Sometimes I snap, as if out of a trance, and realise that it’s been five years since we were going through COVID. What a crazy, world changing event, from which we haven’t fully returned, for good and for ill. It really did turn the world upside down. It was a terrible time for some, and I don’t want to avoid that fact, but oddly good for me, and today, I want to look back at it. It has been a considerable amount of time since that period, and that’s the main theme of this post: time.
The first image that springs to mind of the COVID era is of an eerily desolate Covent Garden in 30° heat. The spring and summer of 2020 were sweltering and the Daygame river should have been flowing at full pelt. Usually, people would have been flocking to the streets; crowding the beer gardens of London’s innumerable pubs. There should have been a party feeling in the air. In actuality, date venues were shut. News outlets were reporting on just one thing. People were scared of leaving the house. House mates were judging each other for meeting people outside of their “bubble.” The city was rife with fear. People were distinctly not hitting on each other.
That includes me, as it happens.
While there were some addicts still hitting the streets, I had decided to treat COVID as a holiday from Daygame. I could see that the volume was very low and that date venues hadn’t re-opened yet. Then there was the potential for collecting leads who would later on flake because of fears of catching the virus. On the surface, I had decided that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, but deep down, I knew I just needed a break. After three and a half years of solid Daygame with no more than a few short weeks off each Christmas, I had to give myself some rest. I needed time. I, just like everyone else, am not a machine, and the insidious nature of overworking yourself is that you don’t notice it. Instead, you phone in your performance, but perform semi-decently nonetheless. Results slowly slide, but more importantly, you enjoy the process less. Everything needs a rest period.
The COVID era did not disappoint, and honestly, I enjoyed the fact that the world had had the volume turned down on it. One simply couldn’t do everything, everywhere, all at once. Instead, you had to work for your dinner. You had to find out which pubs and bars were still offering takeaway beers. You had to find out which supermarkets still had an inventory of toilet paper (yes, it’s true). You had to find out which local public spaces wouldn’t get visited and shut down by police. I have a distinct memory of drinking wine with my girlfriend in Russell Square, with everyone “socially distant” (remember that?!), and yet the police came into the square and apologetically cleared everyone out. The irony wasn’t lost on them, it seemed. There was a distinct DIY feel to the world. You had to make your own adventure. I really enjoy working things out and understanding how to get the most out of systems and this felt just like it. Life wasn’t so simple anymore. It was like a puzzle and I loved it.
I wasn’t just trying to make the best of a bad situation either. Trying to solve that puzzle meant that I explored different areas around where I lived, inadvertently finding pubs and small parks which I never knew existed and would be enjoyed once all the restrictions were lifted.
I can’t move on without mentioning the “substantial meal” debacle, though. This was once pubs, bars and restaurants reopened and the government said that you were only able to congregate outside your house with your housemates, in groups of maximum six people and as long as you were consuming a “substantial meal.” This led to groups of people, somewhat incredulously, going to pubs where they declared that they all lived together, ordering a plate of chips each and laying them all in the centre of their tables like a group of middle aged women dancing around their handbags. As the evening wore on and the pints flowed, those chips would be seen to. But I digress…
On top of that, everywhere was just so pleasantly quiet. Life was simple. Quieter. Peaceful. Even in a metropolis like London. It felt like the perfect base from which to start making some changes.
I had begun to work from home too. Strangely, to begin with, I was reluctant to make the change. I honestly can’t remember why, but I was one of the last people to stop working in the office. It might have been all the free food, drinks and coffee that they were now giving out. It might have been because I thought that by inviting working into my home that it would consume my life. I can’t quite remember, but I quickly realised how wrong my initial reluctance was.
I started by waking up five minutes before I was meant to start work. Later on I would start logging in 25 minutes after that point. My lunch breaks grew longer and longer up until the point where they lasted a solid two hours each day. I would leave my laptop for longer and longer YouTube sessions and to cook meals and perform chores around the house. On top of that, I was able to delegate 80% of my work to new hires and was, after a time, doing only an hour of work each day, unless there was some kind of emergency. My cup of time was overflowing.
With all this time on my hands, I realised that I could direct my energy differently. I had been on a poorly executed bulk and let my weight balloon out of control. It was finally time to diet, and diet I did, bringing my weight down by about 60 lbs, though admittedly this process lasted throughout the whole COVID period and not just the spring and summer of 2020.
I felt as if I had that part of my life under control, and overall, things were feeling a bit like they did when I was at university; another era when you have time in abundance. I consider my university days to be a kind of gold standard for feeling. No, I’m not saying they were my golden years and everything after them was downhill. Absolutely not. Just that time had a particular feeling of freedom, enjoyment and hope which I always try to drive my life towards. The COVID era was bringing that feeling back, and this was when I started to realise the importance of having time. When you have time, you have the ability to do what you want. When you’re showing up to an office to do a job which you’re only somewhat okay with doing, then you’re selling your time cheaply. You’re depriving yourself of the ability to change your life. You lack freedom, because you lack ability, and from that, you lack hope.
This was the catalyst to start making plans to quit my job and work for myself. I started writing a series of posts called “Time Rich, Cash Poor” to organise my thoughts on the move and my realisation on time (and partially to convince myself of it being the right thing to do). Though, to be honest, I had hardly reinvented the wheel. You will probably have heard people, in the past, say, “time is your most scarce resource.” I think I was only hearing the message for the first time.
Now, five years later, I’ve completed that move. I am now “Time Rich, Cash Poor” (which I write ironically from the side of my swimming pool). This post was inspired by a YouTube video I watched yesterday about the movie Office Space. I recommend you watch the movie, not just because it’s enjoyable and memorable, but because it also encapsulates achieving what society thinks is the goal of life and yet feeling an unnerving dissatisfaction. I’d show up to work each day, get paid well – especially for the amount of work that I did – and do it all in a comfortable environment. However, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I wanted time – time, freedom, ability and hope – and I got it.
Which brings me to the second reason why I’m writing this post. To thank you. To everyone who reads this blog. To everyone who follows me on X. To anyone who has sent me a nice message or email thanking me for my work. To anyone who’s bought a book or hired me for coaching. Even to all my haters. You all made this possible. For that, I thank you.
Yours unfaithfully,
Thomas Crown
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