New year, new you, as they say. When we see that calendar odometer roll over to January 1st, most of us see that symbolic renaissance as an opportunity to jumpstart our music goals or, better yet, create a few new ones. Maybe it’s an arbitrary date to some, or perhaps it’s the perfect time to re-evaluate these goals and make some definitive moves.
Think of achieving your music goals as you would embark on a road trip in a foreign land. You probably won’t get to your destination if you don’t have clear directions to follow. And if you’re just starting out as a musician, or even moderate success has eluded you thus far, don’t worry. With some proper planning and effort this year, you can position yourself for some truly awesome achievements.
This week, Lukas from musicbyLUKAS takes us through five of the best tips for crushing your music goals in 2023. So let’s get started, shall we?
Prioritize Your Music Goals
Simple enough, right? You need to determine which goals are the most important to you so that you can give those priority over others. Balancing your goals is also vital so that you don’t have every single goal focused primarily on music production. If your goal is to be a successful music producer, you can’t neglect growing your social media following or your fan base.
Many artists fail to reach their goals when they decide to focus on one single aspect while neglecting other areas. It can be easy to lose focus when you have a great new track but no real fan base to hear it. You can also lose motivation if you aren’t also focusing on your mental health as well. It’s hard to stay motivated if you’re feeling burnt out.
If you’re trying to prioritize tasks on different music projects, you can easily do that within Boombox.io by adding tasks to specific projects to better see them through to completion.
Find Answers to Your Questions
Most of the time, it’s not enough just to have a list of goals. We need to do a little research before we embark on that journey. First, make a list of the questions that come along with each of those goals, and then go out and find those answers. Where do I start? Or how do I achieve this? It’s not always clear-cut.
For instance, if your goal is to get signed by a record label, but you don’t yet know the proper way to contact them or even how, then you might find your cart before your horse. Find answers by doing online research, watching tutorials (like, ahem… the Boombox YouTube channel), or connecting with a mentor like Lukas.
Create a List of Steps for Each of Your Music Goals
For example, if one of your goals is to grow your social media following, you may want to outline specific steps for that purpose. You might want to find out what posts perform the best, how to find trending audio, how to use hashtags properly, etc.
If your goal is to get 2,000 followers, for instance, one of those steps might be choosing a day to film reels and edit. Then you will want to set time aside to come up with captions and thumbnails. You’ll also have steps for an updated bio, new press pics, and so forth.
Once you have the answers on how to complete each goal, it should be easy to compile a list of steps to achieve each goal respectively. Once you’ve written down your steps, you’ll be organized enough to get started.
Work Around Your Schedule
Create a way to work towards your goals without getting burned out or losing your motivation. A great hack is to separate your goals into two specific categories:
Focus Time – These are the kinds of goals where you want 100% focus. Turn off your phone, eschew distractions, and go all in. Examples would include creating new content like new posts or new music, etc.
Extra Time – These are tasks that can be accomplished even if you aren’t entirely focused, like if you’re on a bus or train or where you can’t totally block out every single distraction. Examples would include music production tasks like organizing and color coding different tracks, moving things around, renaming files, etc. Add a caption to a post, make some thumbnails, or do anything that doesn’t require 100% of your focused effort.
Focus on Your Mental Health
Make time for communicating with supportive people. This is really important advice and deserves priority. Ask yourself what types of things help improve your mood and your overall mental health.
It’s not always so simple as “take a break.” What do you like to do during that break? Meditate? Take a short walk outside, or just be in nature? Watch a low-stakes TV show? Listen to music? Whatever helps you to de-stress and calm your mind. Make a list of activities that help you emotionally, and keep it handy when you need a mental break.
Surround yourself with supportive people. If you don’t have these people close personally, perhaps you can find some on a discord or other online community. Make time to talk with them, share ideas, and even discuss the troubles you’re facing with reaching your goals. You’ll find that many of these people will want to help because they’ve been in the same boat as you at some point.
Sometimes others will notice the very thing that can help you move forward with your own goals. At times it can be easier to see a solution for someone else versus looking inward at your own issues. After all, that’s why people go to therapy, right? People often see things that are hard for you to see for yourself.
Thank you for reading, and best of luck with your goals in 2023!
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