We’ve all been home, away from experiencing normal life for 13 days now, and I’m realizing time moves slower during Coronavirus time. I started the pandemic with a marathon list of to-do thoughts that was going to exponentially increase my sense of accomplishment! Why we have nothing but time, so why not seize the moment and get ahead of the game! Before Spring Break, I was going to complete an entire school year’s worth of mileage, update student 8-yr job site plans, finish my business canvas, write a stockpile of blog posts, organize the Tupperware cupboard, learn Tai Chi, and do the 5 M’s every day, all in addition to my day job. Now that we’re almost two weeks in, I’m modifying my plan…
Everything moves slower at home when you have nowhere to be. Meals take longer because we don’t need to hop up to get to practice on time. Completing work tasks takes exponentially longer because I don’t have my systems and routines here at home. I’m accustomed to having hard copies of documents I can reference immediately, that now I need to find in my email, or my Google Drive, or one of my shared Google Drives, or the shared county drive, or maybe one of my other emails (you get the idea). (This causes me to be even more inefficient because I get sidetracked, spending time working my digital filing systems.) Having an hour between meetings used to mean I could get something done and check it off my to-do list. Now, with the overwhelming influx of communication and COVID-19 resources, I can barely clear my inbox before the next meeting begins. This means the school day drags throughout the entire day. Before my morning coffee, I’m up posting a question of the day or updating yesterday’s attendance, and for the last two nights, I’ve been up working on schoolwork until nearly midnight. I am now at the point where I need to get a handle on time because I have NO DIGITAL BOUNDARIES. What started as, “I’ll have all this time!” has now turned into, “How am I gonna get all this done?!?”
My husband and I realized years ago, that we don’t love the clock, so when we can avoid paying attention to time, we usually do. This means I typically lean towards a daily list of things I’d like to accomplish, rather than a structured schedule to follow. We like the freedom to flow with the mood of the day, which often works for us, but during quarantine, I need to rethink my approach. I’m starting to realize my desire for freedom from time is chaining me to my laptop. Fortunately, next week is Spring Break! It doesn’t sound like much when every day feels the same, but to take a break from cloud learning will be a great opportunity to reset my expectations, reset my schedule, and reset my boundaries!