Distantly Social
Hello, Adrian here again. It’s only been a few weeks since the world has really started to shut down due to the pandemic and it already feels like months. We’ve all transitioned in different ways, at different times, and have been finding our own grooves amongst it all at our own pace.
I assume I’m not alone when I say that I have been actively trying to avoid the news, social media and even family at times (sorry guys!) when all you hear is news and more news about this pandemic, it’s effect, and the sick/death tolls. Call me ignorant if you will, but one can only handle so much negativity and bad news in a time like this and sometimes you just need to get a break from it all.
If you are like me as well, you would probably be getting emails daily from online vendors, services, etc.. on what they are doing in response to the situation. Whilst I do appreciate my local carpet company has introduced better hand washing policies, the truth is that I really don’t care. I don’t.
What I do care about is when there is some acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation and a means for us to band together to get through it, whether that’s by doing our part by staying home, or by sharing tips on things we can do to help. And that’s what I’m going to try to do a small bit of through this post.
Now I know there’s probably hundreds of articles by now about tips for those who may be working from home for an extended period, but I thought I would try to help cut through the noise by just sharing my own experience on a few tips that I have found to be most effective. For context I work in IT and don’t have a heavy reliance on physical presence at the office, nor do I have kids to look after - so your results obviously will vary depending on your own situation, however I tried to keep it quite broad.
Tip #1 - Schedule in your recurring breaks (and TAKE them)
This one took me a while to incorporate into my days, as I initially thought that when I was working from home the chances to take breaks would be numerous. I was wrong. What I found going into it was that I was sticking to my seat and screens for 9-11 hours at a time - barely having time to use the bathroom or grab a glass of water in between meetings. I knew after a few days of this that this wasn’t sustainable, nor good for my physical or mental health. If you work a 9-5 normally, you can’t just follow the same routine at home as you did before in the office as your routines just aren’t the same. You are probably waking up and sleeping at different times, your commute has gone from getting on a car/train/bus (for 30-60+ mins) - to walking 10 steps from the bed in 2 mins.
I found that scheduling a 30 min break in the morning and a 30 min break in the afternoon worked a charm. It broke up those longer periods before and after lunch and gave me the time I needed to reset mentally.
Tip #2 - Find and define your work and home zones
This one was more so for to help me mentally, to associate and disassociate zones for work and home time. I set-up a desk where I “commuted” to each morning, did everything from that area during the work day, and when I was done for the day I would shut down - walk away and not go near that desk until the next day. As tempting as it was to jump on a beanbag, or sofa to work from my laptop in the living room - I just found that doing this made it more difficult for me to wind down after work or “switch off” mentally when I went to these spots to relax later. It still reminded me of work, and didn’t feel like I was leaving anymore. Once I made it clear where I went to “work” and where I went when I was off - the invisible partitions went up and I was able to wind down much easier at “home”.
Tip #3 - Exercise or make sure you move throughout the day
This. This a million times. You have to get out and move. If you have a job that is flexible that can give you the time and breaks as mentioned above, use that time for a walk around the block, or even around the house to stretch, do some yoga, meditate outside or something. If not, wake up 30 mins earlier (which you probably have time to do anyway if you aren’t commuting anymore) - and do some light exercise and build that into your before or after work routine. It helped immensely for me to just have a time I could focus on myself, and my own health.
If you are a germaphobe with a dash of paranoia like I am at this time, you are probably asking yourself the same thing, that is it safe to go outside for a walk (shoot I don’t even call uber eats anymore as I don’t trust that driver’s hands)!? Here’s a great article I read recently that touches on this and has some good tips too.
That’s all I have gang, and by no means am I licensed health professional or claiming to be one, but I am one of millions of people working from home (while playing footsies with anxiety) for what may be months more ahead and I would be just as keen to get some other tips from others. Hope this helps at least one of you reading and stay safe all.