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As the human equivalent of a hamster who has been (happily) turning her wheel for a very long time, one of the worst prospects when lockdown was announced was wondering what I would do with all the inevitable spare time.
Who was I kidding! All those household jobs I had mentally lined up, remain undone. The books I fondly imagined I would find time to read – lie unopened. The online classes I planned to embrace; well they happen without me. Time has not stretched out as I imagined, rather it has constricted, and I struggle to finish work in a sensible timeframe.
I know I’m lucky that work is busy and very buoyant but where has lockdown gone, where has the year gone. Crikey, where has life gone!
But time has manifested itself in a different way. The liberation of not setting a morning alarm is a such a luxury. I am having better and longer sleep and my under-eye wand is not so much concealing as congealing such is my need for it. Choosing work outfits – piff! Selecting a suitable top, lobbing on a pair of earrings, applying some slap, and despairing of the age-inappropriate length of hair, job done. Time saving – immeasurable.
Commuting is a few short strides. Turning my dining table into an office and getting everything out of the cupboard, got that down to fine art. If I can see flowers through my garden doors, flowers on the table in front of me and flowers behind me to liven up zoom calls, I’m zen-full!
Draw up the footstool so Annie can rest there and not on the sofa, 2 small waste bins for rubbish and shredding have improved my sustainability creds, a small box with all necessary chargers at hand and a large pad with a written-out to do list prepared as the last job the day before.
Where time matters now is making sure meetings don’t get missed. How much more prompt we have become as there is no excuse to be late on any call. However, there is one alarm call which seems to happen with increasing frequency even though it set for 45 mins past every hour. When it rings, unless I am mid-client call, I must get up and run and shake every part of my body for the count of a 100. It is a very good discipline and keeps everything moving.
And there is a luxury about the change in time even at weekends because there is so little one must do, one can do, one would like to do. In the years BC (before Covid) taking a break was always for a pre-set period – I’ll have ten minutes before getting ready to go out, I’ll take a breather for an hour before the cab comes. Now, even late at night after another box set binge there is no guilt about the hour because of it being a ‘school night’ – what the heck!
So, time hasn’t stretched in the way I imagined but it has revealed a parallel existence where it doesn’t have to dominate my life perhaps as much as it once did.
Sara Pearson
CEO, Spider