Turn off the Siren
NB. First published on Substack in 2021
At the end of August I took a three day camping holiday with my family to Lincolnshire.
This break was transformational for a number of reasons…..
Reason #1
I’d never been to Lincolnshire. It is flat….as a pancake….I mean uncannily flat….like nothing in England I’ve experienced. I loved it.
The sky was wide open and the views endless. It gave my eyes a total rest from the digital world that I’ve pretty much inhabited since February 2020. It was bliss!
Reason #2
Plus the campsite that we stayed at, not only had onsite yoga & meditation space (if that’s your thing) but they had donkeys! Actual real life donkeys. Two really great blokes who when you rubbed their ears, their bottom lip wobbled with uncontrollable, unadulterated joy!
Reason #3
I’m blessed with an amazing team at the Charity where I’m CEO. I know that I can trust them and hopefully, despite being new to my role, they can trust me too.
That single source of trust enabled me, I think for the first time since 2020, to truly switch off.
Maybe something about physically being in a landscape that was new and unfamiliar or being disconnected to a world that was 4 hrs away or maybe I’d found the strength to not look at my phone constantly….whatever it was enabled me to sleep for 8 hrs straight and wake up ready to snuggle a donkey! It was bliss!
End of the Emergency
I worry about writing this as I know too well that across our care & health systems across the country, the pressure and demand on services is immense and unrelenting.
With increasing Covid cases, appointment backlogs, a lack of skilled trained professionals in key areas and a social care system in which people are underpaid & undervalued, it’s not a pretty picture.
So why I am talking about the end of the emergency?
It’s clear to me now that Covid, much like Flu, is something that will be with us for the foreseeable future. It will ebb and flow but it will be there.
Having lived on adrenalin for the last however many months, I just can’t do it any longer.
The intensity of those early days when we thought societal armageddon was around the corner has subsided. We’ve lived through and seen the power of communities working together. We’ve experienced what can be achieved when organisational barriers drop away and we are focused on a common purpose.
We also know that the insidious inequality which existed pre-pandemic and made painfully visible during it, hasn’t gone away.
That’s why I, like millions of others, want to do something about it. But, personally I think I’d break if I keep going at the adrenaline fuelled pace of lockdown.
The seemingly endless back to back meetings, the near constant monitoring of messages, the continuous multi-tasking, the time travel between past, present and future challenges, the navigation of multiple cultural conversations to reach consensus….it didn’t feel exhausting at the time but 3 days in Lincolnshire gives you time to think! 😉
After the Emergency
What I’m trying to do now is threefold:
- Stay Present: I’ll talk more about how I’ve been trying to manage my own wellbeing in another post but right now I’m trying to stay in the moment. My most natural inclination is to zoom into the future. I’ve always daydreamed into what the future might look like, possibly because it took me away from the present but also to understand the steps needed to get there. I’m happy with my ability to do that but more and more I’m realising that taking, no, making the commitment to the present allows me the opportunity to truly connect with my loved ones, those around me and the occasional donkey. It also makes my future zooming so much more fun and productive.
- Work Smarter (or at least understand why I can’t): I’ve recently been reading about a technique, Time Blocking. I love technology and apps, something new and shiny that promises to make life better, easier, smoother, more creative……blah,blah,blah. I’ll try every new one but most fall by the wayside. I’ll write about those that haven’t cut the mustard in another blog. Anyways, Time Blocking, is a deceptively simple technique, that in the short-time I’ve been using has been as transformational as a donkey.
Essentially, in my calendar I block out every hour of my day into 1hr chunks (the time interval is up to you).
Once meetings are added in I’ve then got a real sense of the other times I’ve got free (if any) to actually do stuff.
Then, I look at all the things on my ToDo List and put them into my calendar, blocking out the time to commit and get them done.
This has been revelatory for me and has meant I can get more done with the time I have and gain a real sense of the amount of work I need to do. - Stop: this has been the hardest thing for me but Time Blocking has helped. By being more in control of the things I need to get done, I’ve been more able to allow myself to stop. There is always more to be done, more positive change to make, more thoughts to have, more conversations to develop but I’ve learned that weirdly I’m less productive and useful if I’m knackered and disengaged.
I now start and finish work, mostly, on time.
I, mostly, don’t look at anything work related outside of those hours and, crucially, I book in & protect time to think.
You’d have to ask my family what they think about me being more present but I definitely think the donkeys loved it.
