I managed to escape my small London flat right before the lockdown and am staying with my family in a small German town where weekend hiking and cycling makes the isolation from my friends easier.
Easter Monday
I wake up thinking that I better get up and ready to work but realise it is Easter Monday which means I can sleep in and get up for a nice family breakfast with my mum and brother. German Easter traditions usually include an egg hunt and families coming together to colour Easter, but this year we have to instead eat our Lindt chocolate bunnies without our grandparents and call our relatives to wish them a happy Easter hoping we can reunite with them very soon.
The restrictions in Germany are much more relaxed and you are allowed to see direct family which means my brother and I are able to visit my dad for a homecooked Easter lunch of traditional German Spätzle and some coffee and cake in the garden. They laugh at me for taking my tea with milk and mock me for becoming more and more English. I finish the day by playing with my latest investment, a Nintendo Switch. With Animal Crossing I meet my friends virtually and celebrate Easter on our island.
Tuesday
8am — I get up for some morning Yoga, working to complete Adrien’s 30 Day Yoga Challenge on YouTube which is giving me a great start to the week before I make myself some porridge and sit down to start checking my E-mails, planning the week ahead.
11.30am — After having worked on some of the more urgent things I start this short but busy week off with our daily strategy catch up. It is nice to see how everyone is dealing with isolation and how all of us keep doing great work in these uncertain times. Although this crisis comes with great challenges it really pushes us strategists to give us a new perspective and tests our strategic thinking! Let’s keep those brains working! #strategiststotherescue
3pm — I spend the afternoon working on a client presentation for a new strategic approach following the Covid-19 disruption. After last week was spent researching the impacts on consumer behaviour and watching several webinars and looking through endless reports, we are now close to finishing a response for post lockdown. Thankfully all of the research tools we have available have been tirelessly working to get the latest insights across to us so there is lots of information available.
4pm — After a busy afternoon full of meetings I leave my desk and relocate to the balcony to enjoy a cappuccino and cake and will stay here for the rest of the afternoon to work with in the sun.
Wednesday
8am — Rise and shine for another morning yoga session and some fresh celery juice and a berries porridge. Because my working day starts slightly later due to the time difference, I manage to get a lovely morning walk in and help my mum do some food shopping at our local market before I sit down to work.
2pm — I dial into another WebEx meeting about a new research tool we will be able to use to help us add more context to our cultural listening. This will come in handy for a project I am working on, so I get off the call and start to play around with the tool.
8pm — Off to the drive-in cinema in my hometown with some homemade guacamole and drinks included. It is packed with cars who are coming here from further away to enjoy the only way we can still get the latest movies.
Thursday
9am — Checking my emails and scheduling some meetings for the following week and dealing with some clashes to make sure I can attend all of the meetings. Coordinating some of this without being in the office can be challenging but with Slack, Email and WhatsApp we make it work! #teamwork. I then finishing up collating slides for a client presentation for and try to get a deck ready for internal review. I check the time and realise I have a morning full of meetings which gives me a one-hour sprint to get this ready to be sent around. Let’s see what my research and PowerPoint skills can create! Challenge accepted!
1pm — After a Successful deck review meeting with the team I tweak the presentation slightly and make some final edits before it is shared with the wider team next week.
2pm — I switch up my office space today and move to the living room to work on the next project that has been on my to-do list for a few days. This means diving right back into research tools and using a skeleton deck I created a while ago to develop some strategic thinking in the entertainment sector which is obviously changing massively in times of corona. I try not to get lost in research and manage to put some slides together for an internal review the next day.
4pm — I dial in to yet another WebEx after a fairly undistracted afternoon of research and am happy to see some faces I haven’t seen in a while to see how they are doing and discuss some next steps of an upcoming projects.
Friday
8am — Skipping the yoga session today to go on a long morning walk to start into the last day of the week full of energy and positivity.
11.30 — We spend the daily team meeting a little different today to discuss what we want to take with us from this time once we are back in the office. Walking meetings outside and proper lunchtimes away from the desk are on the list and I am all for it! Even though this is a challenging time we are all realising how essential it is to leave the house and enjoy nature and take the time we need to recharge at lunch.
1pm — I have created set meeting slots for lunch because it helps to make sure I can cook with my family or go for a nice afternoon walk in a small park near me. Lockdown in Germany is different, because we can go out as often as we like as long as we keep the distance.
2pm — Quick check in with my manager to discuss current projects and feelings around work arrangements. After the call I am preparing for an internal review of a successful strategy deck presented a while back to discuss with the team what we can take from this project to apply to other projects.
4pm — I finish the day by finishing an updated strategy for a current project and try to get it ready to be shared with the wider team next week. Another cappuccino to get me through the last two hours of the day and then an Aperol Spritz and a pub quiz I am hosting for some friends is waiting for me.
