By Jaime Hollander
Yes, you’re working and you’re home, but context is everything
Yesterday, two different friends in two different cities had the same insight:
“You aren’t working from home. You’re at home, during a crisis, trying to work.”
It’s absolutely true—but, at the same time, a tricky balance to strike. I need to produce. My team needs to produce. And every single day we do our best to deliver good work, while we simultaneously try to homeschool kids who seem to speak—and compute—in a totally different language.
Even daily decisions have become harrowing and emotionally draining. Is going to the drugstore worth the risk, or should I wait it out for the super-delayed Amazon order? Do I need more peanut butter—and pasta and butter? And when was the last time we ate something even remotely green?
And while we’re weighing it all, we’re constantly being bombarded by friends, family, and social connections that we somehow aren’t doing enough. That we should push our epicurean boundaries—and our Warrior Pose—during virtual classes. That, when all this is over, we should be fluent in another language, have written a book and, of course, deep-cleaned and organized every corner of the house. Our relationships should be strong—we should even be meeting people and starting new relationships.
I, for one, am saying “no”—at least to sourdough starters and Zoom meditation.
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I am, though, saying “yes” to what matters to me: what I want to do, what I’m excited to do and what I’ve been putting off for days, weeks, and even years. I’m taking care of the clients and team members who need it as well as the people who appreciate the work, the support, and the framework of normalcy our partnerships represent. Being home gives me a chance to uniquely focus, even when my focus is being pulled in a million directions from, “What time is the call?” to “what’s my Google Classroom password?” to “I wonder when I’ll wear SHOES again?”
It also gives me an opportunity to work on boundaries which, as a small business owner, I’ve struggled with over the years. “Emergency” has been redefined and, even high stakes projects seem to have taken a step or two back in the priority line. A dinnertime text that would have launched an hour-long deep dive through months-old emails or a frantic request for a new article in the next “hour or two” doesn’t drum up the same hysteria it did even a month ago. I feel more comfortable offering an alternative solution.
And besides, those touches are fewer and farther between than they’ve ever been. More and more people, it seems, are taking a breath or, at the very least, also splitting their focus between calls and second-grade math and thinking about their shoes. That is what will actually going to do more for productivity and performance: when we can all take a collective breath and truly remind ourselves #WeAreinThisTogether. That we’re all scared, we’re all exhausted and we’re all doing our best — whatever that may be.
1 Comment
Such good perspective! Perhaps the gift in all of this terrible time is that we will come to value, and hold onto, the priorities we identify through having to live and work so differently. I agree with “doing our best — whatever that may be.”