Here is the transcription of my most recent video blog:
(And here’s the audio on AnchorFM)
Hey everybody, this is Queen Mab here, and today I guess I’m gonna celebrate my neurodivergence and talk a little bit about the struggles that I am having with time management – especially when it comes to practicing my instrument, working on my show physically, writing my show, managing all of these creative things that I do that don’t necessarily generate income along with the things that I do that DO generate income, or that have the potential to…AND that are just like, basic self-care things that we all have to do.
So getting in practice every day is a struggle for me. I feel so embarrassed saying this, because you know, I’m telling myself that saying, “Hey, I have a hard time getting myself to practice regularly,” is kind of like going on the Internet and sitting in front of the camera and saying, “I AM A GARBAGE MUSICIAN!” But that’s not true. I think that a lot of people probably struggle with it. If you don’t struggle with it, then this video’s not for you, okay?
So there’s this idea that I keep hearing about in the time management world called “Eating the Frog.” Okay? And the idea is that, you know, you get your to-do list, and you find whatever that thing is that you most don’t want to do, and that’s what you do first. Now this is a problem for me for a lot of reasons, because first of all, on my to-do list, there are usually multiple “frogs,” okay? And it’s hard to decide, “Well, which one is the worst frog? Which one is the biggest frog?” And the other problem with that is – compared to the frogs, practicing is always something that I want to do, that I feel excited to do – AND, it’s also kind of an obligation, AND there’s always the fear that you know, with my limited time that I have to practice, whatever I’m practicing is wrong, okay? And so often, I will do my “FROG” in the morning when I have the most energy, and I’m feeling the best, and then by the afternoon, when the frog’s out of the way and it’s time to practice, I don’t have any juice left with which to practice.
But then on the other side of things, sometimes I’ll practice in the morning – like today is a day like that I practiced pandeiro, I practiced drum set, I worked a little bit on my show. All of those things I did for twenty minutes or less, okay, but I did all three of them. And now I’m doing this video blog. And in the afternoon, I’m gonna have to do the email, and the work stuff, and all of those kinds of things, which are honestly not very enjoyable for me. So now I’m worried, and I’m thinking, “Oh, well, should I have done it the other way around?”
And then I get that thing like…I don’t know if you have the thing where you go to the gym. And it’s like “Okay, I’ve gone to the gym. But I’ve only gone once…so I know it doesn’t count.” And then I go the next day, and I’m like, “Okay, well that was two days. That really doesn’t count.” And then by day three, I’m like “I hate the gym! I’m not going back!” And so it was like, “See? Why did I even do that? PS – the gym is a bad example, because that’s a place I never go – but that’s just one example, okay? For me with practicing, it’s the same thing. Like I’ll practice once, and I’ll be like, “Well, whatever, that doesn’t count,” okay?
And I started using this Liquidrum Practice Journal which I decorated, because I like to decorate, and um, you know, I’ve been keeping track of my practicing over the summer, and it’s been pretty sporadic, and it’s pretty embarrassing. But it’s important to me to write down what I’m doing just so I have a record of it for myself, and this journal has these pretty cool…this little space where you can do tallies. I’m not gonna show you my tallies, because there aren’t very many right now, and I would be very embarrassed…or I can do tallies for, like “Okay, did I practice this? Did I practice this? And what day of the week did I do it?” Okay, and I’m treating it like data. I’m working hard not to shame myself…but that is much easier said than done.
So…anyway, the question that I’m working out here was “Is it better to eat the frog and do the gross stuff first? Is it better to do the practice stuff that I want to do first? And how do I balance the stuff that doesn’t pay with the stuff that does pay?” These are the questions we’re all asking. So let me know what YOU do. Leave me a comment. If you like what I’m talking about, “like” or subscribe…or don’t! Anyway, thanks for hanging out. Bye!