Blooming for some, a dread for others: My reflections on work & life during Covid-19

I will say it up front, I love(d) it.

The past few months have been for me the most condensed professional and personal development experience to date, and the learnings I've had are so many that I couldn't possibly include them all here. And yet I'll try.

I'll start by saying that, while the situation I found myself in was definitely a privileged one (so many have lost their job during the past months), it hasn't been easy, definitely not at first. Yet, especially because of that, this period has been both empowering and inspiring; Let me explain why.

It pushed my (appetite for) learning to a new level.

I used my breaks throughout the day as they - I’ve always known- best work for me: for reading and learning, listening to podcasts, stretching and exercising, background processing of new ideas and solutions.

I have practiced a language EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past 200+ days, I’ve watched 40+ hours of learning material on communications, business strategy and entrepreneurship (topics that, to be perfectly honest, weren’t on the top of my leisure activities before). I’ve started learning how to code and finally discovered I don’t actually dislike non-fiction reads.

I’ve spent 30+ hours learning about investment and personal finance (and acted on it), spent time making and learning about art. I read about and explored other people’s (alternative) ways of working, learnt what works for me now and got curious about what could in the future.

I’ve tapped into videography, web development, language learning methods and meditation, and a few other things that I won’t share here (yet).

And in all this, I've become faster and better, more creative and more structured in my work. I didn't strive to "keep myself distracted" or productive; curiosity came naturally, and I simply followed along.

It made me (more) aware of the factors that make me operate at optimal capacity. And of those that don't.

Social interactions, to me, were not majorly disrupted. I interacted when I felt the need to, both in personal and professional settings, and I've appreciated when I was allowed to do so. With the interactions at work becoming more focused, I found liberation instead of limitations, and with that came the clarity to see the better approach, the better alternative, the smartest way "to get there", and the vision to push it through.

Of course, I did discover that monotony can very easily settle in and have an impact on creativity. However, I did not want to blame it on the new " full-time working from home" nor did I think that the old ways of working would make it all better. At least for me, those old ways have never been the answer.

If something didn't work, I'd look for the answer in my environment. As someone who believes in shaping my own reality to suit my wellbeing and not the other way around, this new situation has been ideal in pushing me to find alternatives, tweaks and solutions to "make it work". If something didn't, I discovered that in 90% of cases, all it needed was an adjustment in either

1) the set-up of my immediate environment

2) my proximity to nature, a glass of water or sun.

On that note, I was quite shocked to realise the impact simple things like having sunshine in my working space can have (see Chasing the Sun: The New Science of Sunlight and How it Shapes our Bodies and Minds).

It pushed me to deal with fears, and allowed me to focus on overcoming them.

With my resources no longer going in the "regular" interactions that are part of "normal" life, I found myself having additional energy for the things that mattered most for me. For those reflective would-rather-go-solo people out there, this will probably resonate. You can be in the most pleasant environment possible; if your energy comes from being alone, prolonged exposure will drain you and time alone will charge you and have you operate at your best.

Even more so, time alone will be a hygiene factor for your performance. Don't allocate enough time for it, and you'll see the not-so-great results soon enough. Nathaniel Drew, in one of his visual essays, talks about this effect as "not being able to hear one's own thoughts"; I have never realised the extent of how true that is until I finally found myself able to hear much more, and much better.

Susan Cain, author of Quiet defines introversion as "the preference for environments that are not overstimulating". To me, the term "overstimulation" needs further clarification however. It is not from intensity of stimulation that most introverts will shun away from; it is the depth of that stimulation that will either result in a happy or a drained introvert. I myself will not avoid an environment where there's deep emotional or cognitive stimulation. I thrive in such environments and that's one of the reasons why I seek depth in the connections I build.

However, in most cases, the design of our societies are - at least in the eyes of most introverts- shallowly overstimulating by nature, with both leisure and professional settings designed for those thriving in such environments.

While going outside of the comfort zone is definitely part of my (and my other reflective introvert friends') agenda, there is one kind of growth that we love most: the kind that you set up for yourself, and calibrate as needed for the best results.

In an ideal world, social interactions happen, but primarily with a few close friends, with the purpose of strengthening of an already strong bond. Personal growth happens through culture shocks, discomfort & change - highly stimulating activities with the purpose of understanding, building depth and connecting deeply. The rest of the relationships keep to their purpose and context, are focused & smooth, without being too formal, and generally don’t demand significant energy resources. If anything, the past few months have been a breeding ground of exactly this world.

I think that the more people (and organisations) come to understand this without judging or attempting to "convert" the innerly-energized (just to reject the term introvert for a second) to the type of activities or ways of working that are commonly considered energising or pleasurable for all, the better results they'll see.

It brought to light skills I didn't known I had.

To quote James Clear in Atomic Habits, a good place to start looking for your talents is by paying attention to "the hard things that come easier to you than to other people".

Somehow accidentally I've discovered that something called Information Architecture is what my brain is really good at (and that I've been doing from my very first "project" back in university). And so I found myself spending more time exploring it. It felt empowering to start seeing these skills with more clarity, and taking steps to build on them further.

It empowered me to set boundaries, and establish discipline.

In the past months, I re-learnt the discipline required to do work. And learnt the discipline required to NOT do it. We often talk about flexibility, freedom and the ability to set up your own work-flow and hours, but this has been the first time we’ve all needed to do it on a global scale.

For me, this involved reassessing my relationship with work at times, watching people I know navigate it, and learning from that. The outcome: a better understanding of how to utilise flexibility for my own productivity and wellbeing; and more curiosity to build on this new skill.

So, looking back, I am above all grateful and inspired. I'm grateful for:

The amount of ownership I gained

The amount of accountability I developed

The things that gave me fears only a few months ago but are now easy

The drive I found myself nourishing every day.

I am aware that not everyone is as well suited for the new way of working ahead. I strive for the challenge of bending my environment to suit my needs and goals, and of making it work, and generally don't take no for an answer when it comes to things that "wouldn't work that way". I very rarely look back with nostalgia on how things were; instead, I look forward at how they could be, if we forget for a second the assumptions we have right now.

I believe that almost any problem can be solved, and only because the alternative is not in sight right now doesn't mean it won't be in the next few months, with a common effort and a few visionaries breaking the known rules.

With the learning I've had, I am now more curious about the next chapters, the innovation that will emerge, the lives we'll all be living and how our identities will (with enough self-determination) expand beyond the dichotomy of 9-5 vs. the-rest-of-life.

I am ready, and I hope more will soon be too.