Whenever aspiring composers ask professionals for advice, they get the same replies.
If you want to make it, you have to work as long and as much as possible
That's it! That's it? I hear that all the time, and I am sick of it because it is the most significant load of b*llshit ever!
Sorry that I am getting a bit into that ranting state, but I don't want to know how many potential careers or aspiring composers have been destroyed because of these stupid statements.
Let's fix at least a little bit today in this episode of Inspirational Interludes!
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You have to work as much and long as possible
No, you don't have to! There seems to be an illusion that if you work as long and hard as possible, you will achieve great results. This is not true!
An essential factor in getting work done may be time, but there are also two other aspects that we need to be aware of. Attention and energy.
The moment you start working on a project, you need energy. After a few hours of working on a project, you also lose attention to detail. Even worse, if you get easily distracted because of the internet ... you also lose focus and always have to get into the project again.
Also, do you know these moments when you tried to solve a problem late at night and couldn't solve it? Then the following day, you wake up, and boom ... you got it figured out after minutes?
We are fooling ourselves. We think the more we work, the more we get done. The only thing that we do is waste time.
How can we change this? The first thing you need to do is find out your biological prime time. We all are different. Some of us are early birds. Others are night owls. We all have a specific time when we are most productive. If you find out that BPT and limit your most important tasks on this day to this time, you will get more work done than if you keep grinding and grinding.
I tried to reduce my composing time to blocks. A morning block of two to three hours, then a long rest, and another in the afternoon for around the same time. Yes, it may be just four to six hours of working time ... but I always get more done within that time as if I would grind along until I fall asleep.
Try it! :)