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TOPIC: procastination
#179097
Chain Chomp
Posts: 532
procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
I have been working a deskjob for the past seven months, fulltime, and it has altered the way I use my studio, instead of calm and structured experimentation and production.. I've been doing these short bursts of improvisation and wasting the rest of my spare time sitting on the couch downstairs with the playstation or an acoustic guitar..

..there are no jobs where I live, so I have to feel lucky to keep this desk madness for a while. It pays my bills and keeps life simple and predictable. I want a change, but that will take time and I am too amitious to just shut up and do my job like a drone!

My concerns are inspiration and motivation.. I have been reading self-help/procastination tips on structuring creativity and how to combine it with boring mindless office work, but it left me even less motivated.

Anybody here willing to share how their lives work, combining a full time non musical deskjob with their semi-professional homestudio? I need some tips and some power from you guys to keep my head up and back straight for the next year

thanks, sander
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#179102
Yoshi
Posts: 813
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
Nah, but I can give you tips on how to procrastinate, I'm world class in that regard, like right now for example.
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#179104
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
working 9-5 in an office is just very tiring. i go through periods when i can't be bothered to work on any music too. but i do find that if i force yourself to sit down and start tinkering with the boxes, then i get caught up in it and will usually come away having made something, however small.

also, breaking the 'creative' stuff into small chunks works for me too. i.e "i'm going to make a killer clap tonight". simple and small enough to achieve in one sitting. do this while you don't feel inspired and then when you are ready to make a whole track, you'll have a library of 'new' sounds to work with.

my two pence!
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#179106
Admin
Posts: 7925
tIB was here
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
I work full time, usually 10/11 hour days- my key is to always put in an hour of studio time a day, which in turn has helped me to develop a faster speed of workflow. I also press the record button when Im running out of time and try and complete work in the jam, as opposed to fussing over every minute detail. Learning to enjoy the time you do have in the studio as opposed to being annoyed about the lack of time is another thing that is good but takes some time.
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#179107
Admin
Posts: 2950
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
I just looked up the term procrastination, it seems I have finally found my diagnosis.
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#179108
Chain Chomp
Posts: 532
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
tIB wrote:
Learning to enjoy the time you do have in the studio as opposed to being annoyed about the lack of time is another thing that is good but takes some time.

This is excellent advice, one of those golden rules everybody already knows, but you need to see it or hear it to realize it's one of the reasons I am worried. I need to take a more positive attitude! For the first time in over a decade I actually have some income I can spent on gear (guitars) without having to save on food or whatever!

And I am still amazed at your body of work, combined with a full time carreer..

@bauer: the risk is, starting tinkering and then.. boom.. bedtime! Time flies with elektrons!
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#179110
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
dunno if i can help but i surely understand what you mean...
in my past job i worked as a full-time programmer and the entire day was spent in front of a pc screen, with 'deadline pressure' on and all the office stuff we know...i had no time what so ever to make music and most of all, i was completely drained when back home (the usual 9-19 shift...). after a good year and a half i realized it was time to make a change and decided to quit the job and to move onto something i really wanted to do: make music. it's now almost 2 good years since i quit, and apart from not having all the money i used to have (and that's a bit of a shame, yes) i feel happier now 'cos i can spend more time on my machines and i don't need to rush things up (and yes, i still manage to pay the bills)
it's a sort of a 'risky choice' so i'm not suggesting you to quit your job...just don't forget about your life...at the end of the day, you work for someone else who doesn't really care about what you do once you're back home; as long as you deliver what they want, they're happy... money money money...that's all they want...
gg

...video killed the radio star...
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#179111
Admin
Posts: 2950
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
I live a super straight life with wife, kid and a day job that I'm not really into (hence the procrastination). Music is always far down on my list of priorities, not because of want, but because of need.

I used to be super stressed about not having enough time for music, and try to force myself to be creative the little time I had in the studio. I didn't feel I had the time to "fool around", but wanted every session to end up with a "product" - a track, a sketch... The result was exactly the opposite - I got nothing done.

It took some time to break free from this, but it helped trying focus on having fun rather than trying to prove something to myself all the time. I also totally changed my workflow. Now I record almost everything I do, even hours of seemingly worthless modular noodling, and save it for later use. Most of my last EP was centered around old patterns, recording etc, that were resurrected and put into a new context.
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#179113
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
Nils wrote:
It took some time to break free from this, but it helped trying focus on having fun rather than trying to prove something to myself all the time. I also totally changed my workflow. Now I record almost everything I do, even hours of seemingly worthless modular noodling, and save it for later use. Most of last EP was centered around old patterns, recording etc, that were resurrected and put into a new context.

this is great advice. i'm part the way there, and you've just reminded me why i moved from ableton to hardware. must start recording those jams again!
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#179114
Re:procastination 11 Years, 10 Months ago
^

I'm gonna echo exactly what Nils has put here. Sounds exactly like my current modus operandi.

With a business to run, a home to keep & family, including a teenage boy & a (soon to be) 4 year old girl to deal with it became apparent to me that I couldnt keep stressing myself with what I was 'achieving' every time I turned the machines on. And I also had to face up to the fact that unlike when I was 25, doing 8 hours straight in the studio after / before a full day at work is not really viable any more.

The key for me was relaxing it all : for a good while I stopped doing music full stop, though that was partly for other reasons too. But then I had a revelation, sold all my stuff that tied me to working in the luxurious but ultimately stress-inducing confines of my commercial studio & downsized to work out of a cubby hole at home.

Now, even if I have some spare time ( rare ) but I'm not in the 'mood' to play with the machines, I dont bother...& I dont beat myself up about it.

The downside is that I will be about 87 years old at my current rate of production when I've finally got an albums-worth of material together....but the plus side is that I'm not stresssed about it , am having fun & am actually quite pleased - mostly -with what I'm turning out in the main.

As for our friend tIB : Andy is clearly a machine How the hell you do a full weeks work & then turn out stuff of such quality with such regularity is simply incredible. Prolific is not the half of it.
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