Taking a stand against a plastic tide

Anyone who knows me well will know that I’ve always had a love affair with the ocean. To me, it’s always felt like home. It’s the part of the planet that I think needs our help the most, and the one that often gets the least attention.

When I was younger, the cute and furry creatures that inhabit the rain forests of the world captured everyone’s attention and won their hearts. Sadly, for most people, fish and the other incredible sea creatures don’t have the same ‘ahhhh’ appeal.

Don’t get me wrong, I also care about what happens to our rain forests, but the oceans hold a special place in my heart. I’ve been both encouraged and dismayed by what’s been happening in recent years.

Seeing people galvanised to action to protect and save the oceans has been wonderful. I feel like it’s long overdue. But the documentaries and evidence that’s been provided to show just how badly they need saving has frequently left me in tears.

What to do?

When faced with such a monumental task, it’s hard to know where to start, especially when you’re just one person. I’ve been trying to make lifestyle changes to do my bit to reduce plastic waste and to generally be a better human.

That means I avoid plastic packaged products when I’m shopping, I’m supporting ethical and eco-friendly businesses and I’m trying to be a more conscious consumer. I’ve noticed in just the year and half I’ve been doing this how much my attitude to shopping has changed. And I’m glad of it.

I’m making little changes when I can, and gradually they’re stacking up. It feels like an uphill battle at the beginning but once you get going it becomes easier and easier to make the next change, even if it’s less convenient to start with.

Getting better at baking bread is on my list of things to master this winter, for instance. And I’m really lucky to finally have a health food store in Bournemouth (Sunrise Organics for anyone who’s interested) that has a zero waste section where you can buy dry goods like lentils, beans, rice and nuts in bulk with no plastic packaging.

Raising awareness

I’ll happily chat away to anyone about how to move away from single-use plastics. I’m not even going to pretend that I’m done with my journey, I’m only just getting started. But I’m encouraged by how many people I know who are doing the same thing. Making similar little changes for the better.

One of the other things I regularly do is pick up litter, especially from the beach, on my dog walks. This summer I’ve found that there was a lot less litter than last year, and that in itself is an extremely encouraging sign that some of the messages are getting through.

Often on my beach cleans I’ll find beach toys, and in particular sand moulds, that have either been lost or discarded. They’ve been stacking up in my flat and this year I had an idea for a little art project. I’m not going to claim to be an artist - far from it - but apparently I can sketch a half-decent sea creature.

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some photos of my sketches popping up, but if not I’ve shared a few in this post. The idea is to highlight the scale of plastic pollution in our oceans. Do you want your children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces and all the other kids in this world to grow up with more chance of seeing a plastic fish, or the real deal?

Current projections suggest there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050. That’s really not all that far away and that statistic terrifies me. If it also terrifies you, and you want to chat about cutting your plastic use, drop me a line. I’m happy to share the solutions I’ve found that work for me.

Seahorses are too cute to go extinct

One of the feistiest creatures in the rock pool

Plastic doesn't seem quite so appetising

We don't want common to become a misnomer

These little guys are just awesome

The power of a nap

I’m just going to come out and say it, I love having a nap. They are life savers sometimes. I’m not just talking about those nice lazy Sunday afternoons where you fall asleep on the sofa watching trashy TV. I mean a nap in the middle of the working day.

There’s a lot to be said for power naps. If you’ve never taken one, try it next time you’re feeling sleepy at your desk. I guarantee after 15 minutes you’ll feel more awake than if you’d downed three cups of coffee.

One of the things I love about being freelance is having a bit more flexibility with my time. That means I can take naps if I’m feeling tired. I’m not slacking when I do this (honest) - it’s a way to boost my productivity for the next few hours.

And it works so well. A 10-15 minute nap will keep me going with work for another 3-4 hours. Not just in the sense that I’m able to keep working, but in the sense that I feel alert and energised in a way that I never do if I just try to push through.

Caught napping?

When I had a regular, full-time job there were afternoons where I just felt incredibly sleepy. There wasn’t always a logical reason for it; some days we’re just more tired than others. On those days I’d long for somewhere I could curl up and sleep for 10 minutes.

I remember once suggesting that we should get hammocks in a breakout room so that we could nap in the day - a suggestion that my bosses laughed at. I wasn’t joking, but clearly they thought it was a silly idea.

I’ve also fallen asleep at my computer, jumped as I awoke and had to look around to see if anyone had noticed (don’t pretend you’ve never done that either). One day I even resorted to curling up under my desk for a quick 10 minute nap. Not the most comfy place to snooze I admit, but just closing my eyes for a few minutes gave me the boost of energy I needed to make it through the afternoon.

