A majority of us are practicing stay at home guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means no time spent commuting, traveling or running to social events. But what this does mean is we all have a little more time than we had before when we were spending time in the car, on planes or in bars.
Now more than ever it’s easier to get a hold of people, even the busiest of people, because in some way their schedule has opened up. The excuses of I’m hopping on a plane or heading to happy hour just don’t come up right now. This means it is a great time to reach out to people that may not have had an extra half hour in their schedule to chat before the pandemic.
I was recently talking with a former colleague who is on the job hunt and he said that he’s had a way easier time getting in touch with people since we’ve been following the stay at home guidelines. Everyone seems to be more up for a phone call than they normally would if they were rushing through their day.
Now is the time to catch up with old colleagues, friends you’ve been out of touch with or someone in your industry that’s usually extremely booked up. Most people are craving more interaction and are happy to set up some time to catch up.
It’s important to keep up with your network since you never know, especially in these unprecedented times, when you might need to lean on your network or when your network may need to lean on you. Staying in front your network is extremely helpful to keep you top of mind should an opportunity, introduction or lead come about.
Create some advantage for yourself and others by scheduling networking time in your day. Hopefully you’ll be surprised at how re-connecting with others helps increase your positivity and sense of community.