Working as a DIY musician involves handling a variety of tasks and challenges in form of music self-management. Even though the core element – music – occupies the heart piece of each endeavor, many minor tasks and jobs surrounding the creative output need careful planning and implementation.
Often, these minor tasks even turn out to become major time-consumers, demanding conceptional headspace and energy to handle.
To make your life easier, i collected 3 music self-management tips, each zooming in on a different area.
1. Identify your groove
Even though you’ll find hundreds of articles on time-management and creative structure online, in the end you’ll have to taylor your own specific groove.
Especially considering your unique musical agenda: Try not to merely adapt different styles to your routine. Think about how you approach things – are you an over-planner? Do you tend to wait till the very last stretch of a deadline to get things done?
The task of working on certain habits and routines becomes a lot easier, if you try to optimize, instead of replacing them. For that to happen, you’ll have to invest some careful thought on how your creative-and organizational process works the best.
If you’re open to critique, a great way of categorizing your work-mode is asking close friends or collaborators to describe the way they perceive your routines. More often than not you’ll come up with interesting insights and a birds-eye perspective which might push your music self-management skills.
2. Multitasking myth
A great misconception on multitasking is based on the fact that were able to perform a certain amount of tasks simultaneously, with some people more adept at keeping an overview than others.
This seems possible due to a habitual process where one task is so well learned that it basically runs on automatic mode.
If you dig into the subject, you’ll be surprised to learn that what we are actually doing is called serial tasking – meaning the process of shifting between two or more activities while having the feeling of dealing with it all at once.
An interesting article published by the National Academy of Sciences states, that most people who actually assume to be great multitaskers are actually pretty bad at dealing with serial tasking. This is derived from an obvious „. .. inability to filter past an no-longer relevant information from the previous task.“
So – be aware that multitasking is an unproven concept. If you feel like the outcome of certain tasks is suffering because of your approach of multitasking, try working single-mindedly on one task instead of several at once.
3. Dig into the financials – EARLY
The earlier you start figuring out and keeping track of your music-related financials, the better.
Start a folder and spreadsheet with a comprehensible list of expenses- and revenues, involving all expenditures related to music or the organizational process.
You’ll be extremely grateful for having set that up in time to come, especially when stepping into financial autonomy.
A great deal of managerial work involves setting up a clear overview of that area, and you’ll make the life of every person involved in your future managerial efforts a lot easier. You will also speed the process up when dealing with your accountant, saving time and resources when processing tax related issues.
Our ForTunes Blog offers an ongoing selection of tips and insights on music self- management and related topics. Feel free to visit and leave some feedback, we’ll be sure to get back to you asap!
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