When you accept the challenge to start your guitar build, a great way to set up your practice is to make a schedule. Break the build down into smaller parts, schedule an amount of time you can commit to everyday, and do it! Build your practice as a professional from the beginning. Pros look for opportunities to practice and do it without fail.
Here is one of my practices:
If you were to give yourself 9.5 total hours to build your guitar (not including paint or glue drying), and you give yourself 15 minutes a day of shop-time, that guitar will be finished in 38 days. You can even stretch that shop time to 30 minutes to allow time for set up and clean up and still have a solid 15 minutes of working time. If you schedule each day step-by-step and follow through with each session, you will complete the build. If there is a process that seems to be fighting you, you can stop, set up your next shop session and come back fresh and ready. When you have really good productive days maybe you cross two things off the list.
Another great way to boost your shop productivity is to re-orient your attitude. Things don’t need to be hard. In my opinion, sometimes people choose to make things hard to feel important. I was fortunate to spend many years working in a production guitar shop (SCGC). I learned that fret jobs and many other jobs did not take many hours, days, or weeks. When I started training people for different jobs, my goal was to make the jobs as easy as possible to give everyone a fair shot. I took this approach to my shop. I trained myself to keep the process simple, be efficient with my time, and get the work down. In cases where I am feeling challenged, I try to keep my focus on building the skills to resolve the challenges and get the job done.
The “cultural trance” around all sorts of things can be very influential and often goes unquestioned. The cultural trance (the overall thoughts, feelings, and behaviors you see in the cultures you are part of) will limit you as an individual, essentially telling you lies that keep you from growing, changing, and evolving. Ever get the feeling that things should be a certain way or stay the same? That comes from those messages received from the cultural trance. An example is luthiers saying things have to be a certain way, otherwise… These characters are more present everyday and louder than ever on social media groups. These groups may have started with the best of intentions, but are often taken over by the naysayers and are no longer helpful (sometimes only hurtful). Filter this sort of commentary out of your life and focus on the things that bring value and inspire you. Focus on the people and sources that are helpful and can act as a mentor or guide for you.
For information and inspiration, you can check out my YouTube channel.