Corona Diaries - Routine
17.04.2020
I haven’t written one of these for a few days as I inevitably fell into the black hole of being at home almost 24/7. Between being at close quarters with my husband, ensuring the dog’s happiness, working on those ‘we always said we’d do this but never had any time’ house jobs, working, staying creative and trying to eat something that isn’t made of carbs and sugar means it’s been pretty full on. Please don’t assume I’m spending every hour beavering away. Despite a few full on days recently I have a lot of flexibility compared to others working from home at the moment: I don’t have a full time job, ZOOM meetings are sporadic and there are very few deadlines set in stone. I still have plenty of time to run around the house chucking a ball to the dog, narrowly missing knocking over my husband’s much loved (and ever diminishing) wine stash, reading and devouring my Netflix To Watch List each evening.
The issue for me really is the lack of compartmentalisation in our lives. Everything pretty much takes place in a couple of rooms nowadays so it’s difficult to fully appreciate when it’s time to work and when it’s time to relax. And it’s that joyful freedom of not having any deadlines (I left my job in February) and not really knowing what the situation will be when we come out of isolation that’s making it difficult for me to focus my brain on a job each day. On one hand it feels like I have an extraordinary chance to write everything I’ve ever wanted to but at the same time the time I spend sitting around pondering my work seems a bit inappropriate in the middle of an International pandemic when I could be a porter in a hospital or delivering important goods. On top of that, any time I spend just chilling - watching Netflix, reading pleasurable books, sleeping in late - seems like the epitome of selfishness. Yet, for the most part, these are the things I do day in, day out. I often plan workouts or self-improvement activities but unless these take place with a friend joining over social media, it’s easy to let them slide away.
We’ve signed up to the NHS Volunteer Scheme (so far my husband has been approved while I ‘can’t be identified’) and dropped messages to neighbours offering a friendly ear or assistance where necessary. As of yet we haven’t heard back. I feel quite useless at the moment and that’s not a mindset that lends itself to keeping a positive and focused outlook in a testing time. I’m not sure if there’s something more I should be doing or whether, keeping in mind that financially I’m okay for a little bit longer, I should just stay at home.
Last week we finally both agreed that we needed to set up, at the very least, a basic schedule to adhere to. On an A3 Weekly Planner we had lying around I set a cut-off time each day where work had to stop so we didn’t keep continuing until 10pm or later when we remembered dinner was a necessity. Then we both scrawled on our absolute necessities for each day - workouts, ZOOM meetings, phone calls etc. - before adding any family or friend catch ups we’d agreed to. That left a much clearer outline of when we should leave each other alone to work or where we might both have a gap if we wanted to collaborate on something work or house based. For a couple of days it was a game changer until, inevitably for us at least, the lack of any repercussions meant we started dropping the ball. Still though, it was a help. We’ll start again on Monday.