The best laid plans...

...are agley-ing all over the place!

So how has your year been so far? Mine got off to a lovely start. I’ve taken it slowly, gradually picking my way out of holiday mode and easing my way into the New Year. My birthday is early in the year so often allow myself a kind of ‘soft launch’ into the first month so I can enjoy the process and treat myself a little along the way.

I do usually get a little reflective toward the end of the year and I like to spend a little time thinking about what I’ve achieved (or not) in the year just gone by and my plans for the year ahead. Although I’ve never been one for resolutions, I do find goals and objectives quite motivating so in previous years I have often set out some things I would like to achieve or habits I want to instil.

This doesn’t always work of course, but as I enjoy this kind of thing, I find it often does work quite well for me. In recent years most of my ‘goals’ have become less targets to achieve and rather more 'vague directions of travel’ that I’d like to take, but nevertheless I find it can be useful to providing me with a little focus and something to aim for.

This year was no different and although I probably had my slowest and most gentle lead into it, once again I spent some time thinking about where I’d like to focus my efforts. The last couple of years I’ve been working on doing less rather taking on more, simplifying and attempting to reduce some of the more chaotic elements of my life.

I can be rather like a magpie and my eye is often caught by so many ‘shiny’ things that I could possibly do. I don’t just do crochet patterns, sometimes I do knitting and sewing ones too. I don’t just do patterns, I often release step by step guides as well. I don’t just record podcast videos, but I want to do my ‘Quiet Moment’ vlogs and tutorial videos too. Then there’s social media, Instagram photos and now Reels of course, plus keeping up with comments on all the various platforms and of course now I’ve started this Substack on top! My ‘doing less’ isn’t working out quite so well for me.

I recently read a post (here on Substack) which annoyingly I can’t find now, which said something like - “Just because you have the ability to do various things, doesn’t mean you should spend your time in trying to do them all.” In attempting to find it, I stumbled across this which is more concise and also very pertinent.

It got me thinking about just how much time I do spend doing things just because I ‘can’¹ and wondering why. The answer is partly because I ‘can’, but also because I do enjoy them too. Which does lead me into some difficulties, because if I do want to get some things off my plate, how do I choose which ones?

I didn’t really answer this question in my plotting and planning. In fact, I now think about it, I did rather the opposite. I came up with a ‘Word of the Year’ and some ways in which I will use that to guide me over the year. I had some lovely clear thoughts about what I’d like to achieve, or ‘my vague directions of travel’ for this year. I’ve even set myself something a little more of a definite challenge this year in the shape of “Buy 50% less yarn than I use” in an attempt to reduce stash.

In thinking about ‘everything I do’ I re-visited my thinking on the whole ethos of what inspires me to create anything at all. Although this remains the same as it always has (enjoying making things and finding some calm and peace through doing so), I am now feeling nicely clear on how everything I do connects to that. It all sounds rather grand but really it’s just me feeling like I’ve been opening up more and more paths and as a result feeling like I’m being pulled in too many different directions at once. My re-thinking efforts were useful in many ways because it made me realise that actually, although I have many paths, most of them are heading in roughly the same direction.

That felt like a good realisation. I felt like things were clearer and that I’d achieved some clarity there. Interestingly, that’s not quite what I feel like now. While I was doing the re-thinking, I also chatted over things with hubby and in doing so, we realised how seldom I take time off. I go on holiday when we go as a family, but as with any trip of that sort, there is quite a lot of preparation needed before you go and then catching up to do when you come home. That doesn’t mean it’s not great fun, very worthwhile and a lovely change, but it doesn’t always give you too much ‘rest’ as such. I also make time to see friends or do other fun things here and there in the week, so it’s not like I’m a slave to the grindstone 24/7 either. But as many self-employed/work from home people can testify, switching off from things can be hard.

I actually think I’m pretty good at setting decent work/life boundaries. I don’t have email on my phone, I have grouped notifications for certain apps so I don’t get endless interruptions, I make sure I don’t ‘work’ into the evenings or weekends regularly. But, my ‘work’ is also my hobby and vice versa, so that always blurs the lines. What I realised is, although I’ve probably managed things well enough to ensure I haven’t had a full on burn out, I also never get time in which I don’t have to think about ‘work’ at all. I can never just leave the office, shut the door and forget about it for two weeks.

So it’s been a month of mini revelations I suppose. The first is that even if my ‘paths’ are roughly aligned, there is still too many of them. The second is, I need to give myself a break, literally.

1. For ‘can’ read “well I kinda can, but you know, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet. I can do it more than I can do some other things but that doesn’t mean I actually think I’m good at it. I’m more of a ‘Jack of all trades, effective at none’ kind of person really.” - Yes I am British, how did you know?