Travel & leave your world behind

There is something extremely liberating about being able to travel. Knowing that you can get away, whether it’s work-related (at someone else’s expense) or vacation-related (a well-deserved, hard-earned holiday), the change of environment and pace will allow you to gain a new perspective.

The journey begins when you book the ticket. Then you are mentally committed to going forward — you have to wind down, close shop, start the preparations for your absence, compose your auto-responder e-mail for the time you’re away, clean up, and pack.

In the 11 hours of getting onboard the plane, delight at getting two seats to myself, dosing off to the usual flight take-off, waking up to the smell of a cooked tray lunch, watching Korean movies between reading two consecutive days of the Star Advertiser (Hawaii newspaper), amid falling asleep and walking to the loo, I went through an amazing transformation.

I left behind the cough and headache of a two-week cold that accompanied a bottomless to-do list. Everyday I wrote a list of things to do for tomorrow. The next day I’d follow the list I wrote the day before so that my list would be finite. What I didn’t manage to finish that day, I’d carry over to the next day. Needless to say, my lists never ended. Neither did my cough.

Now sitting at this nice, clean, and naturally-lit Incheon Airport, I’m wondering why my cough has suddenly stopped. My headache has also stopped. Was it the 11-hour journey from Honolulu to Seoul? Or was it simply a need to have a vacation after so many weekdays and weekends of working for someone else?

Perhaps it’s simply not talking. Not rushing against a deadline. Or not having a list of things that must get done. [Or maybe it's just the antibiotics and codeine-laden cough syrup taking their effect!]

Alas! Travel is only liberating for as long as the time I’ve set aside for it. In the background, a backlog of e-mails, voice mails, and expectations is building. Enjoy being a stranger in another world while it lasts!

A day in the life of the blogmaiden

It was one of those long and winding days, waking up and on the phone while having a make-shift breakfast.

8 am – I thought there was enough time for my 9 am phone appointment with the policy expert in San Francisco.

Multi-tasking on the computer. iPhone.

Then an alert from my google-calendar — a conference call on sustainability. I had completely forgotten about it.

Headset – landline. Desktop. Brewing Hawaiian coffee. Multi-island conference-call and google doc. I was typing away. I wanted to leave by 10:45 am – but as usual, it got too late to be on time for yoga.

So I made a detour – and then made lunch at my mom’s. She wasn’t there but she left her freshly washed and picked greens on the counter for me. The pot that I thought was soup for the noodles I was making turned out to be freshly cooked sweet red bean dessert. I packed them for later.

I had to cancel my 1:30 pm appointment so I could be ready for the 2 pm. Several colleagues descended upon me at once. It was time for the electric vehicle exchange outside the new science building.

I had to empty my flash drive (or memory stick as they call it elsewhere) for the digital photography class. We had gone on a photo shoot last Saturday on the West Side — in quest of EV in paradise, or at least what it should be.

A voicemail from Kentucky. Who do I know there? I had completely overlooked his e-mail of 1st Feb!

Then I opened an e-mail from the State — an urgent request for me to read some extremely technical and legal document overnight and provide feedback.

By 4:30 pm I was spent.

I stayed another 30 minutes to get things printed for review tonight. Did I really want to do more work?

As I left campus, I reminded myself to always leave before it got dark — otherwise I’d feel resentful of giving my day away.

After dumping my mom’s plastics and newspaper at the recycling corner, I drove through the park and thought how best to spend the remaining sunset hours.

Did I want to read outside? Pick rucola from my little garden? Unpack the package from Boston?

In the end, I succumbed to my bed — completely exhausted from working around the clock these last 4 days.

But there was one more day left of this week.

Can I make it?

I had already prepared the test for my 14 piano students. I’m sure they will do well tomorrow afternoon. And then I’ll go through the Circle of Fifths and tell them about Catalyst String Quartet that will be visiting Maui on 27th February.

Before lunch, I will meet with the half-Dutch, half-Chinese host of the dinner party where I will play and talk about music for Chinese New Year of the Snake. A year ago I had researched the Year of the Dragon and the lyrics from the Song and Tang dynasties and presented a lecture/recital with a Chinese soprano. It was something I wanted to do again but simply too time-challenged this year to do one properly.

Will I have time to practise?

No. I have a 9 am meeting with my procurement officer on invoices, budgets, and travel requests.

At least I managed to swim laps in the outdoor pool and got some vitamin D in the tropical sun. That was my treat.

RSVP or not

One of the fundamental tasks of revenue management is capacity management. This is something airlines are good at. They deliberately overbook so that all seats get filled.

For concert producers, the objective of getting a full house means ensuring every seat is occupied. This may mean selling stand-by discounted tickets at the 11th hour. [Notice that last minute flight fares are never half-price!]

