Starting Singing After Taking Time Off

I know what it is like to want to get better at something, you are super excited about it in the first few weeks and then one day you don’t practice to cook dinner, because you “don’t have time today”. But that is fine, you will do it the next day!

Then something else comes up, and you don’t manage to practice again and eventually you realise 4 weeks have gone by and shit! you have only sung in the car. 

This used to happen to me, until I started to plan my week out on a Sunday afternoon. It has been a game changer, not only for my practice but for everthing in my life that I value, I just get it done and sometimes faster than I used to!

The idea is actually quite simple, you sit down with your calendar on a Sunday afternoon and write a priority list for yourself: the things that give you energy, or you want to improve on. For example mine are fitness, piano, walking my dogs and cooking. Those are what give me joy, so I decide how much time I am going to spend on them, and put them in my calendar first! (of course if you have a 9-5 job, this will be set already, I don’t, so I need to put these in my diary first to make sure I get a break between teaching.)

These are what we call non-negotiables, nothing is going to get between me and these precious hours in my day. Yours could be meeting with friends, having dinner with your family, yoga, reading a book. Your life, your non-negotiables. If you want to actually improve in your singing, it should be a non-negotioable. (hint hint)

Then put in when you are going to promise yourself to go to bed, plan it, your wind down routine your cleaning up the kitchen, get it in there. Rest and sleep should be just as important as everything else in your life. 

Then you want to put in your work, that takes up a big chunk of your life, so that goes in next. Then you will see how much time you actually have left in your week. 

This is where I put in all things I need to get done, such as supermarket shopping, youtube filming, emails, messaging, instagram. I put it all in my diary, because in the end I will see that I can’t possibly achieve it all. With endless to do lists we are setting ourselves up for failure. Get it in the diary and get it done. 

Now I recommend blocks as well for buffer time or overflow, this is for when something comes up last minute, and I need to move an appointment. For example today the builder knocked a pipe in my house out and I had to get it sorted with the plumber, buffer time to the rescue!

We need to plan for success and be honest with our time commitment, which is why I designed training plans for the students at the vocal academy, get in, get out, get it done and it helps to specific with a day to day break down of what to practice and when. 

You got this! Don’t let the winter blues get you down, sing and create happiness in the dark months. 10min practice, 3 times a week is still 30min that you wouldn’t have otherwise done, it all adds up you wonderful singer!

The Vocal Academy is accepting new students, if you want to learn to harness your singing potential then come join our community full of singers ready to sing with power and confidence!