I was planning to do Tune A Day again this year, but the album release date ended up being later than I had originally thought it would be, and pretty close to the start of June. No chance for proper time off afterwards. Work was really intense getting the album completed and I was completely burned out afterwards. But I wanted to stick to the plan, because that was what I’d decided I was going to do in June.

I start the 30 day challenge, still feeling really tired. First day is a drag. Second day goes pretty well. Phew! I can still do this. The third day is a drag and I barely write a half tune. Fourth day – doesn’t even happen. I think I’ll catch up on the fifth day. Nope!

I thought it all through and realised the reason for my lack of motivation (and stress about the challenge) was that I already have quite a large backlog of material that hasn’t been released and that I know will take time to get ready. There are also other important things that I haven’t attended to in a long time, like all those jobs around the house and garden that I have been neglecting. I also want to collaborate more with other artists and make some changes to my website which will need a substantial amount of time, too.  (You can’t really see how bad the garden is from the photo, because the buddleia at the front of the picture has taken over! This photo was taken after I’d already started on it, too…).

I realised I needed to stop trying to be superwoman – at least for a while, there was only so much I could do, and it’s better to do fewer things well. So, this year, Tune A Day June has not happened, although I want to do another 30 day challenge because I got so much out of it the last few years.