A lockdown will get you thinking hard about the word “essential.” It’s beyond the regulations on essential and non-essential employees. It’s a thread that runs through the entire fabric of day-to-day existence.

What do you need?

What don’t you need?

Who do you need?

Who don’t you need?

These are blanket questions but look around the room where you’re sitting. Forget about any of the emotional connections to objects. Look at your daily, weekly and monthly routines. Look at places you go regularly. Look at restaurants, movie theaters, the park, the gym and places you may have been or want to go on holiday. Look at your to-do list. Look at your contact list on social media. Drill that down to the contact list on your phone. The lists become vast and varied.

Take a red pen and start by crossing through everything, everyplace and everybody you haven’t had any thoughts or contact with in the last 4 weeks. Ask yourself, before running the red line through any entry if eliminating it altogether would deprive you of something vital.

Something essential.

You may not want to go this far but imagine other people sitting someplace and going through their own list. Consider whether or not you would make the cut on someone’s list. Consider why you may or may not make the cut. This part is so much more difficult than making your own lists and then editing them, but consider that it could be the time you’ve been shut in playing with your head. That’s a trap that is so easy to fall into, probably even if you’re endowed with healthy self-esteem. You can’t double back though if you’ve shambled down this path. Be wary that this path exists firstly and then ask yourself if it’s essential that you travel down it.

You know what? Go back to earlier paragraphs and stick with the lifestyle choices. Don’t get stuck someplace foreign without a passport and a return ticket.