4 Productivity Hacks For Artists

Tony Robbins has mentioned countless times that in a world loaded with information, we crave wisdom. So, we decided to create a cool list of four tips to help you break through the information-overload barrier, and build some clarity and productivity into your day! Enjoy 😎

Did you know? - Musicspace allows you to easily manage/organize your entire music catalog in one beautiful dashboard. To join, click the “Join Musicspace” button at the top right of the page!

Checkout our new Copyright Registration Tool (launching May 2020)

1. Organize Your Emails 📩

Email overload is a big deal as your career grows. You’ll begin to get emails about partnerships, sponsorships, collaborations, fan mail, etc, and it can quickly become super overwhelming. But, a couple of features in Gmail can really help make your life easier!

Labels

I first started using labels a few years ago to manage my previous company’s customer support inbox, and believe me, it helped a ton! I created a few labels like open ticket, closed, payment-related, etc. These simple labels quickly helped me identify the purpose of the email and status. Here are some labels you could consider using:

• Fan mail (open)
• Open
• Closed
• Partnership
• Sponsorship
• Collaboration

Keep in mind: You can use multiple labels at the same time, for example, you can use Open + Fanmail if you’re actively chatting to a fan. And, once your communication is over, you can change the “Open” label to “Closed”. Simple, organized.

To create a label, simply:

1. Open Gmail
2. On the left sidebar scroll down and click “more”
3. Click “Create New Label”
4. Done!

Now, whenever you get an email, you can click the three “options dots” and assign that email a label! - You can also change the colors of labels by scrolling down the left sidebar and finding your label > hover over it and click the three options dots > then select “label color” and select whatever color you wish.

Here’s how labels look in Gmail! 👇

Archive 📥

The archive tool is super helpful as you begin to get more emails. The funny truth about my experience with this feature was that I didn’t really understand what it did. I was confused about whether it deleted my emails, or marked them as spam, etc.

The reality is, the archive tool simply removes the email from your inbox but keeps a copy in your “Archive” folder. This is useful because not all of your email communications will need a place in your inbox forever. In fact, I even suggest deleting emails you feel you won’t ever need. But, say you get a really beautiful fan email and you don’t want to delete it, simply hit archive (like in the image below) and your email will no longer blog up the “Inbox tab”, but you’ll be able to read it any time in the future! :)

2. Track Your Finances 💸

You realize that as an artist, you are essentially running a business/brand at the same time, right? We know… the business side of things can really get challenging and aren’t fun, but the reality is that sometimes the boring stuff is what keeps things ticking, and the last thing we want is for you to run into financial issues as you grow. Not many artists build financially stable careers, which is why you should get a head start now.

Make A Spreadsheet

At a bare minimum, you should have a simple spreadsheet with the months of the year on one side, your income (from distributors/publishing companies), and your expenses. These are just a few things you want to keep track of as you grow. It’s a simple process that literally takes a few minutes each month. And believe me, I Hated tracking finances. But financial organization gives you power down the line. The power of freedom, time, and no headaches.

Get An Accountant

Of course, this depends on how much you’re making, but, if you’re able to find an accountant at a good cost, they could help your career a ton! When I started Musicspace, I employed the service of a company based in the UK called “The Accountancy Partnership” - They charge a monthly fee to handle my accounting, and they do it very well, too. I no longer have any worries about taxes, etc that I usually would have years ago. I highly advise you to seek out an accountant and find out how to best organize your finances (even if it’s a free consultation!).

3. Bulk Prepare Content 🎬

At the time of writing this article, we’re right in the middle of a worldwide pandemic (Corona Virus), but this tip applies once you’re able to freely to go outside again.

Instead of spending your weekends playing games or just going out with friends, use these times to bulk-prepare content like images, videos, boomerangs, etc for your social media profiles. What we recommend is selecting between 2-3 locations in your city and taking a friend to capture your shots (a smartphone is more than good enough to take epic pics!).

Oh, and don’t forget, take 2/3 changes of clothes in a backpack to change up your content. You don’t want fans seeing the same outfit in various photos (unless you don’t mind, which is also cool).

4. Create Dedicated Focus Times 💡

As your career excels, you’ll find that your attention will begin to scatter like crazy, which can burn you out. One tip that I couldn’t recommend enough is to create dedicated focus times.

The idea is pretty simple, but hard to execute to begin with. The goal is to create a period of time in your schedule each day to simply focus solely on your music or something music related to enhance your career. This can be submitting your music to promotional YouTube channels, blogs, etc, or even studying music business and handling emails, or best of all: Making music.

Believe me…. your brain will hate it at first. But it’s about conditioning yourself to keep pushing and building this time around your brand. It’s all about building discipline instead of only putting in the work when you feel like it. I used to only run on motivation, and sure, YouTube videos and podcasts do wonders, but over time, after you’ve consumed all the content in the world, it just doesn’t work any longer. Discpline creates sustainable success that provides you with the motivation you need to continue to kick a**! 🚀

If you enjoyed this blog, be sure to share it on Twitter or Facebook, or even with a friend who might find some value! More content to come! 😎