Last time I organized a seminar, I did not bother to ask people to RSVP. Respondez si vous plait. I was filled with nerve-wracking trepidation, growing as the event got closer. What if only a few people showed up? What if too many people showed up? Last minute, I changed to a bigger room. A good move. Around 35 people showed up.

For today’s seminar, I asked attendees to reserve their seats by filling out a short survey. When the numbers didn’t fill as quickly as I expected, I sent a round of e-mails through another mailing list. A few people e-mailed me their plans to attend instead of filling out the survey — they did not show up. Filling out the survey unfortunately did not oblige the attendees to show up. While the majority of those RSVP’d did show up, there were a few cancellations.

In hindsight, I would have saved time creating and monitoring the survey by not requiring RSVP.

There has to be a more reliable way of gauging the final turnout. How do we get people to hold to their RSVP? What is the point of requiring RSVP when people can show up without prior reservation, and those who do reserve can not show up without penalty?

This phenomenon happened early on in the Monument House Concert Series. I decided that I had to demand prepayment as a condition of booking. No show – no refund. After all, revenue management was more important than capacity management. If the revenue stream was certain, then we’d breakeven and have a peace of mind.

In conclusion, requiring people to RSVP is an extra step for them and yourself. Think carefully whether it’s necessary. For today’s seminar, not only did I get a rough headcount, I also got questions in advance.

Writing the first draft

Earlier I wrote about writing to a deadline. That was the first draft.

A blank canvas.

How many times I wished I could wave a magic wand to get words to appear! I struggled with how to begin and where to begin.

So I started with an outline. Before I knew it, I had outlined 12 chapters.

Then I split off each chapter into its own project.

I swapped the order of the chapters according to what I was able and willing to tackle. I set a schedule of deadlines. I committed to deliver a chapter a week, sometimes two. This schedule helped manage the expectations of my gatekeepers.

I thought Chapter 4 was the easiest. But being the first chapter, it was hard to get started. Once I got going, it was not so difficult to get into it.

The next chapter I chose to work on was not so different. I had collected all the material behorehand. I just needed to assemble them into a readable document.

I left the hardest chapter to the near end. [The last chapters were conclusions and introductions, which had to be the last.] I also had all the material ready but I needed to double check on the nitty gritty.

It was hard to find a stretch of uninterrupted time to focus on the writing. There were necessary administrative duties with my job, teaching, reading to do, and the usual distractions of social media.

Once I caught myself getting up at 3 in the morning just to finish a chapter. Initially writing these chapters was like pulling teeth. The process was a deja vu of writing my doctorate thesis in London — solitary confinement, self-induced obsession, and allowing chaos to fester around me.

When I reached the halfway point, I decided to celebrate.

During this period of writing the first draft, I attended a day-long writing workshop. I shared the challenges I was facing with the rest of the group. It dawned on me that I would write for free (like this blog) but when I got paid to do it, I faced resistance.

Why?

I concluded: for some reason, I didn’t feel I was good enough to write this report. I thought my job was admin and other project tasks, but this report was destined for greater audiences.

In the end, my peers were right. I was the only one who could write the first draft.

“Just dump your brain,” said my colleague, a writer by profession.

So I did.

I dumped my brain.

And now, after a short intermission, it’s time to edit for the second draft.

5 steps to concert promotion

One of the most read posts in this blog is “Getting people to come to a concert.” Another name for this exercise is audience development. One goal is to get enough people to come to a concert so that your costs are covered and you can even get a return. Another goal is to have these people that come to your concert come to  your next one and, even better, they get others to come.

The first concert may be a lot of work (to promote). Each subsequent concert should get easier. After you’ve built a reputation and a mailing list, you should get a full house every time.

Empty seats before the first concert at the Monument House Utrecht

In the last 10 years of experimenting with different ways to get people to come to my concerts, I’ve identified 5 steps that have worked for me.

