Lockdown or a Productivity contest?

Let us start by answering this question, How is this lockdown treating you?

This lockdown isn’t the same for everyone. Where some are struggling for their daily needs, some are flourishing even in these times. For now let’s just talk about people like you and me. That is, you all who are privileged enough to have the resources to be able to read this blog, and me who has enough to live a comfortable life and post such a thing.

All of us know that this is an opportunity of lifetime where we have a changed routine and time to spend for ourselves. The entire world has slowed down. The fast moving environment which most of us were surrounded by, has either come to a sudden halt or has slowed down substantially. We can quite assume that such time won’t ever be coming back in our lives. With that said, these question arise – Are you making the most out of this time? Are you doing something productive in this lockdown? These questions might get you excited if you are actually bringing out a skill within you. But on the contrary, they might even get you furious if your answer to this is a no. We won’t get into the reasons right away.

There are many enthusiastic people all over the place, especially social media, who are exploring new skills, developing themselves in new ways. This has lead to the generation of some kind of a competition among peers for investing this time do to various activities of their interest. This in turn has got people hooked up onto engaging themselves in some or the other productive stuff.

However, this has also lead to a feeling of stress among many. Not everyone is being able to bring out the most out of this phase in their lives. There might be multiple reasons for that. Many might still not have time to do what they want to. Some might not have anything in their to-do list. Others might not have a peaceful mindset to do something due to various circumstances. But most of them, including myself, have a list of things they desire to do, but face this one problem which is lack of driving force from within. As a result, we start looking for multiple reasons to back this unwillingness of ours. We try to justify our inability by covering it up using various possible ways.

The only way out of this is introspection and by being honest to yourself. Ask yourself if those so called reasons are really acceptable. Is it really that difficult to get things done? Well, most of the times the answer will be no.

Self realisation and acceptance is always the first step

A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step! And that very first step is usually the most difficult to take. Once you have started, it’s like a job half done. So, just go for it. Whatever you have planned for yourself, at least get started at once. After that it’s all about putting in incremental efforts and being consistent. Thinking on these lines might not necessarily make a drastic change in our attitudes. But even if we all choose to get up and get things done at least twice out of the ten times we previously ended up wasting, it will surely make a difference over time.

Now let’s come back to this virtual competition of productivity going on. Avoiding is surely an option, but not necessarily the best one. Rather you can leverage it and use it to your own benefit. Having a positive attitude towards this whole scenario might help you look at it as a source of encouragement instead of frustration. It is one of those healthy competitions which can bring out the best in you. It will push you to be the best version of yourself.

Apart from all this, life is not all about being productive. Don’t let all of this be a mental burden over you. These times demand us to be mentally strong. Having fun and recreation is equally important. All you need is a balance between fun and work, which you alone can decide for yourself. Just push your limits a little bit and be true to yourself. 

On an ending note, addressing the very first question from which we started, I’ll say that It’s not about how the lockdown is treating you. Rather, it is about how you are treating this lockdown!

Do it now. Sometimes, later becomes never!

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