Post-pandemic, the world has become a world of living away, at a distance. Though the distance is reducing, the work-from-home trend, sudden and sharp rise in online-only activities and multiple ways of COVID have kept everyone alert and distant.
Lockdowns have been really hard on all of us. We are all living away from our normal routine, friends, extended family, and co-workers. For some, lockdowns have also resulted in separation from close family members, friends, and colleagues. On one hand, we got locked inside our homes, and on the other hand, we rushed outside in case of medical emergencies. Around the world, people lost others in their life. The hard times are not still not over for many of us in some countries.
But we are hopeful that the world will return to normalcy soon. We are hopeful that we’ll resume our normal lives, go out, and meet our friends and family members. Until then, there are a few things that we can do to stay in touch with the people we are quarantined with and the people who are away from us.
Here’s how you can win the distance and stay in touch with people you care about:
1. Schedule virtual meetups
Be it your family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers, it is always good to catch up with your common group in a meetup. In the offline world, we had meetups because of parties, events, and festivals. And to do those same meetups virtually is not a big task. All you have to do is ask everyone for a common time when they are available and schedule a Zoom, Google Meet, or Facebook Room and invite all of them.
To make it interesting, you can ask everyone to keep food and beverages alongside and maybe decide what are the common questions that you’d like everyone to answer to keep others updated on “what’s new and what’s happening in their life”. For family and friends, such virtual meetups won’t take a lot of planning. But for co-workers and neighbors, you might need to plan what everyone will be talking about.
2. Send Letters Online
You can occasionally write a letter to people in your network using Letterflix. Using Letterflix is super easy and you won’t even need to go out and visit any crowded places. Also, Letterflix delivers snail mail worldwide, you can send snail mail to Europe, postages to the USA, or send letters from the USA to India. It costs only rs. 99 (in India), $2.99 (to send a letter in the USA + any other country), and euro 2.99 in Europe. For most currencies other than Indian Rupee, Letterflix costs 2.99 units in that currency.
Sending letters can be a great way to keep in touch with others from a distance. And it also has a sense of nostalgia and care. When you sit to write down your thoughts, it is always a great feeling and you end up thinking about things that you can write. Such things usually never cross our mind on a voice call, because writing takes your full attention and you communicate better and deeper. Try Letterflix to send your letters online and surprise people in your life.
3. Keep aside time for one-on-one calls
All of us are mostly busy and in our daily schedule, we don’t get enough time to call our friends and family. And even if you take out time and call someone, you find out that they are too busy for a long call. To solve this, you can ask and plan in advance for a one-on-one call. If you take out time for something and plan ahead of it, we get mentally prepared and make sure that nothing clashes with it.
4. Play online multi-player games
For gamers, playing online games is a great way to catch up with their friends. But online multiplayer gaming is not only for pro-gamers. There are many simple games that are fun and also support voice communication features. So you play a game with your friends and talk at the same time. Ludo, Chess, Snakes, and Ladders, etc. can be found online. There are several apps on Playstore and Appstore for such games. Games make us feel better, and talking to your friends while playing can be a super fun activity.
5. Send gifts and food
Imagine you receive a small gift or food at your home someday, randomly. And then someone from your friend circle or family calls you to tell you that they sent it to you. How would you feel? Surprised, happy, right? Sending tiny gifts and food is a great way to remind people that you care about them, that you exist in their life. It’ll also strengthen the bond that you share with them.