1. Identify who you want to come to the concert.
   This is where you have to analyse your audience make-up. In Houston, I brought my colleagues. In London, I invited my neighbors, colleagues, and new contacts. In the case of Monument House Concert Series in Utrecht, Netherlands, I wanted new people to come so that they can experience the authentic house concert tradition. I knew that previous guests would always come because of the sticky nature of such intimate occasions. I also knew the viral nature of word of mouth. But it was getting new people that was the challenge. If I only expected the same people to come every time, our concert goers would have been a clique.
2. Analyse the lure.
   What is the ace of spades? Is it the music? The performer(s)? The composer(s)? The audience? (People want to come to be with other people they expect to see there.) The venue? The occasion? The date/time? (nothing else better to do). The theme? (benefit concert). Identifying the ultimate lure is the key to a yes.
3. Figure out where these folks are located, i.e. how they can be reached.
   You may start with the low hanging fruit, i.e. your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Beyond that, how do you find your audience? Where do they hangout? Music stores? Music libraries? Music colleges? A concert? How about music lovers groups on Linked-In?  ”If it’s fish you’re looking for, why climb trees?”
4. Use the right communication tool.
   Some folks read their emails and act. Some react to newspaper ads. Some listen to the radio. There are online, offline, face-to-face communication methods. You might have to try everything. See “concert promotion by other media.”
5. Write. Rewrite. Format. Reformat.
   A concert invitation is different from an announcement. You have to write to persuade. You may even have to put a personal touch to it. The result you want is action — which leads to a full house and a guestbook that looks like this.

The secret to success is your mailing list. The bigger it is, the higher the chance of drawing an audience. Mailing lists get built over time not over night. This is the subject of yet another blog post.

Getting the gig: cover letters

I like the word “gig.” It not only refers to getting a concert booking but also a job, a project, and any opportunity that pays.

The way I secured the next three gigs did not start with a phone call, an e-mail, or a cover letter. I simply walked into the office of the activities director and said, “Hello! How are you ? Long time no see. Say, have you booked anyone for Thanksgiving or Christmas?” I got the gigs because I showed up, I had a track record, and I caught him at the right moment.

Does this work for jobs, too?

Timing is very important. There’s a saying that by the time a job is advertised, the job is already gone. These days, it’s much easier to hire someone you know about, even in the back of your mind, than to advertise, receive applications, reply to applicants, and deal with all the correspondence and administration that goes with it.

Same with concert bookings.

It’s much easier to hire someone you know about or have used before than go out and search for the right candidate. This is where networking plays a decisive role, for “chance favors the prepared mind.”

However, advertisements do exist for a purpose. Transparency. The need to cast a wider net. Rules and regulations of recruitment.  Or simply to justify retaining the incumbent.

Long ago, I asked the administration of the conservatory I was studying at just how they were going to hire a new composition teacher. “Personal network” was the reply. I objected to that. While personal network might be fast and easy, and certainly a chance to reciprocate (the tit for tat that defines the business of music), I thought a newspaper advertisement and a more public solicitation might result in a candidate that otherwise wouldn’t emerge. I was right. A very qualified candidate applied and got hired as my third composition teacher at the conservatory. He brought “fresh ideas” to the table.

The last time I wrote a cover letter for a job, I really struggled with it. I had not written a cover letter in many years. How long should it be? How should I start?

“The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received” advises against writing a cover letter unless you absolutely have to. If you do have to write, keep it simple and short. I agree. This is not a treatise but something to highlight what you can’t spot in your CV (in which case you need to rewrite your resume) or to get the attention of the hirer (again, how do you get attention?).

A good writer would be able to communicate how he or she is as a person. It’s a real skill to write a picture or a video of oneself in words.

Time rich

I have written a lot about racing against time, not having enough time, and general complaints about not having enough time to do what I need or want to do. When I came across an article about “time rich” I just had to stop and take heed.

Definitions:

• Time racket: constant complaints about lack of time
• Time challenged: struggling with having enough time

The article “How to Feel More Time Rich” mentions two seemingly paradoxical ways to do just that. Be sure to read the Boston Globe article linked therein.

• Give your time away.
• Pay attention to awe.

Instead of holding time so closely to yourself, donate and share it. Every time you have an inspiring moment, stop and take notice.

The result?  Time affluence.

I will give my time away by playing piano to open the 10th anniversary celebration of Roselani Place on Papa Avenue in Kahului, Maui, Thursday 8 November 2012 at 2 pm. Garden Party and Open House.

Deadlines and just in time

There’s something magical about having a deadline. Suddenly I’m driven to meet it. Where no deadline existed before, there is now a raison d’etre.

Dynamic planning is the art of starting from the end — the deadline — and working yourself backwards to the present. It’s an optimisation technique which, in its simplest form, can be applied to your daily scheduling. If your concert starts at 3 pm, you should aim to get there by 2 pm to get used to the acoustics and the instrument (if it’s a piano or organ). If you have to submit your chapter by a certain date, you should give yourself a day to review what you’ve written, and have finished before that.

The term “just in time” is a popular concept in manufacturing, to avoid waste of time and resources. It could easily be the opposite of what we think of as “slack.”

I’ve gotten so accustomed to operating in “just in time” that I’ve given myself no slack, even when it comes to deadlines.

