There are a lot of things going on each second. A lot of gigs, events, conferences, shows, meetings with a lot of interesting people to connect, ideas to share and embrace, and lots of projects to be part of. No matter how interesting and tempting all of them might be you will have to filter them, decide where to go and which of them to ignore.
Some people will ignore this and try to be present at every single thing that happens. They will sacrifice their free time, their sleep time and even part of their work time in order to be there. They go that far that they turn this into their mission.
No matter how interesting this might seem, the truth is that most events are not worth wasting your time being there. Even if ideas, projects, and networking are extremely important, they consume a lot of time and energy that you could dedicate to your work, to your art.
All of these events are important once you have done your part, created something, done the hard work and you need that extra something, that idea to help you improve or move on, the person that can help you improve. Until then, all of these are just a way of wasting time and staying away from the important work you have to do. It’s a way to let your fear take control and move you away from what you should be doing.
Instead of trying to be everywhere, try to be able to make the most of everything you attend. Focus on your art and only afterwards on other things.