A report of the ‘30 Things We learned In The Last Year’ dropped into my inbox last week and curiosity got the better of me.

I was intrigued to see if some of those ‘things’ chosen by the nation as it were, resonated with me – and I thought you’d like to see them too. These are life lessons by the way – things that have occurred to people during the challenges of the last 12 months.

Why I was actually reading it in the first place though was to see how many of those ‘things’ I already held dear to me – it was almost like I was verifying that I didn’t need Covid to come along and shake up my life to teach me some valuable lessons.

And here they are:

The Top 30 lessons we have learned over the last 12 months

1. The importance of family (46%)
2. Our NHS is the best in the world (40%)
3. To not take anything for granted (38%)
4. To appreciate the simple things in life (37%)
5. Kindness goes a long way (34%)
6. Kids are more resilient than you think (32%)
7. Online shopping is a god-send (31%)
8. The importance of freedom (30%)
9. The importance of nature (29%)
10. That it is ok to ask for help (28%)
11. That we can get through anything if we stick together (27%)
12. Family film nights are essential (27%)
13. Friendships mean everything (27%)
14. The importance of telling people you love them (27%)
15. To slow down (26%)
16. That patience really is a virtue (25%)
17. How hard teachers and nursery staff work (24%)
18. How to wash your hands properly (23%)
19. That leggings are a wardrobe essential (22%)
20. To not sweat the small stuff (21%)
21. A cup of tea really does make things better (21%)
22. Primary school maths is harder than it looks (21%)
23. It is possible to watch more than one Netflix series at once (21%)
24. You do not have to wear make up every day (18%)
25. Cutting hair is harder than it looks (18%)
26. You do not need to be in the office to be productive (17%)
27. The joy of leftover lunches (10%)
28. Having grey roots is no big deal (9%)
29. The beauty of birdsong (9%)
30. How to make perfect roast potatoes (7%)

It was great to see the importance of family taking the top spot. Since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, I’ve always maintained that family and health are the two most important things, so it’s great to see others are waking up to this too.

And other things that I hold dear – not taking things for granted (I love my 5 Minute Journal which encompasses gratitude), appreciating the simple things in life, that it’s okay to ask for help and that kindness going a long way also made the list.

But I’d like to touch on a couple of the others – things that stood out to me – either because of my past experience or what’s present in my life right now.

The first is number 17 – how hard teachers work. And it’s so true. Almost a quarter of the parents surveyed (24%t) agreed that they now appreciate just how hard teachers and nursery staff work. And rightly so.

As you may know, VIP is a teacher and every morning in lockdown he’s been up at the crack of dawn working away – and he’s always the last to finish at night. If he’s not preparing lesson plans or marking, he’s doing live lessons and fielding emails from worried parents.

It seems like a thankless task sometimes and I do feel for him – Senior Management always seem to be on the teachers’ backs, parents complaining about this or that and he’s also having to be a keyworker, going into school to look after kids, doing countless parents’ evenings online AND be expected to keep on top of teaching the next generation. And guess what? He’s still not had his Covid jab or been offered it! How ridiculous is that?

And the same goes for police officers, supermarket workers, delivery drivers….people who come across many others, be expected to look after people or provide them with necessities, yet still they are not being protected. So if you’re reading this and you’re thinking of getting annoyed with your kids’ teacher for one reason or another, think twice – it’s probably a system letting you down rather than the teacher, so take it to Senior Management instead or the head and go easy on the teachers you rely on to educate your kids.

The second thing that stands out for me is number 26 – You do not need to be in the office to be productive.

Having gone from a home environment that is bliss (having the house to myself during the day and being able to work in peace and quiet!), to a household where four of us are online 24/7 (our broadband struggles!) and constant interruptions, it was a big wake up call.

We soon found our feet, with VIP taking over my office (it made sense as he has to do the live lessons), my son in the dining room and my daughter working in the lounge with me. She would throw me out every now and then (especially for her piano lessons) and I’d have to go and work in the kitchen, but I have to say, I really appreciated the fact that we don’t live in an open-plan home, even though I love the idea of them.

So I had to come up with ways of being productive so I could crack on with work – I do run 3 businesses after all! One of the things I started to do was wake up super early and try to get ahead for the day – if I was ‘on top’ of my day – and sometimes even working a day in advance, I was winning and it meant that the constant interruptions didn’t irritate me as much. I discussed it with my accountability partners and they felt the same – and we even decided to start running Accountability Sessions ourselves for people on Zoom.

We’ve only been doing them for a few weeks, but they seem to have really taken off and are popular. The idea is that we work with intention. We meet on Zoom, state our work intentions for the 45-minute session and work on our ‘to-do’ list on mute and cameras ON. When 45 minutes is up, we reconvene to discuss what we each got achieved.

It’s not just for those that have their own business – we’ve had a lady join us to clear her cupboard, another one cleaned and cleared the top of her fridge (she had put it off for weeks!) and I once used a session to do all my paperwork admin and filing. Popular activities seem to be social media planning/scheduling, blog post writing and editing videos. I always say choose the little jobs that you keep putting off to get done – and it’s surprising how people are motivated to continue with their productivity morning once we finish the session.

And by the way, if you’re reading this and you’re interested in joining us for a session (they’re currently free!) to give it a try and see if it helps you, then by all means do get in touch. You can register by emailing productivitypod@post.com

So as you can see, there has been many a lesson come out of lockdown – which one is your favourite and do you have any of your own to add?

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