💡✍️ADN #041: Schedule Meetings with Yourself

Hey Friends -

Welcome to the Artist Development Newsletter.

Every Sunday, I send an email providing actionable tips for artists and industry on one area of the music business.

Last week, we talked about staying indie vs. signing with a major.

You can re-read last week’s newsletter here if you want to refresh.

Today, I want to tell you about a simple scheduling tip that has dramatically improved my productivity, focus, and daily mindset toward accomplishing my goals.

Let’s go.

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As an artist, the time to sit, ponder, and craft ideas is essential.

Your income and livelihood depend on your great, creative thoughts.

Formulating them can take minutes, hours, or sometimes days.

With an endless flood of emails, text messages, phone calls, Zoom meetings, and tour dates on your calendar, it can be hard to carve out time to think.

The feeling of being unprepared is the worst.

It sucks to show up to a co-write, a studio session, or a meeting not ready.

With that in mind, I’ve started scheduling meetings with myself.

Need time to work on song ideas?

Put it in the calendar.

Need time to prepare for an important meeting?

Put it in the calendar.

Want some time to let your mind wander?

Put it in the calendar.

It’s no different than blocking time to do something with someone else.

This is an exercise I’ve built into my daily life now.

I try to get up before my family so I have 1–2 hours to prepare for the day.

This provides a sense of accomplishment early in the day and allows me to be fully present when they wake up to spend quality time together before I leave for work.

It also shows an intention to the commitments ahead and helps me to show up prepared.

A calendar that runs your life isn’t a calendar worth keeping.

A calendar that helps you organize your time so that you can be most effective is what we should all be after.

The next time you feel overwhelmed, block time to sit down with yourself and work through what is ahead of you.

With some quiet, space, and time, you’ll show up a better version of yourself for you and everyone around you.

See you next Sunday!

Neil Mason

Artist Development

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