Focus, Execute & Thrive is my personal mantra for 2017. Yes, I have a personal mantra. While I still struggle, the study of time management and productivity is a lifelong pursuit that has served me well. Here, Ariel Hyatt and the smart team at Cyber PR share their best practices for musicians and industry professionals.
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By Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR
The discussion of the intersection between independent musician and entrepreneur is not a new one. Both are responsible for shaping their own careers, building their own teams, setting their own goals and working towards the proper milestones that will turn their dreams into reality.
Musicians and entrepreneurs also suffer from a similar issue: time management.
And rightfully so! Whether you are a solo artist working on your own, or have a band that you can share the responsibilities with, the amount of time it takes to get through the never-ending task-load can very quickly surpass the number of hours in a day, week or year.
If you want to make a business out of your music, the act of making the music is just one small part of the puzzle:
- Recording
- Marketing
- Booking
- Touring
- Community Management
- Content Creation
- Email/ Communication
- Analysis
- Meetings
Let’s not forget: just because you are a musician doesn’t mean you don’t have outside obligations that need to be fulfilled:
- Family
- Friends
- Exercising
- Running Errands
- Sleep
Here are 5 tactics that will help you manage your time effectively.
TACTIC #1 – PLAN
Planning is the Key
Mapping out your plan isn’t just essential, it is literally the answer to effective time management. It is the foundation on which the rest of your time management strategies are built, so let’s discuss this one first.
Whether it is at the top of the year, quarter, month, week or day, you should have a plan of attack.
This plan should include:
- Goals and deadlines
- Your Marketing Plan with a comprehensive list of tasks that are required of you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
- Content schedule for social media content (tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, blog posts, newsletters, etc.), new music releases, show dates, etc.
TACTIC #2 – PRIORITIZE
Prioritize What You Want First
It’s important to understand that not all of your tasks hold the same weight. By treating all of your tasks as equally important, you are adding unnecessary stress to your day because while you work on one task, you will naturally feel as though there is something else you need to be doing or checking.
Last year I read a book by Brian Tracy called Eat that Frog! and that was incredibly eye-opening. The concept is very simple: take a look at all of the tasks you have to do – determine which tasks are most aligned with your goals and do those tasks first.
Whether these are daily tasks that are required of you that you’ll do when you wake up, or weekly tasks that you’ll handle as soon as you dive in on Monday morning, by accomplishing the most important tasks first, you remove the stress and resistance of handling other tasks later on because you know you’ve already handled the things that are most critical.
TACTIC #3 – DEEP WORK
Carve Out Time for Total Focus
One of he best books I have ever read Cal Newport’s DEEP WORK: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World argues that wasting time on our phones on social media and texting and inboxes destroys our ability to focus on activities of high worth. Cal is, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, in computer science also includes “the shiny tangle of infotainment sites like BuzzFeed and Reddit” in the category of things that disrupt our attention spans and pull us away from the things that truly feed us and allow us to leave our marks.
TACTIC #4 – AUTOMATE
Automation Strategy
There are many small tasks that we have in our daily lives that we simply must do to maintain our vision, presence, brand, schedule, etc. Most of these small tasks, such as sharing your most recent blog post to Facebook and Twitter, are harmless on their own, but when added up together can take a significant amount of time out of your day, and a significant amount of focus away from your prioritized task list.
Enter: If This Than That (IFTTT). This platform allows you to batch and automate tasks through a very simple process of connecting your digital channels (at time of writing there are 79 channels available for you to connect) and answering the simple question: If ___ Than ___.
In other words, If [a new blog is published to my WordPress blog], Than [share the link on my Facebook Page].
On Hypebot, Clyde Smith published a fantastic walkthrough of IFTTT which I highly suggest you read and get yourself set up with.
TACTIC #5 – DO!
You Can’t Do Any Of This Till You Stop Procrastinating!
Are you a procrastinator? Many of us are and it’s always a work in progress to overcome. Derek Sivers wrote up a great synopsis of a book called The Now Habit by Neil Fiore that will help you stop procrastinating now.
Get Ready to Build That PR Plan…
Now that you have your time under control why not use it to get your PR kickstarted. Read my Ultimate Guide on how to do just this. Click the image below to download it
