Your Guide To 'Pottering'

Discover the gentle power of Pottering

This voiceover is an audio version of my Slow Sunday Letter below. It is unedited, so may have some stutters, imperfections, and background noise. I hope you enjoy listening to it anyway!

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Welcome back! I am so happy to have you here as we explore Slow & Gentle Living together as a growing community. In this week’s Slow Sunday Letter, I wanted to introduce you to the notion of ‘pottering’ and how it can be the perfect antidote for overwhelm and help soothe you into a place of calm contentment. I was recently gifted a copy of Anna McGovern’s ‘Pottering. A Cure for Modern Life’ and the book is brilliant. It compliments Slow & Gentle living beautifully- encouraging you to slow down, take pleasure in small things and place value in rest, all while still being productive.

Merriam-Webster defines ‘pottering’ as follows:

potter around/about - phrasal verb

pottered around/about; pottering around/about; potters around/about

: to spend time in a relaxed way doing small jobs and other things that are not very important

He spent his holidays pottering around the house/garden

For Anna McGovern ‘pottering’ is the perfect way to lose yourself and take a mental break. Pottering consists of unplanned and slightly unnecessary activities from which you derive tiny bursts of pleasure. There is so much untapped satisfaction in the mundane tasks that we all do every day. You know that cosy, satisfied feeling when you reorganise your messy drawer, or neatly fold your clothes or sort through some books? That’s the tiny burst of pleasure. She speaks also of the sensory pleasure of pottering, the unpressured and freeing moments it offers and the uniquely restful effect it has on us.

“Often it means spontaneously occupying oneself with something inconsequential: looking out a window, rearranging pencils in a pot, or filling up a bird feeder…sometimes one’s pottering takes a domestic turn: oiling a hinge, sweeping a floor, rearranging a cupboard. At other times, pottering takes you out of the home – down to the shops or popping by a neighbours.”

You may often find yourself ‘pottering’ around the house, engaging in slow moving, homey tasks completed without urgency. Simply moving around, with no real plan- sorting drawers, tidying shelves, putting the washing away, watering the plants. Little mindless tasks that you contentedly move through, from one to the other. After reading Anna’s book I realised that there was a lot of power and influence in this unassuming practice… and it made me want to truly lean into its full potential.

According to a study published in the journal Mindfulness, completing homey tasks, like washing up, can lead to a 27% reduction in nervousness. The focus is on completing simple tasks, free of pressure – tasks that don’t require lot of energy or mental strength. As we gently move through this – it alters our state of mind and we feel empowered, calm, productive and in control.

Anna first discovered the power of pottering when she was going through a period of overwhelm and increasing anxious energy. She felt that she had overcommitted herself and had lost a sense of control over her own time.

“After a period of intensity in my life, I felt I needed some time off and it was incredibly beneficial – more than I ever thought, because I’d given myself permission to have a rest.”

This rest primarily involved Anna booking one day off a week to dedicate to what she soon realised was ‘pottering’. This ‘pottering’ day became precious, restorative, and entirely her own, filled with gentle movement and easy to achieve tasks.

Anna says that pottering is personal, everyone’s pottering days will look and feel different to one another. There is no wrong or right way to potter. It isn’t glamorous and it doesn’t require lots of planning or effort. It could be sewing a button on your shirt, organising your books, weeding your front garden path. There is no benchmark for success, and you are free of judgement when you potter.

When overwhelm sets in, it is important to slow down, and go back to basics. Pottering is just that, a break from the pressure of life – little steps, little tasks and small gestures that soothe and focus. Its slow pace is one of its unique characteristics which set it apart from normal household tasks and procrastination.

“Pottering is guilt-free,” she asserts. “If you have been occupied for a while to avoid doing something necessary and you are beginning to feel guilty, you are procrastinating, not pottering.”

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Five Fundamentals to Pottering

We all potter, you probably did today - but did you know that is what you were doing? Did you feel its calming influence on you? Anna encourages focus and intention on the act itself. She explains there are five fundamentals to pottering.

