Independent dillydallying and errand stacking...
... or "Am I becoming a more productive person through breaking up with my smartphone or am I just riding the Wave of Getting Stuff Done?"
Happy Sunday you lot. This weekend saw me take myself on a Day of Dillydallying. By myself. With no one else. The dillydallying was punctuated with a bit of Getting Shit Done, but generally, it was an awesome Saturday. I began by doing a “tip run” to get rid of some garden trimmings, and an old knackered stereo that has been sitting on the landing making me grumpy for quite a bit longer than I would care to admit. I then headed off to a farmers market that is relatively close by but that for some reason I had never attended.
There were a few stallholders that hadn’t shown up, so no fresh vegetables unfortunately, but I still had a great time browsing the stalls that were there and chatting with the sellers about their wares. I picked up three of these jars that are made from repurposed old glass bottles (the guy was so enthusiastic in explaining how he got into it as a hobby over lockdown) and I’ve put some loose leaf tea and dried porcini mushrooms in two of them, the contents of the third are TBC.
I also picked up these amusing signs for my garden, some Biscoff flavoured marshmallows for Luke with a couple of cute keyrings, these adorable little ghosts, and finally I met some alpacas and bought a present for Luke’s dad - it’s a birdfeeder filled with alpaca wool. Luke’s dad loves the birds in his garden and alpaca wool is a great nesting material for them. We don’t need any, as we put the brushed out fur from the Housewolf out in the garden for them to nest with.
After a quick coffee and a bacon roll, I headed over to a local garden centre (I mentioned in a previous post that I won a voucher in a raffle at a local Open Garden event so it was time to have a spend!) and I picked up some bulbs to attempt to grow this year. I am not a particularly gifted gardener (hence my choice of signs!) so it will be interesting to see if I can get them to grow. Daffodils, tulips, snowdrops, spinach, crocuses, and calendula await in the spring if I don’t manage to mess this up…
Finally, I headed to another nearby town for a wander around their abundant set of charity shops. I mentioned in my last post how I love the thrill of the treasure hunt, and on this day, the charity shop gods were smiling upon me… I picked up three dresses (one BNWT from Next with an RRP of £42 - I paid a tenner, and the other two were £3 each), a pristine cobalt blue fully lined M&S raincoat for £3.50 (honestly, it’s delightful, looks like it’s been worn once if at all!) and finally a pair of brand new H&M flat black suede shoes for £5 (you would not believe the difficulty I have in trying to find a plain pair of black flat shoes - I had a pair for about six years that finally gave up the ghost this year and I was very sad to have no option but to get rid of them when they started to let rainwater in…) I finished up in the local Polski sklep where I bought some loose leaf tea and a bucket of gherkins.
All in all, I was out for about 4 hours and had an amazing time. The point of this is not for me to say that hanging out with Luke doesn’t make me happy - it absolutely does! But it is to highlight the importance of being content in your own company. Luke does not particularly enjoy farmers markets, garden centres, or charity shop trawling and that is absolutely a-ok. He spent a nice morning in with the dog playing video games and doing his own thing (which is important after a week of work). However, his lack of enthusiasm for these activities does not mean that I can’t still participate - indeed, in a healthy relationship, it is important for both sides to have things that they do without the need for their other half to be involved.
Over the past few years, I have found joy in occasional bouts of solo dillydallying, including taking myself out to a restaurant for lunch (the Nando’s staff seemed rather confused, but were very attentive…), solo picnicking at a local park, going to a museum by myself, etc. Whilst it’s lovely to have company, the joy of being able to arrive and leave when you like, not feeling under pressure to finish looking at something/complete an activity/scarf down a bowl of food at speed/avoid going to a particular shop because the other person isn’t interested is delightful. If anyone reading this avoids doing activities by themselves, I would urge you to give it a try - it doesn’t need to be as crazy as booking an intercontinental trip alone (though some people do!) but who knows, you might really enjoy yourself. When I first started doing this, I was egocentric enough to worry about what other people might think - spoiler alert, literally no one cares, they’re all wrapped up in their own worlds anyway.
Disclaimer: follow general advice on staying safe, we don’t live in a perfect world and I recognise that I am incredibly privileged to live in a relatively safe area.
Errand Stacking
Another upside of my Day of Dillydallying was actually knocking a few things off the to-do list in one fell swoop. I call this errand stacking, and even if I’m not enjoying it at the time (emptying sacks of garden waste into a shipping container at the tip is dusty, grimy and not my favourite…) I feel like a million bucks after a day of productivity. I did the tip run, I got the bulbs for the garden, I found the perfect pair of shoes… it was overall A Good Day.
And here’s the thing - the productivity seems to breed more productivity. This, combined with a reduction in phone usage (still going strong folks!) has resulted in chronic bouts of Getting Shit Done. This morning, I defrosted our freezer, did a laundry load, read a quarter of a book, and ran another quick errand. All whilst barely touching my phone. There is every chance that this Wave of Productivity is going to crash into the Shore of Procrastination at some point, but until then, I’m hanging ten!
Well, that’s the end of this (fairly pointless) post - but I would love to know if you’ve tried hanging out by yourself; do you enjoy it, does it make you antsy? Let me know in the comments section. Until next week - stay safe, be good, have fun, wash your hands. 💚
Such a fantastic post 💕