Staying Productive in Madrid During Quarantine
Attending events, networking, and hanging out with others really isn’t a possibility in many locations, but a few entrepreneurs in Madrid are making the most out of what they have.
Madrid is a bustling city full of events, small businesses, and growing startups where you can find and connect with local entrepreneurs or freelancers on just about any given day of the week.
All this came to an abrupt halt in recent months, and as our quarantine era is slowly coming to an end here in Madrid, one of the biggest struggles people have reported is learning how to adapt to the new situation and how to stay productive during this time.
We wanted to catch up with some local entrepreneurs to see what they’ve been up to and what productivity tips they could share with others.
Karen Rosenblum
“Have a productive quarantine,” I say those words to myself often as that is my main goal for this pause. A few years ago, out of 20 years of experience in the travel industry, as well as out of my passion and love, I started a Spain travel company.
As we all know, the travel industry got hit very early on and has been hit hard. It’s do or die. And I cherish my business, so I will do whatever it takes to save it. Because I love what I do, I can be a bit relentless with workaholic tendencies. But during these strange times, I am not complaining about that. Every day I work.
I dig deep to find inspiration to showcase Spain as the beautiful destination that it is, and to remind the world that once ready, we will be so happy to welcome them back. Whether it be through adding content to my new website, growing and moderating my 5500+ member Travel Spain! community, creating original content for my professional social media channels or collaborating with others who produce Spain content, I’ve been busy.
I am also incredibly fortunate enough to have an accountability partner, another Spain based entrepreneur who is as passionate about his business as I am about mine.
We keep each other on task through setting timers for chunks of work, discussing our daily, weekly, and long-term goals, and encouraging (or sometimes pushing) one another to achieve them. We repeat our “keep moving forward,” mantra often. And that, coupled with my “have a productive quarantine goal does indeed keep me productive.
Here in Madrid, the quarantine measures have been some of the strictest in Europe and my daily routine has been interrupted in a way that I never imagined it would be. This has forced me, along with every other person on the planet, to adjust quickly.
My motivation to stay productive has nearly always been driven by the reward that awaits at the end of the task or project. That reward nearly always revolved around getting out and being social, which are two things that have been largely prohibited over the last couple of weeks. We all know the harshest measures are only temporary and we have already seen an easement to them here in Madrid and around the world.
I realized that the more productive I am now (and have been over the past few weeks), the more time I will have to travel and be social once the time comes that we are allowed to.
The benefit is two-fold, because staying productive has kept me busy and distracted so that I have less time to dwell on the difficult moments that we are all facing. My productivity has been driven by the idea of the more I do now, the less I have to do later.
As soon as the quarantine started in Madrid, I made a list of goals and tasks I wanted to accomplish in my newly increased indoor time. I’ve learned in the past that I’m more likely to achieve my goals if I focus on a few. I narrowed my list down to 3 non-negotiables and immediately scheduled them into my calendar.
To boost work/general skills and knowledge. I signed up for 1-2 webinars a week and finally started the certificate course my company recommends(and has a reimbursement plan for!)
To stay active. I blocked a minimum of 30 minutes a day to work out, started a workout zoom with friends, and made a list of all my favorite Youtube/Instagram workouts.
To start learning Spanish(again). I found a learning app I enjoy and scheduled no less than 30 minutes of “study” time every day. Since I enjoy the app, I’ve found I can easily study past my allotted time.
Rebecca Crespo is the Madrid City Manager for Croissant, SEO content creator, and slightly obsessed with her French Bulldog Belita. During her free time, she enjoys a good cup of coffee and catching up with friends, or working on creating meaningful content for her Minimalism Blog.