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We music producers have a huge issue sometimes - we don't finish enough music. You can argue that it's because you don't have enough time or maybe because you've been producing for so long it's hard for you to get inspired and get into that really "on fire" mindset.
Well, there are a few things that, if you can put in practice, will help you to overcome these issues and actually finish more music in less time.
1. Make time for music and get focused during that time
If you don't have as much time you can spend on finishing music as you want because you're in school or have a job, all you have to do is set aside a daily schedule - it can be as short as a 30 minute session or as long as 3 hours a day. It sounds simple, right? The thing is that you don't need to spend 8 hours a day in the studio to finish more music or to get better in doing it. Persistente is the real game when it comes to getting better and to finish more music. If you can stick to that 1 hour long schedule for a month, you'll notice some major improvements to your sound and I'm sure you'll be surprised with the amount of music you have finished!
2. Be smart about the way you work (AKA work smarter, not harder)
In order to finish more music in less time, it's really important that you work smarter and not just harder. What does this mean? It means that if you have a really good kick from the previous track, why spend 30 minutes looking for another good one or making another one? Time is precious, specially when you can't have longer sessions because of school or your job, so try to find as many shortcuts as you can to improve your workflow and to increase your productivity. A good way to do this is to spend a couple of hours every week organizing your samples and focusing on sound design so you have the proper tools to produce during the week and, more importantly, you know in what folder that preset you designed is at.
3. Finish the song, even if it sucks
We all have quit a track that we feel didn't have potential. However, if you find this to happen too often, you have to make sure that you finish some of those songs in order to keep getting better. You see, when you make a track, you're training the various steps involved in the process, which means that if you are often quitting a track after getting the arrangement done, you're not practicing the mixing and mastering part, probably not even sound design. So it's important that you go through all steps in order to keep learning them, even if the track is not turning out to be that great.
4. Use samples
As an expansion to step number 2 ("Work smarter, not harder") it's important that you're not ashamed of using samples. There's a really bad culture about a music producer using samples, but if you want to do everything yourself that means you'll have to "record the samples, make the percussion instruments yourself, skin the animals to make the instruments...". Well, you see where I'm going with this, right? Don't take me wrong, I'm not encouraging you to not be creative, but there's nothing wrong in using a kick or a clap from a sample pack to save you time. If you're into big room and Revealed style music, we just released a huge sample pack named Revealed Revolution, which includes pretty much everything you'll need to make that track you always wanted to produce.
Summarizing, music production is a really hard skill to learn, not only on a technical level, but on a psychological level as well, but the learning process can be a little bit easier if you make use of these tips and apply them in your creative process.