@skylumusic is back with her journal entries series. This week she reflects on the best approach towards organising your productive time.

A note to self ― Chaos is inevitable, control is impossible, structure helps: flow, don't force.

Morning! It’s Monday [not today]. The start of a new week and I’m full of hope. And a bit of unease. A kind of fizzy feeling in my belly.

If my ‘comfort zone’ is a place of getting sh*t done then can I urge myself into a playful place, after all, isn’t play comforting? I wouldn’t choose a road-runner state as my comfort zone but I suppose I’ve trained myself into it. I think getting little tasks done is easier and safer than the free-fall unknown of making something with no fixed parameters, no deadline, no one I’m accountable to except myself.

Have I become too much of a grown-up to play? I hope not. I hope never.

I have to admit that I need and appreciate structure whilst longing to be carried around on a bed of clouds, weightless and responsibility-less. The sweet spot between structure and flow seems like it might be a lifelong balancing act. I feel that I need both: a clear structure and room to stretch out into and improvise.

The sweet spot between structure and flow seems like it might be a lifelong balancing act. I feel that I need both: a clear structure and room to stretch out into and improvise.

Simplicity is the word that keeps coming to mind. To keep things simple and not get tangled up in should-dos and what-might-have-been and if-only-things-were-different . . .

If I keep things simple then there is a natural flow to playfulness, retreat and interaction. Finding the simple path, I have to feel into it. I don’t plan every detail, there’s less effort, no striving, tugging but instead allowing it to be.

Reflective questions

What can you release to make things more simple?

What can you let go of to conserve your energy?

Be it a plan, a project, a habit, a worry - anything that is draining your reserves.

Written by @skylumusic - founder of @jamsandwichlive

Tales from Artist Management

Recently, Music Business Worlwide has been publishing a plethora of interviews with successful artist managers. I’ll bring two to your attention:

💡 ‘Management Is Often About Saying What The Artist Doesn’t Want To Hear, When They Need To Hear It.’

Benjamin Evans, manager for the likes of 5 Seconds Of Summer.

📀 ‘The Idea Of A Manager-artist Relationship Is A Bit Outdated, We’re Simply Partners In Running A Business.’

Matt Vines, manager for Louis Tomlinson.

TikTok Is Making Our Music Attention Span Shorter And Shorter

Bobby Owsinski writes an interesting article on the effects that TikTok is having on everyone’s attention span.

A shorter newsletter this week, due to external commitments. We are back next Thursday in full force. If there’s a particular topic you’d like us to cover, feel free to comment under this post (in the browser version). Keep it up! 👌

Chaos is inevitable, control is impossible…