FOCUS!

 I've been taking some time recently to catch up on my reading, both reading for pleasure and reading to help expand knowledge. I enjoy reading and quite honestly didn't give my self enough time last year to make this an option.  One of the changes I've made for this year - space to read.  

What prompted all of this "making space" idea was a sense of frustration I had for not getting to what I really wanted to be doing.....Of course, like most people I had to-do lists, schedules etc...and I was getting to my work, but there was this growing list, and this general sense that I felt as if I wasn't actually doing what I was suppose to be doing, I was letting too many other things/factors/people set my own schedule. 

So I started to explore this idea of space and time management, which has lead me to some pretty interesting observations about my own schedule and life, and caused me to really think about how I spend my time. 

First, I needed to just get a handle on things, so I took some major time "off" in august, after a very busy summer of performing, teaching and touring. 

During this time, I jumped into a couple of really interesting books which I want to share here:

DEEP WORK: Rules for focused success in a distracted world.  Cal Newport

THE ONE THING: The surprisingly simple rule behind extraordinary results Gary Keller and Jay Papasan 

Both have lead me to re-think how I do just about everything, from e mail to social media to my every day schedule.  I would highly recommend them both to anyone, at any point in your journey. 

In addition, I've been listening to the Productivity Podcast, which is somewhat of a companion guide ( not officially) to these books.  You should check it out - some of it really doesn't apply to musicians/artists, but there are a number of interesting episodes worthy of your time. 

In music, I have always felt that while we do a better and better job preparing students to perform or teach, we continue to fail in offering them business/management skills.  I hope that in some way I can begin to address or fix this in my own part of the business, for the betterment of my students and programs


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