We just finished recording 25 bands at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee this weekend (spelled Tennessee correctly on the first try!).

Some cool acts came through the Haybale Studio backstage, like Moon Taxi, Alt-J, Rayland Baxter, Old Crow Medicine Show and Sheryl Crow. I compiled a Spotify playlist of the full artist roster we recorded here.

However, what I learned this weekend was that Parkinson's Law and the Pareto Principle are alive and well.

What's Parkinson's Law and the Pareto Principle?

Parkinson's Law simply dictates that the amount of work needed to finish a project will expand to the total available time until completion. So if you have an hour to record, mix and master three songs because the next band comes in at the top of the hour, that's the time it takes to get it done!

But the funny part is that you won't necessarily do a poorer job.

If you had a week and went back and forth in your mix, tweaking every little thing until you've sucked the life out of it, maybe you'll actually end up with a worse mix. By limiting your time, you work faster and more efficiently. You won't spend hours on tiny, unnecessary tweaks. You look at the big picture and make the most important decisions right away.

That brings us to the Pareto Principle.

I would bet that you can mix 80% of the song in 20% of the total time, using 20% of the gear you normally believe you need. That's the 80/20 principle right there. Put in 20% of the effort and you'll get about 80% of the results. So in effect, by having less time to work on things you'll actually concentrate on the most important things that will get you results, using the tools you have at your disposal!

​​​​​​​Simple steps to a faster session is something that I spend a LOT of time on in the Step By Step Mixing and Better Mixes in Less Time eBook bundle. Whether it's having fool-proof mixing techniques that make your life easier, or setting up a fast mixing routine that encourages great mixing with minimal amount of headache, it's all in there.

Check it out. Let me know what you think. 

I guarantee that reading them will cut the time it takes you to get a better mix by at least half, if not the whole 80%.

Get your proven techniques right here:

www.StepByStepMixing.com