This is part 10 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.
I Know You’ve Been There…
You’re working on a killer tune.
You’re fired up. The ideas are flowing and it’s effortless. You have complete belief in yourself and what you’re doing.
You start to think that this could be the one, the hit that takes your career to a new level. You keep playing it over and over and almost can’t believe you did it. It’s that good.
Isn’t this why you got into music in the first place?
But Gradually…
As you tweak and tinker the doubts start to creep in. Slowly at first, then quicker your raw excitement and energy dissipate.
You ignore it and work even harder. You turn off your phone and the internet in order to fully focus. You think that if you stop working that feeling will be gone, lost forever.
You use all the willpower, mental stamina and self motivation to get it back. But like a dream that disappears as you wake, the energy, excitement and possibility fade.
The Endgame
Before long you’re bored and frustrated.
If you’re honest you’re thoroughly sick of it. What was a joy is now a slog and you can’t get it right or move forward.
Eventually you can hardly bear to listen to it again and can only hear things you don’t like, made worse by the memory of how good you thought it could be. It becomes yet another unfinished tune to add to your growing scrapheap.
Is this a familiar story?
What Happened?
The track didn’t change much between loving it and hating it.
You know this because all you did for the last few hours was tweak it, making it just that bit better.
How can you feel so differently about what is essentially the same piece of music?
You can because you lost momentum.
I’ve Been There More Than Most
I have nearly a whole 1TB hard drive full of unfinished tunes where I lost momentum. It’s like my own personal graveyard of unfulfilled hopes and dreams!
Even though I could be described as a prolific producer, just imagine what I could have done if I’d finished even a fraction of that unfinished music. And I hate to think of the golden ideas (maybe even hits) that are languishing on that machine.
Focus On Building Momentum
Spending more time on a tune doesn’t make it better.
And what’s so much more important than attaining perfection (or anything near it) is your creative momentum.
Do what is necessary, spend less time doing more and build momentum.
If you’re stuck or finding it hard going, focus on your momentum first. Don’t worry about how good what you’re doing is. Gradually you’ll start to finish more which will build your confidence. This confidence will allow you to do yet more fast which will then create more momentum. A virtuous cycle.
And even if you’re not stuck, if you maintain and build your momentum you will eventually reach what I call “escape velocity”.
This has happened to me a few times in my career, and it’s incredibly exhilarating.
At this point the process starts to becomes almost effortless. When you get to this point, and certainly if you’ve also completed the other steps I’ve suggested in this series, you will be experiencing creative flow on a regular basis.
This is why I believe that building momentum is the key to an enjoyable and successful career as a music producer. Not trying to be perfect. Perfectionism will kill your momentum. If you try to make every track perfect you’ll stall, crash and have to continually start all over again.
(And anyway “perfect” is boring, dull and lifeless. Isn’t it the rough edges that give your music beauty, soul and life?)
Apply 80/20 Thinking
A way of thinking that can help you gain momentum is the 80/20 principle.
It’s an anti time-management idea. Instead of making incremental improvements in your productivity, you work out the value you’re creating in relation to the effort you’re expending.
Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian Economist who in 1906 found that in Italy 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. And when he conducted a survey of other countries he found a broadly similar distribution applies. He then also observed that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas! Strange but true…
Since then, this imbalance has also been found in many other areas of life. In business, 80% of sales usually come from 20% of customers. At home you’ll tend to wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. And I’ll bet you listen to 20% (or less) of your music collection for 80% (or more) of the time.
What’s important here isn’t the exact 80 or 20 numbers but the general principle that most of the results from an activity come from a small part of the effort.
So let’s apply it to music production. You create 80% of the “value” (or maybe a better word might be “quality”) in your music from only 20% of your effort. Or in other words you expend 80% of your effort doing stuff which only yields 20% of the results!
Shocking isn’t it? How can it be true?
But if you analysed it honestly I’ll bet you’ll find that a majority of your effort is spent doing tasks which have a minimal effect on your music.
So Why Not Stop After 20%?
Avoid doing or cut down significantly that 80% attempting to achieve that final 20%.
In music production, by shooting for that last 20% you’ll rarely get it. You’re also likely to lose what was great about the original vibe and you’ll run the very real risk of losing your momentum. A surefire inspiration killer.
And imagine what impact doing 5 times more in the same time will have on your life!
(If you want to learn more about the 80/20 principle read “The 80/20 Principle” by Richard Koch. It’s mainly a business book, but it changed the way I thought about my life and work.)
Applying This To Your Creative Process
I’m not advocating sloppiness or laziness. And you might find it challenging to work out what the 20% is in what you that creates the 80% and what is superfluous.
Start by asking yourself “where does most of the value lie in my creative process?” As I’ve said before, just asking the right question will usually bring an answer if you’re open to it.
Of course, the simplest course of action would be make an effort to complete your music in 1/5th of the time. Why not try it?
But however you apply it, finish it, ship it, move on. Finish it, ship it, move on. Finish it, ship it, move on. Make this your mantra.
This is part 10 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.