The Day After and the Myth of Quarantine Productivity

What are you going to do, personally and professionally, the day after we’re authoritatively told it’s safe to come out of quarantine?

Full disclosure: I will probably wait for another week or two after we’re definitively told it’s safe to come out of quarantine, What about you?

Me…Personally: I will go to www.vin909.com and eat everything on the menu; I will float lazily on my kayak on the Chesapeake Bay; I will get a haircut.

Me…Professionally: I’m not sure, I’m working on that right now, not without some distractions, including lack of motivation. It hasn’t been easy for me, and I’m sure you’re facing the exact same challenges.

My goal for now is to get one professional thing and one personal thing done each day. (That doesn’t include hand washing and wiping down surfaces and packages.)

You might have heard the quote attributed to Woody Allen: “Success is 20 percent luck and 80 percent showing up.”

I’m trying to show up every day to do things I love and the things that I think I’m good at.

I also know, as others have said, it might be even more important to show up on the days you don’t feel like it.

With those “don’t feel like it” days, I’ve found that once I get started, it gets better, and I even manage to be mostly creative and productive. I wrote what you are reading now on one of those “don’t feel like it days.”

If you want to chat about the day after, or the week after, please reach me here: www.allartispersonal.com. I’m all ears (and wearing a mask and gloves).

Maybe this will resonate for you.

Go Easy. You may have to push forward, but you don’t have to push so hard. Go in gentleness, go in peace. Do not be in so much of a hurry. At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace. (Melody Beattie)

(Special thanks to Caroline Robins caroline@yogawithcarolinejane.com)