And not only to make it through the afternoon, but to actually be productive. That afternoon I did work. If I hadn’t had my brief nap, I probably would have pretended to do work for a couple of hours and then left the office as early as possible.

The science of a nap

I think that my anecdotal evidence is quite strong - I certainly know that power naps work for me. But there’s science to back this up too! I found this article in the Guardian and while it’s a few years old the studies it cites are still valid.

For instance, a Nasa study found that pilots on long flights who take a 26-minute nap see their performance improve by 34% and their alertness improve by 54%. You have to admit, that’s impressive.

What’s also really interesting is that sleep guru Nick Littlehayes explained in the Guardian article that napping doesn’t even have to mean sleeping. Taking yourself somewhere quiet, closing your eyes and disconnecting from the world for that short period of time is enough to boost your energy and productivity.

So while I might have felt a little foolish to nap under my desk, I actually had science on my side.

For now I’m just glad that I mostly work from home, so on the days when I do feel the need for a power nap I have a bed or sofa to curl up on. If you’ve never had a power nap - try one next time you’re feeling tired in the middle of the day. You won’t regret it.

Book Review: Personal History by Katharine Graham

I haven’t done a book review for a while, but having just finished Personal History by Katharine Graham I felt as though I should.

This book is amazing. Katharine Graham is amazing. I was captivated by her story and, although I came into the book knowing something of her life, what I discovered as I worked my way through the pages was a strong, brave, modest and kind woman who lived through some extraordinary events and took them all in her stride.

I appreciate that most people won’t have any idea who she is, so let’s begin with the basics. Katharine Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post. The newspaper was purchased by her father, passed to her husband Phil and eventually came to her after Phil committed suicide.

The way in which she dealt with having all of that responsibility placed upon her in the midst of the most distressing personal tragedy really touched me. And then, reading this in 2018, you have to remember that all of this happened in the 1960s when women didn’t hold positions of power within business or the newspaper industry. To take that on, let alone sustain it and be successful, is impressive. She really was a remarkable woman.

Anyone who knows me will know that one of my favourite films and books is All The President’s Men, which is about the Watergate Scandal. Discovering that film and subsequently reading the book while studying journalism at university is how I first heard of Katharine Graham.

But it wasn’t until the film The Post came out earlier this year that I remembered her autobiography had been on my reading list for ages. The Post, incidentally, is an excellent film that deals with the Pentagon Papers, one of the defining incidents in US journalism.

I started reading Personal History in March and finished it this week. I didn’t want her story to stop though. As I turned the pages I grew increasingly attached to Katharine and her world. I followed her fascinating family history, and then worked my way through the years of the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and the pressmen’s strike.

At times I found her honesty disarming and I admire how much she was willing to share in some instances. I’m sure there were countless stories that didn’t make it into the pages of her book that would have been equally worthy inclusions.

I’ve always found investigative journalism fascinating, which is no doubt the main reason I was attracted to this book, but I got so much more than I’d imagined from reading it.

It’s not a short, or quick, read, but it is worth the effort, especially if you have any level of interest either in journalism or business. I’m sure it’s a book that I’ll return to in the future.

Personal History: A fascinating read

Life’s a beach

I’ll start by saying I love the seaside. I love the oceans. I love spending as much time as possible at the beach. This probably explains lot about my life choices in recent years - namely my decision to train as a stand up paddleboard (SUP) instructor, and my decision to make Dorset my home again after the best part of ten years away from the south-west of England.

So, I’m a freelance copywriter and a SUP instructor. Obviously the latter isn’t so great in the winter, but in the summer it’s the most wonderful job. That means I currently have two very different professions. One that involves sitting at a computer moving little more than my fingers, and the other that sees me away from everything electronic and connected, using every part of my body.

One of the driving forces behind my decision to go freelance as a writer was to have more flexibility and freedom. I wanted to bring more balance to my life and to combat the detrimental effects of a desk job on my physical health.

That’s where the SUP comes in. It’s a sport I fell in love with very quickly and a great way for me to get out and spend more time in, on and near the ocean, which is most definitely my happy place.

Why I love the balance

Being a SUP instructor and being a freelance copywriter are completely different jobs. That’s one of the things I love. Teaching SUP gives me a chance to get out of my flat, spend more time outdoors and interact with people on a daily basis. When I’m working over the summer I’m predominantly based at one centre and I’m not ashamed to admit that I feel very smug when ‘going to work’ basically means spending a day at the beach.

It’s good for me to take time away from my computer and to be in the fresh air. Not to mention the fact that being on a SUP is a good physical workout that helps keep me in shape.

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the writing though. I love this too, but for very different reasons. It allows me to exercise my mind and gives me different problems to tackle. I feel as though I always have the opportunity to learn with this job, because I work with such a variety of clients across different industries.

