Working (@home) in quarantine; nice and tranquil or driving you crazy?

Or both. Daily.

One moment I’m working, full of inspiration and energy. I’ve got all my to-dos for today listed and my fingers are flying across the keyboard. One task after the other getting checked. I love working from my home office without interruptions. With the in between mind-to-blanc cappuccino and some dancing around the living room to keep moving as well.

That same day I reach a point where I can’t see the wood for the trees and I don’t know how to continue from here. How will I get new clients when there are so many entrepreneurs with financial difficulties? How do I expand my network when we are not allowed to come close to each other? How will I generate sufficient income?

And then I start feeling guilty for complaining, while it most definitely could be worse. I’ve spent the first four weeks of quarantine in Cusco (Peru), where they went into stay-at-home lockdown at that same moment. Loads of people still live in poverty over there and don’t even have running water in their homes. For income, and thus food, they are dependent on the money they can make on the streets that same day. Then my Dutch apartment doesn’t sound that bad after all, right. But how long is all this going to continue??

We don’t know, and that is exactly why it generates stress. We are all in this transition phase to a ‘new normal’. However, we didn’t choose for this and were thrown into the deep without preparation, we don’t know what this new normal will be like, and neither do we know when it will start. Meanwhile, we are alle just treading water trying to keep ourselves afloat, in whichever area that might be.

No matter how flexible you are by nature, we all have that creature of habit inside. This much uncertainty and change can therefore be pretty stressful, even unconsciously. And that just needs to be released every now and then. By talking, singing, laughing, moving, crying, meditating.. Or complaining. Because that is also ok.