Since I’ve been working for myself from home, it’s been my mission to figure out how to optimise my working conditions. There’s a certain time of the day when I work best. There’s a certain number of children that should be out of the house/asleep at the time (all of them). And there should be certain tunes running as my work soundtrack.
So here’s how I’m dealing with things.
Before there was no order whatsoever, and it impacted me. I would be there for a good half an hour trying to find an album that I was happy with. I might try to think of what was new, then switch up my mind and try to go to find an old favourite, and then I might get distracted and go for something in their discography that I’m less familiar with. I was all over the place, and it was eating into my time.
Sunday is the planning day. It’s the day when I rearrange my Trello to figure out the tasks that matter for the week ahead. As well as all the business things, a portion is actually dedicated to music. I’ll go through and handpick what I’m going to listen to for the week ahead. A humble Gmail draft contains all of the week’s selections, listed by the day. If I don’t get around to one, it’s rolled over to the next.
As well as full albums, I’ll throw in scheduled time to lock into certain radio shows or catch up on ones that I need to hear. Aside from that, I’ve got a whole spreadsheet of releases that I want to listen to, to see if I need to buy the CDs to add to my collection.
Now I’m on this streaming flex, the day begins by making a fresh queue with the next albums in the schedule to listen to (if I’m not locked into a breakfast show or something like that). Then the tunes run through the day, without me having to think about it. I did all the thinking the Sunday prior.
This format means I can do all of this in the average week:
- Check what’s new
- Listen to all the gaps I’m yet to explore
- Discover new music
- Go back to my favourites
But with structure.
All of this seems excessive until you need to put it into practice. It makes me more efficient and means that I get around to listening to all that I need to hear. Spur of the moment just doesn’t cut it anymore.
I’m still not taking requests.