Digital Minimalism Is Making Me A Better Musician
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 เม.ย. 2024
- Howdy! Today I want to talk about Digital Minimalism, and how it's helped me to start becoming a better and more creative musician in only a few weeks.
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Minimalism go brrrrr. Your assignment: try spending however much time you spend on your phone/whatever working on something creative for the next 7 days.
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well I mean if it gets you 10 pounds of American muscle who wouldn't
Sorry, at times it's totally OK to "just consume" and "not be creative", and sleep a lot and take things a bit slower ... or not at all? There will be other times when things go better, run smoother. Life goes on.
I do have "do not disturb" on ALL THE TIME though, I always have my phone on mute and usually never pick up calls but answer them when I HAVE TIME, I often forget my phone in the other room - and then pick it up deliberately after 2 hours of work because "I deserve a break" or need to zone out ...
So I guess it's something in between "being a lazy millenial with a lot of guilt" and "having a work ethic that doesn't kill me within the next 5 years". 😉
getting off socials was one of the best things i ever did. amazing how much more productive, creative, and what skills you can learn when you don't drop multiple hours on your phone everyday. My boss thinks I'm a genius but I just have the whole day to study lol. Watch your screen time! Most of the world is pretty addicted and you get a huge advantage
Never been a big social guy but definitely agree - productivity is through the roof just by not sitting there reading an article or looking at tutorials/forums and all that sort of stuff.
Stop telling people
Me, too. Started with Facebook in 2018, then Instagram a year later. I never did use....er, whatever that thing was that Elon Musk bought. As for TH-cam, I limit my watching to the few channels that deal with my interests and I delete everything else as it comes in. My rule there is that if it's from a channel I haven't subscribed to, I click on the Do Not Show Me Content from This Channel control. It can't stop all the other channels that are just like it, but the more of these channels I remove from my....whatever, the fewer of them seem to show up. One more tip: always clear your Watch History and Liked Videos from TH-cam.
I was about to watch this video but then I saw your comment, so I’m skipping it now and will try to be productive instead.
@@Eric-pc4yi the Snark side of the force is strong in this one. 🙂
In Buddhism there is talk of hot boredom and cool boredom. The former is the restless feeling of needing to get away from whatever is going on in our brains and emotion, but cool boredom, apart from being cool, is where we begin to appreciate the joyful ease of not having our dopamine receptors smashed with useless stimuli. The latter is where my creative flow truly arises
My ADHD combined with any sort of social media, is a death sentence for productivity - which is difficult enough as it is. Reducing the amount of opportunities for distraction is so amazingly important for anyone, I don't have any doomscrolling sites on my phone and I cannot stress how much it helps you get on with things in the real world.
I'm in the same boat. ADHD and distraction everywhere is killing productivity. I use several browsers. Each for a different purpose. The work browser has no distraction options at all. I just close all the others before I start working. When I produce music, I try to work without a DAW as much as possible (of course the recording and final steps have to be done on the computer). When I switch off the screen, everything is much easier. I just leave the mobile phone in another room. When I go out, I often leave the mobile phone at home.
This! ☝️
You happened to drop this video at the exact moment I was wasting my precious time on TH-cam watching interesting, but ultimately useless videos instead of learning about synthesis and composing like I had planned yesterday. Thank you.
Glad to be of service haha
I love that your channel is leaning more into “creative TH-cam” than specifically music TH-cam. Obviously I love music, and I love your videos on the subject.
But at the same time, these kinds of videos have inspired me to engage in more than just music for a creative outlet. Filmmaking/cinematography, writing, graphic design, all of it. Thanks for being an inspiration man 🙂
Well heck if this isn't the EXACT video I needed to see today. Thank you for softening another rough day.
Well said Cameron. One of THE worst things to kill your motivation is jumping on your phone as soon as you wake up; it starts you chasing the 'bad' dopamine all day. You're much better off going outside, getting sun in your eyes & walking. And thanks for the Unkook app tip = game changer!
I often find myself scrambling to find a youtube video or podcast related to music production to listen to while I "get work done," just to find that I was creating a growing obsession trying to collect as much information as I could just so I could have something to do. And it turns out well over half of that information was pointless and not crucial to my journey as a musician. Thank you for reminding me it's okay to be bored, and to rise above the dangerous habit I was practicing.
Great video and it's gave me a kick up the arse I needed.
