Hey everyone,
If there was ever a group of people prepared to deal with anxiety whilst working from home in their pajamas, I would have told you introverted writers were it.
I mean, I’ve been practicing social distancing my whole life, so you would have thought that this turn of events would have suited me just nicely. Give me my bed, my books, and Netflix, and I’ll be just fine.
Except, until this weekend we didn’t have a home and were living in a friend’s house. We were supposed to move on Saturday and didn’t know until Saturday morning whether we’d be able to because the UK is on lockdown. I didn’t have broadband Internet until last night, so I couldn’t run my business or send these newsletters. I have sick family members as well as friends who are extremely vulnerable—my father-in-law had an eight-hour surgery just last week.
Like many others, I am worried. I get on with it because what else am I going to do, but I guess what I’m saying is that not everyone is bored and watching Netflix during this pandemic. Some of us have been torn from the comfort of our lives and dropped into a whole new world.
And yet, I’m so fortunate. Still healthy, still functioning, have food and a safe place to live, loved ones who care about me.
Should be easy to just get on with it and write that novel, right?
You are going to hear a lot of advice over the next few weeks, from people telling you to take advantage of this “downtime” to finish that project you never got around to, helpful tips on how to work “effectively” from home (my favorite idiotic tip is to “get dressed as though you were going to work”) and of course, the sane-sounding but completely ineffective stress-busting techniques that you’ve heard a million times before, which if they didn’t work for you the first time around, will not work now.
I have advice for you, too, the only piece of advice that will apply to everyone reading this. Whether you’re in survival mode, as I have been these last two weeks, or worrying about an ill family member, or find yourself without your regular income, or just plain worried that the world you thought you knew has just changed dramatically in front of your very eyes, this advice will work for you.
And it is this: Listen to your heart. Understand and trust that you know what you need to do right now to look after yourself, your family, and your work more than anyone else possibly can. That there is no right thing to do, but there is no wrong thing either.
If you feel productive, be productive.
If you feel like you need a break, take a break.
If you feel like finishing that novel, finish that novel.
If you want to do the bare minimum and lounge on the sofa for four hours, then that is the right thing for you.
You already know what to do.
The trick, right now and always, is to trust it.
Trust it.
I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Natasha