Square One gets a lot of airtime as the posterchild for being back to where you started. This Philosopher-In-Residence has been indulging in a spot of anthropological observation  of late, and it’s occurred to me that our dear United Plandom appears to be stifled by an overwhelming feeling of Square Two right now.

What is Square Two, I hear you cry?

It’s the April 12^th roadmap milestone being kind of warm and fun to start with then grimacing through rain and chill for the best part of a month.

It’s most of your favourite shops reopening but not being able to drop charity donations off because their shops are inundated with donations.

It’s heading back to the gym and fitness classes since May 17^th but your instructor not being able to correct all the bad habits you picked up from your sedentary lockdown life.

It’s everyone suffering from online meeting fatigue but no-one putting their head above the parapet to propose meeting face-to-face.

It’s struggling to re-adjust to leaving the house and being sociable.

In short, the things you thought were going to be better, are better than they were, but not in the way you expected and in a way that’s difficult to handle, both emotionally and in terms of how you structure your days.

This Philosopher-In-Residence and indeed the whole crew of the good ship Make Me A Plan hear, feel, share your pain. It’s been a long, torrid time adjusting to the confines of COVID since March 2020 and our minds and  bodies simply aren’t designed, or equipped to be in this state of flux, fight or flight for so long.

So What Can I Do?

Here in Plankind, as you know, we like approaching things from a planning perspective. Everyone loves it when a plan comes together, and ticking things off a list.

So to help with your own case of Square Two-it is, we propose drawing yourself out a hopscotch grid. In Square One, write down all the things you couldn’t do before now. Embrace Square Two with a healthy dose of positivity and fill it with the good things about your restored freedoms. Think about what Squares Three, Four, Five and Six will contain (not forgetting that Four and Five are something you can jump on with both feet, in traditional hopscotch!)

Let us know how you get on – and because we can never resist a pun when the opportunity presents itself, remember that Two’s company and Three’s a crowd, quite literally in terms of the COVID roadmap.

Next fortnight, I’ll be musing On Fervour  - time for a delve into the more metaphysical as June draws to a close.

Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this topic you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Penny Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here: https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/volunteering/