I will never work on Monday Again...

YOUR IDEAL WORK WEEK

I sat with a friend at a coffee shop and we discussed his growing freelance business. He was frustrated. He works a 50 hour a week job to pay the bills, but wants more time to work on his own business. Out of curiosity I asked, “Once you’re full-time with your business what do you want your week to look like?”

    “Huh?”
    “You wake up on Monday. Then what?”

We then dove into brainstorming what it could look like. We talked for over an hour and the conversation got me thinking. People don’t always visualize what it would actually look like to realize a goal. This can be super helpful.

So you want to do music full-time (which means you are starting and running your own business)? Well… You wake up on Monday. Then what? Your time is yours. The week / month / year ahead of you is yours. What do you want your week to look like?

It took me years to figure this out. I’m still figuring it out. Here’s an example of what mapping out your week might look like:
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​Monday:
Mondays suck. I think I want to work half days on Monday. I will spend the morning mapping out the week and organizing by priority my projects.

Tuesday:
This will be an on project day / longer work days. Get shit done day. But if I don’t have a project to work on I’ll have Tuesday be my composition day where I will write new music pieces.

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Wednesday:
This will be my meet with people day. Brunch, lunch, coffee, meetings, etc… I will also spend a couple hours working on my business instead of in my business.

Thursday:
Another long project / work day. I will try to schedule sessions on Thursdays and co-writes.

Friday:
Is it the weekend yet? I think I’m going to work half days on Fridays and be done by 3pm. Could be a wrap up day for current projects. If I’m not on a project I can work on writing music for my other artist project or sync libraries.

Saturday:
This is my connect with other song-writers days. Meet someone new.

Sunday:
My day off. Don’t freaking try to get me to work b/c I won’t.

Maybe I don’t want to start working until 9am. The first hour of every day is reserved for me / quiet time. I will only check email twice a day. I will limit phone usage and screen time. Maybe I’ll leave an hour at the end of every day to handle revision requests for mixes. Maybe I want to block off time every week to read and learn about something new. Maybe I want to work four long days a week and then spend the rest of my timing resting or pursuing hobbies. Maybe I am most focused / do my best creative work in the early morning or late at night so I’ll structure my work times around that.

What do you want it to look like?

So you get to do music full-time. Then what?

I’d encourage you to try mapping out an average week. Start on Monday and get writing. Consider what’s important to you. What do you value? Rock n’ Roll.