Being a musician is hardly a 9 to 5 job. Practicing, gigs,
studies, pr, teaching - usually a musicians life is a creative cocktail
of things to be scheduled. Sometimes, when I'm writing yet another list
of things to do or practicing on yet another Sunday, I really wish I had
chosen the other option: work and free time separated, and someone
giving me clear instructions on what to do and when. Not to mention a
regular income.
How is this related to our opera, you might ask. Well, it
isn't. And still it's the reason why I haven't written for so long.
Writing this blog has been on my to-do list for two months, but life got
in the way. Life and poor time management.
So I find myself thinking about this eternal problem of the
quality of a musicians free time. I miss free time without guilt. You
know this, but I'll spell it out anyway: it's the feeling you get when you're watching TV or meeting friends or having any kind of a good time, really, and at the same time you're haunted by all the repertoire you're not practicing, all the emails you haven't sent - an endless list of unscheduled stuff. And who's doing the dishes, I'd love to know!
For me personally it can at times be hard to let the undone things remain undone. I find myself lying awake at night stressing about everything that I should do instead of snoring peacefully. I really don't think I'm alone in this, either - and that's why you're reading this rant. I'd like to know how do you do it? How do you make your life work, what's your secret? I myself stay sane mainly thanks to lists and an incredibly patient driver/cook/boyfriend, who picks up the pieces when i run out of steam.
But please, tell us your tricks. And I'll add "update blog more often" to my next to-do list.
Sounds like the free time of a PhD student... except that at least in engineering you have a stable income. I think it's important to prioritize and remind yourself that doing things takes time and resting is also important for your performance.
ReplyDeleteThe late American professor Randy Pausch's ideas for time management are worth a look I would say: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/TMenglishTranscript.pdf I've myself found a digital to-do list where you can move tasks in time very useful (I use the one in MS Outlook).