A few weeks ago, you were gung ho. You had a plan to maximise the time on lockdown. You were not going to waste it. You were going to learn how to bake, or speak a new language, or play a musical instrument, or something. This was going to be the most productive time in your life. Outside of work, this was the time to do all the things that you had procrastinated on.

Now, close to two months in, the paints are still in the box, the online course people keep sending you daily reminders to come back for lessons, you haven’t progressed beyond ‘hello, how are you?’ in Mandarin and, since the banana bread phase, the oven hasn’t been used.

In the first two weeks, you jumped on everything challenge and followed every IG Live. Today, you can’t just seem to muster up the energy for anything.

It’s alright.

We went into lockdown the way we seem to go into most things. We define success by money or things. Everything is about ‘winning’ and being ‘better’ than everyone else. Everything is comparative and a competition, yet we are each on our own journey.

The reality is that this journey into what will be ‘new normal’ for each of us still has months to go.

Essentially, we probably need to reset and reflect on a monthly basis, making sense of what works for us in each moment.

Perhaps it’s about picking one thing to focus on for the next month.

These are unusual times. Last thing we need is to create added pressure (and anxiety) by biting off more than we can chew. It’s good to have hobbies, things that fulfil us outside of work, but it’s about using this period to build these into our lives.

It’s alright to take time for yourself. It’s alright to work on at your own pace. In fact, that’s how it should be.

As we figure out what life is about, beyond this moment.