The Freelance Chronicles #5
Well, the world does love to throw curveballs doesn’t it! During month five of my freelance journey, COVID-19 caused a countrywide lockdown in New Zealand. Many businesses shut up shop, and those who could started the working from home experience.
Thankfully, working from home comes with the territory for me, and not a lot changed. Although the workload may have decreased somewhat, I still had plenty to keep me going through this trying time.
There are a few things I have loved seeing come out of this lockdown. One: working from home and flexible working being accepted. Two: everyone slowing down just a little bit. Three: technology adoption rapidly increasing in areas we may never have considered before.
Working from home and flexible working
Being able to work from home and have flexible working hours has always been my dream, which is why I jumped ship and started being my own boss. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but where it does, I would really encourage it. For me, being able to work in my own space with less distractions breeds so much more productivity. I’m far more creative when I’m not chained to a desk and can change my outlook if I want to. And think of all the extra time gained in a day! Some people spend upwards of two hours each day travelling for work. To me, that time is literally money and work opportunity. I’m very keen to see how businesses adopt working-from-home strategies after the lockdown period.
Slowing down
This one is so important to me! During the lockdown period, where things did slow down for some people, creativity absolutely bloomed. I watched videos of accountants who wrote songs about the lockdown. I saw incredible artwork be created. People started their own businesses. It was amazing. It just goes to show what can be built and created when people have a bit of brain space. Imagine what else could come to life if everyone had time to just slow down and be creative once in awhile.
Technology adoption
It was great to see how quickly businesses picked up technology and digital opportunities to keep going. It was also interesting to see technology adoption across industries in ways it had never been used before. The performing arts took a massive hit during this lockdown, and they rapidly adopted video and live-streaming capabilities to continue connecting with audiences. I’m really intrigued to see what interesting technology growth happens as a result of this lockdown and economic hit. We’ve seen some game-changing platforms evolve out of times of hardship like this, so let’s see what happens next.
Month six starts in lockdown, too. Let’s see how different next month’s update will be!