Learning to schedule one’s practice is similar to learning to live with a budget. It is necessary for us to know how much time what have, cultivate a plan on how to use it wisely and effectively, and stick to it weekly while adjusting overtime. There are times when we have unexpected events or things that come up and disrupt our plan. This is okay, in fact, this is normal. In budgeting, we cultivate an emergency fund, so that we don’t have to worry about where the money comes from when the inevitable emergency arises. So what is the equivalent of an emergency fund when it comes to scheduling?
Build in margin to our schedules. There are only 24 hours each day. When scheduling what and how much you will practice, be realistic and estimate how much time each of those activities might take. For me, building in margin looks like 10 mins of transition time between finishing one activity and starting the next. It also means, that I build in gaps of slightly unscheduled time (if possible) so that if I need to restructure my practice, day of, I can. The key is that we aren’t doing this everyday, that’s exhausting, and I lived like that for years. Cultivate a plan each week, to attempt to forecast the demands of that particular week. For example, this week is radically different than last week because I have a recital hearing on Friday. My practice schedule looks very different than last week. I hope that I can learn about scheduling by budgeting, and I hope I can learn about budgeting by scheduling.
Time to Keep exploring,
Adam C White
P.S. One thing about budgeting that has been really hard for me is to plan for more than one month ahead. Maybe I can learn about budgeting by improving my scheduling, like I am now.
