I thought it was my age. I also thought it might be overwork. Then I considered that it might be the effect of modern communications and the deluge of information coming at me. Also the nature of web browsing and the temptation to click around content.
What am I talking about? I couldn’t read.
Let me explain. I’m 57 and like most educated people, I learnt how to read as a child. I lived in a house where my mother’s mantra was; “You can’t waste money on books.” So for most of my childhood, young adult, and adult life I’ve been a fan of reading.
So why in the last few years was I unable to read an article without skipping across it, when I was only two to three lines in. I was seriously starting to think I had some kind of degenerative disorder. I had the attention span of a puppy. It was getting to the point where I wondered if I should see someone.
Our house is full of books, my wife is a copious reader, as is my 9 yr old. I had also been, but in the last few years this was just not happening. Talking books had become a staple for me, perfect for when running or when driving the car. I certainly don’t recommend conventional books when driving!
Then I did something radical. I started to read a book, which particular book is unimportant. I just decided to turn everything off, find a quiet place and start reading. It soon became apparent that the more I read, the easier it became and the better I got at reading.
I had to learn how to read again. I don’t mean learning the letters, grammar, and sentence construction. I mean, in my case, the discipline of reading.
Detraining
Regular readers will have read on many occasions my journey back to fitness. How I went from a beached whale who couldn’t make it up the stairs without the need for oxygen, now running 5K most days of the week.
However, here’s something scary. If I stop, even if the world’s fittest athletes stop, soon the body starts to go backwards. There’s even a name for it, it’s called Detraining.
"Detraining will occur relatively quickly, with major declines occurring after two or three weeks," says Mark Peterson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan. Source
The physiological effects are quite stark, within weeks of the cessation of training;
Blood pressure rises
Skeletal muscle starts resisting insulin
Muscles shrink
VO2 Max drops
Anxiety increases
So What About The Studio?
The title of this article is “How To Be A Consistently Better Music Or Post Professional” so let’s consider how the lessons of reading and running may apply.
If you’re using a software program, such as a DAW in a professional capacity, then it’s highly likely you’ve memorised a lot of shortcuts. We sometimes call the people who can fly around a DAW ‘Ninjas.’ They have so many memorised shortcuts that you can’t even see what they are hitting on the keyboard. They don’t even look at the keyboard, it’s second nature, like touch typing.
I know from first hand experience that if you stop working in a particular DAW, or any software or hardware for that matter, then your ability to move fast is the same as me forgetting how to read, or going from running 5K to lying on the sofa.
I can vouch for this from my own experience. Since I’ve taken a back seat from the day-to-day writing for the blog, and in particular the Pro Tools content. Plus I don’t get enough time to use Pro Tools, I’ve gone from stuff that was second nature to forgetting a lot of it. I now have to call Julian or Mike on the team asking them to remind me how to do things I USED TO SHOW OTHER PEOPLE HOW TO DO.
How does one go from being the trainer to the newbie? I stopped doing it, I stopped exercising my Pro Tools muscles. Now imagine that over the entirety of your audio knowledge.
How To Be Consistently Better
In my recent article about Imposter Syndrome I wrote about the need for lifelong learning. I think it’s an essential part of growing. However, I’d never considered that when we stop we don’t freeze our skillset, it starts decreasing - we detrain.
In other words, there’s a cost to just standing still as audio professionals. If we stop using the tools and the skills we have, we detrain. It seems somewhat obvious, but to be consistently better at our craft takes more than consistency, it takes that plus more effort. It means putting in the work not only to stand still, but to improve. In some cases, we have to do even more to get to the next level.
Sometimes when we feel like things are slipping we start to consider all sorts of reasons why we’re not creating music like we used to, or designing great sound effects, or mixing great TV trailers. Stress and overwork is real, so is lack of sleep and rest, as are all the other pressures upon us to be creative in an increasingly competitive world. However, it could be that we’re just not using those muscles.
Many of us have heard the expression ‘Use it or lose it.’ It’s not just a pithy trope, there’s a growing mountain of evidence showing it to be true;
“Referring to “use it or lose it” is not uncommon. It’s the fact that if you want to maintain certain biological functions or structures, you must continue to use that part of the body. For example, if you want to maintain muscles, those muscles need to be used to maintain their function and mass. This is dramatically demonstrated by astronauts going into zero-gravity space. Under this condition, without always working against gravity and using muscles just to stand up, astronauts come back to Earth with wasted muscles. This consequence of using it or losing it is true of a learned language or really any cognitive functioning.“ Source
However, if we allow ourselves to let things slip, to stop the process of lifelong learning, there’s scientific evidence we are going to be worse this year than last, and it’s even more likely as we age. It’s a sobering thought.
How To Really Improve
Here’s a practical tip. Improvement is best undertaken by setting a goal and sticking to it. If you want to stay ahead of the game, let’s say as a Pro Tools user, then its not enough to say, or even write down, “I’m going to be a Pro Tools Ninja.” That’s not a goal, it’s a wish at best. For it to make sense it needs to have some measurements, such as what you are going to do and by when.
Again, this is where mistakes happen when we try and improve. We decide we want to go from knowing 10 Pro Tools shortcuts to all of them, and by next week. Trust me, just like people who start jogging on New Years Day to get fit, it will be all over in a week. The method I used to both get fit and read more was simple, a small, but consistent effort. One I could do even on the bad days, not just the days when I think I’m a rock star.
For my running, I didn’t go from sofa to 5K, even though that’s the name of a popular method. Day one I struggled to the end of the drive, and gradually got better. I knew the long term goal, but the short term one was walk to the end of the drive every day. For the reading I have a goal, it’s to read a chapter of a book every day. Most days it takes me between 10-15 minutes. I’ve read three books this month.
Back to Pro Tools Ninja’s. It might be as simple as ‘Learn one new shortcut every day.’ That might not sound like a lot, but it’s over 300 new shortcuts in a year. We all love to make grand gestures, but they rarely bring lasting change. Find something you want to change set an achievable goal and then stick with it. Before you know it, what seemed like hard work is easy, and there will be some transformation.
If you want to be a consistently better music or post professional, it’s a case of doing it and don’t stop!