Would you rather spend a year doing nothing or everything?

[BigDahliaFan]

If you had the money. Reading about a woman who spent a year as far as I can tell just pottering. My first thought was fabulous, them I thought, I’m 55, I may not have many more healthy years, (maybe 20?). Fuck it, if had the money I’d travel or something for a year…if I didn’t have to work.

what would you do?

Can I engage in my home based hobbies in this year of doing nothing? So as I am pottering around can I read, make art, exercise, and that sort of thing?

If it was just me I'd buy a few hundred books and enough teabags and coffee and I'd be well away 🤣 with DH and DS would definitely go travelling, never been abroad and there are so many places I'd love to go😁

I hate pottering. I would do everything. Even if I had to do it alone.
I do like reading but I can fit it in now.

What do you mean by pottering? If I had a year of no work, where I was going to stay mostly at home,I'd go out every day for a walk or visit a country park, NT places etc. And read loads too.

Who is this woman and where can I read about her?

I'd do stuff, but kind of quietly and peacefully? I'd read, experience nature, grow my relationships with my loved ones and my self, grow vegetables......

I'd spend a year travelling the world. Or a good part of the year travelling the world and the rest of the time travelling around England Scotland Ireland and wales in a motorhome. That's is definitely a very distant dream though cos at the moment I could probably only afford to travel to the end of my driveway.

A bit of both, I think: I've travelled extensively and lived abroad over the past 20 years and now I've just bought a big house with a huge garden, so I'd quite like to spend a year learning how to work a garden / play the piano / speak Italian etc.

Yes I would like to read about this woman.

Travelling is a bit like pottering, done properly. You adopt a slower pace, you sit in the now, you have to adapt around journey schedules and attend to day to day needs, like where are you sleeping and getting food. There's no end product, requirement to be efficient, to achieve. It's like pottering with direction.

I like a day or two (or maybe even a week) of pottering but a whole year would drive me insane. I need to do something, I need mental and physical stimulation. I want to see different countries or start a project or business, achieve something etc Far rather do something than nothing- life is short, I want to experience as much as I can.

I'm very much someone who likes to stay busy but is frustrated by the lack of adventure in my life, in part due to an unadventurous DH but also lack of funds.... so if I had the money I would definitely travel more abroad, learn another language, buy a motorhome abd tour round the UK and do loads of things I dont have the time or financial means to do now.

I've had a couple of weeks off and just pottered and it was lovely. But only because I can't afford to go on holiday. If it was paid for I'd go travelling for a year. Or at the very least a few holidays, may be a tour of the uk and parts of Europe

I’d give anything to be free to potter to my heart’s content, but I think I’d only want/need a month or so. Then I’d use the rest of my year to travel, and do loads of creative and DIY projects I never get round to. Though maybe they count as pottering.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/27/life-sabbatical-doing-absolutely-nothing-secret-of-happiness

I would love a year to potter and sort out my house and garden, making it a great place to live. A few years ago when I was taking on an extra responsibility at work I had zero time and so many jobs at home fell by the wayside: the house is now incredibly cluttered and run down and the garden is wild. I love reading, listening to audio books and podcasts, watching films/TV/streamed plays and gardening. I'd still be going out for walks and bike rides though!

I do love going out to the theatre or walking round historic cites but full on travelling is too exhausting and I'd burn out without some balance.

There were a couple of things in that article that really struck a chord and I'm going to revisit it in a couple of days. The first was the journalist saying: "Unfortunately, I soon realise that unless I impose a structure of aimlessness from the start, I’m liable to just loll around doomscrolling."
That's exactly what I do. E.g. DH may helpfully take both DC to the football so I can have 3 hours to myself, but without a plan I spend virtually all the time on my phone and then I feel even worse than if I had a break. Because I wasted the break and what I choose to do made me feel bad.

And the second thing was that you need to identify the right form or rest for you.

Really thought provoking, thank you for starting the thread..

That's kinda what I was going to say @CheshireSplat. If need some kind of plan for my pottering, or else I could (sadly) probably spend a year on MN.

I should have linked so thank you.

I’m contemplating retirement at the moment and am slightly worried that I’ll end up pottering about, becoming a hermit, and becoming insular and scared of the new…but I’d very easily do that.

I think I need to plan to do everything instead…at least for a while Carpe Diem.

The first was the journalist saying: "Unfortunately, I soon realise that unless I impose a structure of aimlessness from the start, I’m liable to just loll around doomscrolling."
That's exactly what I do. E.g. DH may helpfully take both DC to the football so I can have 3 hours to myself, but without a plan I spend virtually all the time on my phone and then I feel even worse than if I had a break. Because I wasted the break and what I choose to do made me feel bad

100% agree with this. Pottering is fine for a bit but I know that without any plans or aims, I'd end up doing stuff that really isnt good or healthy for me. Scrolling rubbish on social media, watching trash tv etc. Nothing wrong with those things as a break but if you have nothing to do its easy to slip into doing pointless time wasting crap and then you look back and realise how much time has actually been wasted on activities that dont actually enhance your life and it makes me feel even worse.

Oh that's exactly my plan in 5-10 years. Stop working, and just do what I want to, not what I have to. I have so many things I want to do, that I just don't have time for with kids/work.

in 5-10 years the kids will be late teens, off to Uni, or at least self-sufficient largely, and I fully expect them to spend any time they have at home rolling their eyes at mum's latest plan :D