And sometimes it’s nice to have a day where you’re not racing around and can just sit and concentrate on one project. As two professions, they’re quite complementary.

Paddling around Portland

Where the challenge comes

Even though I wouldn’t change things at the moment, that’s not to say that there aren’t challenges with having two very different jobs.

In the winter, I don’t teach SUP and focus on my writing work. But come the summertime I’m still trying to keep all my writing clients happy, while also fitting in at least four days a week of teaching SUP. This proved to be a big challenge for me last year.

The hardest thing was finding time for a day off. Because I was out on the water so much, I felt like I needed to use my three days off to keep up with my writing, but that didn’t really leave me with a full day off each week. I know that I didn’t take enough time out last summer, and it’s something I plan to work on for this year.

Aside from everything else, it’s because I got tired. SUP is physically tiring, and because I have to keep an eye on people out on the water all day when I’m at work, I find it can be quite mentally exhausting too. Before the summer started I had grand plans of working days at the watersports centre and doing some writing in the evenings, but more often than not that didn’t happen.

The other challenge with working these two very different jobs was having a social life over the summer months. Fitting in time to see my friends was particularly challenging with the SUP because I work weekends, and the majority of my friends have normal Monday to Friday jobs.

But last summer was a learning curve for me, given that it’s the first one where I’ve been fully freelance for the whole time.

Would I change things?

While there are some things I need to do better, I wouldn’t change my two jobs for anything at the moment. That might be different in a few years’ time, but right now I’m happy with the balance I have between the two.

I strongly believe that you need to be happy in what you do from a work perspective, because retirement doesn’t work in the same way that it used to. Gone are the days of cashing in your pension at 55 and ‘getting round’ to all the things you’d meant to do in your younger years.

I want to have a job (or jobs) and lifestyle that I enjoy now, and that allows me to do the things I love. That’s what I have with the SUP instructing and the writing. Of course things might change in the future, but that’s all part of the fun. Recognising that you’re not going to be in the same job for the next 40 years is really empowering and what the past year has taught me is that you should never be afraid to try something new.

My summer office

What redoing my kitchen reminded me about quoting for freelance jobs

This winter I finally had the chance to revamp my kitchen. It’s a project I’ve been looking forward to doing for over three years, pretty much since I moved into my flat.

I thought I’d planned it pretty well. I had arranged for a kitchen fitter to come in over a weekend to do all the bits my dad and I couldn’t. I’d ordered everything I needed and done multiple trips to various DIY stores to buy tiles, flooring, a new light fitting, paint etc.

And it all started well. We prepped the kitchen for the kitchen fitter - removed the tiles, got rid of the old washing machine, cleared all the clutter from the sides, removed things from cupboards. In fact, the kitchen fitter did his job in just a day, which was amazing.

In my naivety I thought dad and I would be able to do the tiling and flooring in a day too. Then it would just be one more day to finish stuff off and I’d only have a messy kitchen for about a week.

I forget how time consuming DIY can be. Of course the tiling took about a day, and the flooring about the same. Then there was the grouting of the tiles, fitting the trim to the floor, and replacing the light took longer than I’d anticipated (and I still need to gloss paint my skirting boards); not to mention at least two more trips to B&Q to get things I’d forgotten.

There were also extra little jobs I’d not thought about. For example, we took my kitchen door off to lay the floor, but as we’d laid laminate over the existing tiles, that meant it was now higher and that we needed to cut a small bit off the bottom of my door so that it would still hang and close. Luckily my dad had thought about those, but it added time to the process that I’d not accounted for.

The upshot of all that is that what I’d originally thought would take about a week has taken closer to two. I don’t mind. I love my new kitchen and even though there are still a few jobs to do, they’re minor and not as disruptive. So what does this have to do with quoting for freelance jobs?

It just reminded me how easy it is to forget about how long things can take and some of the extra things that can crop up - especially when you’re working with a new client.

I’m terrible for underestimating how long jobs will take me. I learned the hard way that I need to allow more time than I think for a writing project. And that I also need to remember to allow time for amends - and build all of that into my quote, and then hope that whoever I’m quoting for is happy.

And I’m pretty sure that my process isn’t perfect. I try to be as fair as I can be when I’m quoting - I’m not in the business of ripping people off - and I definitely feel like I’ve got a better balance now than I did when I first started out, in terms of more accurately assessing the amount of time a job will take me and therefore quoting a fair price for the work, for me and the client. But that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult sometimes.

Just like with my kitchen, there can be hidden variables or even little jobs you forget about. I’ve learned to be clear about what work my quote covers (and what it doesn’t) so that if a job becomes more complex than I’d anticipated that I’m able to charge more for it.  

