How to have a good day in lockdown

Last week Friday we heard from Caroline Webb - economist, executive coach and author of the best?selling book How to Have a Good Day - on how to translate her insights around productivity and workplace relationships into our current context – effectively, how to have a good day in lockdown.

I have mentioned in previous posts how Discovery has pivoted quickly to ensure a business as usual experience from a client perspective, and moved the majority of our workforce to a supported work from home environment. However, the reality is that our people – like others in businesses across the world - have experienced real upheavals in their work and home lives. Caroline’s message spoke to these new challenges, as well as tools for navigating the  emotions and responses we may encounter during this unprecedented time.

She focused on key pillars such as practising compassion towards ourselves and others; focusing on areas of certainty; and directing our conscious attention, to dramatically alter our experience of the stay-at-home period.

Given the current environment, it is to be expected that our behaviour is somewhat erratic and our performance slightly off kilter. We may find ourselves responding more aggressively than usual, or retreating to passivity and non-responsiveness. Caroline’s guidance for managing this was first and foremost, being kinder and more patient with ourselves and each other. It may sound soft, but acknowledging the stress we are all feeling, and being gracious in our interactions, is a powerful first step.

Second was understanding the drivers of our behaviour, namely how uncertainty combined with negativity – such as we all feel in the face of COVID?19 and lockdown – causes us to react more intensely. Given uncertainty is debilitating, Caroline advised focusing on certainties such as things we know about our environment (for example, I have food and a roof over my head); and about ourselves (for example, our talents and strengths) – to reduce our sense of stress and give us back a feeling of competence and control. 

Finally, she emphasised the value of bringing our conscious attention to the positive, in what can feel like a sea of negatives. What’s top of mind affects what we notice and our mood, therefore focusing on the positive things that happened in our day is a powerful way to reset a mental slide into negativity and stress. Core to this is being mindful of the amount of negative news we consume.

What we at Discovery really value about Caroline’s approach is that it is grounded in behavioural science, and uses an understanding of our brain’s biases to help us overcome barriers to ‘having a great day’. As such, her guidance is intuitive, empowering and effective.