When people ask me how to start making music, I answer with a counter-question: “Why do you want to do that? What is your goal?”.

The answers vary, but more often than not they can be divided into two groups: to make music “for myself” (just for fun, to show my friends etc.) and “for a career” (to turn music into a profession, to make a living on it).

It would seem, what is the difference? Here some dude does something at the computer, pressing buttons and spinning knobs. Why should anyone be bothered with this goal question?

But there is a big difference.

Imagine that you like to cook food. You haven’t had any special training, but you love to eat good food and treat your loved ones. You can make ratatouille, chilli con carne, or pad Thai. Or you can not cook anything if there is no necessary products or you just feel lazy today, and just order a pizza. In this sense, you have complete freedom, and your loved ones will likely enjoy whatever you cook.

It is quite another story if you are a chef. Before you get a job, you must learn culinary science, food chemistry, food processing, stock management, delivery, and much more. While cooking, it’s also important to follow the recipe, keep the yield of the product, and watch the serving, because the restaurant has certain standards and the customers have expectations. About fourteen years ago I was thinking about a career as a chef, so I know a little bit about it.

Well, in music, it’s the same.

Making music “for yourself” means being like a free painter: if you want to write it, you write it, if you don’t want to write it, you don’t write it. If you want to write something super unusual, even if it seems like bullshit to others, no problem, you can always say that it was “the author’s idea”. There are no standards. There is no external deadline. In short, do whatever you want.

On music standards

It’s quite different if you aim to be a professional producer. You need to know the production, sound design, acoustics, arrangements, composition, and mixing – and that’s just the basics to make a high-quality track. Then there is more: you need to know the industry, know how to market yourself, bring the music to the audience, negotiate, plan the budget, understand the contracts, organize yourself, play DJ sets and do many, many more things. After years in my music career, I know a little bit about that.

To summarize, to do something professionally, you have to know more related disciplines, understand the market, and work hard. A lot. And if you generalize even more, for a hobby, the process is important, while for a profession the result is important. I think that’s the main difference.

In a hobby it’s the process, in a profession it’s the result

I want to end with an important point: You don’t have to become a professional. Don’t have to build a career. Cooking a meal for loved ones or making music for yourself is fine. If you enjoy the process, just enjoy it.

Cancelled gigs and plans, closed clubs and country borders. Thousands of DJs and producers have lost their jobs. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has affected all areas of our lives, but I would like to talk specifically about the music industry and the income of artists in particular.

Almost all artists strive for a busy touring schedule. And that’s not surprising since the primary income for artists comes from performances. But here’s the problem: if you put all your resources into one single source of income, you become very vulnerable. The artist had ten confirmed performances, and then they’re gone. The situation with closed clubs and cancelled airlines seems like something from a science fiction area, yet it’s happening worldwide right now.

The main lesson for artists should be the saying “don’t put all eggs in one basket” and striving for a distributed income structure. Ideally, three or five sources of income should generate roughly equal shares.

The structure in the right column is not ideal either and here just for the illustration. Still, the main thing it provides is an active reserve and the ability to pay the bills, even when the primary source of income is lacking, like many artists all over the world are sadly experiencing now. For example, months with no gigs (which can happen even without coronaviruses) is no big deal if other sources of income can generate 70% of your regular income, so you can pay the bills and use this time to focus on other projects.

In my educational talk back in 2017, I advised aspiring producers to have a financial backup and not be in a hurry to quit their day job. The combination of regular work and music is an example of a distributed income structure.

I don’t have a recipe or advice on making a distributed income, but it seems like a good idea to start by understanding the importance of the concept itself. And, of course, this does not apply only to the music industry.

On April 12, Dark Entity will be released — a new track that we’ve made together with Kirill Enlusion. Not only the result is interesting, but also the path we took. With Kirill’s permission, I am sharing the process of creating the track (and even two!) with dozens of iterations, controversial moments, and behind-the-scenes details.

Overview of the project in Ableton. Not quite a “feng shui” look, but the main thing is the result

It all began when on September 23, 2020, I offered Kirill to make a track together. In the best traditions of producer humour, I asked: “Collab, bro?”, which almost made him choke :-)

And this was the first sketch I sent:

Kirill approved it and really felt the melody. Needless to say, nothing will be left of it at the end. But that’s for later, and for now, we got to work.

