Fanu/FatGyver
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A tip I'd give to my younger self #1 (productivity)
🕑 Added 2021-02-13 12:22:43 +0000 UTCI have a long list of these, so I thought I'd start a new "series" and keep dropping these frequently.
Not necessarily in the order of importance, but important stuff all the same.
Tip #1: never listen to an unfinished song just for fun – you'll get bored of it, and that boredom can be a killer when it comes to productivity.
When I was younger, I often put a loop on just to feel it and get a vibe and maybe even let it loop on the background while I was drinking my morning coffee or whatever, maybe in hopes of getting ideas but not when I was ready to work on the song.
This is a mistake – if you're not ready to work on it.
I often got bored of the songs, even with some promising ones, and it's a real drag when you're losing the zest you had for it: you think, wasn't this a pretty good one, and now I'm either kind of bored of it or it sucks, and I can't tell?
What happens kind of easily to me at least is I kind of hear the song in my mind if I hear it a lot, and even that can wear it out.
I literally try to avoid getting bored of a song at all costs these days and want to keep the energy I have for it, and it's helped so, so much.
It's been a big help for productivity that I literally never, ever listen to an unfinished song for fun: when I do, I'm sitting in front of my DAW/gear, ready to work on it immediately.
Novelty is a massive driving force in getting the song forward, so do not waste it!
There's nothing better than clicking play in your DAW and feeling, ahhhh, this is actually pretty good, and I want to work on it so much…and then you do!
When I was a youngster, I may have listened to the song before going to work or school or something, and that just wears off the novelty.
These days, what happens quite often is, I don't even necessarily fully remember how a good song I've got in the works sounds, but I can remember it's promising (I keep a list of all unfinished songs and even ideas – I'm a huge notepad nerd!) …and then getting to work on it is like getting to eat when you're really hungry!
I can promise this works, and I wish I had realized this earlier.
PS: New FatGyver EP drum tracks dropping for download tomorrow!
Comments
Janne Hatula
Yes both of those, and also lists of unreleased tunes so I can plan releases and don’t have to remember anything.
John Citizen
Yup, guilty on this, for sure. I’m curious about your approach to notepads - what do you use them for? Keeping notes for tunes you are currently working on, or writing ideas down for future tracks - or something else?
AltBraKz
I’m so bad for doing this but I’ve gotten a bit better at not hitting that play button when I’m not ready to work. It’s like a mental thing where I have to hear it and remind myself that it has promise and then eventually it ‘doesn’t’.
