How to increase productivity as an electronic music producer
Being a producer is extremely time-consuming – there’s no doubt about it. After all, there are the processes of networking, creating music, the mixdown and master, promotion, and so many other activities that go into one’s day. But how can you be more productive and optimize your time to be more efficient? That’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.
A great strategy for increasing productivity is tracking how much time you are spending on each task. Despite many thinking that time management is their strength, it can be pretty easy to get caught up in a Facebook conversation, or an interesting YouTube video. By keeping track of how much time you are spending on each task, it allows you to make the most out of your day, and ultimately achieve a lot more within that time frame. Related to this suggestion, imposing a deadline on a task can definitely increase productivity as a producer. For example, if you give yourself 6 hours to send your music out to social media influencers, you will certainly ensure that the time is spent as efficiently as possible.
As well as keeping track of time for how long you spend working, there should also be time allocated on a regular basis for breaks and rest. If you are focused for an extensive amount of time, it can cause your brain to lose concentration and thus be less productive. For every 3 hours you spend working during a day, try and aim for at least 30 minutes resting time in order to relax and evaluate your decisions.
If you are located in a city, or simply travel a lot, taking advantage of your commute can allow you to spend those precious moments focusing on what matters most: your career. If possible, consider bringing your laptop on the train/plane so that you can be productive during any travel time. Most trains and airports these days have free wifi – so you should be able to stay connected to the internet when needed.
Next, scheduling periods of time for certain activities that have variable lengths can be extremely important. As an example, you could schedule 30 minutes at the start and end of each day for checking emails and social media. With the ability to get lost in our feeds very easily, it’s not difficult to lose track of time. By dedicating time to these types of activities, you can significantly increase your productivity.
Although this point may seem obvious, it’s certainly worth mentioning. Reducing the number of distractions in the workplace will dramatically enhance productivity due to you being totally focused on the task at hand. Even a small interruption such as your parents coming into your room can allow you to lose your train of thought – and thus valuable time which could potentially take hours to get back. When going into a production session, let people within the house know that you should not be disturbed. Related to this topic, turning off your mobile phone can be a great way to minimize distractions. We’ve all been in a situation when our friend messages us a funny YouTube video or tries to get into a deep conversation when we are trying to be productive. It’s annoying. Therefore, turning off your mobile phone will allow you to be completely free of any distractions from other people.
Although multitasking may initially seem like a great idea, it can actually reduce your productivity significantly. If you’re trying to do several things at once, you don’t have full control/attention towards any task in front of you. Therefore, the speed of completion is nowhere near as fast as it would be if you were solely focusing on one task. Try and establish a habit which you focus on one task at a time in order to eliminate the habit of multitasking.
Another useful tip is implementing a “two-minute rule” so that any small tasks are able to get done quickly and efficiently. When looking at your schedule for the day, identify tasks that will take less than 2 minutes, and complete them immediately. Instead of procrastinating ahead of completing a task, this tactic will allow you to knock off a significant portion of things to do and therefore spend more time completing the more time-consuming items to a higher standard & with more focus.
Finally, saying no to long meetings is incredibly important when trying to maximize your productivity. Within the corporate world, it seems to be extremely commonplace to have one-hour meetings that could, in theory, be completed in 20 mins. By limiting the time of your meetings to 20-30 mins, it forces the pleasantries out the way, and thus allows you to get immediately to the important topics that need to be mentioned.
Being in the music industry is not an easy thing to be doing. After all, the multitude of tasks imposed upon us can be extremely daunting at first. However, with time and practice, these methods of productivity will certainly allow you to be more efficient with your time.