Maintaining Your Schedule on the Road
Maintaining a work-life balance at home is incredibly hard. Maintaining a work-life balance while on the road touring is even more difficult. How can you draw the line between work and play when you are far from home, but not on vacation?
Practice Proper Time Management
Managing your time on the road is critical. Determine what needs to take place during the period before a show. Do you play best after having several short practice sessions spread out through the day? Do you play best after having one long rehearsal? Adapt your schedule on the road so that you can perform optimally (and increase your chances of touring again!).
Balancing your schedule is also very important when it comes to self-care, particularly if you are a singer. Make sure that you budget enough time for rest, relaxation and vocal rest. If you practice yoga or enjoy running, look up paths or parks to practice in before hitting the road so that you don’t have an excuse to skip. A little bit of preparation before leaving for tour can dramatically increase your chances of managing your time properly.
Stay Organized
Staying organized is one of the vehicles that allows you to enjoy a good work-life balance while on the road. Map out what songs you will be playing ahead of time and keep track of contracts and other gig information if you don’t have a dedicated tour manager. It’s important to keep all important documents with you while you travel on the road, including health insurance cards, photo identification and credit cards. Make sure that you let your credit card companies know that you will be touring before you leave to avoid a card shut-off. A little bit of preparation can facilitate a balanced schedule on the road.
Make a To-Do List Every Day
It sounds silly to make a to-do list on the road, but a simple to-do list including everything that you need to get done enables you to have a greater amount of balance. Checking off basic tasks like “do laundry” is just as important as checking off bigger tasks like tuning.
Balance Your Schedule on the Road with Help from ECHE Music
At ECHE Music, we are dedicated to helping independent Christian recording artists build their fanbase, promote their music effectively and learn the business of music. To join our community, go to echemusic.com/services.cfm.