Saturday Evening, 6:28pm……
This week’s topic has just popped into my head. Well that’s a bit of a lie actually, it’s been triggered by a variety of things that are going on at the moment, so as I often do, I’ll be talking in a fairly ambiguous style. First, the usual housekeeping.
The whole country has been ravaged by snow this week. Personally, that means untold drama’s trying to get cars moving in the ice and snow, schools closed, not being able to cycle to work due to ice covered roads and subsequently suffering from a rotten cold due to sharing a commuter train with the coughing and spluttering masses! You get the picture. Snow is great at weekends, during the week it is a disaster!
On a lighter note, the guitar track I recorded last week for Vanessa Knight has not only been received very positively by her, but it has also racked up over 1,100 listens on Fandalism since I uploaded it on Sunday Evening, which I’m very proud of! Vanessa’s on tour in Norway at the moment (as you do), but hopefully we’ll be doing some work on the track together when she’s back. I’m going to be going back into the studio soon to record a fuller EP of tunes, in order to promote my session and soundtracking work. Here’s a link to the song on Fandalsim. My work with JACK in my previous life as a bass player is also on there as well.
Re-writing that tune has reminded me of many things about songwriting as well, the idea of a robust structure that can then be augmented and worked on to create a more complex composition. As long as the structure is solid, the song will survive; and anyway, nearly any Beatles song is a songwriter’s gift, especially their early work! Enjoy.
So, back to this week’s theme, Inefficiency. I’ve been self-motivating recently via TED talks. One that has resonated me is this one, ‘Why work doesn’t happen at work‘, delivered by Jason Fried. He talks immense amounts of sense about the inefficiencies of office based work environments, with particular reference to ‘M&M’s’ as he describes them, better known as meetings and managers. As somebody who works in an office environment during the week, I can relate entirely to this. If there are two things that cause untold disruption to my week, it is meetings and managers. I’m fairly self sufficient, and when I’m ‘in the groove’ so to speak, I can work at a fairly break-neck pace. I’m fortunate enough to have a reputation for speed of production and efficiency, which has stood me in good stead over the years. Therefore, I’m generally intolerant of disruption, and in my working life ‘M&M’s’ account for somewhere in the region of 90% of what affects my inefficiency. The other 10% can be laid at the door of illness and public transport; often the two are closely linked.
Often, inefficiency is brought about by the decisions of others, not your own doing. Have a listen to Jason Fried, he talks great sense, especially in the context of the 21st Century workplace. Why I have mentioned this is that I’m working on a lot of different things with different people at the moment, which I am able to do due to being able to be efficient in my use of time and resource. When other people affect my efficiency, I don’t like it. More about my desire for efficiency will be revealed soon, needless to say, the game is afoot, as a young sherlock holmes once announced……
Stay tuned folks
P.S. OOH Guitar is about to be rebranded as a session and soundtracking venture. Turns out everyone knows how to play guitar already, so no point offering lessons anymore! Who knew! Well, not me obviously, an example of inefficiency you night say?!
