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When the COVID-19 pandemic started, my productivity took a hit and I lost a handful of clients. Overall, my income has decreased by 50%.

Beforehand, I'd been saving half my income every month to meet a retirement savings goal I'd set for myself.

I decided to cut myself some slack and set new, more forgiving financial goals in light of the pandemic. I made sure to keep up my habit of putting money away in a savings account each month while reducing the amount I contribute.

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Scrolling through my social media feed a couple of years ago, I was often bombarded with inspirational quotes about hustling and "If you're reading this…" memes calling me out for being on social media instead of working toward my goals.

Now, I'm more likely to scroll past illustrations about self-care and reminders that my self-worth doesn't depend on my productivity.

As the COVID-19 pandemic got serious and lockdown orders were put in place all over the US, the productivity police made a brief comeback. My feed started showing me posts about all the ways I could stay busy and check off self-improvement goals during quarantine. I was grateful when the internet responded with some backlash to the idea that we have to be hyper-productive during a global pandemic.

Be kind to yourself. Rest if you need to rest. If you don't have the mental capacity to be productive right now, that's OK.

This was the new message. And while I appreciated the reassurance that my inability to focus and my sleeping in late didn't make me a bad person, there was still a major anxiety nagging at the back of my mind: Allowing myself to do nothing sounds great, but I still need to make money.

I suspect this is a question many people who are down with self-care but also have bills to pay ask themselves. Here's how I've decided to negotiate between accepting my decreased productivity and still making ends meet during COVID-19.

I've lost 50% of my income since the pandemic hit

Because I'm self-employed, my productivity is directly tied to my income, so not being able to work is especially dire for me. Some people with salaried jobs can surreptitiously shop online or scroll through memes at work and still get paid. If I spend an hour falling down an internet rabbit hole or taking a nap, that's an hour of wages I just lost.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has really decreased my ability to focus. Between an increase in anxiety, all of the uncertainties weighing on my mind, the distractions of working from home, and making sure I'm checking up on family and friends, I simply can't produce quality work as quickly as I used to.

On top of this, I've had several clients drop all freelancers, so I simply lost those jobs.

In the months since the pandemic hit, my income has gone down by 50%.

Why I decided against trying to recover my financial losses

At first I was frantic, trying to secure new clients and get my income and productivity levels back to where they were pre-pandemic. I was terrified. I stayed up at night imagining the worst — I would drain my emergency savings, I would lose the rest of my work, I would lose my entire career.

But then I realized that these fears of scarcity were probably unfounded. I'm extremely lucky in that I don't have a lot of bills or fixed expenses — I don't own a car, I don't have any debt, and I rent short-term. I also have a healthy emergency savings fund. In other words, this wasn't a life-or-death situation. I could still afford to survive.

Rather than spend every day frantically trying to hit my pre-pandemic financial goals and beating myself up when it doesn't happen, I decided to accept the fact that both my income and my productivity will probably be lower than usual for a while.

How I've adjusted my savings goals in light of the pandemic

While I'm still able to meet my basic needs right now, I'm not able to meet my savings goals at all. Last year, I set a major financial goal for myself when I turned 30: to catch up on all the years I failed to save for retirement in my 20s. So, before the pandemic hit, I'd been saving at least 50% of my income each month — and again, my post-pandemic income has taken a 50% hit.

Luckily, I'm spending a lot less on things like travel and dining out, so I'm still able to save some money. I've set a new, smaller, and more flexible goal for myself: I try to funnel at least 20% of my income into retirement accounts, and if I can, I put another 10% in a short-term savings account.

It was important for me to cut myself slack when it came to my savings goals without abandoning them completely. It took me years to build up a habit of consistently putting a percentage of my paycheck into a savings account each month, and giving up on it altogether would mean I'd have to build it up again from scratch when my income level increases.

I recommend that everyone put away some money into a savings account each month, even during the pandemic. If you've already been saving money, keep that momentum going right now by continuing to make monthly contributions but reducing the amount. If you haven't started building a savings habit, you can start now by putting $25, or even less, away each month. The money will add up more quickly than you think, and you never know when it might come in handy.

Keep up the good habits, but don't beat yourself up if you aren't at your prime right now. None of us are.

Source: Business Insider

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