1. Above all, spend as much time as you possibly can with your child in the first couple of years. You can’t ever repeat that initial time with your first baby – It’s magical and it will be the most profound mistake to let it pass you by as you crack on with work in an effort to provide.
2. Babies aren’t expensive – that comes a couple of years down the line when child-care starts. That’s when you need to focus more on work.
3. Your relationship with your partner and child will be 10x better if you pull back a bit for a while and get stuck in hard with the baby. That will help you with work down the line.
4. You will get more efficient. You will prioritise and get things done that you never imagined possible. Help this process along by identifying where you are wasting time. For most of us this is from about 9pm to 1am when we watch tv or sit on the internet etc. Some of us go in the studio but we don’t do good work at that time in a lot of cases. As the evening wears on we tend to drift. Go to bed and switch off the light at 9, get up early and crack on with work.
5. On a related note – unless you’re a pro DJ, let go of ‘musician hours’ – If you’re trying to work until the early hours every day you will be genuinely 100% fucked. Babies tend to wake up for the day at 3 am on a regular basis. The sleep you get before midnight is critical to your sanity, and your ability to get work done when the opportunity arises. If you can sleep at 8pm DO IT – If you’ve had 4 hours by midnight, you’re absolutely laughing if they screw you with a problem in the early hours. You will then be ready to grab that couple of hours mixing when it presents itself.
6. With a CHILD vs a BABY, it will change, and you will have more luck with specific periods of protected work time. With a baby you need to be much more flexible and grab your chances when they arise. You will be able to do things you didn’t imagine.
7. Yes, this is going to be a bit challenging, and your professional progress might stall for a little while. It’s also just about the greatest time you will ever have, and it will motivate you and change the way you think about work.
Jack Ruston is a producer, recording engineer, mixer and all round top geezer. His client list includes Judas Priest, Reuben, Walking On Cars, McBusted, James Morrison, Loa Loa, Foxes and Birdy. He was also 2017 Music Producers Guild, Breakthrough Engineer Of The Year nominee.
