Frazzled much? We’re all going to walk into 2021 really slow. Be good. Be quiet. Don’t touch anything.

By Kat McDaniel, Principal at MEDiAHEAD

Frazzled much? We’re all going to walk in really slow. Be good. Be quiet. Don’t touch anything.

Now that I’ve lived through an actual plague, I totally understand why Italian Renaissance paintings are full of naked, food-stuffed people laying on couches. The only difference is that we have Netflix and they didn’t.

I’ve just accepted that I’m not going to even try to accomplish much while it’s zero degrees out there, and we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. I think people are finding it harder and harder to get things done and to stay motivated.

The internet wants you to believe that you aren’t doing enough with all that extra time you have now. I won’t write my response to that in case any children are reading this. In the midst of a global pandemic I’m just trying to be OK with just being.

Can we also accept that yoga and sweatpants are here to stay for work? I don’t think I could actually fit into a pair of my jeans from a year ago, and I think comfort and occasionally working at home will continue after the pandemic.

No bra? No problem.

I had a Zoom call with a client this morning and she warned me that she wasn’t going to be wearing a bra – what? I haven’t had an actual bra on for a year. Our standards for humor are steadily decreasing during the pandemic – I thought it was hilarious that a boss accidentally turned on a potato filter during a Zoom call and the lawyer that couldn’t turn off the cat filter. I literally laughed uncontrollably for 10 minutes.

Humor is healthy for you – that’s why we need it now. It’s an important coping mechanism and an important part of mental health. The laughter it inspires, is our built in mechanism for managing stress.

This year I won’t be baking sourdough or planting a huge garden like last year. But as soon as it’s warm enough I’ll hopefully be patio drinking with friends… lots of friends.