It’s Okay If You’ve Done Nothing

With the number of confirmed cases rising by the day and a post-COVID-19 world unclear, it’s not news that the only way to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus is to stay at home. However, as we remain inside with only limited comforts like snacks or Netflix, people across the Internet have resorted to toxic hustle culture, encouraging us to get off the couch and chase after our aspirations. While it is great to put our quarantine boredom to use, we seem to have forgotten the responsibilities we have to ourselves and to those around us: making sure we all stay safe and well during this ever-precarious time. So, instead of turning to our loved ones and checking in, we turn to distracting ourselves by being productive and by pushing others to be productive with us. This, unto itself, is no malicious act, but in the context that we are now in, these actions feed into a toxic hustle culture that only adds to the peril of our plight.

Nowhere has this been made clearer than in writer and musician Rosanne Cash’s tweet, which reads, “Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague, he wrote King Lear.” The tweet has since garnered over 50,000 retweets and 250,000 likes, and in response, people have launched an online debate over just how productive we should be amid the quarantining and social distancing that COVID-19 has brought upon us all.

It’s understandable why people feel that they should stop being “lazy,” channel their inner Shakespeare, and work toward achieving their goals. After all, many of us have all the time in the world to do whatever we want now, especially since over 95 percent of Americans have been asked to stay at home. However, the situation we are living through is different for everybody. While celebrities are faced with the dire dilemma of quarantining in their lofty New York City penthouses or opulent Malibu beach houses, one in eight New Yorkers remains food insecure. For many, this pandemic will be sorely remembered by long lines to city soup kitchens and the seemingly impossible struggle to find a shelter that isn’t at maximum capacity. Cases and death rates rise by the hundreds in a matter of minutes and thousands of people are left vulnerable to the depths of capitalism, unsure about what to do next as small businesses shut down and jobs are lost. Millions more are left sick and worried for themselves, their friends, and their families. While these numbers grow exponentially, others, like the number of solutions available, remain stagnant, hovering at zero. By perpetuating hustle culture, we are being insensitive to those who do not have the privilege to see quarantine time as a luxury; and while it is great to be productive if you have the chance to, that by no means makes it necessary for you to push your idea of quarantine as hustle time onto others.

Furthermore, beyond Cash’s needless comparison between ourselves and one of history’s most beloved playwrights, pushing hustle culture serves as a means of illustrating the unfortunate reality that many of us are encouraged to sacrifice our well-being for money. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, people were boasting about working 18-hour long days and being able to #RiseAndGrind. These hashtags and captions detailing unhealthy work habits continually urge us to push past our breaking points. In spite of our current situation, it seems that toxic hustle culture has only been exacerbated as a result of the pandemic. With the free time many of us have at home now, it’s almost inevitable for others to suggest that we use it to our advantage by learning a new language or exploring an untouched hobby. Though it is great to be able to spend time in quarantine doing something you didn’t get the chance to do before, by doing this, we tend to ignore the issues we truly need to prioritize: spending time with family and caring for ourselves.

Izzie Ramirez, a freelance culture and activism reporter, writes, “Even in the moments where we need [to pause] most, we are encouraged to turn our attention to doing something else instead of addressing our needs.” Hustle culture has been so ingrained in all of us that we don’t even realize when we are a part of it. We have become so obsessed with the idea that we always need to be doing something that we don’t realize it’s okay to do nothing. That’s why it’s so crucial that now—more than ever—we take some time off from the constant hustle and bustle of our typical everyday lives to just breathe—to reflect on the issues we face rather than bury them under an ever-increasing load of problems, to really use this situation to recover from the stress life has given all of us, and to take a break from the nonstop grind of school and work. Because in reality, there is no issue in getting all of your work done before noon one day but struggling to finish a single assignment the next. We’re human. We need time to find where our priorities lie and how we can focus more on our well-beings. We need time to allow ourselves to rest and to reflect on the situation at hand. And most importantly, we desperately need time to recover from the physical, emotional, and mental toll that the pandemic has taken on us all—not to focus on writing that new book proposal or learning piano overnight.

So, while the tweet about Shakespeare writing one of his greatest plays may have been intended as a slight glimmer of hope in these dire times, we have to recognize that hustle culture does not have to be as toxic as we have been making it. As Tim Marcin, a writer for the digital media company Mashable, wrote, “If you find some time to be productive, that’s awesome! Just don’t compare yourself to Shakespeare.” Simply put, there’s no issue in not being productive constantly, and even if you are, you don’t have to push the idea of productivity during a pandemic onto others. With that in mind, instead of planning on making an Instagram post to brag about waking up at six to start your homework, use your platform to encourage others to use this time to just rest. We need to focus on bettering our own selves without disregarding the limitations of others, especially when so many of us are not privileged enough to see this quarantine as mere time to turn a hobby into a side hustle.

So, to those who haven’t been “productive,” it’s okay if you woke up at three in the afternoon yesterday and stayed in bed watching movies. It’s okay if you wanted to start journaling this past month but never had the time to. It’s okay if you haven’t gotten to cleaning your room yet. We’re all going through a hard time right now—it’s okay if you’ve done n