The professional musician career is extremely dynamic job and it takes a lot of energy and time to do all the tasks that should be done. Most of the musicians started to play a music instrument in childhood through music school, together attending an elementary school that took much more time.
In secondary music school, that also took time as an another grammar school with another school programme, organisation became more important chategory to achieve. I remember travelling from Petrinja to Sisak each day, studying during travel in the bus for a tests that we needed to write more often as the time of an end of school year came closer.
My generation already used advices from Internet quite often, but generations learned that by getting an experience and gadgets that they had at that moment- however, the elementar organisation patterns are mostly similar and we all use them- so we can put it in 4 advices:
1) STRUCTURE THE DAY TO DO THE TASTS!
The most important thing in organisation is to make a plan an integrate it in already existable tasks. In this way you will avoid wasting you time and " dreaming" over the task ( if the task can be done by sitting or brain storming).
a) Pick the part of the day you are most productive!
Think about your habits during the day and pick up the part of a day you are most productive, most creative and have the most energy. This tip is very closly realted to bio-rythm, our "natural clock" in which our body contains most adrenalin, we feel mostly refreshed and in which your brain (body also- depending on the task) funkcion the most.
The most suitable time of the day to me is early evening- late night. In that period it is sadly not possible to play flute because of neighbours and my roomates, but it is perfect time to do some silent activity- writting a blog, reaserching, studying, planning etc. Parts of a day when our energy and concentration goes low aren't suitable for those tasks, but are ideal for some kind of mechanic tasks in which we use procedural memory or automatic skills.
Musicians are hardly finding optimal time for practicing since our choice of a time can depend on diferent criteria- the aviability of practicing rooms, house roles, quality of the conditions we work in and etc. That is why it is very important to plan in advance in order to be as efficient and economical as possible.
b) Choose 3 most important tasks you need to do in a day!
In order to upgrade your career and make a progress, it is necessary to choose 3 tasks a day that will contribute to the improvement of the situation in your musician life. This does not refer to procedural obligations such as the organization of sheet music, e-mails etc. (although this is very important), but refers to some things that are still a little more sophisticated and ultimately more important. The best tasks are the ones you see progression in - so it can be upgrading your own website, making videos where you play, improving marketing, writing blogs etc. If you do at least three of these a day, know that you have done something useful for your future.
c)Choose organising your time in " time-blocking"!
This is one of the tips I have prospered the most from. For each task, it is necessary to set aside a specific "block" of time in which you will do some work - so that you have enough time to complete larger, more important projects. This way of working will ensure that you do not spend longer than necessary on smaller tasks. Setting the right time means focusing on just one thing at a time, paying full attention to it and it’s a great way to stay organized!
This strategy works best with musicians on those days when you are not playing and have no performances, but you have time at home to work on the “backstage” aspects of your musical performance.
2)MONITOR E-MAIL AND ADMINISTRATION REGULARLY!
While you may not choose email and administration as one of your three key tasks for a particular day, responding to email and maintaining administration is very important if you want to stay organized! Admittedly, it’s not exactly an exciting job, and maybe it’s something you usually avoid. I’ve found that setting a time on the day I deal with email and administration helps me ensure that I actually do it until the end. I usually take an hour in the morning (while drinking coffee and while I wait for my brain to wake up) to do this job, and the knowledge that I have to finish it within an hour encourages me and motivates me to get through it all quickly! If I have a certain amount of time allotted to email and administration, it means that administrations don’t distract me at a time when my concentration is better and when I can do more complicated things.
3)CREATE SYSTEMS FOR TRACKING THE PAYMENT OF YOUR BILLS AND ADMINISTRATIONS!
Anything you can systematize will save you a lot of time and help you stay organized every day. For example, you can get a contract template to send when someone hires you for a concert. If you have a revenue and expense tracking system, whether it’s a simple spreadsheet or an application, it takes a lot less time to record everything on a regular basis. You can also create an email template that you just need to customize a bit before sending it, in response to a query. This all saves a lot of time, but you must be careful not to send the wrong information to the wrong person - because of course there could be inconvenience and negative consequences due to carelessness.
4)TRY TO WORK "IN SERIES"!
You may not have heard of “serial” work before, but this is simply assigning a block of time in which you do multiple similar tasks — thus using the same creative energy and making the most of your stay in the zone for a particular type of task.
For example, when I write blogs, I try to write several different blogs at once at a certain time. By doing this, I am more likely to actually enter the zone for that particular task and be able to take advantage of a certain flow of creative energy. Serial work helps you to be more productive and organized, and you can avoid that feeling of "dragging" (you set the task to write in a certain time interval, and you have no inspiration or you are late with the task).
These are the 4 most important and useful rules that could help you to better organize your time. I found these tips in English at The Freelance Musician blog. If your plan is to become a freelance artist and work on your career, I definitely recommend you follow that page- Hannah is an expert for the organization of the freelance musicians life!
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