Published on 12, July, 2020
I know I've posted on here about work a lot before and got some really useful answers but I have another question
So I can't seem to cope with all the rigmarole and hoops you have to jump through to try and get a job at the moment let alone actually going to a job and dealing with people. Im still coping with burnout and have been since last Christmas
But I hate waking up in the morning without a job to go to and sitting around the house and not going to work
So my question is, to those of you who dont have a full time job, are there any routines or techniques you use to make the day interesting and to make it go well? I thought writing would occupy me all day as I do freelance journalism and its my dream to be a writer full time but I find I spend most of the day on stupid news websites and twitter and pointless places like that rather than actually writing. Havnt written a word in ages. I find as soon as I get the internet in front of me I cant seem to do anything constructive with it
Any help or advice will be appreciated
I cant go too many places atm as I dont drive and my wife is 8 and a half months pregnant so cant do much driving. Also dont have a lot of money so cant travel too much. I really want to go back to London but the train fares are crazy and im worried ill have a panic attack when Im there
I only work a few hours each week and working for myself from home these days. I absolutely don't want to return to the typical sort of job as I fear it will make me ill. Again. So... I do have a fairly lax routine here at home and this involves:-
- a fair bit of cooking and baking. Sometimes this is a chore but it mostly give me pleasure and saves a bit of money in that I can make huge batches of stuff and then freeze some.
- quite a bit of gardening, both indoors and outdoors. Some of this is purely for pleasure because I love nurturing plants, seeing the first little seedlings come through and getting a lovely, if untidy display of flowers. One of my north-facing windowsills indoors is reserved for orchids and epiphytes, and I check that I'm maintaining a mini "cloud forest" here for them and mist them regularly. But this hobby also feeds into my baking because I grow lots of herbs and chillies, things that will fit onto my kitchen windowsill, plus a few additional things outside - only a small garden but I have several dwarf fruit trees (lots of apple crumbles and pear tarts coming up) plus larger herbs like fennel, rosemary and mint. I started out with a few recipes from a book called the "garden to Kitchen Expert" and built up from there. - lots of reading. Getting a Kindle has helped me to keep the clutter down plus ebooks are a bit cheaper too- watching lots of videos and webinars on neurodiversity as we struggle with a LOT of issues here and I'm desperate to find answers
- a bit of meditation and chi kung, when I get time
- I also deal with many of the practicalities, our finances and grocery shopping etc, while my husband does a lot of the dusting, hoovering and tidying.
- I keep intending to do a bit of artwork, especially since I feel that my creative side got stamped on at work, but I simply haven't got round to it yet. There's still time, I hope. I do also have what I call "lists to live by". These started out as just a shopping list and a to do list, but have expanded to include planning files and also - these have actually turned out to be the most fruitful for me - and extra notepad upstairs next to my side of the bed and downstairs next to my computer, so that I can capture any thoughts or ponderings that seem useful or insightful to me. The bedroom one gets used the most because I seem to get lots of thoughts when I'm trying to get to sleep. A bit of walking in the locality (there's a small nature reserve around half a mile away) and I've kind of pieced together a life. :)
Thank you, these are some really good ideas. I like the idea of the lists to live by, I am already stationary shopping online tonight to find the planners and notepads I need to make them! What other sort of things do you make lists for, is it for stuff to do each day as well?
It sounds like you have built a nice life for yourself, Im really glad for you. It sounds like what I am trying to do
Jenny what do you do working for yourself? I can quite clearly see how what i think has been a long slow burnout has contributed to physical ill health. I'm trying to weigh up all my options to give me a simpler life but still with some purpose.