NEVER HAVE I EVER . . . not had a Fear of Missing Out

Nishanth S Coontoor

Because quarantine life is the new normal and memes are bae, I wrap up my day scrolling through memes on Facebook. Contrary to what others around you may say, this is healthy. I think. Memes are light and funny and often addictive.

It was going as planned. I threw in a few yawns here and there when the dinosaur meme showed up. I was getting comfortable ready to doze off until I hit this.

2020: January – February – March – Quarantine – December

Let that sink in. We are approaching the halfway mark into the year already. And before you know it, it will be time to light up the tree again!

Now, if you are like me who was unsure how 2018 and 2019 passed right before my eyes and if 2020 seems to be following the same trend, you’d toss and turn in your bed with anxiety like I did. What will I show for in 2020? I had to take 2 melatonin gummies to fall asleep at 4 am.

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Quarantine life seems to have brought with it increased pressure to be extra productive. Extra productive to make it count. You cannot do the same things you did before. Most of us have no commute to work, no travel and no outings. Your weekly trip outside your home is possibly to get groceries or take a socially distant walk. Does this mean that at the end of the year you need to have crossed something off your bucket list that you were putting off before due to the lack of time?

When this started off mid-March, we joked about getting to stay home and watch Netflix and Hulu and standup on Youtube. But beyond a point, especially when Netflix asks you ‘Are you still there?’ the binge watching strikes a chord that makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it?

I have had a serious Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). This gets exacerbated especially when you see social media with all the side projects, paintings and puzzles and the cooking everyone is doing trying to make it count.

It’s been a race against time each day to work on other interests while managing work because its now or never. I wanted to learn about algorithm training, so I recently purchased a 600-page book from Amazon. I started reading it the day it delivered.

But wait, I also need to go back to crypto. Bitcoin is halving on May 11. Gotta understand what that means for bitcoin before it happens. Alright, lets open coinmarketcap.com and track prices on one screen. 4 hours to go before the halving. I have some time. Phew.  

Now, I have two tasks with a running clock.

Isn’t today a Monday? I have the weekly quiz for a course I need to wrap up soon.

Then there is regular work.

What about the zoom workouts? Since I cannot lift weights, I need to compensate with cardio to push the weight loss. Need to make it count.

Duo lingo has been sending me notifications to pick up where I left off with Spanish.

Make it count. Now or never.

Make it count. Now or never.  

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Its stressful. It induces anxiety. It may make you nervous. You’ll likely lose sleep.

I thankfully had a chance to open up and talk to a mentor on how to manage all of this. At a risk of getting preachy, here are some ways to manage the FOMO that seemed to make sense:

1. Make a list. Just making a to-do list has helped reduce stress because you are no longer thinking about everything at the same time.

2. One thing at a time. Check off items on the list one thing at a time. If they are on-going tasks, block off certain days and times through the week to get to them instead of the spontaneous NOW. Examples could be workouts, or a large puzzle or reading.

3. Focus on the experience. When I took up kickboxing in addition to regular workouts, I had to tell myself that this is for the experience, not necessarily to master. Be a jack of all traders and master of some.

4. Take tasks to completion. Just going through the checklist you made earlier and taking them to completion and closing the loop.

5. Quarantine life isn’t a competition.

If you have any other ideas to beat the FOMO, or just want to rant, do share. Good luck!

Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay