Balancing the Professional and the Academic

Hey Everyone,
Like most of us, my schedule is very hectic. I am a full time Graduate student who also teaches and plays professionally. Aside from being a student I teach privately at Yucaipa and run the music programs for Grove Junior and high school. I play with the Inland Valley Symphony and play in pit orchestras for multiple theater companies in the Temecula valley. With most of my days being filled with various responsibilities, I found myself doing most of my composing at night. Having a busy schedule like mine is not the ideal situation for composing but i still need to have a means to live my life and stay connected to professional networks that get me gigs. One of the ways i stay focused on my new compositions is to internalize the work through out the process of creation to completion. I am constantly thinking about musical intent, how i can make the work unique and how to maintain my individuality. whenever i have ideas i like i jot them down, either in notation of in a written description. I come back to these ideas and incorporate the one i like into the work. I feel this approach is valuable because it allows me to be unrestricted and explore many directions. As an undergraduate i used to be locked into my initially writings. I used to think that because it was written down it was finished and would just keep moving forward. This type of mentality made my compositions banal and, in many cases, less cohesive. As my studies progressed i realized that good compositions have many revisions, just like any well written paper. I found that making sure to have time for composing is a must. Pick a time every day that you can dedicate to writing and stick to it. having a busy life makes it all to easy to push it to side.
By far, the most important tool you can have to manage your professional and academic life is a planner. Knowing in advanced when you have time to write shows you every opportunity have time to compose. Always take advantage of any free time you have. Many of the ideas you have may never be used but at least you have materials to draw from. Balancing a professional and academic life is not any easy task but it can be done. mainly you need to find a system that works for you the best or cut out activities to have more time to compose.