Stay Productive

Not only should people keep their productivity high during normal days, but also during the current unprecedented situation under corona virus threat. Some highly-demanded TV shows have been able to air their program while the hosts are at home. One of the hosts, which currently I pay respect to, is Trevor Noah, a former comic of South-African American ethnicity. Despite this careful manner, TV hosts in Indonesia do not adopt the alike approach. They are still on TV and broadcast the program like business-as-usual. Anyway, irrespective to a typical approach they apply, all of them have shown us how to keep productive during this outbreak.

I myself have been staying at home for nearly a month. Except for buying basic necessities, I refrain from going out for work or amusement. My little niece and nephew are staying at home. Their parents, which manage a store, rarely have time taking care of them strictly in a safe protocol of minimizing corona virus exposure. They are 4 old boy and 7 years girl. I won’t say that my time management is not affected, but babysitting is not that bad. It’s not the end of the world. As long as I can submit my work-from-home report every weekend, they absolutely never gave me a whole day hard times. If you ask for zero-distraction, babysitting would not be recommended.

If you can read this article, it means that I managed to spare my time from my beloved niece and nephew and stepping forward on a mission of making my off-time productive.

Some friends of mine shared how their kids missing schools like crazy. The do-all-things from home seems affected children more than the adult. Children are mostly attached to their peers or  school. Virtual meeting cures their anxiety for one day and suddenly loses its magic the day after. Children seem to feel real meeting more intensely than the adult. They need to use all their senses during a virtual meeting. Hence, a virtual meeting which employs only audio and visual media won’t work continually. This must be underlined by those who are still struggling to teach children in kindergarten and primary school.  

 As an employee, being productive means being available anytime for clients and – of course – for the bosses. Some people find it annoying. But, c’mon, that’s part of the job. Some other workers find it hard to keep up with a schedule or target. So, in conclusion, everybody has issues. In other words, having an issue at a workplace won’t kill us since everybody has it. To put in another word, soon, either in the near or far future, we will encounter different problems than as we have now.

Many governments seem unprepared for this unexpected adversity. Worse, Indonesia government tends to look the virus down and tacitly shows an unjustifiable confidence. Outside Indonesia, a scholar from Harvard University has warned that without sufficient intervention corona virus outbreak in Indonesia could take more 100.000 fatalities. In a worse scenario, a group of scholars of both Indonesian and foreigner, the figure may surge up to a million cases.

Writing about personal development or economic affairs seems difficult not to touch issues about Covid 19. In the next 6 months, the outbreak will probably still dominate the front cover of newspapers. Likewise, tea-time-chat topic in the next 100 year will be surprisingly gossiping the 2020 pandemic.

Cibinong, April 11, 2020