Posted on October 15, 2013 by Astrid Baumgardner

I have the pleasure of teaching and working with world-class musicians both in my role at the Yale School of Music, as well as in my private coaching and training business. These highly motivated and amazingly talented young people have been focused on their art since childhood and have worked hard to achieve their level of professionalism.

Musicians at this level have a lot on their plates:

In their professional lives, they rehearse, they practice, they perform, they tour, they run concerts series and festivals, they teach privately and/or teach at music schools or universities, they give master classes and workshops, they collaborate with other musicians and artists.

They create new ensembles and new ventures and eagerly engage with local communities. Moreover, successful musicians today have to handle the business side of their lives. Even those with professional managers must spend time on marketing, audience development, managing social media and their websites and networking with other professionals.

That’s just on the professional side. They also have families and friends, invest in their health by exercising and pursuing fun-loving, personal development and/or spiritual activities.

How do they manage their busy lives and still maintain high standards of musical performance?

Let’s take 3 different musicians* ^{(see note below)} and see how they manage their time using 4 different strategies that can help to cut through the feelings of overwhelm and zero in on what is really important.

Meet Bill

Bill is a famous composer whose works are routinely performed in venues around the world. Bill collaborates with a lot of different performers and artists. He also teaches composition at the university level and is devoted to his wife and children.

Meet Jenny

Jenny is a classically trained violinist who performs new music, as well as rock. She is the artistic director of a new music ensemble, plays with a number of other well-known ensembles in New York City and tours at least twice a year with a rock band.

Meet Tom

Tom is an active freelance horn player in New York City. He performs as a substitute with many of the city’s leading orchestras. He is also a teaching artist with a major arts organization and teaches privately as well. And he helped to found an ensemble where has assumed a major leadership role.

All three have busy lives. Let’s take a look at 5 strategies that help them to stay on top of all of their commitments and feel good about the way they are spending their time.

* These characters are based on actual musicians, all of whom are friends and/or clients of mine. Their names and some details have been changed to protect their privacy.

World-class musicians know their values

World-class musicians can cut through the swirl of activities by focusing on what is the most important thing in their lives. To do so, it helps to know your values and then set goals reflecting those values.

Values are the principles that govern your life. There are no right or wrong values for musicians and values can range from relationships to personal growth to leadership and creativity, joy, passion, autonomy, security, authenticity, service or community.

Armed with these values, musicians set their long-term career and personal goals. As we will see from the examples of our three musicians, the more they align their goals with your values, the better they feel about the way they use their time because these choices reflect what they consider to be the vital part of their lives.

Bill values his artistic creativity, his desire to learn, collaborating with others and spending time with his family. He therefore prioritizes projects with other people, he seeks out new work that challenges him and he always makes time for his family.

Jenny puts a high value on her autonomy, a balance between work and fun and her creativity and her relationships. Her work as artistic director puts her in the driver’s seat. She enjoys the variety that her schedule gives her because it gives her a lot of freedom. She also values her relationships and therefore seeks out ensemble work.

Tom puts a premium on excellence, joy, integrity, leadership and wisdom. His work as a teaching artist is a way to share his joy of music with others. He also is the co-founder of an ensemble where he has assumed a leadership role.

They prioritize for the next performance season and say no to the rest

Musicians lives typically revolve around the next performance season, a period spanning three or four months. This helps them focus.

The temptation can be strong to take on projects that are not a priority but that doesn’t mean forgetting about those other priorities altogether. Using a values-based approach to setting short term priorities, world-class musicians understand that priorities change over time so that at some point in the future, a project that they say “no” to now might very well show up on a future priority list!

Let’s take a closer look at how our 3 musicians set priorities.

This season, Bill has prioritized a few creative projects that have taken him into new territory. Bill thrives on learning and challenge so he prioritizes these types of projects. He carves out time to be alone in his studio to make sure that he is advancing on this important work. Moreover, when he is not traveling, he is home when his children return from school so that he can spend time with them.

Jenny is prioritizing her ensemble and has decided to do less touring with her rock band since she no longer feels that it is creatively fulfilling. Her current priorities include promoting her ensemble’s tour, performing with other ensembles and making time for her new boyfriend.

Tom juggles his part-time job as a teaching artist with evening performances for various ensembles with whom he plays. Recently, a friend working in digital marketing shared insights on the online casino UK industry, sparking Tom’s interest in how such platforms operate within legal frameworks and outside them. Intrigued by the potential overlap between gambling regulations and the principles he teaches in his classes, Tom began exploring this niche further. At the same time, he’s considering graduate school for an advanced degree that could deepen his knowledge and position him for a more significant role in academia, especially in areas where legal studies intersect with arts and ethics.

They commit to weekly planning

With so much on their plates, planning is essential for world-class musicians! One great model is Quadrant II time management, a concept popularized by Steven Covey the author of the popular book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The idea is that each week you attend to the important, non-urgent activities that help you achieve your long-term vision.

It starts with making a weekly plan and focusing on two types of activities:

1. activities to which you are committed (e.g., rehearsals, performances and teaching); plus,
2. a few activities that feed long-term goals and values-driven projects.

The first part takes care of itself so it’s a matter of putting those activities into your calendar. The second part is where the magic occurs because it means focusing on the activities that will allow you to accomplish the big projects that represent your vision of success and cultivate the relationships that will nourish and support you. Each week, pick one or two of these activities and treat them as an important commitment to your future!

Here is what is on the plate of each of our 3 musicians this week:

Bill: new artistic projects, collaborations, family time

Jenny: expand the ensemble, reduce the time in rock bands, record, and spend time with new boyfriend

Tom: step up the level of freelance work to get paid more in order to free up time for leadership roles. Thinking about getting an advanced degree.

They create a strategic daily to-do list

The other part of planning is to have a daily to-do list. I’m not talking about the “kitchen sink” method of dumping everything onto a piece of paper with the illusion that you can tackle each one! Instead, world-class musicians can pare their lists down with a strategic daily to-do list, answering the following 3 questions:

• What is important about today?
• What must get done today?
• What is important about the future?

Making a strategic to-do list can help our busy musicians focus on what is important in both the short-term and the long-term.

In our examples, Bill has a performance of one of his works today. That means he will travel to the city where the performance is taking place and he will attend the rehearsal and give comments. He also will attend the concert and the post-concert party. In the meantime, there is a potential collaborator who lives in this city and Bill has scheduled lunch with this person to explore collaborating. And he makes time to Skype with his children.

For Jenny, today is the gala of her ensemble so that is what is the most important thing about today. She also needs to tend to her future by booking the travel arrangements for the ensemble’s tour. Her boyfriend is attending as her guest so that the two of them can spend time together. No time to practice today!

Tom’s important event today is opening night of a major orchestra with whom he is performing. After the performance he has been invited to the opening night party and is looking forward to meeting a few of the donors who will be attending. That means he has to practice and attend a dress rehearsal. He also wants to tend to his future by calling the director of the summer festival where he will be teaching next summer to confirm his attendance dates for next year.

World-class musicians are able to handle their busy lives by managing their time with these strategies. So take a page from these high-achievers and see which one of these strategies can help you feel on top of your time and your life!