Checking In and Making it Through

Hi friends! Well, there's no shortage of advice coming out on how to be 1000% productive while working remotely. So no need to repeat that, but I do want to share a flip side. I've worked remotely for years, and usually travel extensively, so am no stranger to working at odd hours and odd locations. But this is different. Much different. 

First, we all need to realize that sitting in a "home office" (ha! more like a corner of the living room) is not at all the same as going to a workplace. I've got a cat trying to crawl all over me, laundry beeping to be switched over, a very loud radio playing somewhere in the house, a husband making calls of his own, deliveries happening, and two kids here full time. Our older daughter is home from college for an indefinite period of time. An upside is that several of her classes were already online, so her coursework isn't changing much. We don't know when or if her college will open back up so we're trying to navigate do we keep her apartment? Does she keep working reduced hours at her local job remotely, and if so how long is that really viable for her job there? We're also working through a changed relationship between parents and a 20 year old - are the same old chores expected? Do the same house rules apply? Who pays for what and how much?

However that is a very different story from our high school daughter. She was super active in league and school sports. She's incredibly competitive and loves her sport - and now all of that is at a standstill. It's one thing to have programs cancelled and another not to know when they will come back. So she's feeling unmoored by the loss of her main focus and her friends. Her spring break was extended for 3 weeks and her school is trying to go online this week. She's never done online school work and the school is having trouble navigating it too. She's getting individual emails from her teachers about each subject, so it is a bit of a mess trying to keep it all straight. And the big question for everyone is how long is this thing going to last? Will school go back to normal in April or May, or is this how it's going to be until next fall?

There are 4 of us in the house all the time. People need to eat (ALL.THE.TIME) so simple meal planning and prep is taking a big portion of the day that it didn't use to take. We live way out in the country and don't have meal delivery services, and our take-out choices are sparse. We have one grocery store in town and those folks deserve a medal, but the selection is apocalyptic. I am incredibly happy that we have our own chickens so fresh eggs are plentiful, and I was able to trade some eggs with a neighbor for meat.

I'm finding it hard to concentrate for extended periods. Between all of the physical and noise distractions, I've also got plenty of mental chatter. My parents are over 70 and have some health conditions. I find myself checking in on my mom daily to make sure that she's staying safe and has the provisions she needs. She's about 2 hours away so I can't just swing by, and we've discussed that seeing each other in person probably isn't the wisest course of action right now anyway. But I still worry about her. My mother-in-law is in a similar situation health-wise. And my biggest mental worry is, like so many others, financial. My business has been going strong for 8 years. This year was already shaping up to be excellent but in the span of about 10 days EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of my training sessions was cancelled. I've never seen anything like it. I do have some coaching sessions that can be taken remotely and am developing some virtual training offerings, but my bread and butter is in-person training and conference speaking engagements. So I'm figuring out how long will our savings last. We are trying to patch together solutions that involve putting off anything that doesn't have to be paid right now, selling some things, using savings and cutting out anything extra. That's still not enough and I think about it constantly.

So if you're struggling, please know that you're not alone. This is not normal by any stretch. It is ok to feel upset or scared. And it is definitely ok to not feel 100% productive. I don't expect you to be. Let's have grace with each other and ourselves. We're all figuring this thing out day by day.