It can be hard to strike the right balance and to keep everyone happy. What I have to remind myself is that the process has to keep me happy too. One of the best pieces of advice I received when I started out on my own was to only work for a price I’d be happy with - whatever that may be. The danger of under-quoting is that you resent the work and don’t do such a good job on it because you’re trying to rush the process.

Do any other freelancers have any tips or advice on how to make sure your quotes are fair (almost) every time?

Presence: my word of the year

I’ve never chosen a word of the year before. But this year feels different somehow. I’ve made a lot of life changes in the past couple of years, all in the pursuit of feeling happier and healthier, and one theme that keeps coming up is being present in your life.

It sounds a bit contradictory at first - how can you not be present when you’re the person in question? But I think we can all agree that there are times when physically we might be ‘present’ but mentally we are most definitely not.

So, I’ve decided to focus on being more present in my everyday life. I want to start cultivating a life filled with special moments, however mundane they may seem on the outside.

Why presence?

This feels like a totally natural choice for me. I know I have a tendency to get caught up in a million and one things and I want to make a conscious effort to slow down. Racing through life isn’t the way to go - it’s short enough already.

It’s a theme I’ve become increasingly aware of in the past year as I’ve practiced more yoga. It’s something that my yoga teachers regularly come back to when we’re talking about our practice, and it was on my mat that I first realised how unpresent I was in a lot of my life.

My mind races - I’m sure yours does too - and the first place I found calm and peace was on my yoga mat, when I couldn’t think of anything else or I’d probably faceplant the floor. Since that realisation a good five-plus years ago, I’ve tried to take things in and be more present, not just when I’m somewhere new or on a special occasion, but all the time. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard.

By making a conscious effort to bring myself back to the present, instead of thinking about the future or raking over the past, I’ve found I feel happier and more content in my life though. That’s why this year I intend to put more of a focus on it.

Look how beautiful that is. I took this photo on an early morning dog walk last January.

Distractions everywhere

The problem is that there are distractions everywhere, not least of all in the form of my smartphone, which pings and buzzes constantly throughout the day. I can also be a bit of a worrier - something that can be exacerbated by being a freelancer who isn’t always sure where her next pay cheque is coming from.

But that just makes being present and enjoying the moment all the more important. As my dad has always said: ‘There’s no sense in worrying, it might never happen’. And he’s absolutely right. By worrying all I do is work myself up about a possibility. I expend valuable energy and time on this. If it doesn’t happen, I’ve worried over nothing. If it does happen, well then I can do my worrying, without having worried for days/weeks/months (delete as applicable) beforehand.

It makes sense but it’s not easy to turn that voice in your head off. I’m gradually finding ways of doing that though - and what I’ve realised is that this makes me happier and therefore less likely to worry! It’s a positive cycle.

How I’m becoming more present

Yoga

I’ve already mentioned yoga as an important reason behind my decision to focus on presence this year and, of course, practicing every day at home, as well as going to regular classes, is going to be important for me. I already have a morning routine and I’m going to stick to it as I move through this year. It was very beneficial for my physical health last year, so I want that to continue and put a greater focus on emptying my mind.

Adventuring in nature

When I’m out walking with Franklin I’m trying not to think too much about what else I have to do - and I try not to get my phone out. I might use it to take the odd picture, but that’s it. I don’t tend to call people, reply to messages or emails or browse the internet while I’m walking the dog. Aside from anything else, I value spending that time with him, out in nature.

To stop myself getting distracted, I look for specific things while I’m walking. In the summer that might be lizards hiding in walls, or in the spring I’ll try to spot the first crocuses and daffodils. I watch birds, I get absorbed by the movement of the sea. The most important thing is that I notice these things, I feel the wind or the rain, I smell the flowers and I hear the rustling of the trees. It’s so calming and it occupies my brain with the here and now, rather than the future or the past.

Dogs make the best adventuring buddies.

Ditching my phone

Using my phone less is another commitment I’m making to myself this year. I’m going to do my very best not to pick it up each time I hear it beep and I’m going to try and spend at least some of every day with it switched off.

One thing I know I’ve done, and that I hate myself for, is looked at my phone while I’m chatting to someone. It’s rude - most of us do it, but that doesn’t change it. I know I do it on occasion and I feel guilty and annoyed with myself every time. So I’m going to stop. If you see me doing this while I’m spending time with you, feel free to point it out.

Meditation

I’m also going to start meditating regularly. Well, I’m going to try. It’s something I’ve meant to do for a long time, but something I’ve never managed to persevere with. So, that’s a resolution of sorts for this year for me - to meditate at least once a week.

Do you have a word of the year for 2018? Or have you been focusing on being more present in your life, and if so what advice do you have?