I bought a new house and I had no studio set up and instead of building my studio back I got into the routine off watching TH-cam instead.
I'd goto work,get home have dinner then id go into my empty room and couldn't envisage how to rebuild my old studio in my new space.
I'd get frustrated because the room dimensions weren't the same and would put it off and chill out watching TH-cam instead.
Then finally my wife forced me too build it ,once I'd built it my computer then died !!
It took over a month too get it repaired and yet again I'd be watching TH-cam.
I got everything working and installed about 2 months ago but my creativity has gone through the window.
Before I moved I'd get home from work,spend time with family but would always spend a few hours in my studio each day..I was creating everyday and loved it but now because I've got out of my routine Ive been second guessing and taking TH-cam advice which has had me second guessing my work and took my focus away from creating.
Starting tommorow my phone will be off more often and I'll be trying to get back into my old routines..thanks Cameron ❤
I'm a 62 year old boomer, I work in technology, and I have to walk that line too.
I have definitely allowed WOW and GW2 and Conan Exiles etc. usurp my time as well.
I had to double down on music to get out.
Yeah and going out too.
I live in the desert, no excuse to stay in after work.
What helped for me is a combination of two things:
1 - no phone after 9pm
2 - schedule a non-phone activity for 9pm every day
You can use B&wW filter on iphone too! Go to settings -> accessibility -> screen and text size -> color filters. You can assign that to the double tap on the back of the phone so you can restore it whenever.
Your message, delivery and editing is always on point. That's why I'm a Patron 👍🏽
🤠
I greatly appreciate these little reminders to live life instead of watching it happen. I spent the 90s and 00s trying to fix what I thought was wrong with my life by applying more and more complicated digital tools to my work, my organizing, my time management, and my hobbies, and the biggest realization I came to is that I was spending more time trying to find the perfect digital workflow than I was accomplishing anything. Productivity porn is insidious enough, and pouring algorithmically sticky social media content over the top creates a layer cake of disappointment, helplessness, and depression. Though it hurts to see the next generation struggling with the same crap, but greatly amplified, it's also heartwarming to see folks like you figuring this stuff out much sooner in your life than I did. Humans gotta human, and I'm always happy to see and share tips on improving the quality of humaning we all do.
Yeah man, good advice as always! Love the reminder that it's ok to not be busy all the time and it's Ok to just do nothing.
Boredom and idleness have a bad reputation - for absolutely no good reason! At least I am not aware of any good one. Looking out a window without any intention and feeling this weird something creeping up to you can be both, challenging and satisfying at the same time. At least that’s my personal experience. (Yeah, the one writing a comment for a TH-cam video. I am aware of the spot I find myself in, at least at this very moment.)
The fantastic thing about boredom and idleness is that (from my experience) can make ideas become more clear, even if they are tiny at first glance. And when you feel bored enough, that feeling of happiness when returning to something like your studio (what ever that might be or look like, it doesn’t really matter) and pickup something 'unfinished' or just try something new, different, whatever … I say, it’s worth it, it’s worth trying.
Good luck everyone. - And Cam: Nice video, thanks for that one!
I sometimes see comments about why I like hardware synths when everything is so instant in Fruity or Ableton... But the amount of mastering tutorials that I get served here is a good reminder. I just adjust the eq and compression on my mixer a bit and everything is good. The fact each piece of gear is rather limited compared to a high end vst lets me know what each box excels at rather than just getting overwhelmed with endless settings
Thank you. I needed this video. It made me realize where my own obsession came from; how this doom scrolling started with me. So I'm taking action today. Here's to finishing projects.
This is important. Another helpful step is to minimise your options. Have a minimal set of plugins and vsts installed. Remove unnecessary toolbars, menus etc in your Daw. Sometimes I'd like a daw with just play, rec, stop and rewind.
It is extremely satisfying to see people come around to living intentionally in order to free themselves from the trappings of consumer culture. So much of everything you describe here is not so much about disconnecting or being minimalist, but about setting healthy boundaries between yourself and the sea of constant distractions engineered to manipulate and entrap you. By adding intent driven selectivity you create a natural filter for things that reward you for cultivating your own life which in turn creates a virtuous cycle of growth. This development has the added benefit of strengthening your resolve, reducing stress, and feeds your creative energy rather than drains it. You absolutely nailed all the critical elements of this and I hope it continues to reinvigorate all of your life. I am by no means any expert but I can confidently say you have unlocked one of the gates of nirvana and I look forward to your journey through it. Live well, good sir. There is no other life worth living.
