Project Quarantine: Redefining Productivity

Friday, March 13, 6:00 AM. I was sitting in the parking lot of the high school, getting ready to go into work. School districts in our state had just started announcing closures with thoughts of “flattening the curve,” and I knew my teenage students would be antsy.

Maybe I should have been anxious or worried, but I wasn’t. And sure enough, the day went off without a hitch. I made my way home, feeling that despite being Friday the 13th, the day had been a win.

The next morning, it was around noon when a notification on my phone popped up with breaking news — all schools would be closed for the next two weeks, until the end of March. I felt my stomach drop. I took a deep breath, as I’m sure many other families across my county did at that exact moment and contemplated the question:

What does it mean when life as you know it comes to a screeching halt?

Loss of Productivity

Suddenly, my meticulously planned day was empty.

There was no waking up before sunrise, staying late to attend sporting events, or “Meet the Teacher” nights. There was no need to spend hours researching my craft or creating engaging lesson plans. There was no way to engage with my students and see how they were dealing with this newfound freedom that came with schools closing.

For the first time in a long time, I found myself asking the question — who am I? My identity primarily reflected my chosen profession, but now that I was sitting on the sidelines, I was facing a real void in my life.

Surrounded by work and business closures, we were all collectively entering into ‘the new normal’. While this may make us feel like we have lost our purpose, it does not necessarily have to be that way.

A New Kind of Productivity

Many of us chose our career paths following our passion or believing we could make a difference. But under a global quarantine, when those same professions have us isolated at home, our productivity is naturally impacted.

With so many aspects of life overcome by uncertainty at the moment, many of us have started to ask ourselves what truly matters. At first, we threw ourselves into small tasks around the house and were thrilled to have extra time to do the things we always put off.

Then days turned into weeks, weeks into a month, and as that month ends, there still does not appear to be any end in sight. All of those house projects, new recipes, and TV shows have suddenly lost their appeal.

So, I’ve been asking myself more lately — what does it mean to be productive in an age where nothing is certain anymore?

If my home is finally clean at the end of this quarantine, do I get to say I was productive? If I watch an entire series, will that make me productive? If I can finally make the perfect loaf of banana bread, will that fill the void of productivity?

Somewhere along the way, I stopped using the word ‘productive’ and started replacing it with ‘worthwhile’. The truth is, we measure our worth by what we can produce. We teach children that good grades are the product of hard work. We teach teenagers that a good SAT score and admission to a top-ranked college is the product of studying hard and pulling all-nighters. We tell our young adults that cinching that perfect job offer is a reward for all of the work you have done up to this point. Everywhere we look, our society equates being worthy with being productive.

However, we have to remember that our measure of worth during this quarantine will not be the number of projects we complete. Perhaps though, we can use this time to produce the best versions of ourselves.

Introspection

Instead of equating ourselves with what we produce during this time, what if we instead chose to look at the things we could improve within ourselves?

There is a concept in Hinduism known as antardrasthi or introspection. By practicing antardrashti, we turn our efforts within ourselves to find the areas that need improvement. American poet Madeline Bridges once wrote,

“Give the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.”

But how can we give our best if we don’t know where we need to improve?

In this ‘new normal’, we are spending more time sitting still. We can’t roam around the cities we love or the places we used to frequent. We can’t go to the library, catch a movie, or even grab ice cream with friends. To protect each other, we are distancing and staying at home as much as possible. And while that stillness can potentially be grating, it can also be rewarding.

What if we spent this time looking at how we can become the best version of ourselves — outside of the things we produce and the goals we accomplish. What if we identified our weaknesses and spent this time working on improving those — be it caring more for others, managing our time better, or controlling our quick tempers.

In the time I have now, I can confront the parts I ignored when life was busy and can actively work to improve them. Personally, I’m a hoarder. I’ve spent my quarantine doing a deep purge of my belongings (no, I don’t need my math notes from middle school or this certificate that said I was the best listener in kindergarten). I’ve used my constant desire to create and channeled it into creating a less cluttered living area that helps me feel at peace. I’m teaching myself to be present and engaged in my relationships without the constant buzz of emails or text messages. I am now regularly writing my gratitude at the end of every day, a practice often overlooked when the world is racing around me.

While our planners may sit idle and empty for months on end, we shouldn’t consider ourselves unproductive. The mere definition of productivity has changed. Instead, we can actively choose where we will be productive and focus on those things that will create a sense of inner peace.

While I am staying away from my friends, colleagues, family, and students — I can use this time to better myself when I see them again. The Dalai Lama once said,

“With realizations of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.”

While there is much that is unknown, we will need all hands on deck to rebuild life after this pandemic. Let’s channel our current void of productivity into one of the most important projects we could ever hope to take on — becoming the best version of ourselves now for a world that will need us soon enough.

Sneha Patel, Educator, Raleigh, NC