Our daily lives have changed drastically. What we used to have as daily routine became exceptional or non-existent, and what we wished to be our routine, kind of became our daily practice.
We have been questioning ourselves and others around us: will life be back to normal after Corona? What are the changes will become imprinted in our lives as humans?
We might not have reached the right time to find the proper answers, but it could be interesting to run a fast simulation of how life was pre-corona, and in-corona.
Accordingly, we will reach an insight on the nature of questions to ask on the post-corona phase, and what if we could appreciate more the changes we are facing!
First let’s start to perceive how things before Corona were:
From a business perspective: most of our meeting were handled as face to face meetings. Long flights and trips were taken, even to reach a one-hour interval meeting. Most of our banking activities used to take place in the bank with a customer service officer.
Education: students, whether at schools or universities were attending in classrooms and spending entire days with their classmates and instructors.
Conferences, training, coaching, seminars, summits, were planned with a huge production set up and cost.
Purchases: people going to malls, supermarkets, and grocery stores regularly.
Socially: meeting up with friends, excursions, dinners, parties, gatherings were being planned days, weeks, even months in advance. Even during weekdays, social nights out were happening regularly.
Nevertheless, we were remarking the accessibility of new remote services and the consumer behavior shifting towards these services: e-commerce for shopping, online courses and academic programs, e-meetings, advanced electronic banking systems, and a variety of social platforms. Despite the availability of all these alternative virtual solutions, the value and need of human live interaction was thought to be inevitable and mandatory for the progress of any tasks. We were ready to wait hours queuing, travel long flights, get stuck in terrible traffics, just to get things done while being present in real and live situations.
… Suddenly… we are facing global pandemic! The world is on lockdown.
Social distancing is imposed.
Social activities are down to null. People are hardly gathering. All touristic and entertainment centers are shut down.
Airports closed. Aircrafts grounded.
Cars are barely seen on the roads.
Banks closed or partially operating.
Shopping is being done through delivery or butlers services.
… Yet, people are enduring.
Some businesses are still operating. Meetings are being accomplished online on several advanced platforms.
Groceries still being supplied.
People are gathering and hanging out on social media networks
The world, life, and humanity continue, though not in full throttle mode, but yet they continue…
PAUSE! What is next?
While it is too early to have a full insight about the next level, changes are expecting to occur on different layers in post-corona phase.
But thinking about our current “lockdown” model of life, didn’t we notice how much we were living in a life of time limit? Our life was limited by time. Time limit was one of the main constraints delaying us from achieving our goals or accomplishing our agenda. Why? Imagine how much time we used to spend at the airports, in the plane, queuing at cashiers, driving on the roads whether for work, for meetings, for shopping, or to reach our education institution, or even for entertainment, …
How many times we were in a peaceful condition, happy place, but we had to cut this moment and leave due to other commitments and time constraints?
Now that this is not the situation anymore, have you realized how much more time left we have in our daily lives?
How many of us are elaborating the wishful to-do list that we have been setting for years and adding tasks to it, but not being able to achieve all what we wished for due to time limit?
How many of us are spending more time with themselves, taking care of their mind, body, and soul?
How many of us are having more time to be self-aware, and figure out their self-worth, self-esteem, and self-concept?
The time constraint is still here. But the time limit constraint is diminishing while the whole word is on lock down. And the use of our 24 hours’ time per day is being optimized.
Will lockdown and quarantine change our habits and our perception model of time?
Will what used to be foreseen as virtual, turn out to be real?
Or is time … a virtual reality?
Meanwhile, and until we wait and see what the post corona phase will be, it would be valuable to appreciate our limitless-time life, wouldn’t it?
Ziad HOLAIHEL