In a time when Social distance is a mandate for survival, it is important to focus on yourself more than ever. The COVID-19 outbreak, followed by nationwide lockdown sent us all abruptly into the state of social Isolation. It may have felt frustrating in the beginning, but as people get the hang of it, a lot of positive outcomes are emerging too.

While taking care of personal health is crucial right now, maintaining a good professional health is important too. All those who have been working from home for the last few months, have experienced social and work isolation first hand. But, how did it impact them? Let’s seek further.

Embracing Conversation Breaks

Constant communication according to a study conducted in Boston University in 2015, can actually reduce collective intelligence of the team. If you compare this observation with your normal office behavior, the facts still hold true. Team discussions include every important person at the same time so that the communication is made with everyone at the same time reducing the need to communicate more.

As it is said that those who talk more often work less. This means that when working remotely, your isolation is actually a great barrier in preventing more than required communication, in return increasing the productivity of each individual employee.

Ideation In Isolation

Team brainstorming sessions do bring great ideas forward. But, that can never take away the credit from how beautiful ideas pop up when you think alone. The key factor here is influence. When you brainstorm, your ideas get influenced by the response of the listeners, and their inputs on it. In isolation your mind travels free to distances only you can limit. 

The response to your thoughts is only dependent on you. The scope of judgement is reduced to a great extent. Also, brainstorming with teams invites behavioral inferiority during the analysis. Even if a writer says that they are open to feedback, a negative response still hurts. The same inferiority is involved during group ideations too, which in turn, during isolation ceases to exist.

Composure In Aloneness

Remember that when you get too exhausted by people around you, the best way to rejuvenate your social self seems a trip to the seclusion of mountains. The destination may be different for different people, but the end goal is mostly the same – Alone Time. When you spend alone time, you spend time with yourself. 

Alone time is a great tool for critical thinking. That is why, any important decision in life suggested to someone comes along with the statement “Sleep over it” or “Take your time”. One of the best benefits of isolation is that you get time to absorb your own criticism as well. Being a remote employee gives you that alone time to compose your thoughts and absorb criticism or feedback.

Excellence Of Self

There is no denying that teamwork leads to success. But, every individual in an organization brings some unique skills to the table. These skills, a lot of times, get dragged down when teamed up. That’s why in corporate culture most of the top performing individuals are exempted even if they do not attend a lot of meetings or take up projects on individual ownership as well.

Take for an instance a bike rider group that has both fast riders and long tourers included. Now, when you take a group trip, the fast riders will need to slow down to match the pace of the long tourers. But if they take the same trip alone, their speed is not let down by anyone else and can be used as wish to the optimum level.

Talk Less, Do More

It is not just a phrase to make the ones who talk a lot to stop talking and get to work. This phrase is also for those who feel that isolation is needed for their individual productivity, creativity and other positive aspects in life. The COVID-19 crisis surely forced us to work remotely, but the stats today suggest that 67% of people are performing much better as remote employees. Business owners see a significant connection between Social Isolation and performance as a contributor in this, which surely you do too. Don’t you?