How to consume less and create more

"to live with purpose.

to say the courageous thing.

to celebrate the simple gift.

to follow your dreams.

this is a happy life"

-Wayland Henry//

We are all guilty of it, avoiding something we don't want to do by mindlessly consuming. Today I have a post about how I am going to stop mindlessly consuming.


Step 1: What is it that I want to do?
Ask yourself what you want to stop/start.

At the start of the year I made it one of my goals to try and create more instead of consuming, but when thinking about how to do this I realised that I don't want to stop consuming. I don't want to stop reading books, watching TED talks, learning from others and occasionally watching my favourite TV show.

So, it turns out I don't want to stop consuming and start creating. I just want to cut some of the consumption out of my life. I want to stop mindlessly consuming. I will still do all the things I love, I will still learn how to hand-letter, and I still want to read the books I love. I don't want to be a mindless creating machine because that isn't realistic, is it?

I now know that what I want to stop doing is being mindless. I don't want to waste my time sitting there, scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest or watching Netflix or Youtube. I want to use my time productively, and in ways that make me feel good. It works the other way too, I don't want to waste all my time creating things for other people. I want to create things because I enjoy doing it and it makes me feel good.

Step 2: What am I going to do?
Make a list of what to stop and what to start.

Once I worked out exactly what it was that I wanted to do, I decided to make this list of what I wanted to cut down on and what I wanted to start doing more of.
I made sure to keep in mind that what I want to do is stop mindlessly consuming, so things like reading a book or watching a TED talk are ok.

More:

• Photography
• Yoga!
• Cooking
• Relaxation time. 
• Learning Spanish
• TED Talks
• Learning
• Me Time
• Outside time
• Blogging

Less:

•  Social media
• Netflix
• Youtube video after Youtube video
• Watching TV for the sake of watching TV.

Step 3: How am I going to do it?

Create a plan of attack

I know that I can't just cut these things out of my life straight away, so I am going to start going slowly, using these steps. 

Less Social Media	Less Netflix	Less Youtube	Less TV
Don't check until after breakfast Max of 5 mins at a time Check Instagram once a day Use social media only if there is nothing else I could be doing	Only watch one episode at a time 1 episode per day Only watch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Only watch once per week.	Only watch  one video at a time Watch "fun" videos only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Only watch yoga, bullet journal and TED videos	Come up to bed half an hour earlier and do colouring/blogging/yoga. Have 1 TV free night per week Only watch TV at night Only watch TV when there is something I specifically want to watch.

I also made this list of ways I can do more of the things I enjoy:

• Photography: Keep my camera in an easy to reach place.
• Yoga!: Wake up earlier to do morning yoga
• Cooking: Find recipes I want to cook and be organised. 
• Relaxation time: Learn that I don't have to be doing something all the time, and relaxing is not wasting time. 
• Learning Spanish: Keep the course up, set aside time on the weekends. 
• TED Talks: Listen to them as podcasts
• Learning: Enrol in online courses, enjoy it!
• Me Time: Wake up early, set aside time to do something I enjoy. 
• Outside time: Go for walks, do homework outside. 
• Blogging: Maybe increase to three posts per week!

I found this post to be a really good way to work out what I want my life to look like and how I am going to get there. Hopefully, I can keep it up! 

What do you want to do more of this year?

xxxPoppy