What's Beyoncé's Secret?
24 hours in a day doesn’t seem like enough time. How am I supposed to eat three square meals a day, bathe, brush my teeth, make sure I’m not living in a pigsty, run errands, create some sort of art, take care of businessy things, watch the latest episode of Love & Hip-Hop Miami, make sure 9-month-old KhaLanee doesn’t tumble down the stairs, and get the recommended 7 to 10 hours of sleep each night… in 24 hours?
January was quite the month. Lots of medications, side effects, medical procedures, emotional breakdowns and moments of feeling like I’ve been dealt a losing hand. But HEY! Somehow, I survived. I also managed to create along the way. I worked on a lot of fun updates to my website. I laid out a social media content schedule and began implementing the Instagram portion. I made a tik tok! I realized I’m too old for tik tok and would rather not be cussed out by lil kids. All in all, I did a LOT this past month. But, I would feel better about it all if I weren’t so burnt out.
It’s hard to convince myself that I have the time to accomplish all my life goals. I end up planning out every minute of every day to chip away at the very long list of dreams I have. There are two main problems with this method:
1. I Overestimate My Capabilities
I can get a lot done in one day. But I can’t get EVERYTHING done in one day. I consistently underestimate how long it will take me to complete certain tasks and I don’t leave room for error. Maybe I could get everything on my list done if I decided to sacrifice the quality of everything. As a freelance artist, that’s not an option.
2. Not Factoring in Breathing Time
I’m A1 at planning out a productive day/week/month of tasks. But, I’m terrible at scheduling in time to take a pause and breathe. Even when I have a month like January full of appointments and procedures, I still don’t factor in recovery time.
This past month was a lot, between medical things, starting a schedule to help my nephew and niece with their homework, jumped into babysitting again, AND beginning teaching an 11-week filmmaking course. And that’s all the obligatory leave-the-house tasks. Take a guess how many days I scheduled to recharge? Big ol’ Zero!
Last week I planned out a much tamer schedule and it went okay. Some unexpected things came up which threw me off, but I got a lot done. For February, I’m going to make some tweaks and plan in a day of just breathing every week. A day where I don’t do anything more than some free imagination sketching. A day where nothing has to do with business or social media. A day where I just eat endless bowls of cereal while binging a show on Netflix. Basically, it’ll be a day where I don’t sit at my desk. That’s what I’ll call it, my No Desk Day.
Whether or not these new intentions will work… only time will tell. But that’s what I’m working on. Remembering that I have time. Maybe Beyoncé has made a special deal with God to cop a few extra hours in her day. As for me, I truly believe if I pace myself, I can do a lot with my poor man’s 24 hours. Honestly, if I accomplish one thing a day that I FEEL brings me closer to my dreams, I’ll be satisfied.
Thanks for Reading Lovelies,
Kadazia Allen-Perry
