1. A thought from Joe Gilder… (owner of homestudiocorner.com)

2. I started reading a pretty cool book* this week.pretty cool book* this week.

3. It's one of those business books we entrepreneur nerds love so much.

4. Anyhoo, the authors are talking about their successes in building a pretty big stinkin' company. One thing they talked about is what I call "The Sharpie Technique."

5. They said that when they first come up with an idea for a new product or feature, they only let themselves use a sharpie to draw up ideas (as opposed to a pen).

6. Why a sharpie?

7. Because you can't get very detailed or specific with a sharpie. You can draw boxes and arrows, and you can label things, but you can't get down to the nitty gritty.

8. And that's a good thing, because there's no need to focus on the small details until you've figured out the big picture. (Why obsess over the design and color of a website before you even know what the website is about? See?) How can you apply the Sharpie Technique to your work in your studio?

9. Here are some examples:

10. ◦Don't spend 20 minutes tweaking the EQ on your snare drum when you haven't recorded all the other instruments. (Sharpie = focus on getting all the right parts recorded.)

11. ◦Don't focus about having the perfect collection of plugins when you're not a very good mix engineer. (Sharpie = focus on improving your mixing skills, not the tools you're using.)

12. ◦Don't obsess over mic placement on the guitar amp if the guitar amp tone sounds like booty. (Sharpie = focus on getting great guitar tone, then mic placement will be much easier.)

13. The list could go on and on... What ways are you using a pen instead of a sharpie?

14. Where are you missing the forest over the trees?

15. What unimportant stuff are you obsessing over?