the quiet weeks

This week is almost completely empty in my diary, scary!

With the exception of a bit of teaching on Saturday and working at the bar on Sunday night, the rest of the week is my own.  It’s hard to believe it’s already Thursday, without the structure of gigs/places I have to be, it’s a challenge to actually schedule myself to, you know, do stuff.

While it is great to take it easy for a few days, get up late, stay up late, go shopping, watch films, I’m finding that this is the best time to do all the admin type stuff that comes with being a freelance musician.  Emails, wow I wonder what it was like when everything happened by letter?  I get so many emails to sift through on a daily basis – not that I’m complaining – once upon a time my business email account was something I checked every so often, while my personal account was the one I always checked.  These days, my personal account has become the place where spam email goes to die.  I live my life through my business account.

Sorting out the diary is another big job, making sure I have all the details of upcoming gigs, checking that I haven’t forgotten to get some vital piece of information like the venue for example (it has been known).

And now the nice bit – I have time to practice nice music!  I have time to practice solo pieces!  It’s just so nice to sit and play without any sense of not having enough time or being in a hurry or under pressure.

It can be tricky organising myself to stick to a schedule, especially when no one will know if you stick to it or just decide to laze around – not that I ever do that *cough*.  Tell me, what are your tips for staying motivated to get all those little jobs done?

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4 Comments

  1. This week is spring break at the college where I play in ensembles and take harp lessons, so I also have an unscheduled week. I am enjoying the time to work on a new harp piece for as long as I want to, without having to pack up and head to a class. And I’m catching up on life chores, too. I don’t have any secrets for motivating myself to do them. I list what I have to get done on a dry-erase board that hangs in my bathroom, and get some perverse pleasure out of crossing off the things I get done. I also only commit to do a couple each day, so I don’t feel locked into doing things I’m not crazy about. If I get more done, great. And I just commit to getting them done before I go to bed – so if I want to play all day and work all evening, that’s ok too.
    Remember that you also need to take time to recharge your creative batteries, so if you loaf around a bit, or go to films, or visit friends and have engaging conversations, you are stocking up the energy to go forth and create music when your schedule fills again.

  2. Good to know it’s not only me….I’m a freelance writer (journalism/books) and recently had major surgery so told all my clients I was out of commission for a month….but now I’m bored! 🙂 I feel fine, and am restless.

    But it’s also good to have some “free” time — I am finally reading months-old magazines, pitching some new-to-me markets, digging deeper into some speculative story ideas. I even (gasp) allowed myself the ultimate forbidden luxury and watched a movie on TV at 3pm. One of my keys to self-discipline is NEVER turning on the television before 6:30 on when national nightly news comes on here (NY.)

  3. I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog.

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