Structured
Ever feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time? Slipping into procrastination way too often? Employing this simple practice into your day could change your life.
Not taking breaks in the
creative process - big mistake!
Not taking breaks in the creative process - big mistake!
by Will Jackson
In the past I used to spend so much time slogging away at something in the process of building a song that was nearly right, but not quite right…
The result would be that the longer I delved into the process of trying to find the answer to my creative problem, be that mixing, producing or songwriting, the harder it would be to find it.
Even worse than that, I would often start to make things worse than the idea I had in the first place!
The reason why is you start to hear things very differently after even a small duration of time spent working on the project. Your ears fatigue and your perspective on what you’re producing becomes skewed.
This can result in creative block… Been there before?
Structure your sessions
Factoring regular breaks into your producing/mixing/writing process can be a lifesaver for your time and end product.
Here’s a process I’ve found to work wonders:
- When starting to create, set a timer for 30 mins
- When the timer pings, leave the room
- Take a 5-10 minute break
- Grab a tea!
- Come back and reset that timer…
Why it works
When you’re tuning an instrument such as a guitar or a drum, occasionally, it can become difficult to know whether one or more of the instrument tuning pegs/tension rods needs to be tightened or de-tightened.
After multiple adjustments over a period of time without taking a break, it can be come really difficult to remember the exact pitch you were looking for – of course this only applies if you’re doing this by ear, without a tuner!
Your brain can become confused by all the back and forth in pitch adjustments, and lose track of what the original target pitch was.
A similar thing can happen when you’re mixing/producing/writing.
Let’s stay with the mixing practice for the rest of this article to simplify things. All the points apply equally to producing and writing though.
The majority of the time when you’re mixing, you’re problem solving. When you come across a problem you usually come up with either an exact desirable outcome, or a ball-park desirable outcome.
If we take the EQ’ing of a snare drum for example (boy I’ve been here in the past 😂), you can often be making multiple, small adjustments to band cuts or boosts, testing various frequencies. If it isn’t initially clear what the bad frequencies on the track are, you can quickly find yourself losing sight of what you were aiming at sonically in the first place.
This is what causes people to actually end up degrading the sound they’re trying to improve, rather than upgrading it!
You usually find out the next morning after 30-45 mins of chucking the kitchen sink at that track until it sounds right, the night before! Not fun!
Don’t get me wrong, with practice, this scenario becomes less and less frequent. Your ears get better at discerning the best sounding solution, and yes, your are able to mix for longer without having to take a break as a necessity.
However, that doesn’t mean that your overall perspective of a mix can’t be enhanced by regular breaks.
The more you listen to a mix in one session, the more your objectivity starts to disappear and creative block becomes more likely. You can regain that objectivity by taking a break.
Get into the habit
This technique has worked for me time and time again, and revolutionised my creative output, going from having a nagging backlog of projects to finish as they’re not quite right, to getting things done fast!
It doesn’t necessarily come easily at first though, you do have to be disciplined. I can’t say when I’m getting really stuck into a mix that taking a scheduled break is something I always want to do, but if you force yourself to initially, it becomes accepted mentally as something that has to be done (like brushing your teeth), and then it’s much more easy to action upon.
If you’re new to mixing, and still trying to get the basics down, you may actually find that 20 minutes might be more suitable.
When you’re first starting out, many things in the mixing process can be over-brearing and at times daunting. Achieving your vision for a mix can be difficult and take quite some time, but more frequent breaks will really help to keep you objective, focused and energised/motivated.
Whatever your skill level though, give this practice a try and enjoy mixing faster and more efficiently 😁
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