If you’re like most creative types, someone who tends to over-commit to projects and have many goals and aspirations, you probably need to be a productivity machine. You likely have some time-consuming endeavor that earns your living, on top of auditions to pursue, singing commitments, and the occasional life to lead—like calling your mother or hanging out with friends. On top of that, like it or not, you are an entrepreneur, whether your business is the promotion of yourself as a musician, your ensemble as an act, or some combination of the two.
Having a career that demands constant self-motivation can be, well, demanding. In addition to some aggressive time management of your many projects, you need a way to stay on track with your goals and not get distracted by the many nuisances that can come your way—such as self doubt, uncertainty about the next steps, the joys of procrastination, or any number of stumbling blocks.
Over the past few years of thinking like an entrepreneur for myself and my ensemble, I’ve found that I work best when I follow an overlapping course of activities: Plan, Do, Celebrate, and Treat. These are my four elements of productivity that keep me focused and confident about my goals (as long as I stick to them).
Plan
If I don’t plan out what needs to get done, I don’t know where to start and I don’t do a thing. When that happens, I find myself in a productivity slump that also gets me down, and I end up avoiding the very thing that would make me feel better if I only got around to doing it.
If you don’t know what to do first, write down all the things you need to do. The unknown suddenly becomes the to-do list. One place to start is to write down all your short-term goals and think about what actions are needed to achieve them. Whether it’s organizing your YAP applications for the season or learning how to bake, write down step-by-step instructions for how to get there. This is called planning. If you’re like most people, you probably need to plan more than you do—but less than you think you have to! Fifteen minutes of planning can save you two hours of nonproductivity.
Do
Once you’ve done some planning, you don’t need to think about what to do, you just follow the plan. But heaven help you if one of the activities in your plan is something like “Work on my group.” Write down much more specific to-dos for yourself and you’ll find you can tackle them without an instant of hesitation. “Write press release.” “Post show on two online calendars.” “Research bread machines.” Whatever you need. Once your big task is broken down into smaller, digestible tasks, you’ll find yourself plowing through them in no time.
You want to spend as much time in the “Do” zone of your productivity plan as possible. If you sit down to a to-do list but find you’re not being very productive, you have a few choices. Either switch projects—maybe you’re feeling kind of demoralized to look into YAPs but energized to plan your recital—or evaluate your to-dos to make sure they really are as specific as can be. “Research repertoire” doesn’t tell you what your next action is. “Listen to Monteverdi on iTunes” does. If all else fails, move on to “Celebrate” or “Treat,” which support productivity in their own ways.
Celebrate
Many projects are open ended, can be taken as far as you can invest the time into them, and are never truly done. Maybe you’ve set up a website and uploaded a video clip or two. But you’ll soon need to upload more. You could think of ways to redesign the site or start a blog and integrate it with social media. For everything you actually do for your project, you will think of 10 more things that you’re not doing. Being the overachieving perfectionist that you are, this may stress you out.
So, for everything you do—no matter how small—celebrate it. It doesn’t have to be a big celebration, even just taking a minute to pat yourself on the back can be enough. If planning is identifying the things that need to be done, celebrating is a way of acknowledging what you have done and bringing them to closure. Don’t get rid of your old to-do lists; keep track of what you’ve accomplished. That way, when the project is completed, you will not only be able to look back in pride at all the work you did, but you will have a road map showing you how to do it again.
This can also mean celebrating your success with others who helped make it happen. Did your coach help you land a role? Show up with a flower at your next coaching. Did a donor just help make another donation possible? Call her up to tell her all about it. In this way, celebrating is strategic: it can only help you to have more people feel invested in your success.
Treat
It may seem counterintuitive, but in addition to celebrating your successes, treat yourself to something enjoyable even if you have lots of work to do. Keep up with friends. Go for a run. Read a book. Take time away from focusing on your project to do something that refreshes your mind and spirit.
Especially around the culmination of a large project, such as a big performance or a grueling stretch of auditions, you may feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do. There is no more important time to make time for yourself. You might find that you do your best thinking away from your projects and that even a brief break can re-energize your approach. Taking time to relax during busy periods can also save lots of trouble down the road, ultimately making you more productive. For me, I know that if I don’t exercise and have an occasional Alexander lesson, I will have chronic pain. If that happens, I have to spend even more time taking care of myself in order to get back on track, making me less productive in the short term.
I find that the ideal breakdown means spending roughly 20 percent of my time planning, 60 percent doing, 10 percent celebrating, and 10 percent treating—plus or minus 5 percent here and there. I dip in and out of these zones throughout the day, maybe starting with a treat like exercise, planning my morning, doing as much as I can, then giving myself a celebratory stretch when I feel I have something to show for it.
In fact, as I’m wrapping up this article, it’s time for a little celebration. Where’s the chocolate?
