Lucy Heyman, co-author of Sound Advice suggests that to manage creative work you need to know yourself and what you need to be creative. Every composer and musician is different and the same approach will not work for everyone.
She suggests that, once you have identified your ideal creative state and environment, developing a morning practice which helps you achieve that is a useful way of taking control of your day. That might be:
- Journaling / free writing / brain dump
- Exercise / relaxation / meditation
- Set goals for the day or week that are aligned with your passion
- Use a daily planner to stay on track and see how much you have achieved
Alongside these ideas, researcher Jenny Boyd found that, for some, structure was a really important part of completing creative work. Finding ways to develop, organise and complete work into a finished article is an essential part of a life as a composer or songwriter.
Again, it’s up to you to know which works best for you. Some subscribe to the chaotic, messy artist trope, waiting for the muse to take them. Others need strict routines, as singer Nick Cave describes:
“For me, songwriting is essentially an office job: it’s getting up in the morning, sitting down at nine o’clock, and working away at things.”
Setting your own deadlines and being clear on work boundaries can help create motivation and it can be useful to ask someone else to keep you accountable.
As a composer and musician, you may have to refine, produce and promote your own work. These tasks all require a different skills set and mental state. Managing your time effectively as well as being in the right mindset to complete the different tasks takes some planning.
Often, we try to do too much at once or don’t count tasks as work or get overwhelmed by everything and stop prioritising.
Multitasking, which involves working on two or more tasks simultaneously, switching back and forth from one thing to another, or performing a number of tasks in rapid succession seems like a great way to get a lot done at once.
Research suggests that multitasking can actually hamper your productivity by reducing your comprehension, attention, and overall performance. Switching from one task to another may make it difficult to tune out distractions and we tend to work slower and less efficiently when we multitask and make more mistakes.
Research has shown that it can take 15-20 minutes to refocus on a task once you’ve been distracted. Interruptions also cause higher levels of stress. As a result, it can help to turn off notifications on your phone and computer while you’re working if you want to achieve an optimum, focused creative state.
Productivity and time management aren’t always about cramming in more things, becoming more efficient. It’s more about choosing the right things and giving them your full focus. Sheryl Garratt in the Creative Life suggests ten things to consider.
1. Time is limited. But so is energy, and focus.
You need to manage all three, not just your time. Very few of us can manage more than four hours of creative work in a day. Many of us even need to divide that time into shorter sprints, with breaks to recover our energy and attention.
Of course, there are days when we have to work long hours – because we’re on a deadline, on a shoot, or we only have the studio booked for a few days – and we get through it. but that isn’t sustainable over the long term, and you need time to recover afterwards.
We need regular breaks in our working day, to refocus and to replenish our energy.
2. Pay yourself first: make the time for deep, creative work.
We often wait for a long stretch of uninterrupted time to magically open up, so that we can finally write that book, start that major art project, explore a new direction.
We put it off, but you only get the time if you put it on your schedule like any other deadline or appointment. Ring-fence time for the project you most want to do.
3. Choose your One Thing
As creatives, we tend to have a lot of ideas. and they’re all exciting. We go off on tangents. We get distracted by the latest new and shiny object. We need to make choices and only focus on one project at a time.
4. Love vs Money
We all need to pay the bills. But many of us are also working on creative projects that are more speculative, that might not immediately bring in income and we need those projects to grow and learn, enjoy our work and express our creativity.
Hopefully the unpaid fun projects will make money in the end, but in the meantime, make space for both.
5. Get clear on how long tasks really take
Tracking your time is tedious, but it’s also eye-opening. Try keeping a record of what you’ve been doing, in 30-minute increments, for a week or even a month.
Tracking your time for a while will help you become more aware of the tasks you dread doing, that you put off for days. But which only take a few minutes to actually do. And the tasks you tell yourself should only take an hour – but which really take half a day, every time. This will help you plan your time.
6. Look out for energy hangovers
Some tasks are more demanding than others, and they leave you with energy hangovers. If you don’t have a natural break (walking back to the office, having a chat) you still need to make space for recovery. If you don’t plan for it, your mind will find its own way of distracting itself.
7. Don’t forget the admin!
Schedule in blocks of time to do these essential but distracting tasks. To make phone calls, reply to email, check messages and alerts, pay bills, chase invoices, and all the other routine tasks that tug you out of flow. Batch them, then mute them in between.
Set boundaries by telling friends you won’t reply in work hours and sending an automatic email response to say that you’ll reply within 24 hours and giving a phone number for emergencies.
