2020- The year it all changed?
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Who would ever imagine that a tiny microbial organism had the ability to change the way we go about our daily lives in the matter of a few weeks? The simple answer is that most of us did not expect life as we know it to drastically change anytime in the near future.
Yet, it has.
The question we face is — what now? How do we take the current situation and make it work to our advantage? It goes without saying that everybody’s primary concern and objective is to stop this tiny microbial organism from wreaking more havoc and help those who have been affected get back to health. What makes this such a difficult task is the simple fact that the tools that we need to use to fight the effects that this crisis has on public health are very bad for the global economy and your wallet. This scenario creates an intriguing problem: how do we protect each other from a microbial enemy while still staying productive and keeping our economic goals going in the right direction.
Unfortunately, it seems that there is no easy way to do this and there will be severe economic penalties. That said since life is more important to most of us, we are more than willing to pay the economic penalties if it will allow us to banish this microbial intruder from our daily lives.
The question now becomes, how do we make the best of a difficult situation?
There are many ways in which we can remain active and productive during this time but we need to re-examine the conventional definitions for work and productivity. We live in a world where it has never before been easier to work remotely, countless applications allow us to connect with each other at the touch of a button and virtual office systems allow us to access resources from anywhere.
Even before 2020 there has been a growing trend in the number of people who work remotely and the current state of affairs is the perfect trigger for a remote working revolution.
Companies from large to small have had to scramble to get the infrastructure in place that will allow their employees to continue working even when they are not at the office, and they managed to do this in record time. In fact, there isn’t an aspect of business that has not been touched by the sweeping wave of change during the first quarter of 2020.
The question that intrigues me personally the most is this: are we going to return to the previous status quo when order has been restored or are we going to adapt the model to a more suitable one?
I think the answer is both yes and no. There are several types of business that cannot rely solely on remote work but there are also others that can manage with more work being done away from the office. While there are a few drawbacks to working from home, the positives far outweigh the negatives. One simple example is the beneficial effect that working remotely has on the environment since fewer people drive to work fewer cars emit toxic gasses that damage our environment.
This is just one of many advantages and it makes a compelling case for working from home more often.
Our unwelcome microbial guest may have just provided us with the perfect reason to radically overhaul government systems and make it easier for citizens to interact with their governments on topics such as taxes and health insurance. Yes, there will always be processes that simply cannot be adapted to a remote model and, therefore, we will always need offices and people who go to work at a building designed specifically for the purpose.
That said, the time has never been better for remote workers and internet warriors to carve out a clear niche for ourselves. As someone who does work from home on a daily basis, I have often heard the comment that working from home is not “really” working, not the same as working from an office anyway.
I am sure many of you reading this article has also heard this before and it cannot be further from the truth. Working from home can be equally as demanding and fulfilling as working from a corporate office. The good news is that these crisis times have created numerous new opportunities for creative and innovative people to leave their mark on the internet and earn a living working remotely from home.
This is especially true for content creators and designers- although things may be slow at the moment, it will pick up again. Use this time to work on your own website or blog and learn as much as you can so that you can offer your clients the very best when they are ready to start placing orders again.
The internet revolves around content and there will always be a demand for high-quality content, irrespective of what else may be happening around us.
In my next post, I will be looking at the things that I have changed in order to remain productive and grow my business during these difficult times. Who knows, you might just find something in the article that can be helpful for you too!
Times have changed and they will continue to change, we can either embrace it or get left behind. Which one do you choose?
Cheers,
Pieter,
