I’m sitting here in my studio on an early Monday morning and it almost feels like my head is going to explode. I’ve got so much to do and so little time to do it in. My “list of things to do” seems to only get bigger and bigger, no matter how many things I check off of it. I currently have to restring a bass that I’ll be using on a session this afternoon, edit some music that we recorded this past weekend before we begin doing some overdubs this tomorrow, arrange three songs for a rehearsal on Wednesday, finish editing three product demo videos and a bunch of lessons for LA Bass Lix, and get things squared away for the NAMM show that’s coming up. And that’s just the stuff on my work list! My house is also well overdue on a good cleaning, I need to stop by the bank and put money in my (empty) checking account, make breakfast for my wife before she heads to work (I said it was early!), do the dishes and the laundry, and I’d love to get in an hour at the gym since we ate out twice this past weekend… All of this before I head in to my school at 1 pm and teach for 8 hours. There’s just not enough hours in the day!

Does any of this sound familiar? I’m sure that we’ve all experienced hectic schedules and deadlines like this, with that “to do list” ever growing in multiple directions at once. I know that I’m not alone in this, because that’s just life. So how do I deal with it?

My solution is (rather than letting my head explode) to write it all down. This isn’t a new concept at all; we did it all the time back in grade school. Seriously, I start by just grabbing a notepad and a pen and jotting all of this down on paper, and not in any particular order either. Whatever is on my mind or seems pressing at the moment, I just write it down. When I look at this list after I’m finished, it can be quite daunting. But wait! We’re not finished yet…

Then I type the list into my phone (my favorite app is called Todo List) by order of importance and set deadlines for each task. NOW HERE’S THE IMPORTANT PART: look at these tasks in order by their deadline, and if they don’t have one, just create one. All of a sudden that list has shrunken considerably. You’re now only looking at things you have to do TODAY. Don’t worry about that project that’s due on Friday until you finish the tasks that are due TODAY. Your list just became that much more manageable, because today’s list is actually quite small in comparison to the larger one.

But stay diligent! If you don’t handle today’s business, it doesn’t go away; it just gets piled on to tomorrow’s list. And hat’s why my head feels like it’s going to explode, because I didn’t check off yesterday’s list I now have to work double duty :/

Oh well, such is the plight of life, right? Just stay organized and be disciplined in your practice and you’ll always be able to keep your cool. Plus, at the end of the week just look back at that huge list of stuff you did, and you’ll feel really proud that you accomplished that much! I know I always do.