Without constant contact

I’m back home staying with my family.

The days are coming and going faster than I can believe and then next thing I know, I’m in bed ready to do it all over again. I’ve been finding that I’m not looking forward to much in the future and I have been feeling very isolated.

From this isolation comes the feelings of tiredness and laziness. Some of my friend groups have been rather disconnected and disengaged (of which I am a culprit as well). With friends that I have been talking to, we haven’t been talking that much and to be honest, zoom is a pretty poor substitute. I never seem to find the motivation to start a zoom meeting. The meetings I have flow in lagged chatter with everyone talking over each other and awkward silences. They always seem to be at a bad time.

What to do?

I’m at the point where the novelty of being back home is wearing off. Whilst I love my home, I also love the freedom of being able to go places and catch up with people and have them over. So I’ve been trying to have some ideas to feel more connected and have more frequent and better zoom meetings with friends:

• Have a set daily/weekly time
• Don’t have meetings at night when everyone has dinner at different times
• Have some set topics/commonalties to discuss
• Have a set discussing window – be it an hour, half hour or two hours. There’s nothing worse than awkward silences from everyone who’s talked for too long and wants to go.
• Try to recognise if you’re lonely. If you haven’t talked to anyone face to face in over a week, chances are you need to see a friend or a family member. So reach out.