Lockdown during COVID-19: Is this the new "normal"?

Are you also waiting for the lockdown to be over? Are you also procrastinating on things justifying yourself that you will pick them after the lockdown?

That is a very bad vicious cycle to get into! 

We need to make peace with the current scenario, consider this as the new normal and adapt to it. It's the theory of evolution which would prevail.

Working at suboptimal capacity or burning yourself by not maintaining discipline will do more harm to you. It's easy to convince ourself of certain inconvenience with the 21-day lockdown justification. But it will do no good for you. Instead, what we need to do is mimic our typical workday as we did in the pre-lockdown era.

Here are some astounding tips our psychologist gave in a webinar addressing our employees today:

1. Mimic the Same Routine as the office (wake up, get ready and go to work)
2. Maintain a Designated Work Area (preferably a table, chair and not a chill couch in front of TV)
3. Set the Right Expectation with your roommates/ family members in terms of working schedule so that they respect the same.
4. Plan for daily chores you are responsible for. Cook lunch in advance as taking a long break to prepare lunch mid-day will result in lowering productivity for the rest of the day.
5. End On Time rather than assuming “Work From Home” means working anytime.
6. Take Small Breaks as you did at the office. Call up a colleague, bitch about things, laugh it out!

I really liked some of the above tips and hence thought of sharing them with you all working from home.

Coming to the second part - of remaining Sane during this period. It is very important that we address all the fears we have within, from catching the virus, job stability to access to groceries/ medicines etc. Here are some of the very practical tips we got from expert during the webinar. 

1. Periodic Information Consumption - We know our well wishers care for us, and hence they forward all the WhatsApp messages to us. But, its very important that we consume information in a mature and periodic manner. Designated not more 1 hour (say 30 min in the afternoon and 30min in the evening) to consume information. Keep your groups on silent and resist the temptation to have a continuous flow of information to you.
2. Worry Window - Prepare a designated time of the day (maybe once or twice) when you worry about things that scare you. Note them down in a sheet/ journal or voice them into your phone. Writing/ Speaking gives your mind time to process, segregate and not allow your worry to scatter to all the aspects of life.
3. Positivity - With all the negative energy around, its important that we negative some of them through the release of happy hormones called endorphins. Practice mindfulness, gratitude journal etc for the same. 
4. Social Distancing ≠ Social Isolation - In the age of technology if we are isolating ourselves staying alone, that is a very poor outlook towards life. One of the most important aspects of human beings is socialising. More so for the personality types called extroverts. Think of the good old times and make a list of friends, family that you can video call. Plan and execute!

Hope some of the above points would be beneficial to you as well. I think what we need is a mindset shift. What will happen on 15th Apr? All lockdown will be lifted and we will be on the streets like India has won a world cup? Definitely not! A pandemic has much longer-term impact and the most practical way to get through this is to optimise your lifestyle for the current situation and adapt to it. 

No one knows how the post-lockdown era would look like! Believe in yourself, think of it as nature’s way of evolving the human race. Adapt and move on! It’s about the survival of the fittest (flexible)!