IT’S TAX TIME!
When the good weather comes around, you won’t feel like doing this, so beat the rush and start now. Find all your forms, download them from the web if you need to, get all your paperwork together, and do as much as you can in your spare time at this time. I personally have to dig through all my bill stubs and find all my related purchases, and even check my check stubs as well as the music file, because many purchases just don’t get where they should go—another new year’s resolution to make this year. In some cases, I used to clean up the whole house, especially my desk, to make sure some errant bill wasn’t hiding there. If you are as messy as I used to be, this is a good time to start—you have until April 15th. You may need to find last year’s taxes, too, so you have the info you need to figure out the depreciation on your equipment if you have some that you have to calculate. I find that accounting helps me sleep, so I love doing it just before bedtime…it’s so mind numbingly boring that it is almost as good as cocoa to help me nod off.
HEADPHONES RULE!
I’ve found that these are life and marriage savers, and keep my pets sane. It’s fun to crank it up really loud for you, but probably not your neighbors or housemates. Find a pair you really like and work with those so you can keep yourself sharp at those high volumes. If you like to sing, too, you might find a closet you can fill with coats or boxes, step in with your headphones on and sing your heart out. If you need to tape yourself singing, just run a mic cord under the door, and listen to yourself on headphones. I’ve done rough tracks by blaring the sound in the closet on a speaker of some sort while I’m in there with a room mic—it works passably, and is a great way to pass a slow afternoon when you can’t get to a real studio.
