By Matthew Soderberg | Sports Writer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year (please sing that line to get your one spark of joy this week). Quarantine is the best time to get our lives in order and do all the things we said we’d do when we had free time as long as you can hoist up the motivation to do it.
Speaking from experience, this is a hard time to get work done. Finding the drive to put out articles or get school work done is not easy, and I doubt I’m alone. Just from scrolling through Twitter, it is clear no one was prepared for this.
It’s not as if humans are built for isolation. Aristotle described people as “social animals” in “Politics.” We commune together to share experiences. We eat meals together and watch sports together and talk about life together. Now, that opportunity has been ripped from people across the planet.
COVID-19 is one of the most serious crises in modern history. According to the New York Times, nearly 40,000 people have died due to the virus in the United States, accounting for nearly a quarter of the worldwide deaths. There is a reason we are all holed up in our homes, leaving only to get groceries or the occasional walk.
That means we can’t expect for production to go on as normal, but we can push for some level of normalcy. It really is the only thing we have left. People can work as hard as they once did, as long as they find a little extra motivation.
It can be hard to get out of the sweatpants in the morning — trust me, I get it — but it can help get the productive juices flowing. Don’t make your resting space the same as your work space; it can clutter the mind, and you can fall into the same habits of watching television and scrolling through social media.
You could take up a passion project in your free time. Use it as a sort of treat! Once you get your work done for the day, you get to do some crocheting or pick up an old video game you’ve been meaning to get back to. Lastly, if you really wanted to, getting the blood moving and getting in a good workout is a sure way to get back on track.
Even if the rest of the world looks like it’s stopped, we can’t. People have to keep being productive, and that means we may have to find new ways to keep up.
