Finishing a Song and Workflow

What finishing a song a week taught me about workflow?

I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and for a long time, I thought this was a good thing. That was until I read a quote recently that stated:

Done is Better than Perfect

Initially, I was skeptical. When I applied it to music-making I thought to myself I would rather have things perfect than simply completed. Who wants a mediocre piece of work that is done over an intricately detailed piece that might not be completed?

I realised at this moment that I have hard drives full of unfinished work simply because I have deemed it ‘imperfect’.  Yet I have very few finished pieces of work in comparison.

So, I set myself a challenge to start writing and FINISHING a song a week. The rules were it didn’t have to be perfect, I didn’t have to like it, it just had to be DONE.

A month later and many songs completed I realised that I was wrong.

Before I would spend days EQ’ing a kick drum and weeks getting the perfect balance of reverb only to be exhausted with the song months later.

Writing and finishing a song in a week has given me the boundaries I need to prioritise what needs done and limited the amount of time I work on everything. Resulting in the feeling of accomplishment having seen something through to the end.

I ultimately have started liking my one-week songs over the ones I spent four months writing the verses for!

So, if you’re like me and spending an unhealthy amount of time trying to make something ‘perfect’ may I suggest putting a time limit on it and remember –  it doesn’t have to be polished, it just has to be done.

 

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