Are you tired of weekends slipping through your fingers while your music production goals remain untouched?
Balancing work and music during the week can be exhausting…
But by making the most of your weekends, you can progress your music career without sacrificing relaxation and leisure time.
I want to give you a guide of practical strategies that let me balance out my job as a civil engineer and grow my music following that you can try to, to make sure your weekends productive and fulfilling.
1) Create A Focused Music Environment
To kick-start a productive weekend, step one is to create a distraction-free environment.
For starters, I always clear my music desk of anything that might divert my attention.
I put my phone outside my reach, and close unnecessary tabs on my computer. Often, I let my friends know that I’ll be busy until a certain time and that we can hang out after. This way they don’t think I’m blowing them off, and I can still have peace of mind knowing I’ll get to hang out with them after my session.
By doing this, I’ve found I can immerse myself in my music productions without interruptions (plus you get to give yourself the reward of meeting up with friends for a night out after).
2) Establish a Consistent Sleep Routine
The key to a productive weekend lies in my mornings.
Most people stay up late than sleep in the next day.
Others might have a few too many drinks (I’ll address this in the next email because we have all been there lol).
To make the most of my mornings, I built a consistent sleep routine.
Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day helps to regulate your body’s internal clock. This is known as your Circadian Rhythm.
When I wake up refreshed, I can start my day with a disciplined and focused mind.
Early weekend mornings are often my most productive times for creative work, so I use them to my advantage (I should say “morning work” for me is like 8AM or 9AM, not 5AM. You can totally do that though like my good friend Cody from Chilled Samples, but I personally can’t get up that early haha. Maybe one day though.)
3) Prepare & Plan Ahead
Spend time during the weekend preparing music ideas, samples, and social media content for the week ahead.
This includes brainstorming new track ideas, experimenting with projects I’m working on, or adding to my sample library.
Having a plan and content ready to tackle my weekday music production sessions has made me way more efficient. I’ve always liked this quote by Abraham Lincoln that explains the idea well: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
While preparing content, I also plan my week using the Music Momentum Planner.
I prioritize my tasks, set goals, and build my daily schedule. This ensures that I’m organized and focused when the workweek begins, and I always know what to do next. To give another quote, “Idol hands are the devil’s playground”.
I don’t know about you, but I usually get myself into the most trouble when I don’t know what to do lol.
4) Allocate Time to Relax
Remember, you’re not a machine, and you can’t work every weekend.
Dedicate specific weekends to relaxation.
I sleep in every Sunday and take an entire weekend off every 2 months. Giving yourself permission to relax is crucial.
Sidenote: Everybody has a different amount of time they need to recharge their creative batteries. Allocate as much as you need to prevent burnout. And don’t compare yourself to others.
5) Engage in Enjoyable, Out-of-the-Ordinary Activities
Another great way that you can relax your mind is to engage in a hobby that you don’t always get to do.
For me, I enjoy indoor rock climbing because it keeps my body moving and keeps my mind focused. It puts me into a sort of flow state. I find this to be a powerful way to decompress from the stresses of my week and lets me return to my music with a renewed energy.
Also rock climbing is an activity that I can do with friends, which makes it even more fun because we challenge each other, and solve problems together on what is the best route to take to get to the top of the wall.
The key is to find a hobby that you genuinely enjoy, and that takes you away from your normal daily routine and music.
Parting Note
Using these strategies on my weekends as a music producer not only boosted my productivity but also enhanced my overall well-being.
It’s all about finding the perfect balance between your passion for music production and the need for relaxation and self-care.
By following these steps, you can try out the path that I took for more enjoyable and efficient weekends, ultimately taking your music production to new heights.