I was hopeful my first two weeks of the safe-at-home mandate, picturing how I could use this opportunity wisely. I looked for the silver lining and thought about how lucky it was to have all this at-home time to finally clean out closets, drawers and medicine cabinets. I could paint my older son’s bedroom and hang grown-up art on his walls; he’s almost twenty-two and rarely home. I could read and write more, maybe pick up guitar again. My family could live like it was 1978 when we passed time baking or playing cards.

Errrrrrch. Needle scratch from the vinyl record, Grease, The Soundtrack.

The good old days…

Four weeks into safe-at-home not much has been ticked off my silver-lining list. My days seem to mysteriously disappear. I’m easily distracted by local fb posts touting the best take-out or where to score toilet paper, right now! My friends and family text about happenings and share hilarious shelter-in place memes. COVID19 updates reel me in too. Are we getting better?

And just like that, the day disappears after a walk, shower, dishes, dinner prep and a TON of “correspondence” and “briefing.”(My average daily screen time is up immensely. Yikes!)

My briefing time includes educational articles so I know how to wipe down groceries, mask hack, wash my masks after every use like it’s underwear, leave my outside shoes at the door, along with my coat, wash my hands first thing when I get home…..don’t put bags on the counter, let bags cure outside, wipe down frequently used areas often…..About a week later, I learned I don’t have to wash down groceries or leave my shoes and coat at the door. Nor do I need to stress about not having gloves for the store; they are actually worse than bare hands!

My walks do take longer if I meet people on the street and we stop for a quick update, six feet apart or more. I caught up to my elderly neighbor on a walk and thought I’d just say, “Hi” and move along. He wanted to chat and we were maybe a quarter of a mile from home, so I slowed down and kept talking, walking while practicing social distancing. Closets could wait another day.

At the intersection to our homes, several neighbors stopped where I paused with my elderly neighbor. We chatted about how we are not getting anything done.

“Yeah, I work a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon and by three o’clock, it’s happy hour.”

“Happy Hour is earlier and earlier,” another chimed in, “And does it really matter?”

“Why are we doing a whole lot of nothing? I am not like this! I used to be so busy.”

I was not alone.

I thought about the one productive moment I had so far when I scrubbed my bathroom floor and noticed the dusty baseboard.

“I really should wipe down the baseboard,” I said to myself as I swiped a little dust off a small corner.

“I need to get to that closet! I don’t have time for baseboards,” I whined inside my head.

Then it was like an angel popped on my shoulder and said, “If you don’t have time in a pandemic, when?”

My bathroom baseboards are shiny clean and that closet, I got to it right after the bathroom. I did more in a day than I had in two weeks! Unfortunately, the piles I created while sorting my clothes are still in piles. Somehow, walking to the garage for a trash bag or an already stuffed thread-up bag is too far even though I walk four miles a day or more.

I’ve discovered, pandemics are not a cure for procrastination. If I didn’t want to tackle a project before, more time wasn’t going to motivate me. In fact, it’s the opposite. The longer the stay-at-home mandate, the more tomorrows I have to kick the to-do list further down the road. In one of my briefing hours, I read an article about life on a submarine and the importance of a daily routine to keep from going stir crazy. Another expert recommended a daily week-day routine and a separate weekend routine. My screen time is productive.

The lack of productivity was getting on my nerves. I practiced positive affirmations, leftover the 90s self-help days:

“I need to implement my routine, write it out like a grocery list.”

“I’m going to create a routine.”

“I’m going to put it at the top of my silver-lining to-do list…”

Tomorrow.

Tomorrows forever…