I’m figuring out how this lead would look in a sort of Techno’ish environment and sketch out a basic arrangement:

I listen to it again and realize it’s too “cheesy”, and too melodic. I tell Kirill that I want something darker. He agrees and sends me this new lead:

I approve, he continues:

I like the rhythmic elements, but the vibe as a whole isn’t working. I want it to be darker. So I remove almost everything and made a foundation from scratch:

Kirill likes it. That’s it, we stick with this one as the core. On the next step, Kirill is trying different pads and melodies and also improving the low end along the way:

As I listen to it, I think it’s too melodic. I would have liked the pads more as a texture rather than a melody.

Kirill builds the intro, adds stabs and  changes pads:

Then he continues and adds a breakdown:

And then he adds Sasha’esq arps, BXR-style snares in the drop and put it all together:

By this time, it was the middle of October. At the same time, I was finishing off my new studio, so I was extremely busy. Then the move, the hustle and bustle, and soon enough it turns out to be Winter already!

On December 11, burning with an embarrassment of such delay, I returned to the track. I listen carefully to the last version and realize that the stabs, the pads and the lead don’t work for me. I like the breakdown, overall, but to me it misses some emotional character, some big moment.

So I decide to keep the core, but almost completely redone the leads and the pads, and removed a lot of things to give the track more “air” — in particular, at the build-up in the first half of the track. I also extend the breakdown and add some unexpected musical moments. Well, and some more little things.

Comparing before and after:

I have to give Kirill credit that he didn’t tell me to screw off, but he agreed that this was a step in the right direction, even though I had cut out a lot of his past iterations. Let’s keep working!

In the last Kirill’s iteration there was a second breakdown (↑), which I wanted to diversify in some way.

Trying something crazy:

Kirill: “Crazy lead? Hold my beer!”, and sends his version:

Whoa-whoa! We both agree that this was a bit too much. We’re thinking about a breakdown.

Another week goes by. I say that I have a gig coming up, and soon I’ll be able to test the track on the dance floor, which means we need to speed up and finish it faster. I also suggest speeding up the track itself from 128 to 130 BPM. Kirill supports it.

Meanwhile, I keep iterating on the second breakdown, completely reworking the melody and the timbre:

Kirill likes the sound of the timbre but is bothered by a few notes. Changes them, and it gets really better.

We put all the pieces together, fixed some things, and sent it off for mastering.

The result:

It remains to test the track on the dance floor:

Great feedback! We leave the track as is and finish the work on it. Done!

Alternate version

March 2, 2021. Just over a month until the release date. We are waiting for the remixers to send the release to the distributor. All of a sudden, I’m writing to Kirill: “Okay, there might be the fifth track in the release, hold on. I have an idea.”

Kirill: «о_О».

Suddenly I get the idea to make an alternative mix of the original, something like a heads-down stripped b-Side version: with no breakdown, no vocal samples, and fewer melodies.

On heads-down tracks in my DJ collection

And I sent a rough draft I sketched out at 1 AM:

And two more variations, just in case:

Kirill approves of the idea in general, and out of the three options, he prefers the trance bassline. And immediately develops the timeline of almost the whole track:

The next day I soberly evaluated all the options and realized that everything is not quite right. It needs to be darker, and more toned-down, and that trance bassline is too perky.

I propose to make the bassline gallop like in psytrance. Kirill says it won’t work that way. I argue.

In the end, I’m doing the alternate version practically from scratch, with a completely different rhythm, galloping bassline and dark atmosphere:

Snob Kirill is satisfied. Yay, we’re moving on.

Kirill takes the initiative and continues:

I like it on the whole, but in some moments I have doubts:

Me: Why did you remove the toms?
Kirill: They were disrupting the rhythm.

Comparing

Hmm, there really is something wrong. Changing the pattern:

Me: How about this?
Kirill: Yeah, that’s the best way.

Moving on. After the breakdown, I insert the acid line and trying the lead from the second drop, but with a different timbre:

Kirill, meanwhile, is working on the breakdown in an interesting way:

We put all the pieces together, fixed some things, and sent it off for mastering.

The result:

Kirill, thanks for the awesome work we did!

Beginner, advanced, and expert depending on the learned skills

Nikita, that’s an excellent question, thank you. And it’s great that you’re asking it.

