There has been a huge debate on lockdown productivity. While one side has dived right into up-skilling themselves, cooking contests and creating content on social media, there are some who have taken the time to introspect, breathe and not participate in the productivity race. Everyone has their own unique challenges and their own story. Here’s mine.
So what do I think about this pandemic productivity?
(You can watch a video version of this article here).
The problem is we look at being more productive as large life changing, altering steps and decisions we must take. But actually it is about daily, tiny, sustainable habit changes.
Every crisis presents an opportunity. Which means that no matter how much you are effected, when you emerge from a crisis you want to look back and think are you exactly at the same place you were when the crisis started, or have you, surprise, moved forward, even if slightly.
Let me share with you a few things I did that kept me positive and continue to do so and surprisingly also led me to grow both personally and professionally.
Working on my ONLINE SKILLS
Just before the lockdown was announced, I was having a successful run of motivational speaking assignments for women’s day. A unique idea had brought in lots of new clients. When Covid began to rear it’s head, half of those started getting cancelled.
I realized, very quickly, that offline workshops with 50-60 people in a room were not going to happen for some time. So I needed a new digital strategy and I had very little time to figure it out. I did a couple of online webinars and learnt that the modus operandi for those had to be very different from a physical workshop. I needed to do practice runs. So I started going LIVE on Instagram and Facebook to understand how I could improve my interaction with an audience I couldn’t really see. And how I could work on my energy levels when the collective energy of a room was missing.
I learnt a lot.
A daily LIVE also gave me something to look forward to while adjusting to the lockdown. I also gained a lot of new engaged followers on both these platforms and I’m super grateful for this by-product of going LIVE to practice digital sessions. I also got into the habit of becoming more consistent on my social media platforms. I felt I was now ready to look for online work and not do it for free!
Exploring new channels for Self Improvement
With so much time on my hands, I was craving interesting and new forms of media consumption. I discovered Podcasts. I was not on the podcast bandwagon before the lockdown. Sure I knew what podcasts were. But I hadn’t really heard any. I don’t remember what specifically led to this but I finally downloaded Spotify and hunted around for some podcasts around my areas of interest, and I was hooked! While I will do a separate post detailing podcasts and what I like, I’m only going to tell you this now that between Spotify and Apple podcasts you will find most of the podcasts. I use Spotify. It’s an app that you download. You can either find recommended podcasts or search for podcasts by host name or subject. Ever since Unlock, I’ve been going out for a run in the morning in the company of a podcast episode.
Thinking completely Out Of The Box
I started creating out of the box content. Very impulsively. It all started when I woke up on the day Reels was launched and created a small video around confident body language. The video went berserk on Instagram and LinkedIn and then I decided to unshackle myself from what I thought Self improvement content was supposed to be like!
Why should learning based content be heavy, preachy, boring? My workshops are full of fun, practical, doable tips, could I create my own style of self improvement content. At home, with oodles of time on my hand, a phone camera, a tripod and one editing app led to an entire series of likeskill videos – each video under one minute.
If you haven’t seen them yet, go check out the playlist She Means Business Shorts! And while there, do subscribe to my YouTube channel 🙂
These videos took my visibility to nearly 5 times of what it was pre covid and have led to many work assignments. All it required was to unlearn the old, use tons of free out of the box thinking and just do it. All 6 videos were made in about an hour each!
Don’t fight the “New Normal”
This one was tough. I’m an extrovert and I did think that being stuck at home and unable to step out, meet other people and have things to do to break the monotony would be difficult. But I decided to embrace the drudgery of being stuck at home. I don’t like cooking or housework so much but I competed in all the whatsapp group cooking competitions. I’m quite competitive that way. And since the only competitions seemed to be around food…well Dipika was going to play along and beat everyone at that game. I rediscovered my long forgotten cooking skills and had quite a bit of fun showing off!!
My husband and I decided to be practical and now wear ourselves out nitpicking over cleanliness and other issues. As long as the house was reasonably clean and we had good food, we were cool. Priorities!
Sticking to a routine
Having a morning routine helped. For that I will have to thank the hubby, who would start exercising within 30 minutes of getting up and would shame me into joining him. I felt like a complete lump of lard lounging on the bed while he huffed and puffed away with all the equipment and accessories he had ordered online. Much home workouts happened and continue to happen though we added outdoor runs and cycling to the activities.
I was one of those annoying people who would post their home workouts on Instagram. But it really helped. Any form of physical activity which makes you sweat keeps you positive through the day. The music gives you a cheerful start to the day and I must admit you do feel more focused towards your work as well.
For me the routine included getting out of bed, taking a bath, getting into some sort of smart casuals before sitting down to work. It also included eating meals on time and a sleeping/Netlix watching pattern exactly as it was pre covid.
Schedule treats
While of course, zoom calls happened plenty, we also scheduled interesting little fun times to break the monotony. So planning grocery trips to walks on the building terrace with a cup of tea became occasions to look forward to.
While there have been highs there have been many lows as well. Cooped up all day at home with no access to all the external stimuli that made us happy earlier, has not been easy. Medical and economic bad news has kept all of us very disturbed.
But I’ve realized that it is the small internal bursts of sunshine and stimuli that will help us emerge stronger. You want to look back and not regret that you didn’t move forward during this period.
Stay safe. And stay positive.
Cheers,
Dipika