Songwriting Zen

Sharing Your Songwriting With A Day Job

You can be a songwriter, have a day job and still remain sane at the same time.

Here’s an article outlining some hollistic time management tips for artists from Linda Dessau of Genuine Coaching, an organisation that helps artists (including songwriters) enhance their creativity.

Even though I’m fortunate enough to be making a full time living out of playing music, I wish I had this information when I was working day jobs to supplement my musical income.

Nowadays, my time is spent between performing as a solo artist and in duos and bands either playing my own music or covers, working in recording studios as a session musician or consulting with other artists on how to grow their own music businesses.

My life is a rewarding and enriching experience in which I am forever grateful for.

However for many, many years I was working a number of day jobs as well as trying to do all of the above music business tasks.

I would wax and wane from loving what I was doing to absolutely hating it because of financial and time constraints plus not being able to put my own life into perspective because I was way too close to what I was doing.

In the article “Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job” , Linda outlines that choice and acceptance of what we do with our time are the very things that we, as songwriters must come to terms with.

Reading this article will inspire you to look at your life situation a little more differently with a sense of gratitude and compassion for what you are doing.

Here is the article “Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job” by Linda Dessau.

Enjoy!

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Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job
By Linda Dessau

You CAN do everything.

Repeat.

You CAN do everything. What you cannot do, however, is do everything at the same time, or create a day that’s longer than 24 hours.

The two most important aspects of time management are acceptance and choice. When you think of time in terms of acceptance and choice, you’re never wrong,bad, or lazy. You’ve just made certain choices.

When you think in terms of discipline and willpower, however, your inner critic can really do a number on you. We already have low self-esteem as artists; let’s not add to the problem!!

An example of this from my own life is that I choose to live alone instead of with a roommate; that means I also choose higher rent and the need to bring in enough income to cover that rent.

When sneaky thoughts of resentment or self-pity creep in to my head, I need to remember the choice that I made, and I need to accept this is how things are for now.

Here are some tips for using choice and acceptance to manage your time.

1. Decide what you want to have time for.
What keeps getting pushed to the back burner or rushed through? How will you spend your time once you’ve made your songwriting dreams come true and you’ve become the artist you’re meant to be?

Nourish this vision until it’s clear in your mind. It’s essential to know what you’re working towards. Remember, you won’t always be this busy unless you choose to be.

2. Choose not to be this busy.
For one week, track your time using a time log. You can make one yourself; simply chart out (on paper or on the computer) your day in fifteen-minute intervals and then record what you do in each of those blocks of time.

Completing a time log will illuminate how much time you’re spending on different things. Look carefully at the choices you’re making. What do you most want to do with the time you have available?

3. Accept your day job for what it is.
A source of the financial support you need to eat and live and write songs! Practice feeling grateful for the job you have, instead of feeling resentful about the time it’s taking away from your songwriting.

For instance, what recording equipment, CD’s, manuscript paper, software programs or musical instruments have you bought from the money you earned in this job? Also, the job is giving you life experiences, and most likely lots of opportunities to interact with other people.

Your passion is to communicate with people through your music. How can you take some of that passion and apply it to your day-to-day interactions? What kind of stories do your co-workers have to tell? What ideas do those stir up for you that you can use in your writing?

4. Look for a day job that’s meaningful and that’s taking you in the direction of your dreams.
Do you need some ideas? Try meditating to access inner wisdom and spiritual guidance. If songwriting is your primary passion, what’s your second passion? What ELSE gets your juices flowing?

There’s no need to be in a job that doesn’t make you feel alive, in order to support what does. Some artists that I know get lots of fulfillment from teaching children or adults about their craft.

Others take jobs that involve public speaking, to give them more experience and confidence talking to groups. Some take jobs in music stores, where they can have lots of time to learn about the newest equipment, meet lots of fellow artists, and get a discount, to boot!

5. Schedule time with yourself for your songwriting, collaborating and rehearsing.
Keep these dates with yourself and others as sacred appointments! Be good to your body and don’t sacrifice sleep for productivity (if you keep doing that, you won’t be in much shape to produce anything!).

There are only a couple of things that we really NEED to do every day. Everything else is a choice.

© Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

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About the author

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues.

To receive her free monthly newsletter, Everyday Artist, go to http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html

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I really liked Linda’s point about accepting your day job for what it is. A means to get you things, give you life experiences for your songs and to practice your day to day communication and social interaction skills, so important if you are a performing songwriter.

Be grateful about who you are and what you do and don’t be so hard on yourself is the message that I get from the article – Loud and Clear!!

As I mentioned before, I wish I had this information earlier in my songwriting career. It would’ve saved me a lot of misery.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

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