Option paralysis
Have been thinking some more about possible ways of creating direction for my music making. The main issue is option paralysis: which sounds do I use? Which effects? Do I use hardware instruments, or a DAW, or a combination? Introducing hardware instruments, while fun, has a disadvantage in that I end up spending more time learning about the instrument than I do playing it. Of course, that's important too - learning this stuff is an ongoing process - but it does place yet more barriers between me and actually finishing something.
I have been using constraints lately, which has helped. So far it's pretty ad hoc - things like "I will use only four tracks, and only stringed instruments" or whatever - but I am starting to compile a collection of more considered prompts and constraints. Still not sure if I'm doing February Album Writing Month, but in any case my goal is to get more done.