The world has entered a rather strange way of living, hasn’t it? We are locked up in one place, unable to go anywhere, and on top, all we seem to talk, read, or hear about is the Coronavirus pandemic.
Our schedules and timelines have gone down the drain, for example, I sleep every day at 3 a.m. and then find myself getting late for my work-related early morning video conferencing meetings. And how amazing it would be if I got a grip on myself even then.
But no, after this, I spend my entire day on my bed binging on snacks, that are always either too sweet or too oily and Netflix. (Yes, yes, I manage some work in the middle of this tough schedule.)
Only at night, when I open my Instagram, I find how my friends spent their day. One of my colleagues has been gyming at home, the other has tried at least a dozen recipes by now (talk about food shortage), and so many others have found a new hobby.
I have not faced this social media inferiority for the first time, but now, devoid of anything else around me, it seems all the more stressful and suffocating.
The burden of productivity
Society always puts a certain amount of pressure on individuals to be productive. What else explains the race that starts at a very young age? If a kid does not secure an A grade along with playing a musical instrument and a sport, he/she has no future, right?
It is essential for any capitalist society to put this pressure on you. Under this pressure, it instils a fear in you that if you are not productive, you will fall. This benefits the society as your fear pushes you to work thus making sure the laws of a capitalist society is maintained.
The idea of being “multi-talented” pushes us into a race where even the thought of pausing for a second seems like a sin. And now when the entire world has been pressed pause, the burden of productivity is not allowing individuals, especially like me, to take the much needed time to unwind and take it slow.
Remember, you do not have to attain personal victories during a pandemic. What matters is that you survive.
Seeing beyond your guilt
I am sure the guilt of not being productive and the anxiety beyond it is restricting you to see what lies beyond. If you see beyond your guilt, you will see that a future still awaits you when you can succumb to the capitalist idea to be productive or continue your leisure, but the choice will be yours.
Right now, it is important that we don’t quantify this pandemic by getting under the pressure of reading 10 books in a week or cooking 2 new dishes every day, or 30 burpees in under a minute. You can still be happy for others who are doing it though if just have to get rid of the guilt of not doing it.
It’s totally okay to not be productive during the lockdown, your mental health is more important
Golden rule
Do you know what would be the biggest achievement post this pandemic? The fact that you survived it. Surviving a pandemic as deadly as the COVID-19 is an achievement in itself. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
