Over recent months this Philosopher-in-Residence has been focusing more and more on nature. Sometimes, in this busy, cloistered world we can feel like holing ourselves up indoors and enjoying the solitude of a cosy blanket, sofa or duvet And, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Whatever the weather (well, almost!), nobody feels worse after spending a bit of time outdoors in nature.

In traditional Make Me A Plan fashion, we’ve come up with this handy guide if you’re more likely to procrastinate about the weather, reasons why not to get outside than actually benefit from a few minutes of green or blue therapy. NB You do not need an actual garden of your own to participate! It would be remiss of me as a philosopher if I did not include the obvious reference here to Voltaire’s Candide and the metaphorical (allegorical?) key to life being to cultivate your own metaphysical garden.

1. Write a list of your favourite flowers, plants or trees.
2. Add to the list a location where you know you can find each one (you could even colour code under categories, for example “My Garden”, “Village Park”, “Local Woods” and so on
3. Commit to going and enjoying at least one of them this week. Could be just a couple of minutes of calm, fresh air, looking at the lovely colours of an autumnal tree in your back garden, or something a little bit more dedicated, like the grasses on the towans.
4. Work your way through the list! Why not take the notebook with you and add to other lovely colours and species you see for future visits?

Next fortnight I’ll be writing On Anything, now if that isn’t clickbait suffice to get you to pop back, I don’t know what is! Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this subject you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Penny Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here:

https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/surviving-back-to-school-season-for-busy-parents/