8. Chunk down big tasks
Sometimes, we don’t start a task because it’s overwhelming, and it’s impossible to know where to start. Or our to-do list is so long we stop looking at it.
Sheryl’s tactic is to try to have nothing on her to-do list that will take longer than an hour. If it’s too big to complete in that time, she will break it down into smaller pieces. On a big project, this also gives you a sense of progress.
9. Make space for ideas and inspiration
There are some parts of creative work that don’t always look like work. Creatives need to make time for walks, reading, thinking. For looking at new things, talking with other creatives and looking at their work, going to see films, gigs, exhibitions: anything that stimulates new ideas.
10. Just say no
Learn to say no gracefully. Protect the time you need for your creative work, without apology, without that fear of missing out.
Activity scheduling is also a proven method to improve mental health by organising daily tasks that boost your mood and well-being. As you are planning your creative work, remember to plan for activities which support your well-being too. Setting achievable goals within your activity schedule helps overcome the challenge of managing time. The following steps will help:
Identify activities that align with your personal values and interests and that have previously brought joy. Choosing personally meaningful and enjoyable activities is more likely to result in positive reinforcement and sustained engagement. A mix of physical activities, social interactions, and solitary hobbies can create a well-rounded activity schedule.
Planning and Prioritising activities helps ensure that essential tasks are addressed first, leading to a more balanced and productive schedule. Manage anxiety by breaking down tasks into manageable steps.
Adapt your schedule based on progress and feedback. If you find a different order of schedule or type of activity works better then change it, ensuring that the activities remain relevant and manageable.
A well-designed activity schedule boosts mood and reduces emotional distress through structured engagement in enjoyable activities. Planning rewarding activities increases motivation and decreases feelings of isolation.
Activities that involve family interactions and intentional socialising, such as having coffee with friends, have been particularly effective in depression improvement. Regularly reviewing and adjusting the schedule based on progress helps maintain motivation and adherence
Finally, a pitfall to watch out for when completing creative work is perfectionism. There are two types:
- Adaptive – This is when you’re striving for excellence without being too worried about making small mistakes along the way. You’re not too hard on yourself and are able to stay motivated. This one can be helpful for creative work.
- Maladaptive – In this case you’ll be setting unrealistic goals and being very hard on yourself if you don’t achieve them. You may also struggle to start or finish work, always seeing it as ‘not good enough’. You’ll need everything to be ‘perfect’ before it can be finished. This one will sabotage your creative work.
There are many reasons why people experience maladaptive perfectionism, but if you identify with some of the examples, you may want to seek professional help for support. In the meantime, here is an exercise by Performance Psychologist, Dr Ellis Pecen, taken from the book, Sound Advice, that may help:
Dr Ellis Pecen’s Ideal Self’ Exercise To Manage Maladaptive Perfectionism
- What are the characteristics of my ideal self? Rather than your feared self; try and use positive empowering words instead of stating what you do not want. What kind of words would describe the positive performer (or composer) you aspire to become?
- What do I care about meaning to others? In a broad sense, what are the things you care about being and meaning? There are no wrongs here. This is about what you care about making other people feel, as a direct or indirect result of your aspirations and you as a person.
- What is my broad definition of success, as opposed to a narrow goal of winning a deal or competition, for example? What does success mean to you? Who do you think is successful and why? Can you broaden’ the definition of success? For instance, from ‘best performer (or composer)’ to ‘most inspiring role model’ to ‘a person of integrity and inspiration’.
- How can I think of ways to experiment, rather than wait until I think it is perfect before I take any action. Can I click ‘send’ before I feel ready? Can I say ‘yes’ even though | don’t feel like it? Ready never comes for a perfectionist so think of ways to practise saying ‘yes’ and putting things out there.
- How can I frame this situation positively or differently?
Everything in life can be thought of as positive or negative, depending on how it’s framed. What would an optimist say about this? What would a pessimist say about this?
Finally, in her book on creativity, Big Magic, author Elizabeth Gilbert describes perfectionism as “fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it’s just terrified.” Whenever you start creative work, fear will always be there alongside you, whether it’s the fear of criticism or not being good enough. Gilbert recommends taking the time to acknowledge this fear, thanking it and then putting it to one side so you can get on with your job.
Find effective ways to manage any maladaptive perfectionism that might show up and remember, as Radiohead say in their song, Optimistic : “The best you can is good enough.”
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
Life coaching for creative professionals – The Creative Life
Sound Advice | Troubador Publishing
Multitasking, Productivity, and Brain Health
Activity Scheduling: Boost Your Mood and Well-being | Bay Area CBT Center
