New Routines for A Pandemic

Words of the year 2020 would be something along the lines of 'Stay home. Stay safe.' or 'Staying apart keeps us together', which is not something you would expect to start off the new decade. Covid19 has really turned our lives upside down as we head towards a new normal, a COVID normal. We all had to make changes to our daily routine, some changes that we would only make in our wildest dreams. 

Here are a few things that top off our list of 'new norms' that we may consider unrealistic if we were told this last year.

Meeting your neighbour through a window or over-the-fence

With social distancing rules and gathering limitations in place, meeting our neighbours face-to-face can't even cross our mind as we would be putting them, and ourselves at risk. Suddenly, hosting picnics and barbeques had to happen over-the-fence, with your immediate neighbours only, and it's a BYO food and drinks kind of party. It is like a scene out of an old teenage movie.

Elbow High-fives and air hugs are a thing

Yes, you heard it right. We now elbow-bump our friends and give air hugs/kisses to family members since social distancing has begun. 1.5 metres can't stop us from showing love and affection to our loved ones.

Casual dress everyday

Remember when Casual Dress Friday was a thing, where we could avoid formals at work? And free dress days where students can avoid uniforms for a day? Now, with school and work being moved to be done remotely from home, every day is Casual Dress Day. Just need to get out of bed 5 minutes before work and class, and rock up for your meetings in casuals, and nobody will judge you for it!

Home is an All-in-one package

Your home has now become your school, your workplace, or even your gym.  With some places still under lockdown or for people who still study and work remotely, everything is done from home. Your workplace may be your study room, your child's classroom is the living room and your gym is your bedroom, all into one house. On the bright side, you do get to save on travel time and costs.

Birthday celebrations through your desktop

Virtual events are the party trend of the year! Blowing candles and playing party games through a screen doesn't seem like such a weird idea after all. Just gather party guests on social video platforms like Zoom or house party, and have everyone sing a very laggy version of 'happy birthday' for the birthday boy/girl. A good party game idea would be an online escape room, suitable for all ages and can be played through zoom. Entermission Melbourne  has just that with their newly launched Hosted Online Escape Room with two experiences on offer: Timeline & CIA Taskforce. Special birthday plans for special times, but all you need is good company and it would be a good birthday regardless.

Phone and Social Media is #life

Thankfully for these devices called smartphones and our 'ecosystem' called social media, we can still keep in touch with everyone we love from the comforts of our homes. The existence of social media platforms has never been more crucial in our daily lives. Video calls are the new social hotspot 'venues' and our screens are the doors to our family and friend's 'homes'. There's no better excuse than this to be glued to our phones and rock that headphones or camera filters look!

This sums up our top list of new normals that we have developed over the time in coronavirus lockdown! What is on your top list?