“What’s next” – the answer to this question depends primarily on your goals and ambitions. You mentioned that you would like to perform in front of an audience, so I would assume that’s what you want to do. But even here, there may be variations:

For example, a DJ wants to become a resident at a local club to work there every Thursday. Or a DJ wants to become the best DJ in his town, playing in different venues. Or a DJ wants to travel all over the country giving shows. Or a DJ wants to become famous outside his country so that foreign promoters invite him on international tours.

These are all very different goals with different means to achieve them. Note that neither option is better or worse than the other – it’s just that they are different, and some may like one more than the other.

So I can only give general advice: increase your value. This sounds abstract, so let me explain.

In the DJ circles, people like to argue about the right or wrong mixing techniques, the coolness of new equipment, the”true spirit” of vinyl, live vs not live sets, and fake or not fake. But the truth is that the technical side of DJing is only one aspect of the profession, not even the most important one. It’s easy to push the buttons, but it’s a real challenge to become and remain in demand.

Vinyl vs sync button

For example, here are some disciplines and skills in which a DJ can grow:

The list is by no means complete, and only an example, but the main idea here is this: the more skills you master and the deeper you understand each of them, the higher your value as an artist will be.

I emphasize that even knowing all of this doesn’t guarantee success because the music industry is much more complicated than the typical career ladder on a  “regular job”. But it will definitely give you a better chance than someone who has never in his life been interested in anything but mixing two tracks with each other.

Learn and develop skills to increase your value

I also want to comment further on this part:

“I tried to send my mixes to a couple of places where I would like to perform for the first time in front of an audience, they said they would listen and write back but they didn’t.”

I can understand the promoters who didn’t answer you. Everyone who has ever hosted an event and invited a DJ has understandable fears: what if this DJ has never seen the equipment and will shamefully play with trainwrecks? What if the DJ we invited to warm up the event will be blasting Beatport’s top 10 hits? What if he burns the hell out or floods the club’s equipment? What if he doesn’t show up at all?

On warm-up DJs

The fact is that despite the seemingly huge competition, there are very few decent DJs. And even if you are decent and able to work well, the promoters don’t know about it. Your task is to help calm their fears and tell them why they can trust you.

On decent DJs

For example, pictures from gigs are one way to show a DJ to potential promoters that he has the experience and other people trust him.

Hire photographers

But what if there are no gigs? There are options here, too: wait for promoters to invite you; seek out performance opportunities yourself; organize events on your own, even if it’s a private event for friends. These are all big topics, so let me know if you’re interested and I’ll try to talk about it someday next time.

I hope this gives you some vector.

And where to start, what to write about, and why you shouldn’t blog on social networks

I enjoy reading the blogs of various people: marketers, designers, developers, promoters, entrepreneurs, editors, and specialists in other fields. And I noticed that among my reading list, there are very few representatives of the music industry. And I’m not talking about media, I’m talking about specialists’ blogs of people who would share their personal experiences.

And then I thought: what if someone wants to start a blog but does not know how? Or someone doubts why they need a blog when they have Instagram?

Whether you are a DJ, a music producer, a label manager, or a specialist of any kind (not just in the music industry), I’d like to encourage more good blogs, so in this post I’ll talk about the benefits of blogging and where to start.

Why blogging

When I talk to someone about starting a blog, I often hear a question along the lines of “Who’s going to read me?”. And it’s a reasonable question: If you don’t already have an audience of your own, you’ll probably be the only visitor of your blog, at least for a while. In addition, the Internet already has almost everything.

However, in my opinion, the main benefit of a blog is not that people read you at all. If you write interestingly and for a long period of time, sooner or later, you are sure to get an audience that reads you, but that’s a nice consequence, kind of a bonus side-effect and not a reason to start writing.

Here are some good reasons to blog:

To systematize your experience. Knowing and understanding something are not the same thing. When you explain something by writing a blog, you understand it much better. That’s exactly what happened to me with the advice series: it would seem that if I’m advising someone something, I’m probably good at it myself, right? But the truth is that I have become good at some things because I explain them to others. Thanks to the blog, the experience is better learned and solidified.

In the advice series, I share my experiences and answer readers’ questions about music production, DJing, performing, marketing, management, and other aspects of the music industry

To improve your skills: writing, language, discipline. It takes practice to become good at something. Being able to write clearly and present your thoughts in a clear, structured way is no exception. And who writes clearly, thinks clearly. Such skills are worth cultivating.

