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Christian Henson's YouTube Channel - Nighty Night!

I imagine that as Christian was away on holiday that we will get a gap due to him actually taking 5 days off! So production resumes when he returns.

Although

Modular is dead, Long live modular
 
Well, if we're just coming up with entirely new concepts anyway, how about 'Show-and-tell Saturday', where Christian evaluates compositions from the community?
 
Well, if we're just coming up with entirely new concepts anyway, how about 'Show-and-tell Saturday', where Christian evaluates compositions from the community?

As cool as that would be, I'm sure that his other videos are already taking lots of time.
 
And don't forget this one, also released today:



(I figured there must be a good reason why Modular Monday was bumped a day.)

Best,

Geoff
 
On the sleep subject I can highly recommend Matthew Walker's "Why we sleep". You will NOT want to skimp on your sleep after reading that!
 
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How do I structure my day? With a great deal of frustration...
Thanks for the brutal honesty here Christian. Time management is something I struggle with massively. I've somehow managed to scrape a 10 year living as a composer but even in all that time, I've never found a successful, stress free way of working. Instead I leap from impulse to impulse. Will def be putting some of the advice in your film to the test.

Here I am, having worked until 4:30 in the morning yesterday, now on the bloody forum at 1:30am. It's gotta end.
BTW, I guarantee my Apnea mask looks goofier than yours. My wife disagrees about the Bane thing too.

Keep 'em coming.
 
A short insight from my daily life - I don't know why, but I share it anyway ;)

Earlier in life I slept like a brick, on weekend slept in until lunch, I was out drinking even more. When I went into military service and became sergeant, that changed drastically. First because you simply don't have the time to sleep that long, and second because you have to be "fully operational" early in the morning. (Meanwhile I am a specialist officer in the Psychological service, helping recruits and higher who have psychological conditions, evaluate if they have such a condition and do resilience training für people going abroad for peacekeeping missions and such - plus coaching and care for potential traumatic experiences). I am a pretty organized guy (my desk says otherwise but hey). When I studied, I needed money of course, so I got a job. I worked 60-80%. And studied 100%. after 6 Semesters on Christmas I broke down. Not a hardocre burnout but hella close. That was a little wake up call for me - 1. While the job makes me happy, it doesn't fullfill me as I thought it would, 2. I'm done studying, 3. I pursue my career in music again, that fullfills me and makes me happy.
Ok - now, today, here's a chart representation of my time blocks:

My Dayjob days (Monday - Wednesday/Thursday):
There is 30min-1h left for work related stuff in the evening. Plus this is for my homeoffice days.
upload_2018-7-22_7-39-43.png
And my music days (Thursday/Friday + weekends):
upload_2018-7-22_7-40-50.png .


In comparison: The upper lane represents my music days and bottom my dayjob days

getImage


So yeah, I maintain my work-life balance the following way:
1. Make a plan for the next day before going to bed
2. before sleep, rather read than sit on the phone/tablet
3. Enjoy time with my wife. Cook together, watch a movie or series
4. Have "guilt-free playtime". If my wife's busy in the evening, or I "have worked enough today", I can just sit down and play computer games. The important things is guilt free
5. Talk to your wife, about your day, her day, future plans or just silly jokes.

Considering planning - I do it like this:
1. Block time for things I want to do (watch episode 5 of that series, play a bit of this game, listen to a sonata whatever) - AKA guilt-free play
2. Block necessary things like eating etc
3. THEN fill your time with work
That way, you have guilt-free playtime, can be (if it's for you) more productive with less time (therefore having ressources for crunchtimes) and you feel happier - because you did things you wanted that day and not just "work work work, a crap already dinner time"

Not that my system is perfect, or good for anybody but me - but I thought I bring it up :) YMMV. I feel happy, am reasonably healthy and can manage a 80% dayjob, 20% music, a wife and EIS - without fearing burnout.
 
Wow this seems incredibly unhealthy and also maybe a little sad in my mind that you don't get to spend more time with family. Hopefully that's not something you regret later in life.

I guess this is what it takes to get ahead in the industry but personally I'd rather sleep more, spend more time with family and compose less as that makes me happy. I know I won't die thinking "I wish I worked more".
 
I couldn't draw colorful cycles like that. Days are too different. Some days would be yellow/green/gray only (like today). Sometimes the half day and night blue. And I need a lot of time just 'being there' without tasks. White.
 
The glorification of not sleeping that composers have is equally as messed up. This entire interview is worth absorbing:

I think this is the audio version of that interview (which for me at least is a more convenient format).
Have to admit I've not got through the full 2 hours yet though.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/joeroganexp/p1109.mp3?dest-id=19997

Matthew Walker does seem to be a bit of a sleep evangelist as he seems to crop up on a lot of interviews.
 
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