Article by: Carley Varley & Philip Garcia
VQS Advice Blog | Cover Image by Malvestida
Learn how to manage your time effectively and get things done.
- Table of Contents
1. What’s Most Important Right Now? - 2. How to Make Sure It Gets Done
- 3. When Should You Take A Break?
- 4. How to Stay Focused
- 5. How to Beat the Distractions
As a creative, there can often be so much we want to accomplish and that’s why time management is such a key skill to possess. Setting time for different tasks and allowing yourself to have your own free time to hang out with others and enjoy the world is very important. Here are our top 5 tips to manage your time and crush your tasks!
1. What’s Most Important Right Now?
Prioritizing the most important tasks is a great way to get things done and to stop yourself from falling into the trap of procrastination.
Once you get your main tasks sorted, a weight lifts off of your shoulders and you will be more motivated to finish everything else!
For example, let’s say your big to-do this week is to create more content for your social media channels. Once that is completed, you can get to work on the rest of your list and feel more and more accomplished as things get done!
It is easy to be overwhelmed when you have lots of things to work on, but once you break it all down, you’ll realize that it isn’t as big as it seems! After all, a cake gets cut into slices for a reason, so enjoy each task for what it is!
127: How to be a Successful Indie Artist – VQS Studio Podcast
2. How to Make Sure Things Gets Done
To-do lists are a great way of making sure you remember what to get done, and they are so satisfying to tick off as you conquer all of your tasks!
To-do lists can help you focus and are a great reference to what you did previously to track your progress. Another helpful tip is to set time limits on your tasks so you can make sure you get to work on everything you set out to do.
Starting your creative time at 2pm and then setting an alarm for 4pm is a great way to keep on track and give yourself time in areas that you may feel you don’t have enough time for. This will also keep you disciplined.
At first, it may be hard to stop one task when the timer runs out, but over time you will learn how long things will take in order to accurately plan your time.
3. When Should You Take A Break from Creating?
Being creative is fun and amazing but…
…sometimes your brain needs new stimuli to have fun and reset, this is why breaks are crucial. Mental resets are essential in your health and wellbeing.
One thing you can do is to give yourself a two-hour lunchtime.
Take this time to really do nothing or something low energy such as play games or watch live streams.
You will completely switch off which means when you go back to work, you will be more rested and ready to tackle the rest of the day!
Try this: One thing I find really helpful is having social media breaks, I go off of social media for a week to write songs and I don’t post at all. This could be seen as a break as I am leaving one area and focusing on another that I find more relaxing.
4. How to Stay Focused as a Creative.
As music creators, many times we are our own:
- Public Relations Team
- Social Media Managers
- And even being a vlogger and blogger!
There are many areas that you can focus on, but how can you make sure you are really focusing on the right stuff?
For example, if your areas of focus are social media, songwriting, and PR this month. This means that things like learning new songs for gigs may take a back seat this month or trying to learn a new instrument may have to wait.
Focus on the areas that will best support your long-term goals!
Sometimes it is important and okay to let other tasks go in order to focus on the most important top tasks. If you try to do too much all at once, then you’ll burn out and find yourself lacking motivation.
5. How to Beat the Distractions.
It is so easy to get distracted! I will never forget trying to do some promotion for my new single and I went on my phone and saw a cover that I wanted to record that week, so I stopped my promotion tasks and started recording videos for social media!
One thing that I do now, is I put my phone in another room and make sure to stick to what I’m doing and then I get my phone. I am always scrolling through Tiktok for hours looking at videos of cats and then the next thing I know I have done nothing creative or productive.
Overcoming procrastination has a lot to do with yourself as a person.
Ask yourself: what distracts you?
Can you change or stop what’s distracting you to focus? Once you learn what stops you from being productive, you can put steps in place to ensure you get your tasks done and that you don’t procrastinate.
Summary:
- 1. What’s Most Important Right Now?
- 2. How to Make Sure It Gets Done
- 3. When Should You Take A Break?
- 4. How to Stay Focused
- 5. How to Beat the Distractions
Congrats on making it this far! I hope these tips have been as helpful to you as they have been to me. Keep aiming high with your goals and these time management tips should help in your achieving them. How will you keep your focus on what’s important? We’d love to hear from you!
Carley Varley
VQS ADVICE BLOG | MINDSET TOOLS FOR CREATORS
