Many of us are in lockdown or some form of quarantine with restricted movement.

At once we have freedom from the commute, more time with family and more free time to ourselves even while working from home.

The flip side is that of course we feel we have less options availible to us for using that free time, we are also missing out on alot of diverse social interaction that being in a physical workplace and going through life, shopping, attending hobbies etc we experiance in every day life and that we are missing out on now.

So with those things taken away from us temporarily is lock down burnout a new phenomenon? Yes I think it absolutely is…

It’s not all bad news though, we can prevent and avoid it with some shifts in our patterns and behaviours.

Socially we can meet friends on skype, whatsapp etc, we can sit with each other, have a beer, catch up, gossip and keep the social interaction going, it’s still face to face which is what as humans we need.

We can do the same thing with our colleagues. Missing office humour and lively debate with colleagues? Simply move it online for the time being.

The free time we have that we cant use outside in the community?

Well there are lots of other ways to use that. What are the things you’ve wanted to do for a long time put have simply been procrastinating on?

Take up a new hobby. Do you have a passion for something but never really picked it up and developed it? Now would be a good time to do that.

Got a musical instrument in house gathering dust? Go online you will find plenty of courses for free and who knows maybe your the next Ray Charles, Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix??

Still need inspiration- there are plenty of courses, guides and blogs online to help you learn a new skill, you may even be able to pick up a qualification or two while you are at it.

What is equally important is that you dont chain yourself to your laptop, working from home generally means you have a little more freedom. If you need a break take one, need social interaction get online with your colleagues and try to compartmentalise your day.

That family time you suddenly have, why not kill the internet for a certain time each day and get the Lego or cards or board games out and have some good old fashioned fun.

Trust me you will thank yourself later