More often than not the only time I can set aside a few hours for music is in the evening after my day job is done and my son has gone to bed. The house is quiet, I have no other pressing obligations…and my brain is completely fried. Overcoming the desire to just watch TV and go to bed is the biggest challenge I face as an artist.

I feel stupid writing this. I spend so much of my time during the day thinking about what I am going to do once I’m in the studio that you’d think I’d carry enough momentum to get over the hump and actually do something productive. Alas, this is not the case. My day dreams are vague and not fully fleshed out, and I often find myself wasting a sizeable chunk of time trying to figure out what I want to work on. I rarely get things done on days like this, and I end up going to bed frustrated and convinced that I was stupid to ever think I could pull of being a musician at all.

The best defense to this is to have a solid plan, a clear idea of what I need to do in my next session. Planning is hard, though, and I tend to look for excuses to avoid it. In fact, I should be working on a plan now, but I decided to procrastinate and write this blog post instead. I can convince myself that blogging IS productive, and stave off the voices of self doubt for one more day. I’ll put the plan together tomorrow, for sure.