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Staying active, busy, and productive as a professional musician is not easy. Pianists Elizabeth Yao and Kyunghoon Kim share some of the practical tips and mindset shifts that have helped them with time management, mental health, and making space for personal priorities.
Pianist Kyunghoon Kim, D.M., NCTM, is Adjunct Lecturer in Music (Piano) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is also a Signature Artist on Musicnotes.com, composing under the name Piano Sandbox.
Elizabeth Yao, D.M., NCTM, is Lecturer in Music (Piano) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she coordinates the secondary piano program, teaches piano pedagogy, and directs the Young Pianists Program.
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Items Mentioned
- Blog post by Patrick Buggy, “What to do When You’ve Got Too Much to Do (Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand)”: https://mindfulambition.net/big-rocks-first/
- Article by Charlotte Lieberman, “Why You Procrastinate: It Has Nothing to Do with Self-Control”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html
- MTNA member discount for Better Help: https://www.mtna.org/MTNA/JoinandRenew/membership/Member_Discounts.aspx#therapy
Transcript
One of the things I love most about attending live teaching events is the opportunity to network. Last year, I was lucky to attend two excellent sessions on productivity. Both were given by the same presenter—Elizabeth Yao—a fellow Indiana Colleague—who is a lecturer in music for piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Elizabeth also coordinates the secondary piano program, teaches piano pedagogy, and directs the young pianists program.
Her talk at our Indiana state conference piqued my interest, of course! A follower of this podcast, she was not surprised to find me thrilled with her session.
Six months later, I attended a she presented at the MTNA Conference alongside Kyunghoon Kim who is also an adjunct lecturer in music for piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Kyunghoon is also a signature artist on musicnotes.com, composing under the name Piano Sandbox.
After these two excellent sessions, I was quick to ask if they would share their presentation from the MTNA conference on the podcast.
As we’re getting into the swing of the school year, this seemed like the perfect time to glean insight on time management, mental health, and making space for personal priorities.
Before we hear from our guest hosts today, I just wanted to let you know that this podcast is ad free thanks to the support of friends on Patreon. For $7 a month you’ll not only be supporting the expenses related to the production of this podcast but you’ll get some extra like weekly power hours, email processing support and more. One of the newest releases is a session called Taming the Jungle: Digital Management Strategies for the Independent Music Teacher.
You don’t even have to stick around, take in what you need and cancel at any time.
By the way, I’m Amy Chaplin, host of this podcast, but today, I’m happy to turn it over to Elizabeth and Kyunghoon.
A full transcript is not available for guest host episodes; however, please enjoy this outline from the content:
- MINDSET SHIFT #1 – It always takes more time than you think.
- STRATEGY – Budget your time
- “Buffer” time
- Conduct a time “audit” – jar of rocks metaphor.
- Time-blocking on your calendar
- Catch-up day
- STRATEGY – Budget your time
- MINDSET SHIFT #2 – You cannot do everything and that’s OK
- Say no and practice saying no – it’s a muscle that requires practice flexing
- Understand you cannot do everything.
- 3 PPP’s (heard from Artina McCain)
- Pay
- Prestige
- People
- Say no and practice saying no – it’s a muscle that requires practice flexing
- MINDSET SHIFT #3 – You are only human
- STRATEGY – Manage your emotions – it’s not always about time management but about bad mood management
- Acknowledge the normalcy of burnout or depression – Seek support
- STRATEGY – Manage your emotions – it’s not always about time management but about bad mood management
Thank you so much to Elizabeth and Kyunghoon for taking the time to share with us today.
One thing I took away from their advice and have been doing for the last several months is time blocking on my calendar. While I had a rough idea of how long I was spending on things – like this podcast work – it was very revealing to actually show it on the calendar.
I start by scheduling blocks of time and then I adjust it to what actually occurred. So, for example, if I block 75 minutes on my calendar to write and publish a Friday Finds blog post but it actually took me 90 minutes, I adjust so when I go back and look at my week I can see the time that actually occurred and adjust in the future.
I’ve found it quite interesting that for a lot of items and projects, 75 minutes is a good average. Using the weekly view rather than the monthly view setting on my Google Calendar has made time blocking a lot easier to schedule and manage.
I also love their advice on the 3 P’s: Pay, Prestige, and People. The more I have professional opportunities coming at me, the more this question becomes a necessity for helping weed through that to pursue or accept and what to let go of.
A reminder that the show notes for this episode are available at PianoPantry.com/podcast/episode137
Registration is still open for the workshop Organize Your Life With Notion which will be held Friday and Saturday September 20-21 from 10am – 1pm Eastern Time. The $30 off early bird discount has passed but we’ve created a $20 extended discount coupon which will be good to use to register leading up to the start of the workshop. Hope to see you there!
