Honestly, you will say, what is she on about! Well I’ll tell you…

It’s so easy to be busy yet unproductive, that feeling you have spent all day running about and achieved nothing! I love to chop and split logs and see the huge pile, or weed the garden and see the beautiful clean bare soil, easy to feel proud of your achievements. But there seem to be so many days that slip away with unseen admin tasks that leaving me feeling I’ve simply achieved nothing.

I’m certainly guilty of feeling too busy to set aside time for myself. Although I have taken to ‘planking’ for a minute a day, regularly attend the dentist there isn’t much more ‘me’ time in my schedule! I look after my teeth, why shouldn’t I look after my noggin and the cotton wool inside too? So, maybe it’s time to make some head space occasionally.

While courses are running here it gives me the chance to sneak in sometimes and ‘make or do’ so I really appreciate why it’s so important for so many of our lovely guests to book in and make sure that time is set aside to immerse in creativity.

But like anything its not so easy to get motivated at home by yourself, so I thought I would share my top tips for how I have used our new ‘online tutorials‘ for some planned downtime!

THE DAY BEFORE

  • Clear your desk of all and everything that might distract you, give it a dust and lay out your materials/pencils and paper so it feels like walking into a studio.
  • Make sure you have favourite foods ready for a lovely lunch, a real treat, whatever you fancy (even a glass of fizz if you fancy it as you aren’t driving home!), maybe a few chocolates to nibble too?
  • Sort out that uncomfortable chair that you have in the office, get a comfy one with a cushion. Make sure you have a nice desk light so you can see your work. (Oh my, these changes could stay in place long term!)
  • If you have some wireless headphones you may like to charge them so you aren’t distracted by outside noises, or can just hear more clearly.
  • Find your glasses now and put them on the desk ready.

READY TO PUT PEN TO PAPER

  • Put on your favourite comfy clothes, soft and easy to sit in for the day, warm fluffy socks and a snuggly cardigan, its amazing how chilly you can feel when you aren’t rushing about.
  • Enjoy a special breakfast, cook waffles or porridge, enjoy a treat, eat slowly and relax, no rushing about. This is your day.
  • Put on your headphones, glasses and switch on the desk lamp (its amazing how a little extra light can help even in the day).
  • When you’re sitting comfortably with a nice cup of tea, click into Youtube and adjust your settings. Remember you can change the resolution and make it clearer if you have faster internet (if it’s not it might stutter), just use the cog in the bottom right to adjust the quality. Change the screen brightness and volume to be pleasing for the subject you are watching and use the button with the two outward arrows to maximise the area of the screen that is video.
  • Sit down to enjoy your tutorial, do as much as you feel like. After all you don’t have to do this on one day! pause at any point, jot down the time on the video and resume when it suits you, later, tomorrow, next week. Do an hour a day, or a whole day, it’s up to you.
  • Remember to enjoy that special lunch, no telly, phones or any other distraction, just sit and enjoy every mouthful!

Just my little observations about giving yourself a little treat, without leaving the house. I think we have all learnt that a little consciously-taken time off can be a very productive thing!