What a difference a week makes! I am writing this from a very rainy Painswick…it seems that Autumn may be upon us already…how depressing. On a more positive note, I actually LOVE the Autumn, not least because it means a new work wardrobe! I’ve already seen some fantastic pieces in Bodega Womenswear Cheltenham (the home of the flattering jean) and some studded ankle boots from Keith Scarrott that would brighten up any dreary autumn day.
Lucky then that I am visiting some amazing places this September including Cliveden House in Berkshire and The Wild Rabbit in Kingham where I can actually wear said new pieces of Autumn wardrobe. September sees me going on a mini- tour of the South West with my Instagram and Facebook training workshops which will be very different to a summer holiday spent keeping 2 small children entertained whilst trying to keep up to date with all the latest social media trends - it does seem rather unfair that the folk at Instagram, Facebook et al couldn’t put new platform updates on hold for a month or so to give me some downtime from checking my social media updates!
My son gave me a much needed moment of clarity when we visited London yesterday. We were wandering around the Natural History Museum and he had seen something that he wanted me to look at. He must have said ‘Mummy look at this’ about 5 times (I was mindlessly scrolling through my Instagram feed) before saying exasperatedly ‘Please put your phone away”. This mindless scrolling through our social media platforms now has it’s own terminology - it is called ‘passive zombie scrolling’ and it is something I do way too much of. I read last week in an article that the app that you use the most on your phone is the one that you should delete from your phone. Whilst I can’t do that as I am managing social media for clients via my phone and laptop, I am going to set hours of the day where I leave my phone in another room and ignore the constant urge to check it.
Another useful tool is an app called ‘Moment’ which tracks your phone screen time and notifies you when you’ve been using your phone too much. Instagram and Facebook have also set usage time tools up in their platforms, although they have made these easy to ignore. My challenge for this month is to leave the house without my phone and ride out the waves of anxiety associated with this. My son had shown me that I want to try and teach my children that there is so much world out there if we put down our phones and look around us.