1)   Make do with what you’ve got (tea, milk, water, mug, teaspoon!)

Improvisation and compromise are key here. Making do with what you’ve got inevitably anchors pottering to the present moment. When you potter, there’s no need to rush out and buy new things. Pottering is about being resourceful.

2)   Don’t try too hard (note the lack of ceremony)

Pottering is relaxing precisely because you are occupied in the gentlest of ways. Slow down and enjoy doing one activity at a time.

“It’s as though you’ve lent a sheen of legitimacy to your unstructured downtime by doing something ever so slightly useful,”

3)   Movement (admittedly not a lot)

Gentle movement causes a “cascade effect” as unplanned, improvised micro-jobs encourage more micro-jobs. It is this continuous movement that encourages a “meditative state” or a state of “flow” cultivating a sense of contentment.

4)   Keep it local (you’re not going very far)

“Staying local bonds you to the people who surround you in a way that’s really reassuring, calming and pleasant.”

Don’t go far and try to be free of planning. If you do wander, go into your community and notice what is around you.

5)   Keep it digital-free (virtual tea is pointless)

Pottering should be free of screens and digital stimulus - watching TV, spending time on your computer or playing video games won’t evoke the same feeling.

“Ignoring digital devices means you are not bombarded with messages, information, unrealistic images of perfection… without witnessing all that, you can have some time that is your own.”

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Pottering activities/ideas

To get the best out of pottering, it must be pleasingly unproductive with a negligible but highly satisfying outcome.

• Light cleaning

• Repair something broken

• Sort a messy drawer or cupboard

• Reorganise your books

• Make something

• Sort through some photos

• Fill a photo album

• Do some window shopping

• Apply a face mask

• Do some scrapbooking

• Sort through some LEGO

• Look out of the window/people watch

• Sweep the floor

• Sort out the fridge/freezer

• Do some meal prep

• Eat your lunch outside

• Phone someone for a chat

• Read a newspaper or magazine

• Plump your sofa and cushions

• Relocate some household items

• Listen to some music

• Go for a bike ride

• Write a letter

• Do a puzzle

• Play with a pet

• Fold/organise your clothes

• Bake some bread

• Fill your bird feeder/bird bath

• Make a vision board

• Read or listen to an audiobook

• Make some candles

• Do some painting or colouring

• Knitting/crochet

• Make a cup of tea/coffee

• Garden/water your plants

• Cook something

• Sew on a loose button/repair some clothes

• Do some ironing

• Go for a walk (with no plan!)

• Look through recipes books and mark dishes to try

• Dust

• Clean your make up brushes

• Update/write your TBR (to-be-read) list

• Sort through your paperwork

• Play a card game with real cards (like patience)

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Pottering for Self-Care

“pottering is one of a number of coping strategies that you can do when you feel a bit frazzled. While it is by no means a substitute for professional help, it is just one thing in the armoury of self-care that happens to fit in with the way that we’re living now.”

Pottering is a powerful coping strategy that you can channel into your own self-care activity free of pressure, in which you can just relax and just ‘be’. It may not feel all that productive, but giving yourself some devoted time and attention is hugely beneficial, no matter how you choose to do it.

It is the simple physical activity of pottering, that somehow allows you to take a mental break, to reset and gather your thoughts. ‘Pottering’ encourages you to take pleasure in the small things, to harness a sense of calm and empty your minds as we focus your attention on the present moment.

When you set aside time to potter, your time is entirely your own. Moving through the day without a plan, places you in control and embracing a slow and unhurried pace soothes as the gentle rhythm guides you. There is no need to practise and there is no need to plan. The outcome is that your mind is rested, and you are physically relaxed.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on pottering – what are you favourite pottering tasks? Have you considered it as a mindful activity or as a method of self-care before?

Give it a try for yourself, slow down, take a day or an afternoon and see if with intentional focus you can discover the magic of pottering and find an extra helping of peace, calm and contentment.

Thank you for being here,

With Light & Love

Emily xxx

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