You Don’t Have To Be Productive While You’re Social Distancing, But Harry Styles Is

With coronavirus forcing a worldwide lockdown, we’re living in strange times. We can’t all be at our most productive right now, but Harry Styles is taking the opportunity to do what he does best. He’s spending his time creating new music for our listening pleasure, telling Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, “I've been writing so much. To be honest, I'm doing some of the stuff that I should be doing more often anyway, probably I should be playing the piano more. I should be playing the guitar more. I should be writing poems and lyrics more. So I've been doing a lot of that.”

As we’re all trying to stay in our homes and not panic, Styles is in the same boat. He’s refreshingly open about his privilege, as he mentions that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to work from home. So, what does working from home look like for a rockstar? According to Styles, he’s doing a lot of meditating and working on his craft after releasing his latest record, Fine Line.

“I'll get up in the morning, I'll meditate...and then have a coffee and do some reading to kind of just try and wake up a little bit. And then I go for a run, try and get some air and some sunshine.” What’s on his plate after meditation and a morning run? Making more music, of course. 

Styles was all set to go out on tour before coronavirus hit and everyone started observing social distancing. He has been remarkably zen about it, saying it was disappointing but of course worth it to keep everyone safe. He has been taking coronavirus seriously: in his tour rescheduling announcement, he urged fans to “please self-isolate” and signed off, “We’re all in this together.” 

He opened up to Lowe about how he had to work to get people in his life to self-isolate. “I think once you have the conversation with your parents and stuff about whether you think this is serious or not, we're asking you as your children to just take it seriously and stay inside and everything.” 

Styles also spoke about the importance of staying socially connected during these difficult times. He’s mentioned how hard it is to be a single person living on your own during this, and said he has been reaching out to friends in that situation. Making an effort to check in with your friends who are on their own is an empathetic approach to social distancing, and we could all stand to try to emulate him there. 

Ultimately, Styles is trying to stay connected to others, work on new music, and find joy in the little things. Sounds like a good way to manage your time during this stressful situation.