A mild ink double ended mild liner glides lazily over paper. The cursive title ‘To do’ emerges on my paper and undoubtedly on countless other planners of students, both high school and college alike. A main thought we mull over now becomes what we do tomorrow, the day after, next week. Any structure we previously had has shut down, and now people are being given the chance to complete tasks on their own time, invariably leaving us with extra hours on our hands we didn’t before, what with transportation time being taken out of the equation and work being transferred entirely online.  

The usual social media buzz grew more into loud chatter about self-improvement in recent weeks. Everything that previously couldn’t make it on the daily agenda was fair game. Quarantine workout challenges, at home side hustles to start today, glow up transformations, house redecoration, spring cleaning. Videos, articles, posts- all filling timelines and feeds worldwide. An overused example of the potential quarantine represents is that Shakespeare himself wrote ‘King Lear’ during the bubonic plague. If he managed it, why can’t you, with all your modern comforts and tools nearby? 

I suggest taking a step back from this type of hustler mentality. Yes, we should still keep a routine. I’m not advocating for blowing off assignments and binging Netflix shows for weeks on end, completely shutting down. I’m not defending laziness. Just because this is happening doesn’t mean you should let yourself go. There are some daily things we can do to keep ourselves on track and hold some semblance of a productive day. Could this extra time be used to a goal or project we’ve been putting off? Absolutely. If there is a hobby or passion you haven’t had time to practice or cultivate because of a hectic lifestyle, this does seem like a great opportunity to put time towards those activities. There’s nothing wrong with romanizations of the mundane, of everyday little things that make us feel slightly better after having completed them. Little moments of joy throughout the day is what life is all about.  

However, it doesn’t mean we concede to workaholic tendencies and put more on our plates than we can manage. We’re going through something new and frightening, people are being directly and indirectly impacted. People are being furloughed, sometimes laid off, sequestered in houses and without human interaction for a while. Many of us are privileged to be able to pursue refining of skills and being able to have our time taken up by new pursuits without worrying about our next paycheck and rent. People that are struggling due to COVID-19 might not be able to focus on more than just the essentials at the moment, and that’s valid.  

Isolation impacts us weirdly, and as such we need to stay in touch with others and find our own new rhythm now that a lot of the things we tended to use to signal to our brains that we’re about to work, that an assignment needs our undivided attention, is taken away from us. These small signals include a variety of actions. Driving to school, buying morning coffee, physically moving from class to class throughout the day, lunch tables and more are just some of the few parts of our daily routine that helped remind us when to be focused and alert. Narrowing down our goals into a few realistic ones as we chart this new spring will help in the long run and, hopefully, set us up to thrive.