To spread knowledge about yourself and your business. There is an interesting thing with specialist blogs: when you read the behind-the-scenes details of some profession, you inevitably notice that the author clearly knows his stuff, since he understands and talks about all these subtleties. That is how the reputation of an expert is formed. And such a reputation builds trust and opens up new opportunities.

Marketing by sharing by Jason Fried

To save time so you don’t have to explain the same thing over and over again. Imagine that you’ve written a large, comprehensive post about how you do business. And then in a conversation, someone asks you about this topic. And now, instead of telling everything all over again, you can kindly offer the person to read about it on your blog if he or she is interested. For example, I wrote this very post for this exact reason because I had to explain it several times.

To help people. Most of the time you probably won’t even know it. People tend to react more strongly to things they don’t like than to be thankful for things that help them. Nevertheless, rest assured that the knowledge you share will help others learn something new, come to unusual conclusions, or inspire development in their field. Isn’t that great?

These are definitely not all the reasons for blogging, but they’re good enough to get you started.

Run a blog for yourself to systematize experiences, improve skills, and spread knowledge

What to write about

Let’s say you’ve decided to blog. And then you might be confused: “So what is there to write about?”. The thing is, when you know something, all things seem simple and obvious to you, and you’d be like: “Everybody knows that!”

My advice is to write about what you’re doing and explain why you’re doing it that way:

For example, an engineer does mastering of the tracks. How does he do it? What kind of equipment does he use? How is gear better than software plug-ins, and is it better? Does stem mastering really worth it? How to prepare tracks for mastering? How much headroom in volume should a producer leave and why? Is it necessary to do a separate mastering for each streaming platform? Is there really a “volume war” and should producers be worried? Can a DJ play non-mastered tracks? Why do we need mastering at all?

It would seem an ordinary routine that an engineer faces every day, but there is so much to tell! And so it is with almost all professions. Talk about it, and the blog will become your best portfolio.

Another thing I advise you to do is to define for yourself some topics or categories. For example, on this blog I write about DJing, performing, music, marketing, productivity, and professional growth. You don’t have to think of all of such topics ahead of time, but it may be easier for the authors to start writing by identifying a few similar topics in their field.

Where to start

First, you need to decide where you want to write: on a third-party service or on your own standalone blog.

Third-party services are so-called blogging platforms: sites on which you sign up and start a blog. Probably the most popular ones are Tumblr, Blogger, Medium.

A standalone blog is a site that runs on your server and is under your control. I strongly recommend this option, and I explain why below.

To start your own standalone blog, you need three things:

For some people, these words may seem very frightening, but in fact, buying a domain name and renting hosting is not more difficult than signing up on Medium or purchasing anything online. The engine installation is somewhat different, but it depends on what to choose.

Running and maintaining a blog costs money: a domain name will cost about $10 per year, and hosting is roughly another $20 per year. The engines are usually free. Here are some popular names: WordPress, Drupal, Aegea.

My blog runs on Aegea. The beauty of this engine is that it has no typical “admin panels” with complicated user interfaces. Aegea makes blogging as easy as possible, and it’s a pleasure to write in it. It also has everything you need to make it look and work properly right out of the box: automatic typography, search, tags, drafts, a mobile version, a built-in audio player, comments (you can disable them if you don’t need them), and much, much more. By comparison, on WordPress or Drupal you would need a programmer and a designer to do all that, but with Aegea, you install it, and it just works.

The Aegea website visually demonstrates how the engine works

Why not Instagram

Some readers may wonder, “Why bother when social media is around? Why set up and pay for a standalone blog when you can do the same on Instagram? Why do all that when you can just as much systematize your experience, improve your skills, and spread the knowledge on a Facebook page? You can blog on social media, right?”

Can you blog on social media – yes, you can. You can do anything, frankly! But that said, there are fundamental disadvantages to social media that are worth keeping in mind.

Anything is possible, but

In my opinion, here are a few major flaws:

You don’t own the content. Everything you write and post on social networks belongs to corporations, not to you. In practice, this means that your years of work can disappear in a flash because the social network closes down (think of MySpace). Or because the service will become hopelessly outdated and no one is interested in it (look at LiveJournal). Or because moderators will find your post inappropriate to their guidelines and block your profile. Choosing social media as your primary platform for publishing thoughtful posts does not value your time and efforts. And all of this is true for third-party blogging platforms as well, which is why I recommend starting your own standalone blog.

