Time carving...

Carving out time has been on my mind lately.  Not just the fact that I'd like to carve out time for this electronic music project of mine and for voice over work but carving out time in general.  How I've gone about it in the past and how I might do it now given that my schedule is so much fuller than it ever has been.   I work 50 hours a week on average, I write music for film and I do voice overs, I have a yoga habit and occasionally, I like to go out to shows and meet people or go on dates. 

I could systematically look at my days and nights and subtract all the time when I'm not at a day job or somewhere that I need to be and then systematically rank things I do in order of importance but then something always gets left out and I start having to assure myself that I'll get around to it eventually and resign myself to the reality that some things may have to get put on the back burner for a while.   I don't really like operating this way to be honest but that's what it comes down to. 

The good thing is that I'm now at a point where my work schedule is steady enough that I could feasibly rethink all the other stuff I do and set days to do that (voice over and music on Wednesday and Friday mornings, and at some time during the day Saturday and Sunday, for example).  And I actually try to do that, yet somehow my schedule remains fluid and ever changing.  I'm always trying to squeeze in yoga here and there, and then I forget I have to find time for laundry or groceries or cooking so I don't have to eat out all the damn time.   

I've also always believed in the importance of scheduling free time into your schedule.  Without it I'd soon go insane.  Plus, having free time gives me that all important wiggle room when planning things.  Too often what can happen is that I schedule my days down to the minute and then if something comes up that I want to do or that I need to do but just forgot about, I have to give up something.  Too often it's yoga, other times it's cooking and then, in that case, I end up having to eat out. 

It's never simple either because if I want to cook to save money and also go to yoga, then I have to (like I'm doing tomorrow), go to work first with all the food I've cooked, drop if off in the fridge, then go to yoga.  And tomorrow I can't go straight home after yoga because I have a dentist appointment to get a cavity filled at 1pm and then by the time that's over I don't think I'll have time to go home so I may as well go straight to work.  But then the problem is I'd like to have my laptop with me so I can work if I need to but then I have to carry it around along with my yoga mat. 

Then, if I've done all that, I have no time to put in voice over auditions.  I may be staying fit and saving money by not eating out (also avoiding gluten) but I'm not advancing the voice over career at the pace I'd like to.  I just wish that I didn't have to sacrifice those two things that I love, yoga and digestive harmony (haha!), in order to advance my career. 

But I'm resourceful and I'll find a way.  I always do.  I was trying for a while to record voice over auditions on my laptop during my break from work but it's not always feasible.  It's only an hour after all, and any audition that I throw together in that amount of time is probably not going to be my best work. Plus, in order for it to be worthwhile for me to do auditions, I want them to be good quality, something that's unpredictable when I'm doing them away from the home studio.  Also, I often want to do multiple auditions in order to increase the odds that they will be heard and that I might get called back, but I can't really do a good job on more than two auditions in the space of an hour.

So that's out.  But I've found that, if it's a direct invite, then it most definitely is worthwhile to squeeze an audition out in such a small amount of time.  After all, my first job came from an audition I pulled together at work.  And I nailed it. But it wasn't ideal. 

Now, I've certainly cleared my schedule when I've had a music job before that needed to get completed so it's not unreasonable to think that I could do the same with voice over.   So that's the next thing.  I'm getting close to starting to score the pilot episode of "The Life" and am just about to master the recording of the song Amanda and I wrote for the show.  With the lull between those two, maybe I'll treat my voice over stuff like I do the music.  I really just want to sit down and start contacting people I've worked with again and possibly find some new clients. 

But then, I started off this blog talking about the electronic music project which I still haven't figured out how to devote time to.  The last time I devoted any time to it was when I knew I was going to be performing.  So I'm a little more concerned about that not getting its fair share of attention than I am the voice over work.  I've managed to find time for that in all this craziness and even pulled off squeezing in a few gigs in between CNN and NY1 when I was working 60 hours a week back in the summer time. 

The electronic music project is a colossal undertaking though.  One in which I will I have to devote loads of time not just writing the music but also working out the logistics of performing them with a drummer, getting time and space to rehearse with said drummer.  I guess I'm in no rush to make it happen which is part of the problem.  I can spread out my progress on it, no problem.  But it is something that I've been talking about for far too long.  It is nice that I can look at it and at least acknowledge that I've advanced to some degree. 

With that said, though, it's hard when you've basically already planned out most of the month ahead to fathom squeezing in that one added project.  That's about all I have time to think about tonight because there's that one thing in my schedule that I can't shove aside to make room for other things...and that is sleep.  Good night.