Brain Reset

It is the night before I’m about to head on the road with Sliotar once again. This summers tour will be nice two and a half week tour and all the shows are great ones 🙂 So I am looking forward to it. But still as the evening closes on my last night at home, I am putting off packing my luggage for the tour. I would say I’m reasonably organised guy, nothing over the top, but I do like to be prepared. So why am I putting off the inevitable? Even the thought of my to-do list makes me want to watch another episode of family guy. I know I’ll be rushing tomorrow, maybe even forget something, but at the same time I know I will be at the airport well in time with my guitar, passport and my luggage, looking for a coffee and ready for what ever this adventure throws at me.

The thing is, I worked hard today. I finished the recording and mixing of my third album ( in a year), I wrote few more blog posts to be published while I’m on the tour, I finished the album cover artwork. I also did most of my last-minute shopping (strings, batteries, vitamins) and still had time to sit in the grassy pitch in the Trinity college and enjoy a Thai green curry.

So why am I still putting off my packing? Because this is me time 🙂 I can rush all I want tomorrow, and even if I had everything done well early, I still would not relax the same way I am doing tonight by watching useless crap. I used to feel guilty about doing stuff like this, but I have learned the importance of switching your brain off for few hours. Recharging your batteries, so you can take on a task with much more clarity and energy tomorrow. Us musicians have sometimes a lazy reputation, and sure enough some of us do drift by doing the bare minimum. But I know my self and many more musicians that actually work extremely hard. 60 hour work week is a short one. And for us it can be hard to “switch off”.

But trust me on this one. Allow your self from time to time some “me time”. It can be just few hours of watching crap on TV, go out for a game of pool, or just even simple walk. And from time to time take few days, if not even weeks off. Allow time for a brain reset. When you get back to work, you will work better, faster and more efficiently.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get two of his free songs go HERE and click Download