Wallitner Weekly 22

Hello everyone!

A lot of productive things happened this past week.

I was successful! I wrote several more chapters of my theory textbook. Specifically the ones pertaining to guitar TABs and scales and things like that. Even if you don’t play the guitar, learning how different patterns occur in music is a super useful skill. Plus the more you know about other instruments and concepts, the more you can make connections with the things you’re more proficient in.

I have yet to record any lessons, but I think this week I will be able to do that. The hard part is making the pictures and visual aids. Theres no use in me telling you what stuff looks like, I’d rather just show you. So I need to make those.

I also finally came to terms with a working schedule. One of the things I struggle with as a freelancer is feeling like I am not doing enough. But I think I have figured out a way to cope with that.

I’ve got lots of plans for next week too!

Next week Id like to continue writing my book, and start collecting/making those visual aids. Once that is done I should have everything I need to start teaching lessons out of it. Im very excited to be teaching music theory again now that school is starting back up, but I am even more excited to be teaching it from my own textbook.

It’s okay to relax.

I have had this problem for as long as I can remember. When I go to bed at night I always think of how I wasted too much time not working. One of the main benefits of being a freelancer is you get to choose your own schedule. And because of that sometimes I feel very guilty for not spending all of my time working. Those times have been more and more frequent lately. If I wake up and want to watch TV for an hour or two before writing, then I go to bed thinking I should’ve spent that Time working. I think about where I would be if I HAD spent that time working. All of the lost progress.

But relaxing is also incredibly important. I don’t allow myself to feel that way enough. Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is nothing at all. So I set a schedule up for myself, its similar to how an normal work schedule would work. I have a set amount of time to play video games or goof off, and I have a set about of time where I need to work. Right now these times are both about 5 Hours. But what I’ve realized is that by allowing myself to actually relax, I feel far more energized to work. I think about it while Im relaxing, but in a productive and positive way instead of a guilty “I really need to do this thing I said I would do kind of way.”

Even now, It is 130 AM Friday morning as of me writing this, but My set time to relax is during when I normally would write this newsletter, so I decided to write it early. I am doing my best to preserve both time slots equally. I don’t let things interfere with my relaxation time and I ALSO don’t let things interfere with my work time.

As a freelancer this is especially important, since it would be really easy to ask my boss for the day off to go hangout with my family or do something other than work. I have always struggled to say no to myself. But by setting these boundaries on both sides, work and relaxation, I feel much better about both.

I think that any person could seriously benefit from taking a look at how they spend their time. If you looked at a typical week (I say week because some days are better than others) are you being fair to yourself? Are you relaxing too much? Are you working too much? Are you being too hard on yourself? Our bodies and minds can only take so much pressure. Take note of what you are doing to yourself. If you’re working too hard, take that vacation. If you’re relaxing too much, get back on that grind.

This week I finally learned how to balance the two parts of me, the Boss and the Employee. I think that a lot of people could benefit from that mentality. There are only 24 hours in a day, make sure you spend them properly. Granted, it’s now almost 2 AM, so take the advice with a grain of salt.