As someone who is dealing with burnout right now, I needed to see this. My phone is a box of distractions, and I think it would really help me to not use it so much.
For some reason, your videos are putting me back on track.
There have been some studies about how multitasking can be bad for the brain, so once you learn about that, it gets somewhat easy to understand why your mind is so tired and "foggy" at the end of the day. I used to have to do multitasking for my job (not music-related, which is just a hobby), but managed to streamline it a lot, and it helped immensely with my brain's stamina.
The thing about being bored every once in a while is also important, and I think there have also been studies showing that being bombard by information all the time is bad. It's healthy to have nothing to do sometimes and _not_ being bombarded by endless stimuli.
It's nice that you found out about this.
This video really resonates with me, as over the years I've experienced symptoms comparable to an addiction. I found that it takes a lot of discipline to scale things back down to the bare essentials and actually learn to enjoy isolation as a way to boost productivity. Cutting distractions, as well as selecting only a handful of tools instead of scrolling through folders and folders of stuff I end up not even using in my music, is helping me immensely.
Im glad im not alone fighting with this new era of digital chaos. 😂 I went down the hard way and closed my internet provider for 6 months. 1 month in already wish me luck😂 cool video!🎉
Watching this on my lunch break at work ❤
Great video as usual. Two more tips: Eliminate as many email subscriptions as you can. Remove yourself from unnecessary social media groups (better yet, don't join them at all!). Lots of distracting fluff out there.
Watching this video on my phone while procrastinating instead of doing what I've planned to do afterwork for my self-development is the biggest controversy I've experienced in a long time...
It's such a huge problem with long-term impacts. I'm glad you've covered this. One thing that's helped me is the decision to keep my phone ONLY in the kitchen when I'm home. Also, a good book for anyone needing help with not only breaking the addiction, but how it's addicting is called 'How to break up with your phone' by Catherine Price.
Yea, the only thing I do about social media addiction - I watch videos about social media addiction..
A while ago I got a small pillow I placed on my desk just as decoration, I discovered that since I keep my phone on vibrate when I put it on that pillow it silences my phone completely. I've been checking it so much less when at my computer now its amazing.
Huh. I have a large like 'whole desk' mousepad that actually does the same sort of thing and I don't know that I've ever thought about that until now. That's actually a great little hack haha.
Your videos have honestly gotten better and better. Thanks to your videos, I’ve changed the way I make music and live life. Please keep doing these type of videos. We need them more than you know.
I don't know what your stats say, but I think these are your strongest videos - pillar content that pulls on your greatest strength, your personality. I've been waching from another account for years and I still want to see your sound design videos and I love your personal studio and software content, but I think YOU are coming through most strongly in this type of video.
I deeply appreciate that you're talking about this!
I can especially relate to the TH-cam thing. It's been a real struggle for me for years (I even wrote a song about it in 2014) and I would just watch hours upon hours of content. Last year, I managed to do a five month TH-cam cleanse. It was great and ever since then, I can go for days without watching TH-cam, sometimes I even forget to check it for new videos.
You’re my favorite channel on this platform. Thank you for all the work you put into these strong statements in video form. You make me want to do more and push harder to do something. So again, thanks.
This is one of the best videos I have seen on my decade on TH-cam. To the point, not over complicating a genuinely important topic. Well done. 👍🏼
Always a pleasure to watch your videos. Thank you!
Top stuff! Your videos/content are just getting better and better. really enjoying this corner of YT. Thanks :)
Needed to hear this, good stuff VT... I usually hop on here to watch a few tutorials and like you said, fall down the rabbit hole of suggested vids and realized an hour or two has passed me by. I'm going to try a few of these ideas this week for sure. Keep dropping these videos good sir. 🤙🏽
ahhh minimalism, when you're trying to find a gift for someone who already has everything, no other commodity comes close.
You are true, rare are we. Thanks for putting up actual interesting thoughts. That is what we should do instead of most trying to be imitate Holywood in the digital world and slowly becoming speachless and scared in the actual real life. Breathe in cool air !
Your content really resonate with me and gotta say your voice is very soothing . Keep it up !
@4:07 In Sweden we say "Leave Brown (Bruno) in swimming school". :)
Great advice. Glad you made a video on this!
