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The new year and the pandemic inform how we use space to live and work.
It turns out that one good thing happened in 2020. Because we sheltered in place for weeks and months, we discovered that we could work successfully from home or in a hybrid combination of traditional and untraditional work spaces.
In 2021, how we use space to live and work will be entirely up to us.
During the early pandemic months, millions of people left big cities for anywhere else. They bought homes in suburbs, exurbs, and rural communities. What is more, they are reimagining their new places as professionally designed TV studios for Zoom sessions.
By living and working remotely, people slashed their monthly out-of-pocket commuting costs. The hours of time recovered by not commuting provided people opportunities to engage with family members, rest, or increase their productivity.
Yes, in 2020, people became more productive on the job.
In the past 12 months, animal shelters emptied as people adopted dogs and cats. Surely, the happiest heartbeats in the home belong to our new furry family members.
Surely, we are in, or are about to enter, the worst part of the Covid pandemic. During the next weeks and months, we will lose more people, everyday, than died on 9/11. And Covid will, for the foreseeable future, be our leading cause of death.
But when we get through Covid, we will be a stronger, more agile, and happier workforce. And that is because we will have more say in the work that we do and our space to live and work.
EPISODE DATE: January 1, 2021