Form affects content. Each social network defines a certain format, and you have to adjust the content to fit it. For example, you cannot publish more than 280 characters on Twitter in one post. On Instagram, you cannot post just text without a picture. Facebook, as experiments suggest, reduces the reach of link posts, so people get creative, publish a picture, and leave the link in the comment below it. Or at some point, the author realizes that if he takes a long break between posts, fewer people like them, and when fewer people like the post, the social network algorithms consider this content uninteresting and don’t show it to the rest of the audience, and eventually the race for engagement begins.

You are not in control. If the social network changes its design tomorrow, and not for the better, there is nothing you can do about it because you are not in control. If a social network starts running ads through every post you share, there’s nothing you can do about it because you are not in control. If a social network removes some of the functionality you’ve been relying on, as you’ve probably guessed, there’s nothing you can do about it because you are not in control. Can you easily find any of your posts from ten years ago? Or edit it? Or structure it in any meaningful way? No, no, and no, because you have no control over anything on social media.

On social media, you don’t own the content and have no control over anything. Relying on social media means not valuing your time and efforts

There’s nothing like that with your blog, and it’s exactly the opposite. You have full access to all texts, images, and files. You are free to decide whether the design of your blog will change or remain exactly the same twenty years from now. You can add or remove features as you need them. You can organize everything the way you want.

“Wait a minute!”, some probably will argue. “But social media has an entire audience! Instagram has one billion monthly active users, and my blog will have one person. So what, are you suggesting that I should just give up on social media altogether?”

Well, it is naive to think that once you create a new Facebook page, a Telegram channel, or an account on Medium.com, you will immediately have thousands of readers because, supposedly, these platforms have millions and billions of users. Winning and nurturing the audience is challenging and takes a lot of time no matter where you do it (and if such a task is even needed; and let me remind you that this is not what really matters in a specialist’s blog).

Personally, I have many concerns about social media, even beyond the flaws mentioned above. But even so, I am not yet ready to give them up completely. At the same time, nothing stops you from writing good posts on your blog and then sharing them anywhere, including social networks – I, for example, do just that.

Can we drop social media?

Happy blogging!

Back in the late 90s and early-mid 00s, there were websites, emails, and blogs that you could read directly on the site or by using RSS. That’s basically how content distribution worked. You’ve put something on the web, and people read it if and when they want.

Today, the majority of content seems to be in social media, and no surprise since Facebook alone has almost 3 billion active monthly users. So it seems natural that many of public figures, music producers and DJs included, focus their energy and post everything here.

But, to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of social media. The fact that the content you work hard for is owned and controlled by some companies and algorithms is worrying, to say the least. I’m fortunate to have certain skills allowing me to run my own blog where all my content is safe from those corporates, but still, there are just too many things I don’t like in social media: from censorship to selling users’ data. Frankly, to me, social media seems to be less and less ethical to use.

That makes me think about whether I should use social media for my public communication at all. I mean, I don’t like doing so, but do I have to? For music producers and DJs, the audience is the most valuable asset, any marketer can tell you that. But should we really rely on social media to gather people to let them know about our work?

I wonder what you guys think about a sort of ”web 1.0” with plain and simple RSS feeds and emails instead of Facebook, Instagram etc.? Would you still follow the artists you like in such a way? Or is there no way to get around without social media for artists?

I totally get that other people might have different opinions on that, so I’m curious to hear yours.

P.S. Added a few hours later.

Ironically, this post I’ve put on Facebook got more engagement than any of my typical posts. I’ll just add a link here for archiving purpose.

Every music genre has its own substandard. And it is very important to understand that there are no abstractly “good” and “bad” individual sounds or tracks, but there is a matching or failing to meet the standards.

Listen to these two audio examples:

Which one is better?

The answer is: it depends on what we’re trying to do and what problem we’re trying to solve.

Speaking from the point of the nature of sound, the second kick sounds excessively distorted, flattened, clipped and formally unusable. But suppose a producer has set a goal to release a techno track. In that case, that rough and formally useless kick is potentially more suitable for this purpose because in some subgenres of techno it is so accepted. In general, we often make the sound objectively worse so that subjectively it seems better to us and meets certain standards.

It is also essential to understand that such standards always change over time. The sound design, production techniques, and character of tracks that were relevant ten years ago are hardly the standard today.

