Lazybones or just bone idle?

I’m with you. We share our time between 2 very small apartments. No garden, no crafting, no baking etc. I’m happy to read +++

I would like to change my username to #lazygran
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Good job we’re all different!

I have things I could be doing but am not forcing myself, there is plenty of time so shall wait until I feel inclined.

Well, that’s just it. I keep thinking I have all this time and it might all be over sooner than we think (as if!) and I’ll have wasted it! I have an excuse, I do have illnesses but to be honest, I could do more if I could just get off my bum! Glad it’s not just me.

I would like to bake but my husband started a strict diet before the lockdown and it wouldn’t be fair to put temptation in his way, would it?

It wouldn’t Luckylegs! So, you are not being lazy by not baking, merely THOUGHTFUL.
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Anne Enright had this to say in the Guardian on Friday. I think she’s right in what she says. Dh and I like to think we’re pacing ourselves for the long haul!

Anne Enright
Honestly, there is a lot to be said for tooling about all day, looking up recipes and not making them, not bothering to paint the living room and failing to write a novel. In the middle of the messy non-event called your mid-afternoon, you might get something – a thought to jot down, a good paragraph, a piece of gossip to text a pal. Boredom is a productive state so long as you don’t let it go sour on you. Try not to confuse the urge to get something done with the idea that you are useless. Try not to confuse the urge to contact someone with the thought that you are unloved. Do the thing or don’t do it. Either is fine.

I find big music helps at fateful times. Rachmaninov is good when the news is bad, Mahler also works. Poetry helps and I have turned, in recent days, to the religious work of John Donne, George Herbert and Henry Vaughan. But I also get bored with big thoughts and that point of boredom is the moment I am looking for – when I want my teenager’s mellow 70s Spotify mix, or a Cary Grant film.

In the first days of locking down, I felt as you do after trauma: language was no use to me. It has come back slowly, because it always does. I know this and I trust it. Meanwhile, I do not try to push a broken machine. I wait for boredom to kick in because boredom, for me, is a very good sign. It is the beginning of pleasure.

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Luckylegs This article might resonate with you
hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief?fbclid=IwAR35_lZ8_xajIcqad-GfMTT6_Hcp_ytepXFah30uvVNMHnbri4RB6GmVPC4

I too have been feeling very lethargic but have felt a bit better the last day or two.
We’ve never experienced anything like this before.
I’ve got a list of things that I’ve got to do (eg look for slot for online groceries, make soup with excess carrots, send touchnote card to X) but really there is very little that has to be done and I’m just doing what I feel
like doing. If that’s not very much, that’s ok.

janeainsworth - thanks for that link / a useful article. I liked this part -
Finally, it’s a good time to stock up on compassion. Everyone will have different levels of fear and grief and it manifests in different ways. A coworker got very snippy with me the other day and I thought, That’s not like this person; that’s how they’re dealing with this. I’m seeing their fear and anxiety. So be patient. Think about who someone usually is and not who they seem to be in this moment

Yes, I like both of those passages/articles, thank you. My daughter is usually busy at work, now she’s replaced that with ‘being busy’ all the time. Working from home, DIY, schooling her child, gardening etc in and in. She makes me feel dreadful, but it doesn’t make me want to do anything! She’s just said I have to go out and do gardening, it will make me feel better. I’ll try, I really will.

Yes I’m managing some gardening and enjoying it Luckylegs.
I hope you feel better today. Just accept the fact that is ok to be lazy sometimes and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone

I'm the same Luckylegs
Drawers and cupboards cleaned and tidied. The garden is DH's domain, my job is to tell him where to plant things. I don't do baking or batch cooking.
I pass my day watching some day time TV, scrolling FB, reading, doing crosswords and jigsaws. All very sedentary.
I can't walk far, so apart from a weekly shopping trip, that's it.

If I do just one job per day at the moment I feel pleased with myself,just clearing a small overgrown part of the garden is a major fete for me as I have never been in charge of the garden before so its new territory for me and the sunshine makes me feel much better.
Becoming lazy could become the new normal for me if I try hard enough

How do you motivate yourself? I have to set a (very little) target of just 30 minutes to an hour of work on a project. Once over that hurdle I often continue for longer.

