Lockdown Life: How to keep the things we loved

What's the one thing you'd love to hold on to from your Lockdown Life?

The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered challenges the likes the world has never seen before. And we have more ahead of us.

However, during that time of challenge something interesting also came out of the first experience of life under lockdown. Clients have told me there were some aspects of Lockdown Life they loved and would like to keep.

Lockdown provided us with unique opportunities to experience things that we wouldn’t normally have in our day-to-day life. We were able to adopt new exercise routines, explore our neighbourhood, take up hobbies, or spend more time with our family.

Expand Mindset and Strategy Consultant Sridhar Krishnamurti talks about how to keep the things you loved about your life in lockdown.

A theme emerged for many of my clients, as it may have for you too. Just how do we keep the aspects of Lockdown Life that we’ve enjoyed?

Some of my clients have told me that they feared losing these when they went back into work or their normal routines.

I’ve worked with them to help keep and incorporate their favourite new routines into their post-Lockdown lives. You can use the same tips to make permanent, meaningful changes in your life too:

Prioritise. Get realistic about what you can do and what’s most important for you to do so you can hold on to it.
Build a structure around it. Think about the way life is – or could be – and take that into account as you’re putting your plan into place.
Communicate with others to create a community of people who allow you to achieve your plan.

1. Prioritise Your Changes

The first thing to do is to think about the aspects of Lockdown that you loved the most.

For some business owners, it’s was the time to think creatively without the distraction of daily business operations.

For others, it was the opportunity to spend more quality time with a partner and/or family.

Whatever was your case, the first tip is to prioritise the changes that YOU want to make.

2. Give Structure to Your Prioritise

When we decide to do something, it is usual to want to dive straight in, only to get caught up again in the demands of daily life. Faced with this, good intentions topple and we end up back where we started.

So, to make those changes, we need to first prioritise them in order of importance.

Ask yourself, “Of all the things that I experienced during Lockdown, what’s the first thing that I want to keep?” “What’s the second?”

One of my clients told me “What I want to keep is this ability to be present in the life that I haven’t had before.”

Whatever it is for you, identify what you would keep and make sure each one is really true to you. To succeed, you need to commit. You must believe in these new goals as you are the only one who can achieve them.

Once you've prioritised your changes, put a structure in place.

3. Communicate Your Plans

It’s one thing to say, “This is what I want to do, and it’s important.” It’s another thing to work those into your daily routines when faced with the demands of work and family.

You need to think about the structure you are going to put in place so you can maintain your new goals. Think it through. Be realistic about how life’s going to be and then put a plan in place.

Communicate your plan with all the people that matter. The third thing is to communicate your plans with those around you. I had a business owner who decided he wanted to take more time off, but he also employed a team of people. He had to communicate with his team and empower them to carry on, so the business continued to thrive when he wasn’t there.

With these three steps, you'll have the tools to make the changes that are important to you.

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