10/29/2006

Accountability

OK, so here's a conundrum.

I love playing music - practicing, playing live, writing, recording, etc. And the more I listen to inspiring players like Brad Mehldau, the more I realize that I need all the practice I can get. :)

Of course, I'm also a pretty driven guy in other areas of life - work, friendships, learning, etc. So very often, my healthy protestant work ethic ends up trumping my playing time, because practice isn't as "important" in the list of short term things.

But ultimately, music is very important to me - more so than whatever happens to be on BoingBoing, Homestar Runner, etc. So how do I hold myself accountable to that?

Well, as of right now, I'm going to start tracking how many hours of playing I do every day, publicly, via Joe's Goals (a great little web site):

Ian's Practice Time


That shows the number of hours of actual playing I'm engaged in on any given day (including gigs). My hope is that with other people watching, I'll have impetus to do it more. If you see me slacking off, tell me to get back to it! :)