The little target, once completed, gives me 'permission' to do something else that I really enjoy for the rest of the day. I get that lovely feeling of progress having been made. I'm being very kind to myself atm.

So it's just the old carrot and stick method.

Write a list of hated things that need doing, then another of things you enjoy. Yesterday I cleaned a window (just the one, really well) and that 'bought' me an afternoon of lovely gardening then watching a film.

Lucky , so agree with you, keep thinking I must get on but why, all the time in the world ?also there’s no one but us to see it! Just feel guilty (not) doing nothing!
Still in my pyjams, who cares....

I'm trying to summon up the energy to get up and have a shower! I live alone so have very little housework to do and I hate doing it anyway! I can't do much more work in the garden as I've got no where to put the weeds now our green bins are not being emptied so that's turning into a jungle!

I do have a number of craft projects on the go and spend quite a lot of time on them but I'm finding it hard to concentrate for too long so I flit from one thing to another!

I have mobility problems and cannot walk far so exercise outside is not feasible but I am planning to get a grip and go outside on my patio every day and do a few seated exercises or else I'll turn into an immobile blob!

I really make no plans, I just watch TV, read, keep up with social media and WhatsApp group, do online jigsaws or puzzles, craft a little and browse the Internet! But each day is passing, very slowly, and I'm still feeling well.

But I miss my numerous social groups, living on my own is very boring really!

I am pretty much the same, I haven't done any more housework than I did before, drawers are as they were but two cupboards have been sorted. Thats it. I have many projects to do, knitting to finish, and a dress to make but I just don't feel in the mood. Did a little bit in the garden yesterday but not much. I am quite happy, I go for a cycle ride every other day and just read and think on others.
I saw a lovely bit on Facebook the other day which just about sums it up, it goes

Any Plans for today?
Nope. just doing nothing
But you did that yesterday
I haven't finished yet.

Teacheranne, I'm drying out the weeds in the sun. I'll just have to do a bonfire, but late evening on a chilly day.

This is a good excuse to be as lazy as you want - I'm still in bed reading my iPad. Will go down later for a cup of coffee. Don't even feel like eating. I might even stay in bed till lunchtime ?

I have to be in the mood to do certain jobs, if I don’t feel like it I leave it until I do.

Made a steak and kidney pie and an egg custard when I fancied doing that.
Yesterday I de-frosted the ‘beer’ fridge in the garage, that definitely needed doing.
Today, DH has announced as he is gardened up he will decorate the third bedroom as long as we have enough paint. Yes, we do, so helping him clear it, (what a lot of ‘stuff’), that will need sorting through, curtains to wash, .....

Surely this is one big chance to relax and layabout without anyone outside your home knowing. Fine of course if all the family and friends are alright. I have sorted out some cupboards but in the afternoon I am reverting to childhood holidays and reading, followed by the permitted walk.

I had been lazing in bed planning to get going on...something...anything but then my daughter in Australia Facetimed so obviously that came first. That's one advantage of this current situation, the kids are bored too so there's more contact!

You have all made me feel a lot better about my apathy thank you x

It is hard to keep up the momentum of being busy ALL of the time. I have been gardening, sewing and turning out cupboards.
However, sometimes I just look at old photographs or look out of the window and notice things that I have not paid any attention to in the past.

How lovely to hear others are similar! I feel as I can walk and exercise I should but CBA. It’s perfectly understandable if you can’t walk too far that you should stay in. The trouble is my husband is out in the garden most of the time and wherever I am he can see me so I’m like a child, going into the bathroom to hide so I can still read my iPad! That’s dreadful behaviour. He wouldn’t say anything except to mock but I am very conscious of my utter inability to get up and do something!

I'm struggling as well. I have problems with mental health to start with and this last week has been very stressful. I do read on my Kindle but have a lot of books on the go as I can't seem to settle which one to read. Been sorting out drawers and have got things ready.to donate to charity shops when they are open again.
What to do next I wonder? Been doing some cleaning but I'm also disabled and usually a lady comes to clean for me but obviously that's had to stop for the present, so I'm just doing bits when I have some stamina .
Good Luck with it all - don't beat yourself up about it, just do what you can, when you can and do what you want to do.