Welcome Herb! Great to have you in the Room to Record group.... Have a look around, jump into the Classroom, and introduce yourself when you’re ready. I’d love to know what you’re making and what your current creative space looks like. Everyone else, say hi to Herb 👋

I’ve added a new Recommended Skool Communities section to the Classroom. It’s a curated list of communities I think are genuinely useful for Room to Record members, covering songwriting, music production, YouTube, community growth and Skool itself. Each page includes a quick overview, why I think it’s useful, my R2R take on where it fits, and a link to check it out. Have a look through the new section in the Classroom and see what’s useful to you. Then, naturally, get back to making things.

Today has already included working on the marketing for a local music festival, selling some music gear on eBay, shooting my first test video in the car, and juggling a number of tasks in my day job. I still need to (in 5min) do a school pickup, soccer practice (just watching my son), and a band rehearsal tonight. I’m starting to think one of the useful creative skills isn’t “finding more time” at all. It’s getting better at recognising what kind of creative work fits into the gaps you actually have, and which of the 100 things you're doing are useful for some of the main projects. Ten minutes in the car might be enough to record a thought. Fifteen minutes might be enough to sketch a post. Half an hour might be enough to move a song or project forward. The perfect empty afternoon remains a charming myth!

I know there are a lot of people, like me, who have big plans, lists and deadlines. But life as John Lennon once said, it what happens while you are working on those. Sometimes though, there is still momentum and productivity that can be harnessed, so: What can you still make progress on when you’re stuck in bed / waiting in the car / killing time somewhere?

I think “better gear” is one of the most expensive forms of procrastination. What’s one thing you bought thinking it would make you more creative, but mostly just gave you another thing to organise?