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The view from the balcony – Lockdown thoughts

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It’s actually like being in the countryside. It’s so silent, apart from the hum of air conditioning systems. Almost no traffic, no gardeners, no dogs barking while out walking; no people. It’s very un-Dubai. It’s amazing how things change. Where being allowed to leave the house feels like a privilege and not the norm.

For me the situation is fascinating. At a time where I’m trying to get the podcast and the blog up and running, I’ve been handed time and space in which I can work. So many distractions have been removed; dinners out, nights in the pub, visiting friends, travelling for work and spending weeks away from home for work. It’s gifted me time with my wife and similarly, her distractions have been reduced. It’s like someone turned down the noise. Or course, there’s new sources of noise, but I’ve gotten better at dealing with these already. I don’t watch TV, I’m aware of the amount of time I spend on Facebook; I try consume social media consciously, try to be aware that I’m head down in a screen and not to get sucked into the vortex.

One very interesting and welcome side effect is the efforts everyone is making to keep in touch. Zoom and Skype calls are now the norm. Online and video chat ‘pub quiz’ and drinks with friends who are across 4 time zones.

I feel like the world is an odd mix of the old ways of life where people led a slower pace of life and the technology which allows us to work from home and keep in touch with friends and families.

Of course, it depends on how you use this time, but elements of my day feel like a mindfulness retreat. There’s only so much Netflix you can watch, and so you must engage your brain in ways that the always-on, super simulated lives we previously led stifled.

There’s an element of ‘I told you so’ when it comes to working from home and the cult of always in the office, always in meetings. It’s been proven now. For organisations that have continued to operate, continued to work but have previously demanded their employee attend an office on a daily basis; they need to consider the model they cling to. It’s expensive, inefficient, can be bad for people and probably impacts the bottom line more than they thought. Hire good people, tell them what you want to achieve and release them to do the work.

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