Listen to a few examples:

In Techno:

In Progressive House:

In Psytrance:

Notice how the timbres of individual instruments have changed and how the tracks sound as a whole. Of course, music is produced now for all tastes, including music that sounds like it was ten or twenty years ago. Making ‘oldschool’ music on purpose is also fine if you understand what the musical standards were at the time and why you need to do it in the first place.

Does this mean that a young producer has to follow certain sound standards? Not necessarily at all. Anything is possible, including ignoring the standards at all, especially if you just make music for yourself.

Nevertheless, it is handy to observe the existence and change of these standards, both in order to follow them, if necessary, or vice versa, to know what to move away from.

The main tool for making progress in personal and work projects

Previously, I discussed managing social media using Amplifr and overseeing record label duties through Trello. Today, I delve into another work tool – a to-do list.

What is that

A to-do list, or task manager, serves as a digital space where I jot down all my tasks, ranging from mundane daily errands like putting the recycle trash out to grand ventures like buying a house.

My approach

I use a few simple rules to make the whole system work.

Firstly, I meticulously jot down every task as soon as it springs to mind. Whether it’s a call to make, a place to visit, or an item to procure, I log it. This approach liberates mental space. Once documented, I can shift my focus without the burden of remembering each task. Human brains aren’t designed for juggling myriad details, certainly not mine. This method ensures nothing slips through the cracks, with the app preserving everything.

I also structure notes to ensure clarity, even if revisited years later. Often, hastily added tasks lack clarity upon later review. For instance, a task titled ‘Lord Of The Rings’ might mean different things – reading the book, purchasing it, or reminding a friend to return it. To counter this ambiguity, I preface notes with precise verbs like ‘read,’ ‘buy,’ or ‘outline.’

The app

Let me show you real examples and elaborate on the app I use.

Over time, I’ve experimented with various programs: Apple Reminders, Things, Trello, Todoist, Monday, and Wunderlist, among others. Presently, Things 3 stands as my preferred choice.

Things website

Let’s delve into Things. Here’s a snapshot of the app’s usual appearance for me:

Things app on macOS. The names of some projects are hidden for privacy reasons

Priorities and deadlines

In the top left corner, coloured icons categorise to-dos into tabs, forming the basis for priorities and deadlines:

You can quickly switch between tabs by pressing ⌘+1—5

Inbox. A repository for quickly jotting down tasks before they slip my mind. Some tasks automatically land here, which I’ll explain later.

Today. Tasks earmarked for the day ahead. I compile this list the evening before, ensuring a clear agenda for the morning. Any tasks arising during the day enter the inbox, from where I allocate them for the next day or thereafter. Thus, the day’s to-do list doesn’t expand during the day, with few exceptions.

Upcoming. Tasks planned for subsequent days, occasionally spanning months or even a year. I review this at the day’s end to prepare for forthcoming commitments, making adjustments if needed.

Anytime. Tasks lacking a specific start date, signifying flexibility. This category ensures I always have tasks to tackle at any moment. You know how it goes: after hours of tackling a major project, fatigue sets in, efficiency wanes, and it’s time to shift gears. Or vice versa: after completing the day’s work, the entire evening stretches ahead, beckoning for productive tasks. In both scenarios, I turn to the Anytime tab, cherry-picking small, enjoyable tasks, and steadily making progress.

Someday. Tasks I aim to tackle eventually but cannot initiate at any time, unlike the above category. These usually encompass extensive projects fascinating enough to revisit someday, yet currently lack urgency.

Projects and areas

While the aforementioned system establishes priorities and deadlines, logical structuring groups tasks into projects and areas:

Projects. A project is a step-by-step group of tasks that moves toward a specific end result. For example, creating a new podcast episode. Calling it just a task would be oversimplifying, as it involves multiple steps: mixing and exporting the audio, making cover artwork, creating and rendering a video version, delivering to platforms, posting on social media, and so on. These projects are represented by a circular icon that fills as individual tasks are accomplished.

Areas. Projects do not exist in isolation; they relate to a unifying theme. In Things, this grouping is termed an ‘area.’ In my case, these areas encompass finance, household, personal matters, ongoing projects, and work. This hierarchy creates a straightforward, coherent structure.

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If you too rely on to-do lists, share your approach and preferred app in the comments. I’m eager to learn from your experiences too.