Unfortunately, I’ve been failing miserably at this project.  I have the time to do it, but I have been postponing posting my recordings, wanting to make each song “better” than I am able to make it. One reason I started this project was because I wanted to free myself from the chains of perfectionism, yet that perfectionsm is still holding me back from brainstorming, free-writing, and free-playing.

To try to get back into the groove, I’m going to do something over the Christmas break:  I am going to make myself post at least TWO songs per day until I catch back up. My Christmas break starts on Sunday, so the musical extravaganza is coming soon. I won’t allow myself to slack off on my non-music-related work, so it’s going to be a busy “break” this year.

By the way, I have absolutely no qualms posting covers.  I love covering my favorite songs. So don’t be disappointed when you don’t hear a ton of original music from me, ok?

We need a professional space that we can be proud to bring clients and partners into, but we also need a comfortable space that sparks creativity. It’s a fun balance to make.

We don’t really want to repaint or damage the white walls, so we are going to work them into the design. To give me some ideas for decorating, I’ve tried to find some other work spaces that embrace white walls. Here are a few images that are inspiring me to plan our new space:

Pinterest reminds of a Tumblr platform that eliminated all other forms of postings except for image posts.  I just recently started using it, and I like the idea of being able to collect all my visual inspirations in one place.  For example, I collect dogwood-related items, so I started a board that’s just about dogwood-ish things that I find interesting.  You can create many different pin boards with different themes or purposes, so I’ll probably develop some other uses for it as well.

This leads me to a problem, though:  I’m truly becoming overwhelmed with managing and using all the different social sharing platforms that I’m on. I have a neglected Tumblr and a Polyvore account that can also function like Pinterest, but they each have their own strengths and weaknesses.  I wish I could trim down all the accounts I have, but I don’t want to give up the unique benefits of each.  However, I do feel like I’m spread a bit thin. I’ll just have to work out a strategy for managing everything.

Adding tasks in Asana is REALLY fast and simple.  I click a field and BOOM – I can fill in info.  I also like the click-and-drag interface.  I receive email updates for all my tasks that are scheduled for today, so I have no excuse for forgetting anything.  They also recently added calendar syncing capabilities, so soon I’ll be able to see all of my tasks in one place on my phone or Google calendar.

Asana seems to work very well so far, but it is definitely not perfect.  Other users have complained about the fact that you can’t sort tasks by due date now, and that’s obviously a feature that people would find useful. In the meantime, I am selecting and dragging my tasks in batches and individually to arrange them by date.

Image by Cappellmeister via Flickr

I would also like the option to view all my tasks for the day in one glance, instead of clicking from project section to project section (individual tasks are grouped by whatever project you assign them to). However, I also think that segmenting them by project keeps me from jumping around from one project to the next too quickly.  This may actually make me more productive in the long run.

One reason I’m sticking with Asana regardless of its imperfections is the company’s apparent responsiveness to feature suggestions from the user community.  Right now it’s the best tool for my purposes that I’ve found, and I feel confident that they will continue to improve upon it.

I use Asana for my own personal projects, but the program is made to optimize group collaboration as well.  I’m sure I’ll be using it in the future for any projects that require external input and partners.

Related articles

• Asana: A Modern Way to Improve Teamwork (lifehack.org)
• Introducing Asana: The Modern Way to Work Together (asana.com)
• Asana(Task Management for Teams) Is Now Publicly Available (alltopstartups.com)

I’m working on this Project 365 for several reasons.

1. I am tired of saying that I want to be a musician while failing to ever do anything about it because I don’t have the right equipment, accompaniment, skills, etc. I don’t think that art (or poor attempts at art) have to be perfect in order to contribute to the greater good.  I think that more people should make more art, good or bad, so that we can all learn, grow, and rejoice together in human creativity.  I need to just go for it and stop worrying about what people think.
2. I want to free myself from my perfectionist tendencies and just have fun. By brainstorming and sharing music ideas once per day, I feel like I’m opening up the possibilities to develop more creative ideas.  If I were not recording and sharing them, I might shortsightedly nix a good idea that could be a great one once it is properly nurtured.
3. I think I could use the practice. I read recently that research shows you really can tap into your personal muse more by just developing the habit of performing a creative activity. No matter how difficult it may seem to just sit down and start writing or playing a song, over time you can train your brain to make it easier. You just have to build up the patterns in your mind. It’s like practicing time tables.
4. I think that posting the songs publicly holds me accountable to my goal.  The more I tell people about the project, the more committed I am to following through with it.
5. I like getting feedback from people.  I learn a lot from letting all my super-talented, super-smart friends hear my music and let me know what they think.  It just makes me a better person.

I challenge YOU — yes, you — to do your own Project 365!  Every day, work on something you love and post proof of it.  I CHALLENGE THEE!

I started with the 13th Floor WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes and updated the logo to match the logo Kevin is already using. I integrated his site at www.leerisperth.com with his Bandcamp site by embedding his Bandcamp music player in his “music” page.  By doing this, his site capitalizes on Bandcamp’s excellent music file quality and builds links between the two sites for better SEO. I also integrated simple, slick social media buttons into his sidebar.  This encourages his fans or potential bookers to follow his social profiles and share his website with others.

Now Kevin has a minimalistic, metallic site that fits in well with his love of trains and train imagery.  He says he might ask me to update his site soon with something completely customized, but for now, he says he’s very happy with his site.  “My website is very personal and professional,” he says.  “It has the qualities of being well-organized yet simple, while grabbing an audience’s attention well.”