I try to be organised, when I'm in bed I make a mental note of all the gardening jobs for the day, but when I'm out there I get sidetracked and flit about. On the otherhand OH is very organised and knows exactly what he needs to do and sticks to it before he moves on.
I used to garden for a friend who had a huge garden. Because she gave me a specific job while I was there (weed this bed,prune this shrub etc.) it was quite satisfying to just get a particular thing finished. In my own garden it is a different story.....
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
One thing I like to have lots of in my garden is seats! That way I'm more likely to pause, rest, enjoy, and check that I'm happy butterflying, or really want to get a particular job done, or actually need to go and cook or diy or sleep...
The other thing I find helpful is to be disciplined about making sure I have what I sometimes call "gloat time" - time at the end, to just pause, take in what I've achieved, enjoy the beauty, and likely be getting a head start on what's my priority next time I come out.
When I worked full time gardening was confined to weekend blitzes, whatever the weather, cos not all weekends were free to play. Then we moved to Belgium and eventually bought a house surrounded by former cow pasture and that needed a man with a bulldozer to sort out the terrain and scoop out a drainage pond. After that, gardening was fitted in between new baby time and social activities. I could and did garden all day or just for half an hour as time permitted.
These days I can also garden all day especially with Covid limiting everything else - but don't because the energy and fitness are no longer there so I focus on jobs to be done and try and take the time to sit with a coffee or a cold drink, depending on season, and chat with OH about what we're doing, what we'd like to do and what he absolutely must not do because now he's retired he's suddenly an "expert" and needs to be channelled because he isn't.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I have loads of seats, but if I use them I just spot another thing that needs to be done and completely forget the unfinished job that caused me to need to sit down in the first place😐
That happens to me as well @B3. Sit down on the patio with a nice cup of tea or something, think how it's not looking too bad, and then immediately spot something that needs doing 🤪.
I seem to have the opposite of 'gloat time', whatever that might be. I look back at the end of a long session and inevitably feel disheartened that it looks exactly the same. I need a change of brain - one more given to celebrating achievements. It's quite striking that I only really enjoy the garden successes around two years after, when looking back at photos and thinking 'wow! really? The plants looked like that? I had no idea'. For me the experience is much like looking back at photos of my younger self and noticing that I was not as X as I thought I was at the time. I suspect I have low dopamine levels and am not naturally given to getting much of a chemical kick out of achievements. I get a lift from the people/social side (oxytocin).
After reading all these posts, I think I will get out into the garden and do something constructive, like weeding or pruning, maybe sowing or picking at something!!! Darn you lot!!
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Because she gave me a specific job while I was there (weed this bed,prune this shrub etc.) it was quite satisfying to just get a particular thing finished.
In my own garden it is a different story.....
These days I can also garden all day especially with Covid limiting everything else - but don't because the energy and fitness are no longer there so I focus on jobs to be done and try and take the time to sit with a coffee or a cold drink, depending on season, and chat with OH about what we're doing, what we'd like to do and what he absolutely must not do because now he's retired he's suddenly an "expert" and needs to be channelled because he isn't.