I’ve just had a really manic week, one where I’m trying to Do. All. The. Things. Including watching a training conference video that advised against trying to Do. All. The. Things.

The week started off fairly calmly, actually. I decided to take a bit of time out to finish a knitting project that will be a gift. It needed finishing before the weekend, when I will get to see my friend. Whilst I worked up a couple of the pieces, I ‘multi-tasked’ and binge watched a chunk of an X files boxset that has been waiting patiently for my attention for ages. It felt like I was on holiday for a day or so. For the rest of the knit, I caught up on podcasts and watched a couple of days worth of a training conference for indie musicians that happens to be running this week. But I’m not a fast knitter, and I could really have done with finishing it in half the time. I had other stuff on my list for this week.

I hadn’t originally been going to join the conference, the ‘Profitable Musician Summit’ because I didn’t think I could spare the time, but so far it’s thrown up a load of Really Useful Things that either
A – I already knew about and still need to set up, or
B – I didn’t know about, could benefit from, and need to add to the To Do List.

It’s been so useful watching the seminars so far that I may well watch more of the conference, providing I can squeeze it in. Why? Because I need either to start earning enough money from the music to pay the bills – which is still a long way off – or to make music alongside another job which will eat up most of my time and energy. I’ve been holding off for now, but the clock is ticking. Either way, the business side needs to be really dialled down, so that it will not intrude on creative time, but will help sustain making a living. But it takes significant time investment to learn and set up any new systems. Catch 22.

At the same time as all this has been going on, this week I’ve been finishing off figuring out how to use Patreon, one of the things in category A that I already knew about but hadn’t set up yet. As I start to prepare to go live with that, I’m well aware that it is going to take a chunk of my time to do it well, and I’ve been wondering what I am going to need to drop to make way for it. The advice in the conference was to ‘drop activities that are not working for you’. Hmmm.

As I write, the knitting is all done, and I just need to sew on the buttons, which I haven’t yet bought. They say knitting is good for the soul, or something like that, and I think I agree. The clear correlation between putting the work in and getting knitting out has been refreshing. And, although this week has been crazy, getting the needles out has given me some space to step back and think about how to face the overwhelm and try to overcome the hurdles between the status quo and music being a sustainable full time job.