Everyday Inspiration: Day Five

Every day, WordPress emails me one writing prompt. Today’s writing prompt is a quote of my choosing. I went with:

Keep The Core Spinning

– CGP Grey

Lockdown certainly crept upon us. Remember the February denial when we said things couldn’t be that bad? They’ll knock out a vaccine in no time and we’ll back to buying the new double cheeseburger at McDonald’s (not sponsored, but if there are any Maccy CEOs reading, my contact info’s on the home page x). But in the end, we were all suddenly stuck in our homes, and the outside world was no more.

I was fairly lucky. I worked at a cheese shop delivering local food orders. Most of the time, though, I was trapped indoors as job postings dried up and weekly Zoom quizzes became my primary way of remembering the weekday. I was directionless. I knew I should be knuckling down on work or a “quarantine project”, but without a clear objective, my motivation was at an all-time low. So I searched for a mission and stumbled across a little YouTube video by the fabulous CGP Grey…

Lockdown Productivity: Spaceship You

CGP Grey’s analogy was simple. We have left Earth on our own little spaceships. While we wait for our cities and homes to be made safe again, we cannot sit idly by and let this precious time go to waste. CGP gave his viewers a simple mission objective:

“Return better than you left.”

While I was one of the lucky few who could still get out and about, I needed to use my precious off-hours wisely. CGP Grey’s Spaceship You programme was the perfect way to rekindle my productivity.

In every Spaceship You, there’s a spinning core. That core is powered by your physical and mental health. Pushing at either side of the core will spur on the other. Keeping the core spinning was vital to maintaining productivity.

Each Spaceship You was also split into four quadrants: Exercise, Sleep, “The Couch” (leisure), and Creation (work). I won’t go into too much detail, as I’d just be rehashing the video, but setting up those quadrants in your home mentally prepares yourself for that goal. For example, the Sleep quadrant is just for that: sleep. No phones, no distractions, just dreams… or nightmares.

Of course, dividing one room into four parts is tricky. While I was living at my parents’ house, I kept myself in my room as much as possible to keep my spaceship small and for self-isolation reasons. I printed out quadrant flags (which you can find here, if interested) and stuck them on my four walls. I was ready for lift off.

So, how did I do? Not too shabby!

I found I exercised much more than usual. While I didn’t stave off the quarantine pounds, it helped me think about my diet, and I made significant changes to what I was eating. I cut down on alcohol and meal portion sizes.

The Sleep quadrant was difficult to keep ‘clean’ at first. I use a sleep tracker app for my alarm, so my phone is always nearby. I found reading night-time books usually kept social media’s siren song at bay, and I am now happily making my way through the Harry Potter series.

The Creative and Couch quadrants were even trickier. Prior to lockdown, much of my work and leisure activities took place at my main desk. I decided to make that desk into my “Couch” quadrant, as my main laptop was the source of most of my recreational activities.

I bought an IKEA stool, took out my dinky little work laptop, and made my chest of drawers into a dedicated study area. I had to take out the drawers every morning so I could fit my legs in, but it was a nice way to get the blood pumping before work.

There was a slight problem that I do a lot of Adobe work, and my little laptop won’t run most of its programmes. I would have to get into a Creative frame of mind, then quickly sidle into my Couch area to do the rest of my work. I sometimes found wearing “work clothes” would help out, or taking the Creation flag with me to the Couch zone.

On the whole, this system really boosted my productivity. I completed my first YouTube ever video (a goal I’ve had since I was 14), with many more on the way in various stages of completion. I made the most out of my WhatCulture writing job and now proudly have almost 350,000 views overall.

I even found the quality of my play-time improved significantly. I no longer endlessly browsed Reddit and instead watched things I truly wanted to watch; played things I truly wanted to play. I spent more time Zoom calling my friends and creating fun quizzes.

But now lockdown is coming to an end, and we’re able to relax a little more. We’re going out more often, and hints of normalcy are entering our lives again. The Earth is ready for Spaceship You to slowly make its return trip home, and I’ve definitely gotten better since I left. Mission accomplished, right?

Well, I don’t see why my Spaceship You has to terminate its mission just yet. My flags are still up, and my productivity is constantly improving. Just because the Earth is healing, doesn’t mean I have to stop healing myself. I shouldn’t have to wait for a pandemic to force me to be productive.

So for now, my Spaceship You is still fully operational. Sure, my Exercise station needs some more love, and the Couch and Creation areas are merging again, but I can be better, so I’m not returning home just yet.

I’m keeping my core spinning.

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