🕟 timelines are arbitrary (let's rethink them)

Hi Reader, 

Have you ever felt burdened by the stress of a tight timeline, only to realize that you could actually relax it a bit? Hey, me too!

All along I have been planning for an April release for my new album, even though the timeline would be tight.

Unlike my first recording experience, which was partially funded by grants with particular deadlines, this time I’m completely on my own timeline, which felt nice and spacious at first.

Soon I found myself making these arbitrary rules like “I have to get it done in April because May will be too busy” and wanting to uphold my promise to my Kickstarter backers for an April release. I was also struggling to cram the album release show in between busy weeks (spring is always a busy concert and recital season for me as a collaborative pianist!)

Then, last week when I was supposed to finish mixing, I got a call from my recording engineer that their console had been undergoing repairs but suddenly wouldn’t turn on, and that we’d have to cancel our session. 

Between that and the tight logistics of booking the album release show, I promptly had a meltdown and seriously started thinking about delaying the release.

I realized that I had been subconsciously mimicking my previous album experience, with its tight timeline! 

That time, between recording at a busy studio (Wild Sound in Minneapolis) with tricky scheduling, and having an immovable performance date on the calendar, I had to pick up my CDs at the manufacturer the day before the show, and it was incredibly stressful!

Sometimes we gravitate toward what is familiar, even if it’s not pleasant or practical. 🤷‍♀️

After some reflection, it seemed that the main reason for keeping my timeline was my own stubbornness toward consistency. 

It’s generally a good quality to want to keep your promises, but even with the delay (I finished mixing on Friday 🎉), I will still be able to send Kickstarter backers their stuff in April, and plan for a late May / early June release. I’ll have more room to breathe, and no one will care except me!

I’m sharing this story because this happens often in the creative process - you might get your mind set on a certain way of doing things, in terms of logistics, fulfilling (sometimes only assumed) promises to others, or upholding a certain vision of how the project will look.

This could be due to rigidness in your own thinking, and made more powerful when you are swayed by the perceived “shoulds” of creative peers, gatekeepers, or friends and family.

When we start to feel the pressure of a big project, anything upsetting the original plan gets seen by the anxious brain as “Blergh, everything is going wrong!” 

But something “going wrong” might actually be a gift!

Adjusting a parameter that was “set in stone” might be just the right thing to shake it up and open you up to new ideas and ways of being for your creation. Maybe it will inspire a change that, in the end, is an improvement.

Sometimes great things can happen when you adjust a parameter that was “set in stone”, and it opens you up to new ideas and ways of being for your creation.

So, if you’re feeling stuck in your creative ways, ask yourself, “What if this one thing was different?” 

Just try it on, like an outfit you might buy but you haven’t quite decided on yet. Spin around, view it from more angles, try pairing it with things you already have, anything that lets you try something new in a low-pressure way!

Do you get stuck in your own arbitrary timelines, too? If you have any similar stories to share, I'd love to hear them!

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