The Lockdown Productivity Crisis
Do you remember the start of the lockdown?
Was it your last day at work before heading home for an unknown time?
Was it a last night out with friends, a last gasp at ‘freedom,’ one last hurrah before the rules and restrictions would come into play?
Or perhaps it was that final shopping trip to pick up eggs, flour, and toilet paper en masse?
Or is it a haze? A murky, vague recollection of what life was before, and some strange time that feels at once to have happened last week and five years ago, when everything changed?
No matter how it came on, for most it was a time that came with equal parts trepidation and curiosity. Some resolved to start baking, some to learn a new instrument, some decided finally start picking up Greek, and some viewed it as an opportunity to relax. No matter your resolution or plan, or lack thereof, you probably ended up online at least a little bit more than before.
And that’s when they started popping up — the articles, the facebook posts, the youtube videos, the twitter threads. As everything shut down, and we were told to stay home and stay inside for health reasons we were suddenly expected to also optimize this time: to get fit, to write a novel, to organize the entire house, to use this new time as much as possible. There was a stark disconnect between the upbeat mentalities and enthusiasm that emanated from this media, and the realities of the world outside.
Stuck in our homes, and watching these videos, we were constantly assaulted with the idea of productivity — as if there was no other answer to a lockdown. We were constantly told to do more, be more, want more — all while tens of thousands of people were dealing with the immediate ramifications of a deadly virus. While many were suffering, the rest of us were being told constantly to do something with the time — as if a global crisis was the best time to get our shit together. Of course, this just resulted in huge numbers of people who were already dismayed at the state of the world, as the health crisis broadened out into a discussion of many of the other social inequities and issues affecting our day-to-day lives, who were then disappointed at their own inability to ‘better’ themselves. Influencers and video makers whose income was relatively unaffected by the pandemic, if not actually increasing, urged us to get up and go, to use this time — and many of us didn’t.
And if that’s you, that’s okay.
We looked at the shiny lives of people who are paid to make their lives as shiny as possible, and we listened to them telling us what we could do with this time, but for some of us it was too difficult to consider somehow ‘using’ this time. We’d turn on Netflix. We’d open up bottles of wine and beer. We’d watch the world slowly seem to crumble around us. And then we’d be told that we should be doing more. But we didn’t. But we don’t.
And if that’s you, that’s okay.
The pervasiveness of ‘hustle’ culture is one of the worst aspects of a capitalistic society that pretends to adhere to the idea of meritocracy. The idea that everyone should devote all of their waking hours, and perhaps even some of their sleeping hours, to the constant grind and hustle to make pitiful amounts of cash compared to the wealth amassed by the few people at the top of the capitalist food chain, is insane. The idea that someone should have to work multiple jobs to be able to live in a good house, eat good food, and have a good life, is crazy. And this same intensity of drive and hustle became a huge part of the pandemic/lockdown narrative.
A pandemic is not a hustle. A pandemic is not a kick in the balls to get your summer body. A pandemic is not a reason to be disappointed in your own drive and ability. A pandemic is a health crisis, and your mental health shouldn’t have to be a victim of a viral pandemic.
It’s okay if you haven’t learned a new language over lockdown. It’s okay if you didn’t lose weight, if you gained weight, if you stayed exactly the same. It’s okay if you didn’t finish reading that book, writing that story, learning that song. It’s okay if you woke up, ate, watched TV, and went back to bed.
It’s okay.