How often have I glanced at the clock and tried to race against time? It’s 3:10 pm HST. The swimming pool closes at 4:30 pm. All lifeguards are flexible with the closing time except for one. If he’s on duty, then I’m doomed. I should change into my swim wear and drive to the pool, shower, swim, and finish by 4:25 pm to allow time for a shower. Often my plan gets interrupted by last minute phone calls that leaves me with 20 minutes of lap time instead of 30. That’s when I wish I had built in some slack.

Perhaps I should mentally tell myself that the deadline is 4 pm not 4:30 pm if I want to swim my laps in the pool. Likewise, I should aim to bring my own deadline forward — before the REAL deadline, when it comes to writing. If not, it becomes one of crisis management.

You could say it’s exciting to live on the edge, constantly racing against time. Doesn’t it feel good to get to your seat just when the concert is about to start? Or arrive at the train station just when the train is pulling in? On the other hand, if you’re slightly late and miss the train, you’d feel down right awful. You’d feel guilty interrupting the concert and missing the opening.

Living in “just in time” means always being on the run. No time for reflection. No time for pauses. No time for yourself.

That’s why the just-in-time approach to meeting deadlines can be detrimental to the time-challenged individual.

Announcement is not an invitation

Just telling someone about an event is not going to make that person come to the event.

Persuasive writing is required.

One of the most popular blog posts on Concertblog is Concert Announcement or Invitation.

I have read press releases in passive tense. I will remain detached.  Change it to active tense and I might think it relates to me.  Make it personal and inviting, I just might think I am the audience.

Why are some musicians able to get people to go to their concerts and others aren’t?  One clue is in the writing. If this kind of writing is not taught at conservatories, it should be.

Getting people to come to your concert is one of the greatest skills to have. It is transferrable. How do you get people to come to an event you organize?  How do you fill a hall?

You won’t by simply announcing it.

You have to invite.

To invite, you have to be skilled in persuasive writing.

What to do if you’re overwhelmed

I look at the unsorted, overlapping piles of paper, bills, printouts, letters, receipts, etc on my desk at home. I shake my head and escape to sit on my patio.

Out of sight. Out of mind.

Earlier, I escaped to swim laps in the nearby public pool.

My desk at work is equally in a state of disarray. Behind closed cabinets and within closed drawers are unsorted piles. Nobody knows except for me.

These are the marks of a time-challenged, or rather, a time-starved person.

On Facebook, I wrote: “Grant me the luxury of time, to wake up naturally without the pressure of appointments and expectations and waste time without feeling guilty.”

Many agree with me. But there are some people who can’t understand how I could get myself into such a state. They are the ones I envy — those with work life balance or a lot of time on their hands.

One friend wrote, “it’s not a luxury but a priority.” I must make time a priority rather than remain a slave to it.

I start first by wasting time. After I have spent a good day not doing what’s on my list, I am ready to tackle the problem at hand.

My “to do” list is always full. It’s become a bottomless pit. How do I get back in control again?

Prioritize: choose little things that have a deadline

• I will sign that tax form and mail it to my accountant. He will do the rest.
• I will grade the piano tests I gave on Friday even though I don’t need to return them until next Friday. Doing things early will take the pressure off the anticipation of not having time to do it later.
• I will put the assignment I gave to my piano class online so that I won’t have to answer emails about them during the week.

Start big things without finishing them right away so they become doable.

• I will start the two chapters due this week so that I can at least sense some progress.
• I will do a little bit of the project administration each day.

Set rules and stick to them

• I’ve long wanted to go to bed by a certain time so that I could wake up early. Here’s rule number 1: go to bed by 10 pm.
• Rule number 2: wake up by 6 am. If 8 hours is not enough, go to bed by 9 pm or wake up at 7 am
• Choose and commit to doing certain workouts during the week so that I will not negotiate when the time comes or have to decide and choose during the week when time is at a premium.

Implement a time management scheme that works

• I make a list of what I will do tomorrow. This way, when tomorrow comes, the list will not keep growing. It’s always a finite list. I will only do what I’ve listed yesterday to do today. If I list anything new, that will have to be done tomorrow. Mark Forster, the time management guru and top life coach in the UK, calls it “do it tomorrow.”
• Keep lists on the refrigerator and add to them. For example, shopping list, to fix it list, to return list. Once the lists are long enough and I have some spare time, I go take care of them.
• Keep an online diary – a google calendar. Much stress comes from worrying about forgetting.

Say NO.

• Learn to be like my mother and sister: guard my time. Don’t give it away so easily.
• Don’t be so flexible. Pause. Think. Delay. Don’t react quickly.
• Practise saying no.
• Learn the different ways of saying no without feeling guilty and without offending the other party.

Reward yourself when you are no longer overwhelmed.