Find Your Quiet Time, Office Tactics for Introverts

Inner peace in the time of noise

Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash

Hello my name is Paul and I’m a recovering introvert. I used to blush when asking somebody for a pen at school. I used be borderline terrified of hanging out with large groups of people. One time in high school I sat in a bathroom stall for all of lunch time because I needed some space.

I try not to think about things in terms of introverts vs extroverts anymore. I don’t find those definitions useful. If anything I think about it in a spectrum. Some people like quiet. Some people don’t mind noise. Some need more of one or the other. That’s about it.

For me, I found the root of my introversion to be a feeling of shyness. I would often find myself drained by extended social encounters. This resulted in me getting into my own head and thinking too much and driving me further into lala land.

I realized that I need to come out of my shell more to get over it. This doesn’t necessarily mean conversations with strangers all the time, but that is a great ability to have. I realized I needed to be OK with the simple act of putting my ideas out somewhere.

Just give myself permission to say something. Be it in a passing comment, a medium post, or an online learning course. We quiet people have things to say…