Twenty minutes of music every night
Last night I made good on my promise to start spending time every night on the decks. I’ve set up a simple routine, and I think it’s really going to keep me on track and encourage me to push myself.
All I do is plug a digital recorder into the back of my mixer, hit “record,” and run a twenty-minute timer. During that twenty minutes, I’m free to do whatever I like. At the end, I’ve got an MP3 that I can sync to my iPhone.
I listened to my first recording on the subway this morning, jotting down some notes as I went. Tonight I’ll build on that set, adding new tracks and trying out some tighter transitions. Tomorrow I’ll review that version, and refine a little more. Soon, I’ll have a set worth sharing.
Best of all, I’ve got an incentive to keep my appointment with myself. I’m eager to test out these new ideas, and to see what the finished product sounds like.
What’s your routine for your creative endeavours? How do you maintain your discipline and build on your progress? Feel free to sound off in the comments.
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I used to find the record review/recipe posts on the weekend were a good anchor for writing. Now that Nora is older, I am less disciplined in that realm. I used to have an hour lunch as well and that would be my time to play guitar, but that has slipped since switching jobs. Basically, I am still searching for a good routine and this is not helpful at all.
Heh… The post isn’t helpful, you mean? My routine does depend on my daughter sleeping well, and now that you mention it, I may not be able to count on that as she gets a little older.
haha I meant my reply was not helpful. I find that the times Nora sleeps now that she is older isn’t as conducive to the things I would like to fill that time with, if that makes sense? I’d like to hit the treadmill or play guitar, for instance, but at 8pm, that’s not when I want to do that (treadmill because I work at 11, don’t want to run right before then) and then I only get the nap hours on the weekend and she is napping less and less. It’s just about finding a new schedule, which I haven’t done yet.
That makes sense. For my part, I’ve been trying to get up earlier; like you, I’ve come to recognize that if I wait until the evening to get started on a lot of this stuff, I won’t have the energy or inclination to do it.