I was musing the other day as to why it took me so long (if ever) to complete and release a music project. I love playing and improvising, generally enjoy recording and mixing, and yet at some point along tie way (sometimes quite early, sometimes towards the end) things grind to a halt and yet another project is left to gather dust and never be heard in completeness.
I know a lot of it is down to being persistent, getting through the hurdle of procrastination, and squashing perfectionism so that something gets finished.
Here are some hints and tips to get your creativity honed into finished tracks.
1. Set Clear Goals
What is “finished”?
You need to know what “finished” means to you, otherwise how can you complete a project? Bear in mind that larger projects will also have smaller tasks which each need to be finished before the whole project can be called “done”.
For many musicians, “finished” means that a track has been fully composed, recorded, mixed, mastered, and possibly released.
An album or other collection of tracks will only be complete once its constituent tracks have all been finished.
What steps need to be taken?
Having vague or undefined goals for completing music will likely lead to procrastination, a lack of direction, and unfinished projects.
Break down the parts required to finish your music, such as composing melodies, writing lyrics, recording vocals and acoustic instruments, picking sounds in your DAW, mixing, mastering, publishing and so on. Then, as much as possible, tackle the project in a logical order — for example, don’t try to mix and master before all your tracks are laid down.
2. Create a Schedule
If you only work on your music when you are feeling inspired, you most likely won’t spend enough time on your music to get things finished.
Block in times on your calendar when you will be working on a particular music project. Not just noodling, or messing around with no goals in mind, but times when your will be dedicated to progressing a project.
Set an overall deadline and then break tasks down to fit. Of course, timings can change if unexpected interruptions divert you, or a certain part of the project takes unexpectedly longer.
Think about what actions you’d take if you were working on a client project. How would you feel if you had to tell them about a delay to their deadline? Would you do everything you could to still deliver on time, or with a little delay as possible, if someone else was relying on you (and paying you)? Now treat your own projects with you as the client. Your projects need to feel as important to you as a client’s.
3. Focus on One Project at a Time
Working on multiple projects can lead to a loss of focus or only doing the “fun” parts and thus never finishing everything.
That doesn’t mean you have to ignore or squash any creative thoughts or ideas you might have about future projects (or parts of the same project). When this happens, quickly make notes or record enough of an idea so you can return to it later.
While it can be tempting to think that you are building up the basis of a whole slew of tracks, you may ultimately find nothing gets finished and you’re left with lots of near-empty DAW projects. If you can capture the spark and return to it later, your brain will rekindle the creativity for you to work on a new idea in earnest once your current project is done.
4. Limit Perfectionism
Easier said than done, but perfectionism kills completion. If you have pushed past procrastination (which itself can be a symptom of perfectionist thinking) then do yourself a favour and squash the need to be ‘perfect’.
Nothing is perfect — and perfectionists are their own worst enemy because nothing could be perfect in their own eyes.
Getting something done to a high standard is better than never finishing anything because it’s not deemed “perfect”. Your schedule can help with this. In particular you need to limit how much time you spend on things which won’t make any noticeable difference to other people in the finished music.
Spending hours searching for the “right” sound, tweaking endlessly, obsessing over every level, comparing plugins, playing tracks over and over… these actions have to be limited as they soon become an excuse not to release anything.
5. Use Templates or Pre-Set Workflows
For years I would open my DAW with a blank project and then start trying to add elements to that. It simply created another hurdle.
Having one or more templates can accelerate many aspects of project work and completion.
Set up templates with commonly used instruments, audio tracks, plugins, global DAW and project parameter settings, windows arranged as you prefer them.
This doesn’t mean you can’t change things when required, but it does get you moving straight away. For example, most of my tracks feature acoustic piano, so it’s always there as track one on my main template. Even saving myself 10 seconds not finding the piano samples to use removes the barrier to getting on with recording.
As your workflows evolve, make a note of anything you still consistently do manually each time, and tweak your templates as you go along.
6. Embrace Feedback
Not everyone is comfortable with sharing their work, particularly when it’s still being worked on, but it can provide some extra accountability and impetus to get on with your projects.
7. Avoid Overworking
It’s important to recognise when diminishing returns have kicked in, especially in some of the more intensive activities of music creation.
Additionally, taking even small breaks and then returning can allow you to gain a fresh perspective on your tracks.
Although we’ve recommended not to work on multiple projects at once, that doesn’t mean you can’t find other creative outlets to pursue when you’ve downed tools on your music projects.
Then again, simply going for a walk, or doing some mundane admin or household tasks can allow the mind space — perhaps you’ll come up with some new ideas where you were getting stuck.
8. Celebrate Small Wins
Look to each completed step and acknowledge it. Only looking at the final goal can lead to disillusionment, so pay attention to how your project is developing hour by hour or day by day.
9. Set a Hard Finish Date
When you work for clients, you will almost certainly have set a completion date, and both parties have an expectation of that date being met.
Do the same with your projects.
Commit to a realistic date — one that gives you enough time to complete but not so much time that you procrastinate because you think you have endless time to finish.
Releasing your music in a public space is a fantastic way of finalising what you’ve created. It’s not sitting on your computer, with only you knowing it’s finished (but with the temptation of returning and continuing to ‘tweak’ it later on). It’s out there in the world (even if hardly anyone finds it, listens to it, or even likes it.)
Since September 2024 I’ve been releasing a short piece of music every other day on YouTube. It makes me focus on coming up with an idea, producing it and releasing it. I’m not pretending that such a strict schedule means I’m always producing the most amazing tracks, but more importantly for me is that it has formed a creative habit in me — and I feel I’m improving in a number of areas because of it.
Conclusion
I hope this article has been useful in reframing your perspective for your own work. Your projects are just as important — if not more so — than any client. Treat them seriously, respect your own work, and get it done!
