When I was younger, I always had this vision of the music world as being a place where things happen only when inspiration hits. Everyone simply waits for the muse to visit them, and lead them down that path of inspiration until they find themselves smack dab in the middle of creative genius.

The cold reality? Creativity is hard work that requires a lot of discipline and a clear vision.

This was a hard-learned reality for me. If you were to describe my personality and approach to life as a musical style, I would be more free-form Jazz than the more structured Classical genre. That said, to run a successful business, I’ve had to learn to be better at planning and thinking through a project before I start, and before I waste a lot of time and effort going the wrong way. I’ve learned to identify my end result early on and make a plan to get there as smoothly as possible.

Over the years I’ve often helped others with their projects, only to realise that the main reason they’re struggling is not that they aren’t good at their craft, but because they don't know what they’re trying to achieve. They don’t have a final vision of what they are after, so they struggle to get something “good” without first defining what that means to them within the context of the project. They’re trying to get somewhere, and hoping they recognise it when they’re there.

It’s not always entirely their fault. Maybe it’s the result of an inexperienced artist who didn’t enlist the help of a producer to keep them on track. Or maybe it’s a client who keeps changing their mind because they failed to define their goals at the start of the project.

Not to mention that, often, when we are working on our personal projects, we take the path of “let’s see where this takes me.” While a creative journey like that is fun, I have yet to finish one of those projects, myself. With no defining goal or timeline, those projects seem to suffer from option overload and linger for months, years, or even decades.

Whatever the case may be, you can’t get there if you don’t know where there is. So figure out the “there,” and you’ll find the journey is much shorter when you know the destination.

Define Your Goals

How do you ensure that your project doesn’t end up unfinished, or worse, finished in a way that belies your artistic integrity? You must first define your goals.

When starting a project, make sure you know what the final outcome is supposed to be. Start with the macro, the big picture, because that will help define the details. The big picture maybe, “I need to mix this track so it sounds like classic Motown.” Now you have an endpoint and a definable “success” metric.

If you’re dealing with a client, you may need to help them define their goals. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and get them to think about what they’re after. Time spent this way is almost never wasted. Part of our jobs when dealing with clients is often to help them define, or refine, their goals.

Define The Process

Knowing what you want is a great start, but it doesn’t get you there, just like entering an address into your GPS doesn’t magically transport you to your destination. You still need to get in the car, start the engine, and follow the directions. Those steps become your process. The process can vary from project to project, but you will find that the practice of defining a process for each project helps you think through a project in a much clearer manner.

For instance, the process for a mix project might be as simple as [a] asking the client for some reference mixes, [b] asking them what they like about each mix, [c] making note of those likes, and [d] seeing how they can be applied to the recording they have provided.

For a recording project, you may need to start with more basics, such as: What’s the style and feel of the track? What are some tracks that are in the ballpark of what the final sound will be? How many instruments are being recorded? Are basic tracks being recorded live, or will everything be tracked separately to a click? Are all the parts covered, or do we need to hire additional musicians? Each one of those questions can help define the steps needed.

For a personal project, you may need to sit down and think through all of the above and make sure you know what you want before you start recording. You may also have to be brutally honest with yourself and enlist the help of others where your skills might be lacking. That’s perfectly fine. In fact, your project will be all the better for having talented people helping along the way.

And then, no matter what the project, you always need to define your timeline.

Set A Timeline

In my experience, projects without timelines are rarely completed. And, the few times I’ve seen them completed, they morphed so many times they weren’t so much completed, as they were brought to some sort of abrupt ending; usually an unpretty one, and for the mercy of all involved.

This is why it is so important to set a timeline. Make it realistic, and give yourself a little wiggle room where you need it, but be sure to set a timeline. It is key to a successful project.

Often, clients come with timelines. That can be helpful. Sometimes their timelines are unrealistic, and it’s very important to bring that up as soon as you realise it. That allows everyone to reset, and come to terms with the new schedule from the start, rather than delivering disappointing news days before the client is expecting a finished project.

Sometimes clients come in with a project that has no timeline, and that’s always a red flag for me. That’s where I try to help them to set goals, and hold themselves accountable.

Setting a timeline is hard for us creatives. We deal in “fuzzy” time, but that’s the exact reason we need a timeline. It’s easy to let things linger and put off difficult decisions until later. The reality is, later never comes. In the words of Mark Twain, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow.” I know that can be my mantra if I let it. Therefore, I do everything I can to hold myself accountable by setting timelines, and scheduling tasks.

So, how do you set timelines? You have to break things up into chunks, sections, or phases. Call them whatever you want, but subdivide the process into related parts that can be put into a timeline. That could be as simple as a list like this:

• Aug 9 - Pre-production meeting

• Aug 10 - Record basic tracks

• Aug 11 - Overdubs

• Aug 12 - Editing, comping and tuning

• Aug 13 - First mix

• Aug 14 - Send mix for client review

It’s simple and requires nothing more than pen and paper (or a text editor, if you prefer). I prefer to set up calendar events in my Mac’s Calendar app, which also shows up on my iPhone. It helps me keep things organised, and keeps me from forgetting things.

I review my calendar every night to see what I have coming for the next couple of days, and what prep work I need to do. I typically create a separate calendar for each client and/or project. That way I can hide it when done, but still, refer back to it later if I need to remind myself of any details to help prepare for a similar project in the future.

Here’s a project I just finished, and my timeline looked like this:

Not only does this help me think through the tasks I need to accomplish, it helps me manage my time, and make sure I get my tasks done on time.

And here’s a tip: I will adjust the start/end time of each task when I complete it to represent the actual time spent. This allows me to look back on it for billing purposes, and to better estimate similar projects in the future.

However you decide to manage your time and projects, be consistent. In the beginning all new processes feel awkward. You need to give yourself time to adapt to the new process, and give yourself permission to tweak and adapt the process to fit your workflow.

Ready. Set. Go!

With goals set, and a timeline in place, you can jump into a project with less chaos and a clearer vision. This also helps hold everyone involved accountable. If things begin to veer off course too much, it’s easier to pull people back in if all these things have already been agreed upon. It also protects you when things change significantly. It’s much easier to have that “costs are changing” conversation with the client when everyone can clearly see the changes in the project.

“The journey is much shorter when you know the destination,” is something I say often. It flies in the face of the “the journey is the destination,” mentality, but I don’t feel like knowing what you are trying to end up with is a bad way to start a project. You still have the journey. You still have the experience. What you don’t have is the indecision and wasted time of wandering about wondering if you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.