11 things we do want to take with us from 2021
Give me the Tipp-Ex and I would wholeheartedly erase events and feelings from 2021. The re-re-reclosing of the hospitality industry for example, but also that damn division and the harassment of healthcare providers. 2021 did its best to go down in history as a crappy year, but still there are things we want to keep. Like those meetings in slippers and the workation.
1. Let sick people stay home
Of course it's tough when you have to stay home immediately with a runny nose, but I still advocate for partially keeping this policy. Just think back to that one colleague who came to work with a complete pharmacy laid out on their desk. It was just a matter of a week before the whole team was down. Just stay home until most of the sneezing and coughing is over, your colleagues will thank you.
2. Walking
If there’s one thing that was dusted off and fluffed up as a corona hobby, it’s walking. The Pieterpad booklets flew off the online shelves and even Gucci formed a partnership with The North Face. Then you know for sure that hiking is trendy. By the way, I don’t just want to keep walking, but especially walking meetings. Why are we still doing this sitting down?
3. Almost everything that can suddenly be done online
That meeting for which you normally had to fight through rush hour for two hours. Click and collect. All your groceries. Online is really nice now.
4. Determine your own working hours
It’s certainly handy if you’re available around the same times as your colleagues, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. That one task where you need the concentration of a Tibetan monk can just be done at seven in the morning, if that suits you.
5. The (home) party
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first back on the doorstep of my favorite bar when it’s possible again, but honestly: we appreciate that evening at home much more. If you ask me, it’s a keeper.
6. Peaking early
I want to always go out according to the English model. Why did we only go into the city around midnight, when you can just start at 9:00 PM so you can go to bed by 1:00 AM? It might have something to do with the fact that I’m now 35 years old, but I like it.
7. No more sitting in traffic
Try to look at your former self from a distance. You used to stand still on a paved road for at least 30 minutes longer because you thought you had to be at work at a certain time in a certain location. Twice a day. No longer necessary. Let’s agree that we will never again stand still in traffic on a highway, because if anything is a waste of your time, it’s this.
8. Meeting in sweatpants
God, what a pleasure. Meeting in slippers and sweatpants without anyone seeing it, we will never let that go.
9. The workation
Just a different wallpaper, that’s what a friend of mine calls it. Book a house or apartment, move your office to this location and don’t forget to schedule your time a bit cleverly, so you can watch the sun set into the sea or surf for an afternoon. The workation is the invention of the century.
10. That it’s okay to be socially alienated
In the first lockdown, we people found it wonderful to sit at home like some kind of hermit. What a peace, what a nice series, what a gift that appointment doesn’t go ahead. It’s now completely accepted to want to stay home to do nothing.
11. Setting up your Christmas tree ridiculously early
Just admit it, you’re also going to take advantage of that December 5 rule.
