Lockdown is being eased. Although things won’t be completely “back to normal” for quite a while, another month or two and the extended quarantine time should have been mostly phased out. Of course, 2020 keeps getting crazier. We’ll talk about that at some point, but not now.
I’m just pausing to take stock. Step back from the global and get personal.
How did you spend your lockdown?
I’m not going to focus on the negative here. There’s a time and place for mourning, and this isn’t mine.
Here’s how I spent my lockdown:
- Submitted a short story that took a piece of my soul to the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. If it doesn’t receive a prize, I’ll eventually post it here. This was a big step towards one of my goals: writing 12 short stories and sending them out onto the magazine circuit by the end of the year.
- Released three podcast episodes for Hardcore Literature. They were on the poetry of Rumi, Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, and Aristotle’s virtues of courage, temperance, and generosity. This was also a nice stride towards my goal of having ten episodes of season one up. Looks like the next episodes will be covering works from Defoe, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche.
- Released my second video course. This is a 2-hour free course on how study effectively. People seemed to like my first course on personal statement writing, so I thought I’d follow it up. Lockdown gave me the time needed to film a little more and edit my material. I’m now working on my third course, which is more geared towards helping people who want to earn a living online – a skill and lifestyle choice that is now more valuable than ever in today’s precarious economy.
- Published 74 articles and 36 videos (here and here). The 80/20 rule applies here because I’m proud of 20% of those articles and videos. The common theme among the stuff I’m proud of is it’s all stuff that either stretched me, made me vulnerable, made me scared, or resulted in long-form evergreen material that I believe will change somebody’s life.
- Spent a lot of quality time with my girlfriend. We went into lockdown together and the experience has only brought us closer together. It’s been a blast. She’s used the lockdown to great effect too. Hopefully she won’t mind me sharing that she’s produced a watercolour painting a week, learnt to play chess from scratch to a high level, and started her own online presence that can be monetised.
- Started consulting again. I feel like Michael Corleone. “Just when I thought I was out… They pull me back in.” I don’t overtly advertise my consulting, but I’ve had a lot of requests to consult recently. Looks like I can transition back into a semi-full-time consulting career if I want to, but I need to analyse whether that’s what I want. On a day-to-day level, it’s nice to see my clients happy and getting great results, so I don’t mind helping at the moment.
- Started “writing” again. I mean proper writing – fiction and heart-pieces. I’ve got a couple of novels on the go and have been sketching out ideas for theatrical performances. If I have a physical book in my hand by the end of the year I’ll be happy. I’ve also returned to a few abandoned works and have found some workable ways to take them forward.
- Regained my cardiovascular ability, but lost some muscle. Once the marathon was cancelled, I let my training suffer a little. Luckily, running 3-4 times per week got me back to an acceptable level. But with gyms closed, I’ve not had the most motivation to bodyweight train in lieu of weights, which means I’ve trimmed down a little.
- Improved my cooking. Followed a few MasterClass recipes. Also improved my Chicken Nanban, Onigiri, Wagyu Steak Korean BBQ Style, Okonomiyake, and Yakisoba. Also used a great service called Mindful Chef to cook some exotic dishes (use my email address in the voucher code space and you’ll get £20 off your order: ben@benjaminmcevoy.com).
- Read a lot of books. I actually thought I’d read more during lockdown, but I suppose what I did manage to read is pretty good. I’ve continued my love of deep reading, which has seen me finally tackle some of those great big books that everyone wants to read but rarely does (like Anna Karenina).
- Grew a pretty rad beard. I went full apocalypse mode and decided not to shave for over a month. Quite liked the result, but it’s gone now. Would recommend 100% and would totally do it again. It wizened me.
- Went on a lot of walks. I walk at least an hour a day, with a 3+hour walk thrown in at least once a week. Now I know why the most creative people in history were such lovers of walking, especially in nature.
- Improved my sleep. Finally settled into a more natural sleeping rhythm. I’m going to bed earlier and getting longer quality sleep. You actually get more work done when you sleep more. I think we were all chronically sleep-deprived before lockdown. Me on 9+ hours of sleep is a whole different human than me on 5-7 hours sleep. This may have been the most beneficial aspect of lockdown, in addition to reevaluating what’s important – there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go except for parks, so we’re not spending money on needless garbage.
Yes, there’s been a lot of negative this year.
2020 is one for the history books.
And it’s not going to let up for a while.
Things won’t be the same again. So start thinking about how you want to live in this new world. But we can at least focus on the positive because that will help us as we take things forward.