I've had a similar approach to music except, instead of field recordings, I started with MIDI keyboards in the mid-90s instead. For me, it's been a fun hobby to keep my toes in music while I play software engineer most of the week. I can confirm all six of the tips in the article are correct.

> Anyway, I eventually discovered a life changing life-hack which I have now used for years to force myself to finish and release music. It’s called ‘Christmas Music’.

Funnily enough, my life-hack was 'Birthday Songs'. I would write 30-60 second songs, most not very good and some parodies, for my friends' birthdays just to keep busy musically. Eventually I wrote a full-length birthday song for my friend's dad's 70th birthday. I also wrote a Christmas song and a Thanksgiving song.

> 6: Making your own work is a good thing to do, even if no one else is interested in what you are making. To create is to be human

Now I have a fancy audio interface, Universal Audio Apollo x4, and a small collection of high quality microphones and instruments. And I'm still happy recording pointless, joke songs.

Example songs

First birthday song: https://soundcloud.com/mitchell-anicas-project/easy-29

Korn parody birthday song: https://soundcloud.com/mitchell-anicas-project/happy-birthda...

Full-length birthday song: https://soundcloud.com/mitchell-anicas-project/ferrell-dise

Thanksgiving song: https://soundcloud.com/mitchell-anicas-project/ooh-its-thank...