Love this. Thanks for sharing what helped you
Thank you so much for your channel, always helpful and inspiring. Keep up the good work, the world definitely needs it 🙏🏻
Thank you Cameron. I have felt stuck creatively for the least year now. I look back on something I have made previously and don’t know how I did it. I get stuck doing sound design for days on end trying to get a single part just right and keep feeling like I’m doing it wrong. Then pick up my phone and veg out for hours. Swirl some depression into the mix because I feel I can’t do anything productive.
This was relatable. Thank you for your tips.
Excellent video on a vital topic! I've been attempting to do similar things and it helps to clear away mental clutter and cobwebs. Setting limits for time wasted on social media (as well as deleting contacts which you don't really have reasons to be connected to, etc.) helps me feel more free. One thing I do is put my phone somewhere out of reach / out of mind and I tend to eventually forget about it and focus more on what I should be doing. I reward myself with a little bit of time to scroll or read what I wanted to read, but limit myself when I do (or try my best to do so). I turn my wi-fi off on my phone too at times to help kill the temptation
This was great! Thanks a lot for this advise ❤
Nicely designed, excellently written, shot and edited, and the message, at least, for me, gives food for thought. Thank you for creating this video, well worth watching! ❤
This is a great video with some super useful tips. I needed to see this. Thank you.
Your advice is always super helpful 😊
What you’re describing is what Steven Pressfield calls ‘Resistance’ in a series of books starting with “The War of Art”. He essentially outlines how it (resistance) will do anything to stop you from deviating from the Status Quo and kill any sign of creative urge. His solution is to treat it like an enemy, understand it and where it comes from and go to war against it. It may sound cheesy but so far it has worked for me. I’m still struggling but at least I know how to recognise it and call out my own bullshit when I let it control me.
Great video / advice!
Thanks for sharing.
After a lot of experimentation, I discovered that both Android and Iphone have parental controls, so my old phone became my parent phone with a password and my regular phone had all the candy crack blocked. On Android it can even block specific websites. That way I can have all the important things like maps running freely instead of buying a dumphone or minimalism apps that only ever seem to partially work.
Thanks for this, you somehow said exactly what i needed to hear.
This was truly helpful man thank you
You have this knack of coming up with content that’s absolutely appropriate for my current state of mind. Thanks for keeping my feet on the ground! Cheers Dave
Appreciate this one. I've been working on this problem myself for awhile, but I appreciate a few of the specific suggestions for things I hadn't seen.
your videos are like therapy. Love it!
thank you, I relate so much to this
Love this video brother. Definitely gonna try some of the suggestions you had.
You and Benn are my favorite drama queens : I produce Industrial EBM and chaos is what drives me and keeps me alive : Cheers 🥂
Killing it again Cam! Installing unhook is a no-brainer, thanks for pointing it out.
Great video this one.
Thank you.
The youtude extension is a life saver!!!! Thanks a lot!!! Im in uni and use youtube a bit so that i can learn about some topics but always end up with a bunch of different tabs open and hours later overwhelmed like u said. Great video thanks!
One thing im trying is getting some more intencional distractions like play the guitar for 10 min(im learning) or maybe go outside in the sun for a bit. Something that does not lead me into an infinite fictional reward loop
needed this rn thx
Thank you for this.
Lots of food for thought here! I have tried (unsuccessfully) many times to remove devices from my bedroom. But within a week I'm back to doom scrolling in bed. You gave a lot of sage advice here that I'm going to try. The notifications, app deletion, and focus mode seem simple enough, but far easier said than done. The FOMO is real when it comes to this. But I find myself missing being bored, missing the place where abstract thought begins. Thanks for making this, very thoughtful and well framed.
2 questions is all you need:
Does it serve a function?
If no:
Does it make me happy?
If no: remove it
And if yes to function: is that function necessary or does it improve my life in a meaningful way?
And if yes to happiness: Is this the only way to gain happiness or can I replace it?
It's pointless to change something if that change leads to additional stress or makes your life worse in the long term. And dont fall into the trap of toxic self improvement.
Thanks a lot!! I've already applied many of your tips but the Launcher will really help me! :)
I 100% agree with the last rule!!! Understanding what is behind our intentions is the key thing if we want to change our behaviour.
Needed this ❤
Good on you. We could all benefit from a little bit of minimalism. Multitasking is overrated, especially when there is a high output of ideas, content, etc. I'm glad you are finding a balance with all of this madness.
