Music Producer Motivation (16 tips that don’t suck)
Ah, music producer motivation. Well, any creative or musical motivation really. It can be so elusive. One day you’re absolutely crushing it and the ideas are flowing. Then the next day? Just, meh.
So, what can we do? How can we better control our motivation?
Welcome to here. I hope to answer these vexing questions (and more).
So let’s just dive right in and look at my top tips for finding and keeping motivation as a musician.
Music Producer Motivation: 16 Things That Work
The ideas below are based on personal experience and lots of research.
Some may hit more than others, but many do better together. So try some of these out and see what works best for you.
Alright, let’s kick this list off with a big one – the myth about waiting (vs. creating) motivation.
1. Don’t Wait for Motivation
Motivation isn’t reliable. It’s a friend that shows up unexpectedly, and often inconveniently.
So relying on it and waiting for it to get things done is a recipe for disaster. I mean, we’re all guilty of this to some extent.
After all, it’s easy to get things done when we’re feeling it and completely in the zone.
But the fact is, this is an inconsistent strategy.
But there’s good news. Motivation follows action.
That is, we can create motivation, by simply taking action and doing the thing we don’t feel like doing.
You’ve likely heard this before, but I’m here to tell you it’s true. So rather than waiting for motivation to strike, simply create it by just starting and taking action.
If you stick with it and commit, there’s a good chance you’ll end up feeling motivated.
Starting is sometimes difficult, but once you get into that creative flow, the hours can just sort of pass by without even realizing it. Motivation becomes subconscious.
2. Revamp Your Environment
I’m a huge supporter of revamping your environment to feel more motivated.
For example, if my music area is cluttered with junk, dust and chaos, it’s harder for me to focus.
But if it’s tidy and designed to set the creative mood (with lighting, artwork and color choices), then my motivation is always high.
So clean up your space. Buy a big plant. Get some neon lighting. Look at Pinterest and other producer spaces for inspiration.
Do some light design renovating and watch how much more motivated and focused you’ll become.
3. Hang Around More Like-Minded People
Motivation can be contagious. So surrounding yourself around other like-minded, ambitious people is one of the quickest ways to hack your own inspiration.
And they don’t need to be other musicians or producers.
Being around a group of motivated people – whether they’re artists or entrepreneurs or just general goal-getters – is extremely powerful for your own productivity.
It’s infectious. And I love it.
My inner circle is full of brand-building, life-crushing people, and they’re constantly motivating me to do more and be better.
So start networking. Use social media, try meetups, travel more, use coworking spots.
Do what you need to and expand your inner circle (if you feel like you could use some more like-minded friends, that is).
4. Zoom Out
When in doubt, zoom out.
It’s a mantra that applies to many things in life. But as musicians and producers, it’s a good trick to remember how far we’ve come and how awesome we’re actually doing.
It’s easy to fall into a spiral of comparisons and feeling like your stuff isn’t up to snuff. Feeling uninspired and dealing with burnout.
In these moments, I like to do some self reflection and objectively look at the facts.
I compare myself to where I was a year ago – two years ago – hell, ten years ago.
I may even revisit my SWOT analysis document and look at all of the weaknesses that I’ve addressed and how many more strengths I’ve accumulated as a music producer.
All of this zooming out eventually motivates me. I get inspired and I can’t help but jump back into my projects with a clearer mind and focus.
5. Break Things Up – Focus On the Micro Goals
Big goals can leave us feeling overwhelmed. So let’s break those down into smaller objectives and daily steps or tasks.
Completing goals (big or small) boosts our motivation and happiness.
This strategy requires us to identify our macro, long-term goals and then reverse engineer them into their smaller, micro-goal components.
It’s an advanced way to do goal setting as a musician. But this type of clarity and organization can add some serious power to your daily motivation.
So what’s one of your bigger goals? What are the steps needed to reach that goal?
6. Create A Workflow
Workflow has been a bit of a personal buzzword for me.
It’s been a game changer in my personal musician life and has helped me push through and finally finish things that have been sitting in limbo for literally years.
And more importantly, it’s made me more motivated and disciplined.
It’s a relatively simple strategy and coupled with some timeboxing (or, block scheduling), you might be surprised at how much more productive and motivated you get.
Regardless of motivation, I think having a creative workflow is incredibly powerful as a music producer.
So if you haven’t spent time making one, now may be the perfect time to try.
You can learn how to create a music production workflow here (my quick 6-step process).
7. Stand By Your Music: Fall In Love With What You’re Making
I’ll keep this one nice and short.
But your music and projects should inspire you. You should be absolutely obsessed with what you’re making. You should stand by your work and love it.
It can be tricky to not compare ourselves, or to not worry too much when we go off script and try something new with our productions or style. Creativity requires risk.
Creativity requires clarity. And passion. Love.
But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if it’s different (or the same) to what’s out there now. Just love what you’re doing. And be obsessed. Share it.
If you love it, you’ll be motivated – no question.
Here’s a video from Tyler, the Creator talking about this exact topic (from around 01:30).
8. Don’t Rush. Stay Patient.
Rushing to the finish line creates error – and strips the joy out of the process.
Ultimately, motivation suffers.
Whether you tend to wait until the last minute to finish things (especially if you have clients), or you’re tired of a song and just want to finish it already, rushing things impacts quality.
