The Savvy Producer | Productivity and Efficiency in Music Production

Procrastination affects the best of us, but if you let it get out of control, you could be wasting days or even weeks of your work life. It'll crush your productivity, affect client relationships and cause you to miss your goals, so today I thought I'd share three easy methods I use to combat procrastination in the studio. In this episode I talk about:

- How to create a productive studio environment

- Why you need a daily "ritual" to put you into work-mode

- The 2 minute rule and how it can help you jump into flow state quicker

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/24

Have you hit your goals for this year yet? If not, this is for you! In this episode I talk about:

- How to make sure you're always progressing in your music production career

- The importance of setting up systems, not just goals

- Systems you could set up to get more clients, get more features for your music or make sure you never miss a deadline again

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/23

If you're still trudging through mix prep manually everyday, without systems in place to speed it up, automate it or delegate it, you are wasting a lot of time on non-creative work and your hourly pay is probably suffering. In this episode I talk about:

- How you can speed up your mix prep process and make it as efficient as possible

- How to create a great mixing template

- How to approach file submissions and make it easy for your clients

- Why it might be time to hire an assistant

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/22

We tend to focus a lot on things like followers, likes, our list of gear or getting A-list credits, but the truth is none of these things are good measures of your success. So what should you focus on instead? In this episode I talk about:

- The metrics that are way more important that followers and likes

- Getting incredible testimonials from your clients

- Why your gear list doesn't matter and what you should replace it with

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/21

Since I've launched this podcast, I've been asked a ton about what helped me to go full time with mastering. Were there any defining moments or things I did to crack the code and make it work? There are so many contributing factors, but I think the thing that's made the biggest difference is building habits out of the things that drive me forwards to most. In this episode I'll unpack those habits and talk about:

- Finding your golden work hours

- How to be consistent when it comes to building an amazing network

- Why you should charge more and why you might want to try working for free

- Building a safety net to take the stress away from being a freelance music producer

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/20

I think everyone's been there. You've spent hours working on a mix, but it just doesn't feel finished yet. It can be really difficult to just draw the line and call it done and you can spend hours and hours chasing your tail, making 10 new versions of the mix only to realise that the first one was the best. Ultimately, this is killing your productivity, so you need to find a way to be more confident in your mixes so that you can just hit send, be more efficient and know that you're giving your clients a product that they're going to love. In this episode I talk about:

- The best way to learn your listening environment

- Getting over imposter syndrome

- The best way to overcome losing objectivity at the end of a project

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/19

If you're trying to keep track of projects in your head, you're probably feeling stressed, procrastinating, missing deadlines and your clients might be beginning to notice. What you need, is a bullet proof, easy to use project management system so that you can stay on top of your workload and save more brainpower for being a great producer! In this episode I talk about:

- The benefits of using a great project management system

- How I stay on top of my workload as a mastering engineer

- Why you should only book yourself to 80% capacity

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/18

Revisions... Getting this wrong and being poor at handling criticism is probably the number one reason for producers losing clients and for artists having bad experiences in the studio. But, get it right and you’ll be the producer that artists love to work with and you’ll build an amazing reputation for delivering incredible results. You’ll get more and more word of mouth business and more repeat clients - it’s a win win for everyone. In this episode I talk about:

- Ways to handle criticism of your work

- Communicating with artists more effectively

- How to give your clients peace of mind and a product that they truly love

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/17

It’s easy to assume that plugin presets are BS because no two songs, no two recordings or voices are ever the same from project to project, so how can you possibly think that there can be a one size fits all EQ setting or compressor setting? Well I’d have to agree. But there is a way you can use them that will make you a faster, more efficient and better engineer and in this weeks super short, but super practical episode, I explore that and talk about:

- Why every producer needs to use plugin presets

- The mindset shift you need to make to become faster and more efficient in the studio

- What you need to do to start making your own, super powerful plugin presets

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/16

One of the biggest mistakes producers, mixers and engineers make is not putting any effort into becoming more efficient. This is a one way ticket to overworking yourself, having low income on your projects and a bunch of unhappy clients. The more efficient you are everyday, the more you earn, the more projects you can take on, the happier your clients will be and the more free time you'll have to rest. An efficient studio is a happy studio! In this episode I talk about:

- How keyboard shortcuts and macros can save you hours every week

- A twist on the pomodoro technique

- Battling ear fatigue

- Why you need to ban your phone from your studio

Freebie - How busy music producers can crush their schedule and keep their clients happier, without stress or overwhelm - ⁠marsdenmastering.com/trello⁠

Full show notes - ⁠https://marsdenmastering.com/thesavvyproducer/15