I used to spend a lot of time working on writing and recording music, before my computer died and I lost everything lol fml.
Anyways, here’s my thoughts.
-Spend your time being creative; you won’t Produce & Mix anything that resembles a radio-ready pro recording unless you’re the greatest musical genius on the planet. Make the music first, don’t worry until much later about how to make it sound perfect.
-I don’t recommend buying vst amp sim, and I have bought many of them. Free is good enough for songwriting. Using the money for something like an Arturia minilab with its bundled software gives you far more creative power. Poulin amps -> Pulse IR loader works. All of my top favorite IRs are paid, not free, but the free Pulse cab is good and versatile.
-My experience was that sometimes I got a lot done quickly, and sometimes things took ten times longer than I thought they would. Don’t stress about how many songs you get done in how many hours of work.
-Start early every day, like right when you wake up. If you can take a lot of breaks walking around outside and exposing yourself to a lot of visual/spatial stimulus, that will help you stay happy and productive.