Back in the ‘90s, I ran my whole career out of a Day Planner. Gig details, rehearsal times, addresses, call times and just about anything else. It was all scribbled in there, and I’d flip through the pages hoping I hadn’t forgotten anything. It worked, until it didn’t.
One night I was backstage at the Apollo, talking to Buddy Williams. If you don’t know the name, he’s one of the greatest musicians to ever pick up a pair of sticks. He’s played with everybody, held down a few Broadway chairs too. I asked him how he kept it all together, because the man never seemed rattled.
He just smiled and pulled out this tiny device. A Palm Pilot.
This was pre-smartphone. Digital calendars were barely a thing yet. And Buddy’s already on it.
“This keeps me sharp,” he said. “I know where I need to be, what I need to bring, and who I’m playing with — every day.”
That one sentence rearranged something in my head. I wasn’t just a musician showing up with sticks and a good feel. I was running a one-person business, and I’d been managing it like a hobby. That Palm Pilot wasn’t a gadget — it was Buddy treating his own career like it mattered enough to organize.
I went home and changed how I worked. The tools kept evolving after that — Google Calendar, the iPhone, whatever came next, but the mindset Buddy handed me backstage never did.
Manage your time like your career depends on it. Because it does.
— Clayton