It goes without saying that these times are tough. The year 2020 has been meme’d to oblivion and will truly go down as an utter failure. No matter what situation you’re in, we all can agree that the world events have invoked a negative response to us. I like to dive into what my thoughts and feelings.
Stressed
I was fortunate enough to keep my job during the inception of the pandemic. I will stay grateful for this, but i’m not going to say it’s been always positive. I had this sense of stress and urgency to constantly work. This wasn’t necessarily from my employer. This was because I wanted to prevent my client from dealing with issues from my department. It’s bad enough companies have to make many cutbacks to survive. I cancelled my vacation in March (no point in going as the world was in lockdown anyway) and just focused on work. This slowly resulted in the feeling of fatigue and bitterness. This really shouldn’t be surprise as when people’s social lives are cut off leaving work the only option to pass your time. It got to the point that I needed to take time off. I wanted to remove myself from having to put work first.
Isolation
As I write this, i’m out of office…. but spending most of my time at home. I truly consider this more of a staycation :). I was excited at first to just not be at work. My mind started plotting things like go to the beach, or hang out with people. Thing is, nothing went according to plan. For starters, many of my friends and family are working so i really couldn’t hang out with them. Many places are closed or are restricted. So… most of the time, i’ve just stayed at home being unproductive. Even if i decided to go somewhere, I would have to quarantine myself for 14 days upon arrival back from vacation. With all this in mind, it felt pointless to plan anything. I would compare my experience to as if I didn’t have a job and have nothing better to do but be on the phone or play video games.
Breaking The Chain
The way i’ve been combating this isolation was doing a few things
- Talking and hanging out with the family: This is a no brainer and has helped catching up. Of course hanging out with loved ones removed the isolation mood.
- Cooking: I’ve spent one day prepping a grocery list and decided to cook food for the next couple of days. I took this opportunity to also cook dinner for my parents. I find outside of technology interests, I enjoy cooking food. It’s a great activity that I can also focus on getting better and took advantage of this with my time.
- Learning: There are a few tech things i did want to brush my skills on. More to come on that
- Reading: i had a few books i’ve been wanting to read. If i’m going to in a quiet isolation environment, mine as well use that to read stories
- Drawing: An old hobby of mine that I’ve been quietly trying to get back into
Takeaway
I started to understand the feeling of isolation and how it can take a toll on one’s wellbeing. Even as things are opening up, there are just so many stipulations and added rules that certain tasks seem pointless to do still. I wanted to make this post to remind people that it’s okay and normal to be burnt out from work especially during these times. Don’t be like me where you have to force yourself to work even during these times. If you have vacation time, USE IT! Take a break. Be proactive and plan, no matter how small the idea is, with others and enjoy those moments. It’s hard enough to have happy moments when you notice an abundance of negative thoughts and events in the world. Stay strong and stay tuned!