Last weekend I decided I needed to get serious about this whole being a musician thing. It’s time to try my best again.
Right now I have an unprecedented opportunity to work full-time as a musician and content creator. So, I’ve decided to make it official. I am taking a ‘year out’ to do my thing. Though you could argue this began at the end of January, it did in fact start properly this Monday.
This week I have worked on videos, rehearsed song sets, learned new songs to cover, finished writing a song, started writing another, redesigned some marketing materials and planned out a YouTube upload schedule. All this alongside actually, you know, doing the housework. It might sound pretty obvious, but I’ve really struggled this past year to manage the upkeep of a whole house. I’m used to three rooms at most!
David has been especially pleased about this new arrangement. He gets a nice home to return to, and also a Caryl that is nowhere near as restless as she once was.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a naturally discontented person. That’s not to say I don’t strive for contentment (it’s biblical, yo), but there are some things I will just never see as complete or enough. I have a tendency to restlessness, fidgeting, having innumerable projects all running haphazardly at once. Apparently a constant rumbling of unhappiness is just part of the artistic condition. Read here for that explanation.
So now I have to work out how to live with that feeling and put it to good use so I don’t end up driving myself mad. The solution? Live by a daily work schedule. It’s worked reasonably well so far. Yes, I’ve been working through breaks, having late lunches, staying in my pajamas til noon… but I haven’t been sleeping at stupid times or staying up too late. That’s an achievement for me. I can sleep for England. Too bad it’s not an event in the 2012 Olympics…
I’ve been working on music a little every day. Even on Tuesday, my ‘domestic day’, I managed to find time to listen through my demo recordings for Vox Artis and judge how much work each one was going to need before completion.
Efficiency? On my watch? Goodness, no!
Tomorrow I have a scheduled nap at 3pm to stop me wanting to sleep in (on Fridays I am relieved of the duty of morning work sandwich making). I am really looking forward to that nap.
It’s much easier to have a plan, especially when you like doing every single thing on the list. I guess sometimes I have to remind myself that I enjoy living. It’s really not that bad.