At scale, this impacts habit and yes, motivation.
This really ties into the whole idea of enjoying the process and loving every minute of it. So don't worry if things are feeling slow moving.
And if you need to step away to get some objectivity or to just refresh, do it. Stay patient and force things if you really do need more time.
Patience, virtues, blah blah blah – you know how it goes.
But make music for the love of it – not so you can try to get famous in the next 6 months, or quickly jumping on a trend so you can mix the next viral track.
Stay patient. Have balanced motivation.
9. Know Your Why, Mission + Purpose
Know your why. Your music mission. It’s simple enough, but super helpful for motivation and focus.
For example, assigning a bigger picture purpose to your music is not only a great branding technique but can help boost the value of your music and art.
And having an external, bigger picture or selfless purpose to your projects can foster more initiative to complete tasks.
Maybe you can create songs and turn the streaming royalties into donations. Or maybe you can volunteer your time as a producer to help someone create their first song.
Or you can make a custom track for one of your fans.
Or you can simply remember your why. Like, why are you making music in the first place? What was the end goal? What’s your mission?
There are numerous options for building a purposeful brand. And it’s an idea that’s definitely worth exploring more if you haven't’ before.
10. Identify Your Bottlenecks (+ Create Workarounds)
Often, a drop in motivation stems from some obstacle we can’t solve, or because we’re bored (and need a new challenge).
So it can be incredibly helpful to identify problem areas or weaknesses and bottlenecks to your music production process and areas.
Overcoming challenges always creates a boost in motivation. But chipping away at weak points and embracing new challenges is similarly effective.
As musicians, it’s important that we don’t just plateau with our skills. We want to be constantly improving and learning new things.
We can do this by first identifying our weak points (or future skill goals) that are within our zone of proximal development (i.e., the area of skills just beyond our current abilities) – and then simply practicing them daily.
Straightforward, yes. Effective for motivation and growth? For sure.
11. Visualize: Write Down Your Goals (As If They’ve Already Happened)
This is another buzzwordy, on-trend topic for me these days.
But visualization, it’s a fascinating subject. And there’s even some research to back it up.
Essentially, what I’m talking about here is mental practicing your skills, visualizing your future goals and feeling (emotionally) like you’ve already reached them.
Write down in excruciating detail what your future music producer life looks like. When do you wake up? What do you eat? Where do you make music? Who do you hang out with?
You’ll likely find that many of these future life ideals you can start straight away.
But as for motivation, it’s inspiring to think about and helps to boost motivation.
As for mental practice, studies have actually shown that musicians who visualize and mentally practice their instruments actually improve and form new neural networks and connections similarly to as if they were playing the instrument in real life.
The mind is crazy. So may as well use it.
12. Redefine Success
Sometimes, we get too obsessed with ideas of success and thinking we’re not where we “should” be.
I mean, there’s nothing wrong with wanting monetary and social success (i.e., fame).
But an over obsession with the wrong success goals can lead to depression, frustration and a serious lack of motivation.
By simply reframing your definition of success (and your short term goals), you can get a much-needed boost to your motivation.
And you’ll probably feel less stressed and generally just happier.
All good things, for sure.
13. Become Excited About Failure
Failures offer us some of the biggest clues for how to get better. They’re hints for which path leads to growth and success.
So embrace them with excitement.
Whenever you come across a music production obstacle, get pumped. Deep dive into the issue and explore the solutions.
Remember that on the other side of that locked door is a stronger you. You’ll be closer to your goals and a better music producer.
These are exciting things. So love failure and obstacles – reframe them as opportunities and paths forward.
Motivation should follow suit.
14. Find What Inspires You + Prioritize Fun
Inspiration and motivation are closely connected. Nearly synonyms.
So it’s no surprise that using things that inspire you leads to motivation and action-taking.
For me, I like to get lost in music with styles similar to my goals, or I’ll watch interview from other artists discussing their process and offering advice about creativity and songwriting.
I have fun with it and I don’t stress about taking a break to deep dive into some inspiration rabbit holes.
They can be super helpful to boost motivation (or to let our brain rest and reflect for some new ideas).
So what, or who, inspires you as a music producer?
15. Practice A Growth Mindset
Mindset. I don’t know how often I’ve said this on this blog, but it bears repeating again (and probably again in the future…often).
Having the right mindset is one of the most important skills you can have as a producer, artist and creative.
It’s the thing that will push you past lazy moments. It’s the thing that will help you ignore the haters.
It’s the thing that will keep you humble, keep you learning and keep you making more amazing music.
So foster a growth-oriented, creative mindset and have more control over your motivation.
16. Stay Healthy + Get Good Sleep
This last tip is probably a bit different. But I’m a huge supporter of health, wellness and getting good sleep.
I just function way better. I’m more creative, more focused and more confident.
I feel better in my skin, I have clarity and I’m rested.
So audit your lifestyle a bit – any room for improvement?
I’m no expert here, but I do know that taking care of our minds and our motivation is closely connected to taking care of our bodies.
Start small. Focus on adding things to your daily life (I love to throw in a morning smoothie or a walk). And like everything in life, just focus on moderation and having fun with it.
You’re awesome as you are, but if trying a new routine or getting an extra hour of sleep can help unlock some more motivation and focus, then I’m all in.
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