5 ways to stay positive during lockdown
We can see how you are not waiting for just another article about the Corona situation. But this one is different. It is about opportunities and ‘hands on’ things that you can actually do yourself, to benefit professionally from the ‘spring lockdown of 2020’.
1. Keep up the teamspirit
It can be challenging to keep in contact with clients and co-workers without touching base. In times like these, this applies more than ever. We believe teamwork makes the dream work and that’s why it’s important to stay in contact with your colleagues. Have regular calls to monitor what others are doing and ask feedback on you own work. Use tools to co-create files like Dropbox paper or Miro, so you can give and receive instant feedback.
More importantly: keep up the teamspirit! Three weeks without socials or Friday drinks, can have a serious impact on the team. Setup a “workout from home” Slack channel, start a book club or host an online Quarantine PubQuiz with your colleagues.
2. Break free from the defaults
A funny thing happened when I entered a meeting with some ‘high ranking’ government employees in uniform and we gave each other ‘the elbow’ instead of a hand. Normally there is a professional distance, a formal introduction and a certain ‘coldness’ that comes from it. Because of the ‘no touching rules’ meant to keep a proper distance, we give ‘elbows’. And in some way this brings us closer. Because the very first default rule of etiquette is ‘broken’, the whole atmosphere changes. For a very short time frame people are ‘lost’ and you can use that.
If the first default rule is broken, you can easily break the rest. The only thing you need is suggestions how to do things in a different way than you are used to. Because maybe, just maybe it makes much more sense to do them differently.
3. Stop with 1 hour meetings
I feel like ‘The One Hour Meeting’ originates from the tools that we use to book meeting rooms. Think about it, in Outlook, the default interaction is to plan 15 minute blocks. Therefore planning a meeting of 20, 40 or 50 is unusual. And if a room is booked for a meeting, people have a habit of ‘using up’ all this time. Why? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s about to change.
Without the ‘chains’ of this physical space and it’s limitations, we are free. Free to end a meeting whenever all the topics are addressed. Since everybody is working from home and the internet connections are sometimes not too stable, people tend not to linger. To just say what needs to be said, divide action points and end the meeting. Even if we’re just 48 minutes in. A quick calculation learns us that on a team with one meeting room, you can ‘win’ the bonus time of one full-time employee by keeping meetings quick (if you would save 12 minutes per person x 5 persons a meeting x 8 meetings a day x 5 days a week = 40 hours). Think about all the extra time we have to do the things that actually matter.
4. Build a routine
When working in an office, your day is organically divided in chunks. You start your workday when you arrive at the office and open your laptop. Then, meetings, lunchbreak and tasks like replying to emails and working on projects makeup the schedule for that day. Working from home starts as soon as you open your laptop, and ends when you close it. To get the most out of your day, try to plan your schedule, as if you’d be in the office. Set a begin- and endtime for your workday and plan your lunch and coffee breaks. Make the start of your workday a ritual, like setting up the computer, make some coffee and check/make your to-do list for the day. Timeframe tasks in your calendar in order to maximize your productivity. Make a ritual of the end of the day too, for example by reflecting on the tasks and setting a goal for the next day.
It can be tempting to continue working after the usual office hours, but it’s important to switch of the work-mode and take some time to relax too.
5. Do things you’ve never done before
We all have very busy lives, dividing our time between work, social life, sports, family and other activities. We are always running around, trying to fit as much as we possibly can in our schedule. One big advantage of lockdown is that we are home-bound and forced to cancel most of these activities. This clears up time in your busy schedule to do things you never really had the time for. Finish that book that’s been on the shelve for ages. Start an online course. Learn a new skill. Clear up your mailbox. Start a blog. Record a podcast.
Use this sudden “extra-time” to your advantages to do something you never really had the time for. And also ‘spread the love’. Share the wonderful things that you discovered, did or learn to inspire others!
