It’s quarantine day 7 today. I’ve been working from home since Tuesday, this will last until April 13, at least. I’m used to working from home and prefer it to most other ways of work (like office life), so this is not a problem for me. If I need something, I can call my co-workers and I guess we all evaded quite a few meetings that in the end could be e-mails, anyway.
Being the content loner that I am, staying at home for days is rather easy for me. I don’t seek human interaction as much as other people might. To me, a lengthy phone call too can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. But — and that’s huge BUT — I live with Wonderguy and our two kitties, so I’m not all alone during the lockdown. This is something I appreciate very much and it can make all the difference for many people.
All this noise…in my head
So it’s not the social distancing and lockdown that made the last few days challenging for me, but rather the constant influx of news and information from all directions. No matter if you talk to your friends, colleagues, and family or if you’re scrolling through your social media feeds, the pandemic is everywhere. It is important to stay informed and know what you should and should not do to help flatten the curve but can be overwhelming too.
Sharing your thoughts and fears regarding Covid-19 is important and social media is the place to do so. We want to support each other by sharing our thoughts and emotions, kind words, funny memes, and other positive content to lift our spirits and spread some positivity. That’s the blessing of our digital age and social media.
Then again, there can be downsides. I’m not used to so much news and I’ve felt overwhelmed and petrified often in the last few days and weeks. I stopped watching television news 13 years ago because I don’t like how news content is filtered and presented on TV. Instead, I prefer reading about what’s going on in the world, so I get my daily dose of news from papers and magazines (online and offline).
Depending on my schedule, my mood, and the international situation, I often skip a day or two, because I don’t find the time (and nerve) to keep up to date. Therefore, refreshing the local news sites every few minutes or at least once an hour is an unusual new habit I developed thanks to Covid-19 and one I don’t intend to stick to. My fuzzybrain has an even harder time focusing on anything when conditioned to expect new inputs every five minutes. As it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a new habit, I will get a grip on this and change this behavior asap. After all, this lockdown will continue for several weeks and even then, it is not clear what will follow. So the last thing I need is my fuzzybrain being all over the place constantly.
Break the cycle — cut the crap
Over the last few days, I saw many people on Instagram describing how they had a hard time focusing on their reading or work with all that is going on. This is a common sentiment I share. You don’t need to have ADHD to lose your fuzzybrain in the current news cycle. We all want to stay informed on how our respective governments handle the situation; want to stay in touch with friends and family and find out as much as possible about this virus that is threatening the lives of so many people. At the same time, one can only go so far… and stay sane, calm, and happy.
So what can we do to break the cycle? I, for one, went cold turkey on news of any kind. I will stay active on the gram and google my way through the world as I usually do, but I will refrain from refreshing our local news channels/the Guardian/Reuters/… every other hour to ‘stay up to date.’ Wonderguy has a much healthier approach toward news and if anything groundbreaking happens, he will keep me posted.
In the meantime, I won’t notice every verbal fart of the Orange Fucktard or Bojo the Clown, but will only visit news sites once a day to stay in touch with the world outside (my head). Just returning to my usual news dosage without this nagging feeling of emergency. This, I hope, will help me calm down and get back to the things I should and could do in this situation. Like working on my thesis, for example.
Seize the day (or night — whatever you prefer)
As I’m used to working from home, I have no issue doing my ‘normal job’ away from the office. During the lockdown, I save valuable time not having to commute, time I could use productively. I guess most of us work from home right now and while some will adjust easily, for others this can be an enormous challenge. Having a designated working space at home makes things easier, since this may resemble a sort of ‘office’ some might need to work. Calling co-workers and/or clients brings the social interaction some miss and helps you stay in touch with your work reality.
A lot of us may feel the effects of the pandemic crisis also regarding our workload. Working at an ad agency, I prepare myself for weeks that might not bring as many jobs as usual. This will improve eventually, but we will feel the result of this not only in our workloads but also in our bank accounts. Anyway, this too shall pass — as long as I still got a job half a year from now, I’m okay with cutting back.
Reduced workloads also mean more spare time, something that gives me an even better chance to pursue my goal of finishing my dissertation this year (I will regret sharing this ambitious goal here because the internet never forgets…). At present, dissertation productivity comes in waves — I’m totally in the flow two/three days in a row and don’t even look at it for 10 days. True, that’s also just my good ole’ ADHD fuzzybrain at work, enhanced by the current situation. Nevertheless, there’s room for improvement. So for now, I know how to use my time and brain once I calm down a bit…
Getting off the news ticker may not be doable for everyone and you may not even find constant news input as distracting and irritating as I do. So whatever is right for you, find your way to calm down and try to seize the day how’s best for you. Read that book, write that book, watch that show, call your friends, finish your paper, sow some seeds and plant some crops, sing, dance, exercise — do whatever you want to do as long as it helps you get through your days…
Stay safe and healthy — take care!