I had a collaborative songwriting session with my bass guitarist and it lasted 45 minutes.

It was an insanely productive and exciting session where we got two ideas down sharpish. He had to shoot but we were happy with the outcomes.

When I talk to my students about practising, I usually go through a process of negotiation with them to discuss what practice means for them, how can it be interesting and how long is a reasonable time to practise each day. One of my younger students said 15 minutes and we agreed to see how they would get on. Turns out they can do rather well.

Our time is precious, but when looking at sessions that can be hours long, it can appear like it’s a mountain and we can easily fritter time away by the abundance of option.

However, 15, 20 or 45 minutes can force us to focus on one particular thing and achieve it.

When we are working on our own, or with a variety of a projects, it’s a good idea to segment processes into smaller chunks, because the result of that is most certainly some much needed focus.