There are three things I do every single day—some new, some old. It might be a boring list but it’s critical to my well being. It’s the small and big things that keep me happy & healthy and I know we all have our unique recipe to what we need as a baseline for the day.
1.
I dilly-dally. Every morning. I love not doing anything for the first 2 hours of each day. I have a cup or two of tea and putter about it. Sometimes it includes emails or tidying up, stretching or reading. There’s usually some cat cuddles and list making sprinkled about. Sometimes I have breakfast, sometimes I don’t. It’s really not about anything in particular, I just see how I feel.
It’s productively unproductive or should I say unproductively productive? If I need to be somewhere early, I wake up earlier to get that nothingness built-in. Generally, I don’t schedule much before noon. Any appointment or meetup I prefer after lunch, and it’s not because I’m not a morning person. I am a morning person, I just want that time to myself. I don’t have kids and the husband is out the door before 7:00am so I selfishly take advantage of the enjoyment I get out of just being with my thoughts. This kind of slowness sets the tone for my day. It might sound frivolous, so much time for nothing, but it honestly feels essential and I look forward to it when I wake up. Being rushed, especially in the morning, is the worst feeling for me, so I avoid it at all costs.
Over the past 10+ years, I've come to grips with not feeling guilty over this. I need this time. I process stuff. I write. I plan. If I do make a morning date with a friend, it's to enhance the chill with an easy going hang. I say I do nothing for 2 hours, but somehow so much happens in that early morning window. I might take images of shadows or jot down project ideas. Sometimes I organize a pile of books on my desk for inspiration, text with friends or prep food for dinner. I might call my mom and dad, I might make 5 calls. Recently, I’ve spent some mornings doing some residency applications and reading about artists has been a great way to start the day.
Doing nothing is also doing everything.
2.
I walk 5 miles a day. Walking is the only activity that keeps my body feeling good. I split this in two parts, half before work and the rest afterwards. I used to think that walking this much was too time-consuming. Devoting 1 1/2 hours to this daily walking practice seemed like a big ask, a commitment I wasn’t sure I could keep. I thought I’d never make room for it and I certainly didn’t want it to cut into my morning chill time because that’s important too.
But walking has had to become a priority over work. Without it, my back doesn’t feel right and my work suffers so there is no cutting corners. It’s an absolute must! It’s been hard to stick with it during winter with the sun going down so early. When 4:00pm comes around, I stop what I’m doing and put my sneakers on. It will get easier when we have more daylight and I look forward to those post-dinner neighborhood summer strolls.
Walking used to be a weekend thing. I love taking walks, but I never made the effort for it day in and day out before my back injury. The morning walks warm me up and I feel ready to work as soon as I get home. The post-work walk has a different vibe, and I often don’t feel like it. I force myself and always feel fantastic afterwards. I need to move. Walking is like oiling the machine—my body, my tendons, my circulation, my nerves, my discs, my muscles, my bones.
My walks are quiet, without podcast or music. Sometimes I call my sister, but I’m mostly walking on the side of the road near my house. Sometimes, I’ll drive to a trail nearby to change scenery or meet up with a walking buddy. I’m alert in a different way; noticing the sounds and taking in the patterns of my surroundings. This week, I witnessed two red-shouldered hawks mating and I’m certain I would have missed it had I been on my phone.
If I’m in the city or doing errands, I park my car way further than I should in order get more steps in to counter the time seated in the car. When I go to my photography class or the grocery store, I park the farthest I can even if the lot is empty. It’s a simple new habit that tricks me into moving my body more.
This is a new thing for me and I only started walking this consistently at the end of last year. I’ve had to adjust how I go about my days to maximize my work time while putting my body first. Back in Feb 2022, after dwelling on it for months, I introduced the 4-day work week to my studio. This worked wonderfully, until it didn’t. For 2 1/2 years it was awesome and I encouraged everyone to give it a try. I had more freedom to play and experiment with less guilt. I found more time for side projects, gardening and was able to financially make it work seamlessly. But, nothing lasts. That 4-day work week no longer suits my body. My spine will always be something I need to take extra care of, my work days are less condensed and need to be spread out.
My time on the potter’s wheel is now sprinkled throughout 5-6 days/week with shorter sessions and walking 5 miles has been an essential anchor to this new way of working. After sitting for 15-20 minutes, I stand for at least 10 minutes. I try to be productive in different ways but it can still be a challenge. Inefficiency has become my new best friend and my routine has had to change to make this happen.
3.
Noticing plants. Being immersed with my surroundings without realizing it soothes my soul. No matter the weather, I do several plant check-ins throughout the day. I need it as much as a glass of water.
This might mean inspecting my dormant blueberry plants, making a tiny bouquet with what’s found on the ground or reporting to myself where the pear tree is at and comparing it to the previous day. Yesterday I did some digging and found countless juicy worms. I planted raspberry canes, a pomegranate tree, sweet peas and kale and it made me so happy. Gardening is not part of my everyday, but observing plants is. Tomorrow I’ll be sure to check in on those seedlings.
Nature (in every shape and form) provides a necessary connection that I cannot get elsewhere, and it happens to be everywhere. Whether it’s in the city, suburbs, rural environments, even indoors, I need to observe closely some type of earth material. The crunchiness of snow. The morning dew on cobwebs. The lingering puddles. The roots busting out of the sidewalk square. A surprise pop of color. The design and intention of oak branches. Skeletal leaf patterns decaying. A bud just about to burst. A frog surprising me. Even through storms, I’m obsessed with tracking precipitation in our rain gauge, see what’s happening on the ground, detecting minute changes.
It’s still winter, but spring is coming and there’s so much life around us. After so many days of atmospheric rivers, the ground is fresh, fluffy and the greenest of greens. It’s easy to be in awe.
What are your daily must-do’s?
We all have mundane, spiritual or even extraordinary activities that make us feel our best selves and I think it’s so important to recognize what they are so they can be present in our lives as much as possible. I truly would love to hear what your required three things are that set yourself up for the day. Please share in the comments or send me a message!
Grounded in play, Clayfulness is a newsletter exploring what it means to be a small business with transparency. This is a place where you’ll find failures and victories from my studio practice, how I stay motivated and when I’m not. This is more than a monthly word exercise for myself, but a space to understand what this little business is and where it wants to go. I love reflecting and thinking about the future, but writing in the present moment can capture what I'm really thinking and I'm getting better at it the more I share. I call it Clayfulness because clay is the background of my life, but there's also more. My life is full of other endeavors and being playful is one of my core principles in everything I do.
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"I need to observe closely some type of earth material", love this. Often times I'll put this pressure on myself to drive a distance or have to go somewhere to experience nature since I live in a populated/busy area. But this reminds me to appreciate the earth materials that is immediately around, even the smallest bit of water, earth, leaf holding so much within itself.
Thanks for this post! 3 things I do just about every day, take time to make myself a lavender matcha (just typing that brings me a sense of calm, I love that part of my day to enjoy the matcha and really look forward to it), my end of day gratitude journal entry to bullet point 3 things from the day (I've been doing this since 2017) and a 12 minute warm up to the day (12 exercises, 1 minute each, warms up the body and after the 12 mins I take some time to do tapping a a couple minutes of breathwork. Though I haven't been as consistent with this lately as much as I'd like, its a newer day practice.)
It was so refreshing to follow your thoughts as you naturally prioritized your interests and needs. I feel it’s uncommon in this world of fast paced ambition to be so aware of what you are needing physically and spiritually, and to prioritize this over worldly calls to action. This was such a sweet reminder for me to slow down and listen to the language my body and mind speaks to me. Thank you so much for sharing.