In Day 2 we talked about tracking your time with things like screentime (iOS) or rescuetime. Now that you have analysed how you use your time you want to make a schedule to prioritise what you really want to do.
1. Limiting time waste
The rise of the smartphone means we have a portable computer/TV/book etc with us at all times. this can be wonderful but most people spend far too much time on their phones, and this leads to wasted time. Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and readdit and the infinite scroll feature means we can get lost. Statistics put phone use at an average between 2-5 hours per day in 2021, that’s a lot of unproductive time. If you use an iPhone you can simply set a screentime limit for certain apps that are not productive. Even on the train I try to read Ebooks rather than doomscroll social media – there is two benefits to this; I get some reading done and I use less data on my phone. Double (minimalist) win. After all when you’re old do you really think you’ll look back on all that fun time you spent on your phone…
2. Scheduling time
Short term projects- “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.
One of the few benefits of COVID was many things went online including session recording. during the pandemic I recorded for a number of artists and came up with a workflow that worked well for doing session recording projects at home. These rather short projects could have become burdensome if I didn’t have a system and plan in place for how to achieve them efficiently. Considering that time is money you don’t want to have to spend anymore time than you need to on projects such as session recordings. In this case it’s best to have all your recording stuff fully functional, set up and ready for when these kind of projects pop up. It might be any kind of project but if your setup is not ready you can’t take advantage of it. So make sure you are in an (organised) position to take on new work at a moment’s notice.
See Day 1 optimising studio space, or Day 2 optimising computer for more tips on keeping your work station functional.
Ongoing projects- What about ongoing projects and skills you want to continuously improve? For these cases it’s best to have a schedule that you need to follow to keep improving in the areas that you specify. you might want to make sure you practise guitar four times a week, or do audio ear training two times a week. Having a schedule allows you to see your goals and how you’re using your time all in one simple way. each person’s workflow is different but I find having a schedule plan works well for me. 10 years ago my schedule was planned down to 10 minute increments, these days I’m not so particular.
We actually need to start with Part 2 the ‘practise elements’ to make sure the value of what we are practising, see below.
Practise schedule
| row # | mon | tues | wed | Thurs | Fri | sat | sun | |
| 8h | ||||||||
| 9h | X | |||||||
| 10h | X | |||||||
| 11h | X | |||||||
| 12h | X | X | ||||||
| 13h | X | X | ||||||
| 14h | X | X | ||||||
| 15h | X | X | ||||||
| 16h | X | X | ||||||
| 17h | ||||||||
| 18h | ||||||||
| 19h | 2 guitar classical | |||||||
| 20h | 1 guitar jazz | 1 guitar jazz | ||||||
| 21h | 3 ear training | |||||||
| 22h | ||||||||
| 23h | ||||||||
Part 2 – Practise elements
The practise elements part of the table shows all the things you think you need to practise balanced against how many times you think you need to practise them. for example guitar four times a week, ear training two times a week… etc
If you want to be specific you can separate these elements- I used to have separate elements for classical instrument practise versus jazz instrument practise.
You should also include other musicianship elements such as ear training rehearsals etc. in fact this can be applied to your whole life- if you want to learn Spanish too, put it in the schedule!
| Element | Amount |
| Guitar practise- jazz, scales, improvisation, chord progressions, strumming etc.. | 2 |
| Guitar – classical, plucking, flamenco, reading etc. | 2 |
| Ear training – theory , intervals, chords, progressions, transcription | 2 |
I should note it is also important to realistically gauge how much spare time you have to fill in your schedule. Do not schedule all your empty time, it’s important to leave some empty space for personal time or urgent projects that come up. Furthermore, make an estimate of how many hour blocks you have per day to work in your schedule and block off busy blocks. For example Monday I may have only two hour blocks free, but Tuesday I have 6 – therefore I will schedule more things on Tuesday.