This last week I played at CMA Fest in Nashville, an acoustic duo gig at Opryland, two Sunday worship sets at Church Of The City, and a four hour set in Mississippi. I made it through, and had a blast doing it. Here’s some of the things I did to stay say sane:

1. I planned it out.

I started the week by sitting down with my schedule and budgeting time to get everything done. Just writing everything down and planning when I’d do everything helped keep me from stressing.

2. I gave myself margin.

Despite a crazy-busy schedule, I budgeted in down time in the evenings, and I gave myself gaps throughout the day of “fudge” time. If a project ran late, I’d bump into one of those slots and finish it without eating into my off time.

3. I was a natzi about bedtime and eating.

My stress levels go through the roof when I’m tired and hungry, so I made sure I disciplined myself enough to go to bed at a time where I could legitimately get up in the morning with 8 hours sleep for practices.

4. I asked myself how I could be most efficient before I started each task.

Before I started practicing, I was look over my list of songs to work up (their were over 100+ different songs for the whole week) and figure out what needed the most work, and how I could save time. I was amazed at how much more focused my practicing was with this trick!

5. I outsourced and put stuff off.

If somebody else could handle it this week, I handed it off to them. I rescheduled all non-vital meetings/hangouts, and cleared all of my usual weekly tasks off of my to-do list.

While the week wasn’t perfect, I was really happy that I made it through with the least amount of stress possible, and actually had fun. What tricks do you use when you’ve got a slammed week? Share it in a comment below.