Back to the roots — Living aside the fast-paced reality

Lucy’s diary: What I’ve learned within the past 114 days & what’s next

Dear diary,

114 days. Wow! Can you believe that? I can’t. I still remember the first day. “Lucy, from now on please work from home”, my career counselor messaged me. It felt weird but also somehow exciting because there were so many question marks. My sister visited me during that time. I will never forget how we were sitting on the couch in the evening. We have never been so bored in our life because we felt like being in a cage — like two little birds, who are not allowed to fly anymore. Stupid because we could have just cooked, watched Netflix, or even talked with each other since we meet rarely. But knowing that our freedom is not as it used to be anymore, changed our entire feeling. This is also called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Of course, it was mixed with some fear, as well. All these push-up messages on the phone with news about the shutdown… But now, more than two months later, a lot changed. So have I. Studies say that it takes 77 days to get used to a new habit. So is this “the new normal”? Looking back to the past days to reflect and evaluate, it is important to learn how we grew and what has changed. But as a consultant, it is also important to look into the future. How will life go on? What’s next?

But first, looking at the past 114 days. Missing what was so normal just a couple of weeks back? Learning or teaching, listening or talking, problems or solutions, consuming or producing, serious or fun. Questions, I found answers to. Answers, which for sure define the new way of working.

Turning into a happy rhizome

During the first weeks, I felt like I became a happy rhizome. A rhizome is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. It will keep on growing, even when it gets broken. It adapts to the circumstance and grows in a different direction. That was what happened to my daily routine. It got broken, so I outgrew it by adapting. I think this does not only apply for a daily routine — which was, by the way, one of the most important things to have to not get lost. We will always have to adapt to an ever-changing world. So, we have to find our own routines which are like rockets in an ocean so that even when big waves come, we still stand strong no matter what (okay wow, this is a deep comparison — even for me). For me, one aspect of my routine was to keep happiness, have fun, and contact with friends and family. Thanks to modern technology, that was possible and we got more creative than ever, e.g. by having virtual games nights. I always knew that that was important to me. But away from this fast-paced, overstimulating, consuming world outside, I realized what is truly important for me. We were more connected than ever. That’s why I am calling myself a happy rhizome.

Becoming more open and creative than ever

I got super open-minded to new topics and creatively try new things. I wouldn’t have had time for normally. One example was my attempt to differentiate between home and office so that the words home and office don’t merge. Hacking my brain by using vanilla lotion and a candle to get into a relaxed or productive mode — who would have thought? I even would have called myself crazy before this current situation. But crazy situations need crazy solutions. And craziness pushes creativity.

Gaining virtual intelligence

New virtual surroundings, new soft skills needed. Virtual intelligence consists out of two major elements: Firstly, body language and its chemicals improve virtual communication, secondly, networking. Switching on the camera to create eye contact to build trust, smiling to spread happiness hormones, motivating each other, sitting straight to feel confident, building relationships by truly caring about your team, and asking them how they are not losing the human component in the virtual world. To name just a few of the tasks to achieve virtual intelligence. It will help us to work more efficiently in the future way of working where we won’t fly to another city for a 30 minutes meeting. We will be able to build trust and engagement virtually. And this will enable us to run virtual projects in perfection.

Workshopping from my couch

Working from my couch used to be my student reality. Now it’s my working reality. Turning workshop where we normally would have sit in a room to wildly pin colorful post-its on the wall, into a virtual version, is not so easy at first glance. But once you understand the fundamentals, which tools to use, and how to engage with your team, it is pretty fun. Especially because you can wear your sweatpants in which you do yoga straight afterward, instead of going to the airport.

Getting to know the virtual personalities of my team

Personality traits are influenced by different situations. An extreme situation like this is perceived differently by every person. Some turn into social butterflies and can appreciate every bit of virtual interaction, whereas some people try to avoid it as much as possible and try to get back to the real world as quickly as possible. Getting to know this new side of my colleagues and understanding what motivates them and how to address them to work together in the best way possible, can be a true Sherlock Holmes games. But a the same time, it can improve the interactions.

Hacking my productivity for more me-time

What is important to me and what makes me happy? Even though I love my job, I also love my spare time. Quarantine made me deal with optimizing my productivity to have more time for what I like to do or simply just some, how people call it, “me time”. So which hacks were the best?

1. Identify the most important tasks and then differentiate between urgent and important ones. What is urgent, needs to be done today. What is important, can be done tomorrow.

2. “Singletask” rather than multitask. Our output can increase two to five times.

3. Let’s ask our colleagues for negative feedback to optimize ourselves.

4. Physical activity in the sun. There seems to be an association between exposure to sunlight and improved mood and memory.

5. Don’t touch your phone during the first 30 minutes of the day and take the time in the shower to structure your thoughts, issues, etc. That’s where usually my best ideas grow.

Comparing the past 114 days to other “normal” 114 days, I can certainly say that I have never learned so much about myself. The slow-paced environment and time to focus on myself helped me a lot and will influence me positively in the long-term. But besides my new behavior, I am wondering how the future will look like. What’s in everyone’s mouth is of course that we all saw that it is not always important to be physically together to work together. Even workshops are possible, who would have thought? But does that mean that in the long-term it might be possible that there won’t be offices anymore? That would mean that I should invest in a good work table, chair and two computer monitors. Will companies pay their employees some kind of rent then since they don’t have to pay expensive buildings anymore and we, as employees, have to pay higher electricity and water bills when we are more at home? But what about the people who are super unmotivated working from home? Some clients want that consultants come back onside. However, traveling is not easy at the moment. New hygiene concepts change the way how we work together in an office. I am not sure what is better: working from home or working from the office with 100 rules to consider? Even going back to hotels is not as it used to be, they have to follow at least 100 rules, as well.

I am more than curious about what will be next and how things will change. Also, even though there are so many questions, I am looking forward to finding the answers again. Just like at the beginning of the crisis, there is much uncertainty again. But uncertainty means we will learn a lot. Just like I learned that quarantine did not mean to be like little birds caught in a cage. I still had a lot of freedom. But just in a different way than I was used to. In the beginning, changes are always uncomfortable — but they give us opportunities to learn a lot about ourselves. Just as we went back to our roots aside from the fast-paced world. My happy after quarantine moment was when I met my colleague and friend for an after-work drink on my balcony. I’ve never thought that those small moments turn into such special and happy moments which I appreciate more than ever. Maybe, that’s something we needed in our busy lives.

Thanks to my fellow link-minded people for going on this experimental storytelling journey: Adèle Conraud, Louisa Rahder & Haik Spitzer