keeping creatively locked in & motivated: healthy practices
Music is fckin’ hard. Anything creative, or worth doing, is f*ckin’ hard. One of the hardest things about being a producer for a lot of us, is consistency and keeping creativity flowing.
Some know this as ‘writers block’, where sometimes we sit and try and make something great, only for… nothing. Then we start doubting our abilities and why we even bothered to open the DAW today. Here’s the thing you probably don’t want to hear - your brain can only produce what you put in!
Being kind to yourself and your brain is the best way to stay mentally locked-in and creatively motivated. I’ve had plenty of days where I sat down, had Ableton staring back at me and feel stuck, distracted, or just flat. Over time though, I’ve found a few habits that really help me stay focused, motivated, and creative, I’ll share some with you now!
Set Small & Realistic Goals: Give yourself smaller targets. Instead of needing a whole song idea done in an hour, maybe instead do a one-hour sound design session. Or maybe write as many chord progressions as you can. One session might just be about sound design, another arranging, another mixing. Ticking off smaller goals keeps me moving forward without burning out.
Create a Dedicated Studio/Space: Limit your potential distractions as much as you physically can. Create a space that promotes your work brain, especially if you’re a gamer like me. Seperate your music world from anything else you have going on, so that when you’re in that area, your brain knows what it’s there for. Also, create a space you actually enjoy being in. Place some decorations, be near a nice window, put some art or lights up, whatever works. Oh, and make it a PHONE-FREE AREA. Please for the love of god, put the phone away for an hour or two. It really is that damn phone, I promise you.
Balance Routine & Fun: Setting yourself a daily routine is a great way to get you into work mode easily, but things can become stale if you keep the same routine going in creative work for long periods of time. Don’t let yourself forget that making music should be fun. Allow yourself some session where all you do if create the weirdest sound you’ve ever heard for a laugh. Set yourself an amusing challenge (remake a meme sound in Serum perhaps) or play with a new plugin. You work hard on refining your music, be sure to have some fun with it sometimes too.
Take Intentional Breaks: I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve sat for hours forcing myself to do a crammed-production session where I do 4+ hours of work. While flow states of that length can happen (and something you shouldn't disturb if you get in one!), you CANNOT force them all the time. Your brain needs breaks, it needs something to break the pattern of work. Set time limits, go for a walk, go look out a window, touch some grass, whatever. Give your ears and head a break, and I guarantee you’ll come back sharper.
Find Creativity Outside of Music: If you’re mentally blocked musically, take some time to use or draw your creatively from outside of the DAW. Find inspiration from a photo, memory, movie, game, conversation, environment, feeling. Trying doing something else creative (even if you’re bad at it!), draw something, write blog/journey entry or short 3 paragraph story, make something in a video game, anything! Draw your attention & creativity away from music briefly, and you may come back with new ideas you never had beforehand.
Lastly, Take It Easy On Yourself: Not every session is a hit. Not every sound is great. Not every song is a banger. It is okay to not be good all of the time. Here’s the truth, you’re not as good as you can be yet, hell neither am I! But you will be, if you allow yourself to be patient with yourself. The days where you produce nothing but swamp-ass trash are part of your growth. It’s just as useful finding out what doesn’t work as finding what does work. Don’t let your off-days trigger that imposter syndrome bullshit. You’ve got this - and deep down, you know it.
