There are many self-perpetuated stereotypes of musicians, but two that frustrate me the most are that…

1. All musicians are poor, and
2. All musicians are busy

I don’t buy into either. The first I’ll address in future posts, but the latter I’ll handle today.

I know that throughout my undergraduate people would have lumped me in the “busy” category. I took more than 15 credit hours a semester, participated in ensembles and chamber groups, was a member of student organizations, moonlighted as the labor czar in my housing cooperative, played in a band, and maintained a violin studio. A few all-nighters were pulled. Some stress tears were shed.

There were moments that I thought I literally didn’t have enough time get it all done. I thought I was in way over my head. It was too much.

Ultimately, I am extremely proud of the work I did in my undergrad. I think the work I did has undoubtedly shaped me to be the person I am today. But moving into graduate school, I feel there is a more mature, healthy way to approach work. As the depth and substantiality of my work increases, so will my work efforts– they’ll have to.

The week before school started at Ithaca College I went back to one of my favorite books, Deep Work by Cal Newport. In it, Newport systematically argues that the skill of working deeply is being lost at exactly the same time it is valuable. I have totally bought into this notion, but I do struggle putting it into practice.

Luckily, Newport uses himself as a case study.

Newport went through graduate school, did post-doc work at MIT, was hired on as a professor at Georgetown, and received tenure by 33. All the while he was writing books and short blog posts on his own successful strategies. It is easy to see how his study of, and commitment to, a deep life directly correlates to his academic success.

In Deep Work, Newport suggests many ways to organize the work day to reach the same levels of depth as he does. I want to implement three particular approaches in graduate school. The first is a fixed productivity schedule, the second is scheduling my days, and the third is a workday shutdown routine.

FIXED PRODUCTIVITY SCHEDULE

In How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, Arnold Bennet claims that, “More work, more genuine living, could be got out of six days than out of seven.” Though seemingly paradoxical, his idea is that by setting constraints on time one actually acts on the most important tasks and completes them faster. And, in constraining work time you are also allowing for rest time.

Newport sets up these constraints in his work days by only working until 5:30pm on weekdays, and doesn’t work at all on the weekends.

I want to set up a similar constraint. My plan is to work from 8-5:30pm, and not on weekends (the only exception being Mondays when I teach our studio scales class from 5:30-6:30 and violin practice on the weekends).

My daily work time will include my graduate teaching responsibilities (String Class, Scale Class), my academic classes (Suzuki Pedagogy I, Bibliography), rehearsals (Piano Instrument Duo, Chamber Music, Orchestra), practice, prep for classes, and admin tasks (attendance, email response, paperwork).

This will make it difficult for me to volunteer for gigs and playing opportunities since the rehearsals are often late at night and on weekends. I also won’t be staying up late working on homework or doing administrative, shallow work.

DAILY SCHEDULING

So on Sundays I already do a weekly review (David Allen style) in which I update all of my projects and tasks lists, clear out my inbox, and send an email to my grandmother with a description of the upcoming week. This helps me get my brain ready for the week ahead. My gears can start subconsciously turning and problem solving future assignments or projects.

This has been a very useful habit to develop, however if I’m going to stop working at 5:30 every day I need to make sure I’m being as productive as possible during the work day. I really shouldn’t be making decisions about what to do moment to moment during the day. My plan instead is to look over my hard commitments every Sunday like I have been, but also plan out the next day’s schedule the evening before.

Newport does this on a blank sheet in a notebook specifically set aside for this purpose. In the notebook he writes out the days schedule in half-hour increments. He starts of by blocking off his hard commitments (teaching, meetings), and then adds in deep work sessions and batched shallow work tasks.

If something comes up during the day, he rewrites his daily schedule.

I will use the same system. The goal here is not to stick religiously to a plan, but to be conscious and proactive about how I’m scheduling my days. In doing so I will better learn how long I take to do certain tasks and will become very aware of the opportunity cost for straying away from a plan I set up for the day.

WORKDAY SHUTDOWN ROUTINE

A final habit shift I would like to make as I enter graduate school is establishing a workday shutdown routine.

This is a strict ritual I will practice around 5:30 everyday, and it will be the last thing I do before I am free for the night.

This is my ritual

• check email one last time, make sure there is nothing urgent
• review task list, sort everything out of inbox
• review projects, make sure everything is moving forward
• plan next day
• say out-loud “Shutdown complete”

After I do this shutdown I have released myself from commitments to tasks and my inboxes. I am liberated to do whatever evening activity I have decided on, whether it be volunteering at Green-star Food Co-op, meditating, attending a concert, writing a blog post, or watching Netflix!

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The three changes I’m making to my daily architecture are ambitious, but I think they will be well worth the effort. As I get closer and closer to a masterful, professional life I need to actively improve my routines and systems. I’ll be reporting my success back here, of course, but I hope that success comes in the form of better playing, quality teaching, focused research, and more “genuine living.”