Is this how introverts feel when life is normal…?

We were four weeks into lockdown, and I had never felt more of an extrovert. The move to home working, the sudden contraction of my social life, the complete absence of church activities, and the impromptu decampment to my parents’ house meant that – like most people – my world had shrunk dramatically.

The condition of being generally under-stimulated soon left me feeling flat; not quite myself; running at less than 100%. And that’s when I had one of those dawning moments of realisation. Maybe this was something akin to how my more introverted friends felt when life is ‘normal’ – too often generally over-stimulated, and therefore operating at less than 100%.

In her 2012 book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain makes the case that the world is set up for an ‘extrovert ideal’. Take the office environment at The Good Book Company (TGBC) as an example. Under normal circumstances, most of our staff do most of our week in a buzzing open-plan office with 35 other people. It provides numerous advantages as we work collaboratively. Now, during lockdown, we’re isolated to our 35 individual studies/dining rooms/requisitioned spare rooms/sheds – still working together, but apart. Yet while we’re all missing each other, it’s no doubt also allowing some staff – depending on their personality – to work better than they did in the office (living situations and broadband speeds aside). While the office environment suited how I like to work, lockdown works better for an ‘introvert ideal’.