The slow path out of lockdown
You will probably say: “What are you talking about? What lockdown, Corona is over, we made it!” And I say that it is far from over. Numbers in Finland are at an all times high even though testing activity has gone down. China is still closing down Mega-Cities, and even North Korea admits to infections. Nothing is “over”, we’ve just come to arrange ourselves with the situation.
But, as always, there’s hope. The way that we have arranged ourselves with the situation seems good enough. We can go back to the our workplace, in my situation my employer leaves it completely up to the employee and their managers to find the necessary arrangements. So we could finally socialize again IRL!
There was just one small problem. I found that I had entrenched myself in my home office, a near typical man cave in a basement with dark blinds in front of the windows, shady lighting, lots of nerdy computer gear and a super comfy gaming chair. So how on earth was I supposed to get out of my comfort zone again and face real people outside my family? And possibly even talk to them?
Well, one step at a time. First, just randomly decide after breakfast “Today is the day” and get out there. Official office reopenings are a really good incentive, they still contain the curiosity is who else will show up, who can you go for lunch with, how does the office look like after two years of abandonment? I even went twice in the first week!
And then I didn’t for the next two weeks. My daughter would say my social battery was drained too fast. And just like in real rechargeable batteries I needed to train my social charge to keep a little longer. For me the answer to that is too create a routine. I decided to go with one fixed day per week to visit the office. Of course when the time comes in the morning to make myself ready for the bus I might still chicken out, soI made myself create commitments. Tell my family I’ll be gone that day. Buy a bus ticket in advance. Arrange meetings at the office or just lunch with some people. A little nudge is all it takes.
Am I back to the Friday after-work beer yet? No. Am I getting there? I sure hope so.