hello there this is Shal and welcome to another Vox FX PSA. today's topic:
finishing your project now we all have great ideas for projects we want to do
songs we want to write videos we want to make but those are just that ideas they
may be cool but they're not going to make an impact unless you actually make
something so you start working on the idea and it's going great and then
another idea comes along and you go wow that's cool I want to do this and so
you've put the first idea on hold and then you start working on the second and
it's going great and then you go wow another idea I want to work on this and
so this process of a shiny work on that shiny work on this thing etc repeats
until you end up with a mountain of unfinished projects and that's the
problem like I said it's not going to make an impact unless you actually make
something and this means finishing your projects see people aren't going to hear
your unfinished rough ideas all they hear is the work you've released but
you've put all this work into these projects and they're coming along great
but they're not done they're not published and if you let this shiny
process continue you'll just end up spinning your wheels putting hours and
hours into projects that no one ever gets to see and that's a real shame in
my opinion so finish your projects get them wrapped up shipped and out the door
then move on to the next project but that's easier said than done sometimes
so here's some things I use to finish projects one set a deadline if you say
to yourself I'm gonna work on this project until the end of the month and
then the end of the month rolls around you'd better be ready to share that
project so it basically forces you to prioritize your work okay so I have X
number of weeks to get this done it'll take this long to do this this long to
do this this long to do this okay I know what my plan is and then you just go
through makes it very easy setting a deadline is especially effective if you
tell someone else that you're setting this deadline this will help keep you
honest you say hey I'm gonna be finishing a song by the end of the month
and it gets close to the end of the month and your friend goes so how's that
song going and you're like oh crap I didn't work on it so that should help
number two get feedback I'm sure there are a lot of songs that are
are stuck because it's like there's something wrong with it but I don't know
what it is so show it to someone else get some fresh tears or fresh eyes on
that they'll be able to help you find the problems because unlike you they
haven't been stuck with the project for weeks on end they'll have a different
perspective they'll be able to see things that you haven't seen and that'll
be very easy for you to find the problems or you show it to them and
they're like oh it's good and then they don't have any suggestions that means
it's basically done and you can probably just ship it okay number three avoid
perfectionism you know this you can fiddle around with your projects forever
you could just twist knobs and change settings and it'll just be different but
not necessarily better I think you know what I mean learn to tell the difference
between perfect and good enough like I said before perfect is the enemy of done
focus on the details that really matter like lyric choice or melodies or overall
arrangement and not focus on things like precise EQ frequencies or exact loudness
levels I also talked about using a timer that's been very helpful because it
helps keep you from overthinking things okay next thing find ways to make the
hard stuff easier I kind of talked about this in my other video make templates
for a project so you can just throw things together without having to waste
time on the boring stuff you can save presets same reason follow a process
once you're done with writing lyrics you finish up the arrangement when you're
done with that okay got a record now it's time to mix it's a very logical
progression and once you reduce every song down to a process it becomes very
easy to know what to do next another thing is like the sort of the final
listen test basically once you think it's pretty close to being done just sit
down listen to your song and to end and go
okay here is a list of things that I would change about it change those
things and then print it you're done there's no sense just going over things
over and over and over again because like I said it never finishes so just do
that one list you're done ship it number five have multiple projects on the go at
once this is kind of counterintuitive but hear me out by having multiple
projects on the go at the same time you can jump back and forth between each one
whenever you get stuck like you'd be pushing one particular song
along and then you just get really really stuck on say the lyrics I'm gonna
move over to this other project so that I can continue to make progress on that
and then that one could get stuck as well or you could finish it and then you
can move on to that other project that you had before and then it's like oh I
now that I've had a break I could come back to this with fresh insight and then
just move forward it helps reboot your creative system and
helps you see things in a new light but don't have more projects going at
once that you stopped releasing things that's the problem we had at the
beginning and that's not what we want and last developed discipline I talked
about this in another video in more detail but just to briefly touch on
things putting the time keep at it don't give up if you only
work and you feel inspired you're never gonna finish things persevere so I hope
that helps but what do you like to do to finish projects what helps you get stuff
done let me know in the comments and if you're new here I encourage you to
subscribe as a quick reminder I am releasing content to every other week
now it may be more intermittent than that in the coming months the latter
half of the year is always pretty busy for me so if you want to keep on top of
my content I encourage you to hit that notification bell that's always very
helpful anyway until next time have fun and keep making sound
talking in a box go wow that's cool I want to do this and so you talking in a
box okay uh but they're not hours and hours and days and weeks into projects
Oh God dang it you'll end up putting a fudge stop talking in a box making sure
it's not broken I don't know why I did that but it's whatever stopped glitching
out