Self-Reflection During Social Isolation (An Introvert's Perspective)

It’s been almost a month since we went in to a “shelter in place” mode. COVID-19 has really impacted us all around the world from a socio-economic point of view and forced us to look at things differently. After all these days of practicing social distancing to flatten the curve, I finally had a chance to sit down and reflect.

There has been quite a few articles about best practices for effectively working from home or on how to manage the work life integration. Being “socially introvert” myself, I wanted to use it as a lens and understand its impacts on the new normal. The three key aspects I thought about were: work environment, professional interactions, family and friends.

Work Environment

I always believed going to office is the best way to get the work done. Hence when it came to start “working from home” for an indefinite period of time, I was slightly skeptical. Very quickly I realized I was actually missing to be in the work place and in-person interactions with my colleagues . Based on the recent TED talk from Prof. Susan David, I realized in terms of emotional agility this was just a trigger and I was responsible to make the choice on how I would like to respond to it.

Given my personality traits, “working from home” actually presented more control over work environment and ability to be more focused. Following almost similar routine that I followed while at work and blocking out dedicated time for family and household related activities certainly helped me to move along quite nicely.

Professional Interactions

At the very beginning, the focus was on to figure out how to keep things going as is. Does everyone has basic set up available to work remotely? Thereafter it was about making sure we make an attempt to continue on with emails, audio conferences, screen shares. Soon I realized there has to be more than this to make it meaningful for a professional set up. I started consciously making an effort to keep my video on during all the calls. Quick team check-ins, casual conversations and even a few virtual happy hours has certainly taken the engagement to the next level. With adversity presented by COVID-19, came a sense of community and clear purpose of staying strong and marching on.

Reflecting back, there were times when I felt a little uncomfortable in large groups during physical meetings or conferences. Following these virtual routines has certainly helped me to stretch further.

Family and Friends

The announcement of "Shelter in Place" really triggered the basic needs of Maslow's hierarchy. All of us first individually focused on physiological and safety needs say it be food, water, hand sanitizer, wipes, toilet paper and the list goes on. But soon enough the pandemic created higher social needs - to feel good, in comfort, in control. This started with focusing more on family. For me it started with cooking meals with my wife and daughter, sitting with my daughter during her homework and watching movies together as a family. Next step was to extending it further to friends and extended families. Routine facetime/ video calls, virtual games and wine tasting really enabled us to get settled into the new normal and strengthen our relationships. It makes us wonder why we had to wait for a pandemic for us to take these steps.

The sense of urgency around reaching out, checking on family and friends has really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I actually feel good about it.

Hence I think even though we are going through a unique global challenge at this point, it has also presented us with many new opportunities to appreciate our lives and relationships and triggered creativity to approach our day to day in unique ways. I would hope for us to continue to practice these good steps going forward. As per me, I am starting to feel a bit less "socially introvert" and I am for sure marching on ahead on a path of continuous improvement.