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Switch on the TV or open your laptop and the likelihood is that the first thing you’ll see is more news regarding the Coronavirus. If you’re feeling at all anxious then constantly being bombarded by the tips on being productive and creative can actually add to that feeling, but over the last couple of days I’ve realised that actually it’s ok to not feel productive during a lockdown and that doing nothing may be the best thing after all.
It’s OK to Not Feel Productive During a Lockdown
At the time this post will go live I will have been at home for ten days, obviously I’m leaving the house to do small amounts of food shopping and to get some fresh air, but otherwise I am meant to be working from home. If you read my previous post you’ll know that I don’t actually have a job that can be done from home but I managed to find a small admin project which I have been working my way through. This however is limited and will soon run out, at which point…who knows?
I have no idea what will happen work-wise.
I started 2020 with a list of places I wanted to visit, a list of photography projects I wanted to start and a list of blog posts I wanted to create (in case you weren’t aware, I love a list) but with the Coronavirus pandemic grabbing the world by the throat all of this has come to a shuddering halt.
The one trip I had planned and booked got cancelled, a photography project I had planned got shelved and all of the blog posts I had planned that were travel related have been removed from my content calendar.
Blogging consistently is important for me, to keep a schedule keeps me focused and motivated, it holds my interest and stops me wanting to abandon it altogether. Obviously sometimes it’s tempting, I make little to no money from it, in fact some people may wonder why I bother, but for me it’s the act of writing itself that keeps me going.
However, a travel blog without travel and travel related content is nothing. It becomes a collection of natterings from a woman with nothing else to do.
The hardest part is not knowing what to write. I want people to read this blog and feel encouraged and inspired, but when the world seems to have stopped on its axis and suddenly feels so much smaller and closed off it’s almost impossible.
I see comments on Twitter of people who think it’s inappropriate to still be promoting travel related content when nobody can go anywhere, and as much as I see their point, I need to still be seeing other people’s posts. I need to read other blogs to retain a sense of community and creativity and maybe even feel inspired. I also need to read those posts for when I do start travelling again, to remind myself that those places I’m dreaming about do still exist and that I will eventually be able to book those trips again.
The truth is, I’m sat in bed at 11pm writing this post because I’ve spent the last hour reading other people’s content and am trying to stop feeling so utterly useless. I can almost feel the creativity draining out of me.
I am not usually someone who suffers with health anxiety, I have other things that make me feel stressed and anxious but the health of myself and others has never been one. However, the more I hear about symptoms, infection rates, death tolls, the lack of PPE for our frontline health workers and even some of the emails from my own employer I have been feeling increasingly under the weather and uneasy.
This feeling of unease and the lack of motivation and creativity has made me realise that I need to just take some time to step away from some of the noise.
In the words of Scarlett O’Hara “Tomorrow is another day” so once I’ve finished my “proper” work for the day I won’t worry about whether I wanted to publish three blog posts next week. Instead I will make myself a nice cup of coffee, grab a book, settle somewhere comfy and let my mind wander. I’ll probably end the evening in front of the TV with some chocolate biscuits wearing my favourite pyjamas, but that will be ok, because these are unprecedented times, we are in lockdown and it’s ok to not feel productive every second of every day.
Are you feeling productive during this time?
Let me know in the comments.
