Delays have become the new norm with social distancing and most people have accepted that you can’t just pop in anywhere for bread or milk any more. And for now, browsing is certainly a thing of the past.

At the height of lockdown, we juggled our food shopping between deliveries and early-morning trudges to the supermarket. Standing outside Tesco at 5.30am is not my idea of fun, but it beats the much longer queues which snake through the car park as the day progresses.

As businesses start to emerge from lockdown, and people try to get their lives together, there isn’t time to spend hours queueing up – for anything. As social distancing was introduced and we basked in three months of glorious sunshine, queueing for an hour to get into the local butcher or chemist was almost a novelty and a reason to get out of the house.

But now, every effort has to be made to get businesses on the road to recovery. Clients and colleagues might have forgiven a Zoom meeting interruption by the family pet or young child, but as businesses get going again, “working” while bargain hunting for clothes is a step too far.

During lockdown, I have ordered everything from dry-roasted peanuts to a new back door. Whether it was clothes or garden activities for the children, delivery times went out the window and things arrived when they arrived. Even office supplies were a challenge at times, with printer ink arriving without the paper.

But things settled down into some sort of a routine, which makes planning my day and my business a lot easier.

With my smartphone in my pocket, my business is with me everywhere I go and I can deal with emails, messages and calls when I am not at my desk. This means things can be done quicker and there is no backlog when I get back to the office.

But, whatever I may need from the shops, I cannot spend hours each day in queues. I need to focus on work and helping clients as they get themselves up and running again.

I also need services I can rely on and know that something will be ready when I need it. I obviously wouldn’t depend on same day or next-day delivery, but equally, I can’t wait two weeks for something I could pick up at a shop, albeit with a queue of at least an hour.

Things will never be the same after this pandemic and each day we see how changes are becoming the new way of life. 

Queues will become a major part of that new life and we will have to find ways to adapt for the future, both at home and at work, to make the best use of our time.