“We’re all just trying to make do with what we’ve got.”
While we’re stuck at home, the debate over what to do with our time has amplified significantly across social media. In his latest video, Nathan Zed takes on the discourse of productivity, sharing how harmful it can be to people, as well as how he is getting through isolation.
Like a lot of us, Nathan has been isolated at home for around two months, and admits he’s only just started to figure out how to exist normally and “get it together”.
Before launching into his productivity discussion, Nathan calls out the harmful and tone-deaf messages of positivity that celebrities have been sharing. Noting that most of us don’t live in multi-million dollar mansions, he explains that these celebrities don’t understand how the majority are dealing with the pandemic.
From here, he shares that he had hoped that the pressure to “do things” would be much less present than usual, that most people wouldn’t be expecting a “crazy amount of productivity from anyone else”. However, that seems to not be the case, and Nathan dedicates the next section of his video to how this pressure has never been stronger. “There’s all these people tweeting that… If you’re not creating a new genre of music or learning a new language, you might as well just be infected,” he jokes.
However, Nathan explains that those encouraging doing absolutely nothing during this pandemic have also been damaging to him. “I’ve been doing nothing for two months,” he explains. “I want to feel like a real person.” A lot of us are struggling with boredom and a lack of motivation, which he relates to, admitting he’s been “taking it too easy”.
Recognising the damage this has taken on him and others, he suggests that the solution is to “redefine productivity”. For him, this means only comparing his work to his own standards. He comedically references the fact he’ll never be able to make a song as good as Drake’s Tootsie Slide, let alone Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody and he has to accept that. Keeping on the humourous path, Nathan also declares that, while “everyone’s trying to learn more”, he’s in fact “trying to learn less”.
He continues on to speak candidly about how he is either “in the depths of unproductivity” or “working so hard” he feels like he’s “going to die”. As such, he explains that he wants to maintain a balance between these two extremes. Nathan then details how he’s trying to stay on top of this goal, using the likes of a Call of Duty reward to push him to finish a project and making sure he takes a break between tasks, so he doesn’t burn out. Other small things, like getting fresh air or taking a shower, keep him feeling “like a person”.
The video concludes with Nathan reassuring viewers that doing anything small is enough, a strong sentiment for all of us dealing with slumps of laziness or lack of motivation. He wraps up the video sarcastically cheering, “Let’s do this ’til 2022 – why not? I’m down.” A fitting outro for times like these, compiling the perfect mix of distracting comedy and existential dread.
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