Have you been "using your time constructively" during the pandemic?

[Eastie77]

A colleague shared on LinkedIn "If you don't come out of the pandemic with a new skill, a new income or a new expertise you didn't lack time, you lacked discipline". Made me laugh I have to say.

What is the most useful thing you have learned in the last 4 months? Thanks to DS and a rather unfortunate increase in his screentime I can now correctly name all of the characters in PJ Masks.

I’ve learned how to stop listening to judgemental twats. Tell your colleague that.

Nope.
Lone parent working from home. House is like a bomb site and I'm burnt out. Last weekends pizza trays are still in the sink.....
The only thing I've done in four months is learn the chords to Haim "the steps".

I would slap your colleagues face off

Nope. Just trying to survive each day and try and stop my mental health from completely collapsing because of my passion in life being taken from me.

Working full time.
Finished writing three books.
Improved my sewing and braved knit fabric
Made scrubs
Improved piano playing
Planted vegetables but not convinced it will be a skill I’ve yet mastered.

It must be harder if you’ve young children and no access to a garden.

What’s your passion, Kittens? I hope things improve for you — hang on in there.

@CherryPavlova that’s the understatement of the century.

I think to be honest that children shouldn’t be bribed and hidden away from zoom calls. I wish we had the balls to let them disrupt professional meetings, continually, over and over again. Instead of the parent (let’s face it, mother) nearly dying with anxiety during the time they’re on camera, while the kids are dehydrating, shut in the conservatory.

Because that’s the reality of the situation that our government have put us in. We have sugar coated it far too well for them, at the expense of our sanity and mental health.

If you call binge watching ER all 15 seasons constructive then yes, yes I have been very constructive.

[quote Lemons1571]@CherryPavlova that’s the understatement of the century.

I think to be honest that children shouldn’t be bribed and hidden away from zoom calls. I wish we had the balls to let them disrupt professional meetings, continually, over and over again. Instead of the parent (let’s face it, mother) nearly dying with anxiety during the time they’re on camera, while the kids are dehydrating, shut in the conservatory.

Because that’s the reality of the situation that our government have put us in. We have sugar coated it far too well for them, at the expense of our sanity and mental health.[/quote]
We don’t hide them away. My staff get a bit flustered sometimes but nobody minds if children appear needing colouring pencils. It’s a bit of light relief, and we older ones tend to like children in superhero costumes joining for a chat.

I should also add that until June we were working from home full time, had a toddler with us and have no garden so it has been very very tricky. June came and childcare opened so no more toddler interruptions on video calls, the tea party she set up and then proceeded to offer all my colleagues was a highlight over lockdown. And the time she came in and announced she needed a poo was also another great moment.

Lemons1571 Kids are a part of our Teams calls - as are half naked partners, postmen, plumbers, screaming neighbours, COVID testers, music practice et al. My employer has taken the view it is more stressful to pretend the kitchen table is the office and the stress impacts on productivity more than the momentary interruption in the first place.

Bizarrely I have. It’s been quite a surprise as I’m normally of the so-overwhelmed-I-just-stare-into-space sort of person :o although there has still been plenty of that going on too. We are all dealing with a lot of change!

I still feel like I’ve not achieved what I wanted to, especially with the house - I’ve decluttered a lot but it’s still a mess! But when I listed them I have got a reasonable amount done.

It’s just little things I’ve managed like more reading, started some online courses, bit of home exercise etc, maybe stuff that most people do anyway but to me it’s an achievement - normal life is a struggle for me (ASD/ADHD) so if anything I’m just catching up :o

I hate the meme you refer to though, I’ve seen it around.

That’s interesting, LaneBot. DS also has ASD and says he’s finally felt free from some of the fear of missing out- because nobody else was madly socializing either - and he’s found some online friends with similar interests, done a bit of exercise and tried to learn German.

(Going to be hard to shove him back into real life contact with humans, I suspect. OCD and pandemics aren’t a great combination.)

Laneboy, sorry for typo!

I also think the pressure to have achieved something in lockdown is wrong. Someone said the only thing to achieve is to get out the other end alive, which seems a reasonable goal. I am particularly annoyed about the pressure on older secondary school children to have something to show for their 'time off'. There have been endless emails about careers events online, online courses etc. The expectation seems to be that universities will be asking about what the pupils have done in lockdown for the next couple of years and not having done anything will be seen as bad. So much for the kids' mental health coming first.

I'm glad to see there has been an online backlash to this stupid mantra.

Twatish colleague also likes to boast about babysitting his children so "the missus gets some time off" and all the educational and cool things they do. His 7 year old is apparently already brilliant at coding and working on an App

The reference to babysitting alone made it an easy choice to unfollow and block him on LinkedIn. Infuriates me when men behave as they are doing their wives a favour when they take care of their own children.

Ugggh yes I hate that too eastie

It’s no wonder he’s had the time to do lots of insta-worthy new stuff if he’s only “babysitting” his own children occasionally 🙄😂

@Lancelottie I hope the return to normality (whatever that is in the end) isn’t too tough on your DS. I can definitely relate to the missing out feeling - I found my MH much worse at the point of lockdown easing when some were meeting up than when the rules were clearer!

I've learnt that my ability to lie on the sofa and read a book for hours is in fact a key survival skill during a pandemic, rather than being lazy.

And I used to believe that if only I had enough time to do an exerise class every day, instead of once a week, I'd be amazingly fit. Four months on, I still whimper when trying to do pushups so there goes that theory.