Column
It’s a funny old world
THIS WEEK’S COLUMNIST TV presenter and property expert Sarah Beeny
Like many of us, I have got a slight obsession with achieving things.
Sometimes, it feels like my brain is running 1,000 miles an hour, saying yes to everything, even if I end up totally frazzled as a result.
However, in the past couple of years, I’ve discovered an antidote to this addiction. It’s called pottering.
Pottering is enjoying not doing very much. It’s spending time on small, often insignificant things – and not feeling like that time is wasted. In the old days, if you were early for a bus, rather than typing messages or scrolling on your phone, you might chat to the person waiting next to you, or simply just sit. That is the mindset I’m trying to bring back – doing something relatively pointless, but still feeling content.
Growing up, I remember my grandmother used to spend time cutting articles out of the paper and posting them to me and other family members. There was no particular reason for this other than she thought we might enjoy them. My mother-in-law still does this now. I’ve tried it a couple of times too – although I’m yet to post them. Yes, I could just take a photo of the article and WhatsApp it. But this more time-consuming approach is a way of reminding myself that there is nothing wrong with taking life a little slower.
I potter a lot around my greenhouse. It doesn’t count if you’re doing something with purpose, like growing vegetables, but sowing seeds for flowers purely because they look nice is the essence of pottering. Remove the goal, or make it something that doesn’t really need to be achieved – it’s all about the process.
I’m taking the same approach with organising my home. Do I need to colour-code my wardrobe or arrange my socks in the drawer? No. But do I feel
