Hey there! After 15 years of producing electronic music, I've learned a few things that have completely transformed my workflow and creative output. In today's post, I want to share three crucial lessons that could save you years of frustration and help you level up your production game much faster.
Finish Your Projects on Day OneLet's be honest – most of us have hard drives filled with hundreds of unfinished projects. I had over
400 unfinished ideas
at one point, and it was not only overwhelming but actually stunting my growth as a producer.
The game-changer? Commit to finishing tracks on the same day you start them.
This might sound impossible, but it's more about shifting your mindset. When you approach a session with the intention of finishing, you make different decisions. You focus on what matters and you learn exponentially more from each completed track than from ten half-finished ones.
How to implement this:
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Create a structured folder system with clear categories:
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Active Projects (limit to 3-5)
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Completed Tracks (even if they're rough)
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Promising Ideas (for future development)
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Archive (be ruthless about what goes here)
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Set a timer for your session and decide in advance: "By the end of these 4 hours, I will have a finished piece."
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Accept that "finished" doesn't mean "perfect" – it just means you've taken it through a complete production cycle.
Master What You Already HaveOne of my biggest wastes of time and money? Constantly chasing new plugins and gear. I've spent over
€4,000 on plugins
that I barely use, all while creating 90% of my sound design with Ableton's stock plugins.
This "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" (GAS) is a trap that keeps you in an endless loop of learning new interfaces rather than mastering the tools you already own.
The hard truth:
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New gear won't make you a better producer
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Limitations breed creativity
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Deep knowledge of a few tools is more valuable than surface-level knowledge of many
When I finally focused on mastering Ableton's stock devices, my sound design capabilities exploded. I could create in minutes what used to take me hours of scrolling through presets.
Instead of asking "What new plugin do I need?", try asking "What can I create with what I already have that I didn't know was possible?"
Share Your Process, Not Just Your ResultsFor years, I only shared finished tracks and wondered why nobody cared. The breakthrough came when I started documenting and sharing my entire creative process – the struggles, the experiments, the failures, and the small victories.
Sharing only finished tracks is like showing someone a mountain peak without revealing the journey to get there. The journey is what connects people to your music.
What happened when I changed my approach:
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I built genuine connections in the community
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Labels and collaborators found me (instead of me cold-emailing them)
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My creative process became more intentional and reflective
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Teaching what I learned reinforced my own skills
Music is fundamentally about human connection. The technical aspects matter, but being active in communities (Discord groups, forums, local meetups) with transparency and authenticity is what truly opens doors.
The Unexpected Result
The most surprising outcome of implementing these three principles? My entire YouTube journey and ability to make a living from music grew from consistently sharing what I learned for free.
Each finished track and each mastered device became knowledge I could share. This sharing created connections, which led to opportunities I never would have found otherwise.
Your TurnWhich of these three areas do you struggle with most? Are you drowning in unfinished projects? Constantly buying new plugins? Or hesitant to share your work-in-progress?
Pick just one of these principles to focus on this week and see how it transforms your production process. Let me know how it goes in the comments or join our Discord to share your experiences!
Remember – make it your own.