It’s hard to sustain growth as a musician.
But it’s easier when you approach it with the right mindset.
Table of Contents
Here are a collection of daily habits to help you figure out how to grow- and enjoy- your practice, teaching, or career.
Consider experimenting with one or two. Set a reasonable goal, such as 7-30 days, and notice the difference it makes.
Daily Habits For Musicians
- Practice—even if it’s just for 10 minutes.
- Record something (memorized, written, or improvised) and listen back.
- Create something.
- Share or post your creations, recordings, or writings somewhere.
- Journal.
- A morning routine that prepares you mentally and physically.
- Sleep 8 hours.
- Reach out to one person.
- Set boundaries—say no to something.
- Throw away something.
- Stretch.
- Plan your day the night before.
- Keep your word to yourself on one thing every day
- Breathing, meditation, or emotional regulation exercises.
- Walk or exercise.
- Drink more water.
- Practice deep listening.
- Learn something completely unrelated to music (e.g., cooking, drawing).
- List three things you’re grateful for.
- Show appreciation by giving specific, genuine compliments to one person.
- Keep a daily log of how you spend your time.
For Music Teachers
- Combine your practice with your teaching time.
- Reuse, repurpose, or automate your teaching to save time and energy.
- Record yourself teaching and listen back for improvements.
- Ask your students or colleagues for feedback.
For Music Entrepreneurs
- Dedicate time daily to sales activity.
- Spend time on marketing activity.
- Reflect on and revise your vision, goals, and action plans.
- Know your numbers—track and collect data.
- Optimize one aspect of your evergreen marketing assets.
Habits to Let Go Of
- Alcohol, substances, or foods that may be a detriment to your performance.
- Meetings or projects you don’t want to take on.
- Perfectionism—stop doing extra revisions and ship the project.
- Comparing yourself to others.
- Saying yes to projects that don’t align with your goals.
- Clutter.
- Social media, news, or entertainment that doesn’t bring you joy.
- Self-doubt—celebrate small wins instead.
- Interrupting people.
- Reacting defensively.
- Speaking before thinking things through.
- Chasing shiny objects.
Add or subtract one or two habits from this list and see what happens.
And bear this quote in mind from Claude Hopkins:
“The love of work can be cultivated, just like the love of play. The terms are interchangeable. what others call work I call play, and vice versa. We do best what we like best.
