You’re damned right you’re getting nothing done.
These are absolutely crazy times.
🥴 You’re distracted.
🥴 Your routines are seriously disrupted.
🥴 You may be completely alone.
🥴 You may be spending far too much time with the family you’ve created.
And there are so many other components to this.
My recommendation?
I know you’re hard charging. You’re goal oriented. You’re determined. You’re persistent. You know how to do things perfectly.
And these are excellent traits. That’s how you became a lawyer or an academic in the face of oppressive institutions.
I am not suggesting that you give up these traits.
I am suggesting that you surrender to the dis-ease of the present situation.
Openly acknowledge that you’re distracted, upset, that your operating system has a bug.
It is hard to do the work that we do socially isolated.
You may know people who are vulnerable or who may be ill themselves (one of my former clients is currently sick with COVID-19). You may have the children at home.
Surrender to this moment.
This means that doing things is not going to serve you. Being will. Just being with people.
😷 Notice that you want to strangle someone.
😷 Notice that you want to run into your neighbor’s apartment for some contact.
😷 Notice that you want to sleep all day.
😷 Notice that you want to binge watch all of Netflix’s offerings.
😷 Notice that you can’t teach online.
😷 Notice that the client work is an uphill battle at home because you can’t concentrate.
😷 Notice that you’ve eaten the two-week supply of Oreos.
We are not in ordinary times. We don’t do ordinary things.
Once you see how things are going, we can piece together how to start making things happen again in the new normal. Piece by piece. Step by step.
Let me know how I can best support you during this time. Because it’s hard and you don’t have to sort it all out by yourself.
Seriously. Respond to this note and let me know what you need.
Sending love to you and your community.
SIGNATURE
Michelle
Where’s Michelle
· At home.
· Seriously. While at home, if you want to (finally) join my Academic Writers Meetups, we will be meeting online for the foreseeable future. You can check out the meeting dates here. And the Zoom sign-on info is below! Do invite your colleagues to join us. I would prefer if you shared the newsletter link. I don’t want my Zoom info just out there for the masses!!
o The next Meetup is Wednesday, March 25, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
o The following one is on Friday, March 27, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
· The structure will change and will include lots of time to check-in as some of us may be ill, be upset, just struggling. And we’re here for that.
So to get the Zoom link for the Meetups, sign up for my newsletter here!