Developing These 3 Skills in 2021 Will Take You One Step Ahead
By: Luciana Lambert
Tags: Remote Work, Creativity, Productivity, Culture, Psychology

Developing These 3 Skills in 2021 Will Take You One Step Ahead

Shape yourself up for the new year.

Girl assembling a magic pyramid. Photo by Gabby K from Pexels

As we come to a close with such a rough year, one thing to keep in mind for a fresh start is a short list of useful skills. While in 2020, you were forced to adapt to the circumstances of a worldwide pandemic (perhaps working from home or changing careers), 2021 will be different — again. Some things may have changed permanently. If you now have all of your business meetings on Zoom, for example, there is no strong reason to go back to doing it exclusively in-person.

However, other things may need a push to get back on track, like your workout routine or your healthy diet. After the anxiety packed election cycle, you may need to wean off the need to check Twitter rather than sleep. In a nutshell, if your routine is scattered and your plans are all over the place, you would benefit from re-grouping so you can move on from a state of merely keeping things afloat. I suggest you start by improving these 3 skills.

1. Communication

Always a top skill in any ranking list, communication continues to be the one you need to keep improving. With high productivity at stake, communicating clearly, effectively, and with the capability to generate a fast response is a must. If you were good at writing emails before, now you need to make sure they get open and read until the end. An unclouded subject line paired with an objective message is the only way to do it. When your email gets ignored once, it will likely be ignored again. Soon enough, you will be someone your prospect does not “engage” with. That means your emails will die before arrival, sorted and directed to the Spam box.

On the phone and at your virtual conferences, you will need to: speak clearly, at a pleasant and professional pace, and use polished but friendly language. Those are things you will need to master to avoid boring your short-span client, seminar attendee, or co-worker.

Equally important is to ask pertinent questions, listen with attention, and forgive a speaker’s mistakes. After all, communication is a give-and-take: it requires synergy. So, build on that skill. Train your speech (maybe in a public speaking class). Read more to boost your vocabulary and practice how you move and express your personality. Even if you consider yourself a master communicator, find a way to get even better.

2. Creativity

This is a required skill, even listed in most job posts. “Creative thinking,” according to the popular blog “Skills you need,” can be defined as follows:

The ability to think in different and unusual ways about problems, and find new solutions, or generate new ideas, coupled with the ability to assess information carefully and understand its relevance.

Creativity is a skill in demand. Source: Gallup.

Creativity also helps us solve problems, handle our emotions, and become more confident. Creative people have been proven to live longer and manage anxiety better (source: Scientific American magazine).

The creative industry, for example, was the first to “get creative” due to the pandemic. Everything from dance lessons to theater plays moved online while movie releases went straight to streaming platforms. With that, people invented “virtual movie night.” On such occasions, a group of friends watches a picture simultaneously from their homes. In a chat session, they type their comments as if they were at the movie theater. However, each person is at their own home, microwaving their own popcorn.

I teach acting classes, and I used to meet my students in person for improv and the Stanislavsky Method lessons. With the shutdown in March, some of my clients immediately agreed to meet on Zoom. By October, even the most ‘tech-reluctant’ ones joined in and liked it. I am not yet scheduling in-person classes. Nonetheless, my sessions are full. As a matter of fact, many of my new tutees found me while looking for virtual drama classes after the shutdown.

All kinds of jobs — as all types of parties (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and birthdays) had a virtual alternative in 2020. Indeed, we can hardly wait to hug our loved ones in 2021’s special dates. Yet, many folks to whom “digital interactions” were unknown — even hostile — territory have warmed up to the ideal of FaceTiming rather than stopping by to check on their friends and family.

In 2021, creativity will remain an important skill. There is a consensus that going “back to normal” is not what anyone expects. Instead, we want a new way of life: more independent, commuting only when necessary, and working mostly when our personal productivity peaks. We need to keep designing the concept of “the new normal” way of living. We will use a lot of creativity for that.

3. Time management

We have been all over the place with our sleep, workout time (or lack thereof), and mealtime. You certainly remember April — most of us went through at least one phase in 2020 when we had no idea what time it was.

The more disciplined may have kept a healthy routine, waking up at 7 AM to exercise, having lunch by 1 PM, and getting seven hours of sleep. But most people I know either worked more than ever before or slacked off in ways unimaginable. We either juggled calls, laundry, and homeschooling or, binge-watched Netflix for days at a time.

In the new year, we must get it together. One way of doing it is to analyze our current patterns and correct bad habits. Time management involves setting goals, prioritizing, and being organized. For example, if you need at least six hours of sleep, set a bedtime and a wake-up alarm, and stick with those — no late-night tweeting.

If you got used to ordering your groceries for delivery, schedule it ahead of time — preferably on the same day every week. Keep an easy to update grocery list on your phone: it is more practical than the time-consuming chore of re-enumarating food items from scratch every time.

Spending more time at home makes us realize how domestic chores can steal our best hours. Now that you know how long it takes to unload the dishwasher and pre-cook a few meals, set time on your calendar for those, and maybe hear a podcast while performing them. Doing two things simultaneously is not a crime, as long as whatever needs your undivided attention gets it at its turn.

Time Management Pie Chart by ImgFlip

Fortune tellers may predict what next year will be like — politics, the stock market, jobs, or how the planets will align. Still, you are better served by preparing yourself. Improve your personal skills. That will come in handy until life feels normal again. Happy New Year!