Time is an equal-opportunity gift—no one receives more of it than anyone else. Everyone, from Plácido Domingo to a young diva-in-training, is limited to the same number of hours each day. We all juggle numerous projects while trying to balance a sense of personal and family life—it’s part of modern life.
How can we find time to prepare for that big audition and that fabulous new role/recital/project, when we also have free-lance work, teaching, or studying to do? And it only becomes more complicated when you add a partner or children into the mix.
How well we succeed depends on whether we even get to that major project in the first place. If we learn to be better organized, we can take greater control over our lives. We can have more energy and hours to focus on the most important work, and enjoy increased time with family and friends.
Knee-deep in papers, email, voice mail, cell phones and computers, prioritizing our goals and our hours seems more complicated (and critical) than ever. Some folks magically seem to do it better than the rest of us, however, somehow managing their time more effectively.
The hardest thing for me to figure out is how to set and adhere to my daily goals. I’m great on long-term vision (“I’d really like to learn the part of Elsa in Lohengrin”), but find managing each day more challenging. I’m seduced by the many easy-to-do projects that surround me. I can file music, answer the phone, clean the kitchen, and do practically anything in an attempt to avoid the major projects sitting on my piano.
Sound familiar? The situation is far from hopeless, however. I discovered that I could learn (and re-learn) some effective techniques for taking control of my time, using hints gleaned from 365 Ways to Simplify Your Work Life, by Odette Pollar (Dearborn Financial Publishing, Inc., 1996) and Time Management for Dummies, by Jeffrey J. Mayer (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 1999).
One idea is central to both books: Taking charge of your life means realizing that you can’t manage results, but you can manage activities.
Results are the end products of a lot of hard work and effort—but so often results are out of our personal control. (“I worked so hard to prepare that audition. Why didn’t they seem to like it?”) If you remain only “results oriented,” you can end up feeling disempowered and resentful. If your energies are focused on your activities, however, you can accomplish the majority of the things you set out to do.
The most important aspect of managing your activities: realizing that advance planning is essential, but it’s only the beginning. You need to sit down and identify which activities need to be done now—and then go out and do them. Yes, you need to look into the future and dream about all of the things you want to achieve—but to do them successfully, you’ve go to be focused on the here and now. To make those big dreams and goals come true, you’ll have to complete a lot of little dreams and goals along the way.
Set Daily and Long-Term Plans and Goals
Spend 15 minutes in the morning organizing your day. Set up a system for yourself, an approach that will improve your ability to stay on top of all of your unfinished work, tasks, projects and correspondence. You’ll spend less time (and money) rushing about, overnight-mailing applications and putting out fires, because fewer fires will start.
If you’re like me, you’ve been writing stuff down for years, you just haven’t been doing it methodically. Instead of scribbling notes to yourself on various small scraps of paper, sticky notes, and any piece of paper you can get your hands on, develop a Master List. The Master List is an itemized inventory of your unfinished work, your essential format for maintaining control of your workload, and thus your workday.
On letter, or legal-sized pads of paper, or on your personal digital assistant, write down all the tasks you need to complete, dividing big projects into segments that are reasonably “do-able.”
Review your list each morning and then plan out your day. Ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing I need to do now?” Focus on the items that are “urgent” and “important” and find time for both. At the start of every day, dive right into the most important things you have to do, while you keep the big picture in mind. With your “eyes on the prize,” you’ll choose the next task wisely.
The critical strategy is to start with your priorities. To be successful at this, you have to actively choose how to organize your day, rather than place yourself in a powerless “reaction-mode” in which you simply respond to emails, snail mail and the phone. This means that while you’re practicing, or composing that difficult cover letter to Conductor Big, you shouldn’t pick up the phone or reply to those tantalizing instant messages. Instead, establish times when you will take phone calls and emails; save your responses for that block of time. As tasks come up, stop what you are doing only long enough to add it to your list.
As a singer, you need to schedule your practice time first, so you can make sure you take advantage of your best “concentrating times.” Try to schedule rehearsals or coachings towards the start or the end of your workday. This will avoid breaking up your prime work time, and help keep your commuting time to a minimum. For example, schedule a late afternoon coaching, with a little break for dinner before your evening rehearsal, avoids the time and expense of an additional trip.
If your time is filled with your high-payoff activities (artistically, monetarily), you won’t weigh yourself down with projects that aren’t gratifying. At the end of each workday and each practice session take the time to ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing I need to do tomorrow?” Is it working on that frustrating new vocalize, and then trying to memorize the first part of your new audition aria? Or is it translating Act 3? Decide what your next move should be and then write it down on your Master List.
Again, the emphasis here is on thinking ahead and designing a plan of attack. When you complete 50 percent of the tasks on your Master List, transfer the unfinished items to a new list and throw away the old one.
When planning your projects, make sure you give yourself enough time to complete them. Time is a crucial part of goal setting (and one that is easily overlooked). Giving yourself more time often means you can accomplish your goals with flying colors. Allow more time than you might think you’ll need to get to that rehearsal or to learn that big new role. That way you’ll avoid feeling that you’ve failed because you didn’t make a self-imposed deadline. You won’t be as rushed and stressed, and that alone will avert a lot of potential failures.
Setting reasonable goals is the key here. Remember, the shorter the time frame of your goal, the more real it becomes. It’s great to set long-term or annual goals, but if you want to achieve them, you have to create a detailed plan that breaks them down into smaller, more attainable goals. Annual goals should become quarterly goals; quarterly goals should become monthly goals, monthly goals should become weekly goals, and so forth. It’s vital that you have specific goals for the day, for the morning, for the afternoon, and for your next practice session.
When you break down your long-term goals, the smaller goals should appear to be within your grasp. If they aren’t, then maybe you need to rethink your plan and start over again. The important part is to write your goals down on paper so you can see them. This takes time and consideration, but the more time you spend thinking and planning your specific course of action, the easier it will be.
Writing your goals down also serves a variety of purposes. It shows you are committed to accomplishing your aspirations, whether it’s learning two new roles this year, producing an audition CD, or getting into that young artist program. It also gives you a point of reference from which you can measure your progress.
Put your long-term goals on display where you can see them, so you can review them throughout your day. Share your goals with family and friends and you might be pleasantly surprised by the helpful thoughts or ideas people will offer you in return. This support is essential and restorative in our challenging profession.
Finally, take time to review and analyze your progress, every Friday afternoon. This will allow you to prepare mentally for the coming week and all of its challenges. When Monday morning rolls around, you’ll know exactly what you have to do and where to start. Then just do it!
Next month I’ll try to offer some suggestions on how you can use your home office to help you reach your goals, further setting yourself up for success.
