Forget About “Business As Usual”
Over the last week, I’ve been reading and having a number of conversations about how we’re dealing with the social distancing and self-isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The reactions and behaviours have varied: sleeping a lot more than usual, cleaning a lot more than usual, not being able to set boundaries around a work day, juggling work and home schooling, feeling guilty for not being able to accomplish enough in a day or for not being able to accomplish it well….
Here’s the thing: IT’S ALL OK.
If your body is telling you to sleep more, then do it. It’s ok. We are all trying to process a lot of information - information that keeps changing by necessity. Many of us are stressed and anxious. We feel out of control and scared that things are unpredictable. Your brain is using up a lot of energy trying to process and adapt to all of this. So get more rest if that’s what you need.
If your body is telling you to keep busy, that is also normal. Some of us will respond initially with a need for more rest; others with a need to keep busy. Neither is right - they’re just different points on a spectrum. This is an adjustment period for all of us. If you need to stay busy in the beginning as a way to deal with all the changes, then do it. At some point though, our minds/psyches and bodies will need to stop, to process the adjustment. Your brain will need some stillness to let everything sink in. That stillness can be very uncomfortable for some people. Whatever emotions come up in that time, know that it’s all ok. Reach out and talk with someone you trust.
I’ve spoken to people who find that there’s no balance any longer between work and home life now that, for many, everything is happening in one place. In many cases, they find themselves working longer hours, partly because they themselves can’t separate things but also because others are asking it of them. It’s ok. These first weeks were always going to be messy. It’s been a sudden and quite drastic change and many people and companies are scrambling to figure out how best to respond. Everyone’s juggling different work schedules and priorities, along with different home schedules and priorities. Give things some time to settle and then discuss expectations with your teammates and leaders.
There’s concern from parents that their kids are not keeping up with their regular curriculum/schedule of learning. It’s ok. How was this ever going to happen given the circumstances. Let yourselves off the hook. Home schooling schedules don’t typically look like “formal” school schedules. Your kids, especially the younger ones, may struggle with focusing because this is a big change for them too. You’re all trying to figure it out at the same time. Do the best you can. Let go of whatever idealized images you might have in your heads. Forgive mistakes. Go with what feels right in the moment.
Life has changed dramatically for most, if not all of us. Let this fact sink in over these next couple of weeks. We need to stop thinking of this as “business as usual”, only from home. Let your minds and bodies adjust. Let things “normalize” in the fact of this new environment. And then, with a clearer mind and heart, choose what’s next for you and your family.
I’ve just finished “The Gene” by Siddhartha Mukherjee and there’s a line in his book that stands out for me in our current situation.
An upright organism with opposable thumbs is thus built from a script, but built to go off script.
He was writing about us, about humans, and our genes, and that our genes follow “programmed responses to environments” but that “they must also leave exactly enough room for the vagaries of chance to stick.”