Currently, many folks are home, trying to balance full time work and full time childcare, plus homeschooling/education of some sort. I’ve seen all the color-coded homeschooling charts, and all the articles about how to maximize productivity when your kids are at home (split shifts! easily accessible snacks! engaging activities!), as well as all the apology notes to coworkers and bosses written after the kids are in bed and parents are signing back on. Note: this balance isn’t unique just to parents - you mean you’ve been social-distancing for a week now and haven’t started quarantine journaling / apartment-Kondo-ing / manuscript writing / daily yoga live-streaming / bread baking? What are you even doing??
But this isn’t a sabbatical, or a contest. This time is unprecedented and unknowable. And indefinite. And everyone reacts differently. And while one answer is to get lost in productivity, that doesn’t have to be the only answer. Depending on your politics, you might in fact think that a focus on productivity and capitalism have exacerbated the current situation. (Many of the problems folks are currently struggling with - available and affordable healthcare, child care, time off work, fair and equal access to resources - are what progressives have been trying to solve for decades.)
And when society is not normal in two weeks, or two months, you might feel this even more. You might not have engaging or fulfilling projects at work. You might not have work at all. But regardless, you will still be a human person (as my son would say), and you will have not lost value.
You are not your output. Your worth is not measured by your productivity, for your household, your family, or your workplace.
Feel free to make it a mantra in the days and weeks ahead.