Time Management Hacks for Musicians
Time management is a key to success
Time Management for Musicians
As a music educator, I see students struggling with time management. Time management is an extremely important topic for music students because music students have a lot of classes and obligations. Not only will strong time management skills help to build or maintain a high GPA, but also the focused use of time will result in a more rapid increase in musical skills. In other words, success comes from the ability to manage time wisely.
Students that become skilled with time management will also be better prepared for a career in music. Time management is extremely important for professional musicians because pro musicians often perform with many different musical projects, practice their instruments and repertoire, compose and arrange music, travel from place to place, and make their own concert bookings and travel arrangements. Most of these live performances happen while balancing a non-music job or a teaching schedule (which involves even more scheduling) and of course maintaining interpersonal relationships with family and friends.
I have often contemplated the correlation between musical success and time management since I was a grad student. The professors that I had all spoke about time management and it became clear to me that the musicians that I idolized were all extremely efficient with how they used their time.
This article is one of many on the internet that gives “life hacks” for time management and there are some great ideas:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/327098
Here are some musician life hacks for time management
Have a morning routine
I have had MANY students talk about having trouble waking up early. The jam sessions, gigs, and travel keep us up late at night. One thing that is helpful is always having a two window of time for waking up in the morning. In other words, if your normal wake up time is 6am, do not sleep past 8am or it will be extremely difficult to wake up again at 6am. A good morning routine includes coffee, exercise, and a breakfast. (Also my own routine involves some time playing fetch with my cat Pharoah Sanders.)
Have a schedule
Many of us like Google Calendar because it works across platforms (phone, tablet, computer, etc.). There is a remind feature that some people might find helpful because it will remind us of appointments by email or text. It is important to have a schedule every single day of the week.
Anticipate deadlines
Deadlines to anticipate might include exams or assignments, but also dates in which a piece needs to be learned for a gig. We need to avoid trying to learn music at the last minute.
Eliminate time waste in practice
For those of us who are multi-instrumentalists, this means just working on instrumental technique on one or two instruments instead of all five or seven instruments. Another example might be warming up on old, seldom-played jazz standards to keep them in the memory and under the fingers.
Set a timer when practicing
I like to set a timer to go off at 20 minute increments. It is helpful to impose some time restrictions in practice to avoid over-practicing one thing and under-practicing another.
Use your productive time for important tasks
First identify the productive time and then use that time for important tasks. For example, I like to spend time practicing my instrument and connecting with music before composing music. My productive time for creativity is generally later in the day. On the other hand, for me, things like email and writing are better morning activities.
Make lists for everything
I make lists for everything:
A master “to do” list
Groceries
Gigs
Set lists for concerts
Gig info including personnel, times, and payment info
Lesson plans
Repertoire
Blog ideas
Notes from meetings
Car maintenance
People who can fix things like plumbing and electrical
Have a separate credit card for business expenses
This saves time at tax time because all business expenses are tracked in ONE place!
Schedule travel time
As musicians, we are traveling but we are also hauling gear, getting caught in traffic, struggling to find a parking spot, carrying gear from the car to a venue or rehearsal space, or any other set of expected circumstances. It is completely necessary that we plan for travel time.
Reduce decision fatigue
For me this means having the same shake for breakfast, reusing tune set lists for gigs in various cities, narrowing down our Thursday night jam session tunes before the semester begins. It is problematic to get lost in decision making for small things and lose time making big decisions.
Avoid distractions
Don’t check your email too often. Enable “do not disturb” during practice time.
I am sure there are even more ideas not mentioned here and I encourage my students to embrace these strategies!