7 Ways To Increase Your Music Focus

Producing music is like tending to a garden, where each seed you plant requires careful attention and nurturing to grow into something beautiful. Just as a gardener must focus on the details of soil, water, and sunlight to cultivate a thriving garden, as a music producer, you can achieve your vision by tending to the details of your craft, maintaining a steady rhythm, and staying committed to your creative vision.

In this post, we'll explore seven essential strategies to help you stay focused and productive, from building a strong foundation to eliminating distractions and rewarding yourself for a job well done.

Whether you're just starting out or you're a seasoned producer, these tips can help you stay on track and achieve your goals. So, if you're ready to take your music production to the next level, read on to discover how to stay focused and productive in your music making journey.

1. Get Clarity on fundamentals.

Find the actions that move the lever on your goals. Stop looking for the latest new tactics, and instead learn from first principles and the fundamentals.

If you’re running a race, getting the best pair of shoes will help you run 1% faster, but taking off the 100 lb bag of rocks you're carrying around from bad fundamentals will probably help a lot more than 1%.

Make sure to have a solid foundation before building off of it.

2. Remove vanity based goals.

By removing the vanity involved in the end goal you are able to focus on the work that is directly in front of you.

Don't do things to look good to others. This is good in some cases to just be a healthy human but not all the time. You should have sources of intrinsic goals and intrinsic motivation rather than external goals enforced by others.

For example, don't just read books because people say you should read. If you read just 1 book and fully understood it, you'd probably be ahead of the person who reads 50 and only remembers a few ideas since they rushed through it.

3. Put in the metaphorical reps.

Studies have been done that show that thinking through an activity can help to develop neural pathways and increase potentiation in between neuron receptors. This is just a fancy way to say you can think clearer when you are actually doing an activity if you have thought through it before.

This idea can be represented by a quote from Abraham Lincoln, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”

4 Hours might be a bit much, but you want to know what steps you have to take and sharpen the axe for them before going in blind.

4. Start now, educate later.

Can you learn how to swim by reading a book on hydrodynamics?

Most of the time we get so caught up in learning something that we don't even try it. You might watch a tutorial but then never use it in a track. Or hear an idea from an album but never put it into action.

To increase your focus remove the distraction of needing immediate education.

Fail first to find out what you need to be educated on instead of wasting time trying to become educated on everything...that could take awhile lol.

5. Block out 30 - 60 minutes everyday for deep work sessions.

Find the time for yourself to work without distractions. This might be early in the morning or late at night but set aside a specific block of time in your schedule to work on your music.

In that time block you should set intentions for yourself to ensure you take action.

For example, my rule is that for that time block i can't do anything but make music, sleep, or be bored doing nothing.

No phones. No screens. No distractions.

You realize pretty quickly that making music is a lot more fun than being bored doing nothing.

6. Immerse yourself in the content of the goal.

Setup your environments to promote the desired action in that place. Remove all of the distractions and irrelevant items from the space that aren't useful for the action. Remove unnecessary people too (or contact with them by shutting off your phone when working).

This can help to reduce decision fatigue and task switching, which increases your focus in that space.

When you take away the shiny objects you won't want to chase them and can concentrate on what is important. Out of sight out of mind.

7. Have a moment of recognition for your accomplishments.

If you worked all week long and your boss didn't pay you, would you be motivated to work again next week knowing you might not be paid for it?

It's the same way when you are motivating yourself to stay focused to complete a task. If you work hard and reach your goal then don't reward yourself you become conditioned to be less motivated to do that action again.

Instead whenever we focus for a work session we should have a small reward at the end of the session that reinforces focus for the next time you sit down.

Conclusion

By following these seven tips, music producers can improve their focus and increase their chances of success. From mastering the fundamentals to eliminating distractions and staying committed to their creative vision, each step builds upon the previous one, leading to a more satisfying and productive music-making experience. With practice and dedication, you can focus on your goals and create music that inspires and moves others!