being able to teach more regularly. The writing is a part of this and also gives me great personal satisfaction.
Part of the reason i have been reading so many books is that I have a problem with procrastination which I think comes of being overwhelmed by the amount of tasks and the lack of time. Since my daughter was born I have written up my own system (without reading anything at that time) as it was important for me (and my wife!!!) to secure my family time.
Parts of it have worked well.It builds basically on being my own boss and deciding when to work and when not to, and organising when to do the things i have to and want to do. What hasn't worked out so well is that I still feel overwhelmed, and I end up needing to get things done on free evenings (which in my profession there aren't that many of...)
It was wonderful to read about limits in your books, which I had started trying on my own already, and I think this is important still. I tried for example limiting the amount of works I practise a day, the amount of works I take on any season, the amount of pieces i am trying to promote at any time. The amount of freelance commitments I have a month. It's difficult to see what will work best yet, but i wondered whether you had any previous experience of coaching someone in a similar situation or had any tips seeing this information here?
The thing about practice is that it has no end. Things can always improve, there are always sounds to explore and clarity to be gained. I tried for a time to to put dates to the office work so that I would be working on particular projects on particular days. I would never finish them, but maybe do something and then as I had so many dated projects I wouldn't get back to the first one for many many weeks. Your closed lists ideas are fantastic, and the whole system with daily tasks, current initiative etc will be brilliant for me I think. The only thing is that I will not be able to make a do it tomorrow list for office type work. It will have to be a do it the "next available time" list.
In order to have time for everything I have tried to reserve time in my diary. Practice time - office time and then all the appointments, but also home commitments so that I don't schedule anything in when I shouldn't! I do this 6 months in advance so that new scheduled items will not take the practice time away. The thing is that the time left over for office work is so little! I am off to play some concerts at a festival in Canada soon, and after I come home for aweek I am off again to play a concerto in Sweden. The week in between I have to work in the opera.I have almost a 4 week period where I don't get any decent time for office work (I will probably try to use the flights, but I can for the most part only plan then) Keeping fit becomes a low priority. It sometimes gets a time slot at the end of the day because I have decided that i have to plan it in order for it to get done, but by that time I'm tired and want to talk to my wife so it usually doesn't get done. I have considered trying to do it in the day but then I don't feel that I can take time away from practise or the little office time I have.
Do you have any tips on organising time and creating limits in the world of musicians, and do you have a method of organising time between the different types of activity (practise, office, teaching, writing - I guess in batches?). And do you have any tips on the commitment problem as I feel that my commitments are all valuable in various ways. Also do you have any tips for organising things like practice which in a sense do not have an end result.
Best wishes and thank you for your books,
Simon