I first learned of Taylor Lorenz when she was a guest on the Bad on Paper podcast. She is a technology writer for the New York Times and writes on a variety of topics that center around social media. I was initially intrigued by the podcast because of an article she wrote about Tik Tok’s ‘Hype House’. On the podcast, she provided behind the scenes information and her personal thoughts on the story. Beyond her intensive Tik Tok knowledge, I began to be interested in Lorenz as a person as she had an unconventional career path that led her to her current position at the Times. As someone who is interested in writing and social media, her journey inspired me and I started to read more of her articles.
On April 1st 2020, Lorenz published an article entitled Stop Trying to Be Productive. A few on my favorite Instagram influencers positively shared the link to the article in their stories so I felt inclined to read it. In the article, Lorenz writes about how several people intended to stay productive during quarantine, but fell short on their goals. One of her examples is a couple who planned to paint and remodel their kitchen, but after purchasing the supplies, did not start the project. She connects this need and desire for productivity to technology by pointing out numerous blog posts and articles oriented around organization, cooking, and exercise that are circulating the internet during this time. These articles are intended to inspire and motivate readers, but rather make people feel idle. My favorite part of the article is the very first line where she says, “The internet wants you to believe you aren’t doing enough with all that “extra time” you have now. But staying inside and attending to basic needs is plenty.”
This article really hit home for me. When classes transitioned from meeting in person to online and I no longer need to commute an hour each way to go to school, I had a whole list of tasks I thought I would be able to accomplish. I dreamt of reading more books, testing more complex recipes, and doing extra credit work for school. I quickly discovered that tackling this list would be more difficult than I thought. I was not in the right mind frame to sit down and read a book the first few weeks of quarantine. My mind was consumed with thinking about my husband, my family, and the world and there was no room for much else. As for complex recipes… we are lucky if our grocery store has flour and chicken let alone a list of ingredients. As for extra credit, it was difficult to ease back into school after having a two week break and adjusting to full online learning. After the time I devoted to completing just basic course work, I did not feel up to doing extra work. I felt major comfort hearing that simply by staying at home and taking care my myself and my husband is enough.
I hope the ideas talked about in this article can bring you some comfort during this time. What is something you have done with your time that has brought you joy? Happy reading!
Lorenz, Taylor. “Stop Trying to Be Productive.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Apr. 2020, http://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/style/productivity-coronavirus.html.
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