Lockdown: some thoughts & reflections

The same but not the same.

Are we in week 5 or 19? I'm no longer sure. But for me most of life is very similar to before.

I've worked from home for 15 years - nothing much has altered. I'm still working. Deadlines still exist and have to be met. I still have the same routine to the day. 

But there's not so much work around and there isn't much coming up on the horizon. After 19 years of running my business, I think this could be 'the year'. 

If we don't make it through it will not be for the lack of graft. But we have to face the fact that there will be a huge global economic impact resulting from this pandemic. 

We've seen clients and suppliers close their businesses already. We are all facing a very different world. The new normal is very abnormal. But even when we start to come out of this and the restrictions are lifted I suspect we may not return to the world we once knew for some considerable time.

We will have to collectively re-evaluate. 

As we sit in the midst of it all the biggest change for me personally - like us all I guess - is not being able to see people.

Most weeks I'd have meetings and that usually meant travel into central London. That got me out of the house and away from my desk. 

But other than my business meetings, a weekly pilates class and a weekly coffee & walk in the park with a friend and his dogs, most weeks pre-lockdown it was quite possible I'd only really see one other human for any length of time, my wife Ally. She also works from home. We work in different rooms, on different floors. We have meals together but other than that we can spend the working hours of the day in our own bubbles, doing our own thing. 

That's probably not a bad thing though - our different musical tastes and working practices would, I'm sure, preclude us sharing a workspace.

I've noticed that I have retreated into myself a bit in the last few years. Partly that's just been due to running the business and partly that's been related to suffering from depression. 

Although I can function for meetings, I have found that I often avoid social situations or feel very ill-at-ease whilst in them.

All that said, I do really miss having the option to go out and meet people. The enforced isolation may not be much different in terms of the reality of actual hours spent with real humans - but the mental perception of it feels very different. 

Psychologists say one of the biggest issues for stress levels for people is when they feel a lack of control or self-determination.

Freewill and the ability to choose what you do when. Removing that single factor has an immense impact on people. 

And that is exactly what the world is experiencing right now.

Add to that the heightened sense of concern for family and loved ones as we navigate a world in which we literally have danger constantly at hand. 

My brain isn't thinking like that personally but I'm aware of encountering people on my daily walk who are obviously very worried. For some 2 meters clearly isn't enough. And I understand that. 

I guess most of us by now know people who have or are battling Covid-19 symptoms. And most of us will have elderly relatives and vulnerable people that we care about. 

There is a drive to 'get back to normal' & 'open for business'.

Again, I understand the motivation. I could honestly lose my business so there is a real personal cost but my hope is that we learn. That we do take stock and not just blindly rush to get back to how things were. 

If we've learnt anything it's that we need to relook at how we value people. We all know the debt we owe to key workers.

And if we are honest with ourselves, whatever our political leanings, we also know that they have been undervalued for many, many years.

We know we don't always need to travel. We've seen that time and money can be saved by doing more with the technology we already have at our fingertips.

I'm not suggesting we stop all the physical meetings. I know I many things are better done in person. But we can take a bigger view. Do we need to travel as much as we do? Do we need to get on that plane to attend that meeting or can we be more creative in how we engage one another, plan together and conduct our trades?

As we start to come out of the lockdown and the focus moves from the virus we will start to see the stats about other impacts of the lockdown. Perhaps we will start to understand that we are much more interconnected than we might acknowledge.

We will see stats on domestic violence, on mental health impact, physical health impact. I've personally never taken so many daily walks purely for the sake of taking a walk, and I'm pretty sure most of the people I see out on my walk are in that same boat!

We will see stats on air quality and pollution levels, and on our impact on the animal kingdom too. There is information to be gleaned from this global lockdown that we would not otherwise have any chance of gaining. It's our collective responsibility to use that data to improve the way we live. There are lessons and facts we can't ignore. 

We have all taken greater personal responsibility for our actions during this pandemic. Surely, that should continue after it too.