I love this. I see myself as a digital minimalist and often go through purges where I heavily question the actual utility of certain things I have.
Crazy production value as always. Interesting topic.
Not only am I fan of getting off social media and OLaucnher, but this channel is fast becoming my favourite in general.
great topic, Cameron. Thats for sure something i've been struggling with. Good to see that more people are actually trying to do something and create healthier environments for both themselves and help others. I have a suggestion, not necessarily for a full YT video, but would you mind sharing some takes on ergonomics? the way to balance the Sound design (mouse) with the composing (piano/keyboard) setup. thanks
I really enjoyed this video topic. Would be great to hear more about.
I agree.
I feel the same as you
This spoke to me. ❤
Good advices! My little piece of advice as well, if you wanna try, people: find your old phone and upload there only necessary stuff like maps, browser, whatever you really need on a daily basis except distracting apps. That way you have a fully functional device to meet the needs of our modern world and you are separated from this endless stream of information and dopamine addiction, it makes much easier separating from it for for me, hope it may help you as well.
Limiting the sandbox in my expeirence has really helped me learn about what is important to me in a song in regards to digital minimalism and creativity. Using the Dirtywave M8 has been immensely helpful in making me more conscious of the resources I use putting more intent behind what I am doing. Since its a DAW in a box basically I can completely disconnect from social media when I work.
Great thoughts man! So much truth here. I’m definitely a fan of simplifying where I can.
Great video, I can relate cause i've been using my daw disconnected from the internet 20 years now and I don't miss any daw internet related feature so far.
Great vid. It made me think of this quote from Goethe : "We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright." Keep on!!
These are really great suggestions
Awesome video. I’ve personally been attempting to minimize for the last couple months, and adding the screen time widget to my Home Screen to see how much time I’ve spent on my phone was a big help. I don’t like setting strict limits, like maybe I want to listen to a video at work which my phone sees as several hours of screen-on use, but being cognizant of the time was a good step for me.
Thank you!
My phone is always on silent. Not vibrate, but don't forget where you put it silent.
I have an old pebble smartwatch I got as an experiment because I can't feel my phone vibrate, but I can feel the watch tap my wrist. It has additional powers that let me make it silent whenever I'm working or likely to get a junk call, and I went know I missed a notification until I switch it back on or wonder what time it is.
I also divided my devices into their jobs- my phone has socials and all the communication stuff but very few games and although I have music trackers for scratch pad I haven't used my phone this way for a couple years.
A tablet is for streaming audio and video and reading books, it's basically a carry anywhere TV. No social apps on it at all.
The PC is for creative use only. I will sometimes use the browser to look things up quickly or to post something I just created to social, but I won't surf, scroll, or browse.
I like the notion of visiting with intent, even if that intent is to consume, that means you're going to search and not just take the auto timeline. I think that plug in you showed enforces this
Nice insights. Giving me a lot to think about. Also, what is that keyboard sound that starts playing a bit more than a minute into the video? It's so good! I'm really hoping it's from one of your sample instruments.
Oh, the whole "getting stuck on youtube or facebook or similar, and suddenly having wasted most of the day, and not having done anything creative." Yeah, I know the feeling. I kind of have to keep my phone close, as my dad goes a bit nuts if he can't get hold of me (i.e. if I don't answer on messenger within a few minutes) at any time of day. I've tried being very conscious of my content consumption recently, and I've managed to finish one song, and written a few dozen pages on my book project, so I think that simply being more conscious of what and why, really helps.
Awesome stuff, I’ve recently done similar things, I’ve removed most apps from the Home Screen and often leave my phone in other rooms. Also got rid of the notifications and unread count bubbles off most apps. It’s a truly freeing experience. As a result I’ve ended up doing more, be it music or photography or reading a book.
Crazy. I deleted my socials a few weeks ago and everything you've said here I relate to so much. My phone turned me into a sad uncreative asshole and it almost killed me. I'm glad I'm back from that place cause for the firs time in a long time I can say I love myself and that I'm so much more capable and creative than I ever gave myself credit for.
Thanks. Just uninstalled Instagram, which I realise I've become low-level addicted to, and don't really need.
Great timing man, every so often I cut more n more distractions off from my phone and electronics and been doing it the past few days
Also phenomenal music, editing, shots, scripting, and especially color grading 👌
good point!
Great video👍
thank you
Yes!