8 ways to survive work from home during COVID-19
Its been almost 3 months now since the COVID-19 situation engulfed our workspaces, and believe me, there may be many more months we are stuck here. COVID-19 has forced many of us to sit at home in front of our home digital work stations and work tirelessly day-in and day-out.
In the early days of working from home, there was nothing stopping me from not working after 6 pm. There was no concept of a Saturday or a Sunday. Every day is a F**ing MONDAY.
Why was this happening?
There was absolutely nothing transitioning me from one mental state to another.
I was confined to the same 4 walls, same self home-made food, same ambience of the room and the restroom, same mess all over the place, and unfortunately (but this is true) to the SAME camaraderie. In due time, everything started feeling a bit mundane and stagnant.
I started missing the happy good mornings, and breakfast time stories from my colleagues. I miss the evening goodbyes from tired happy faces. Now, there is nothing reminding my brain of a time to transition. Nothing triggers you from a work-war-zone to a relaxed-loving-home-nest.
In these abnormal times, there are a few things which are helping me get back to a NORMAL me and a NORMAL life.
When WORK
- Stick to a plan and time of work — start 15–20 minutes before your usual work-day starts and make a plan for yourself. What you need to do and time expectations to yourself. Ensure that you communicate to your team and the leads so they know what to expect from you during the day and if you reach out to them for questions, they would know the context of your work.
This also ensures a reality check for your own good.
2. Pause and learn to relax — in between work. Many of us who love our jobs just do not want to stand from our Game of throne. Use timers on desktops, timers on watch, timer plugins on browser, timer software, and/or auto-locks of the screens to take breaks from work. Timers will force you to take a 5–10 minutes to calm your brain and relax a bit.
3. Recreate Office feeling — Virtual presence is essential to ensure your team knows that you are there to help and are actively working towards accomplishing goals. They also get the idea that they can reach you when you are present in the working hours.
Great colleagues in the morning, afternoons during lunches, and good bye jpgs/ emojis or giphys in evenings. Throw in some random joke or a cute cat pic licking herself to stirr a engaging conversation ( cat always works).
Have team meeting on special days to kick off a work week, and end the week. Have a inception planning meeting on Monday. A retrospective meeting on Friday and mash it up with some fun worst T-shirt contest.
4. Buy some office essentials -> or have your company send some to you. May be a small whiteboard, some colorful stickies, colorful markers, and/or notepads. Ensure your whiteboard is stuck to the back of your seat. This is to ensure that your stickies and work is visible to your colleagues during video conferences/meetings. This create a feeling of self worth and importance ( come on we need it in our offices). Feed your inner animals people!!!
When HOME
1. Take a day off -> working from home is way more exhausting then you can actually imagine. And if you are reading this article, you know that it is true. Remember to use those vacation days to just take a chill pill. Sleep off the whole day or simply finish binge watching “breaking bad ” AGAIN!.
2. Exercise -> It is a must thing to ensure your body knows that you are alive and you are taking care of it. A healthy brain lives in a healthy body.
So even if you start your day with a surya namaskar[pic] or take a run on a treadmill, or dance on those silly songs like a monkey ( just do it, nobody’s watching you!!)
3. Laugh -> Its a tonic for life. We are social beings confined in our own spaces, getting depressed due to a lack of social interactions. A good 30 minutes of laugh each day can cover it up.
Try not go to any digital content to see videos things to make you laugh. Crack jokes with your room-mates or with your neighbors, or call your friends to zoom for a “laugh it out time”.
Read out jokes, but make sure you get a SOLID 30 minutes of Laugh.
Ohh, play a tickle game with your partner (wink-wink).
4. Digital SHUT DOWN -> Set a time in your 24 hour day when you do a complete digital-content shut down. Whether it’s from 10 pm to 7 am or from 7 pm to 9 pm or may be for just 30 minutes a day. There should be no smart phones, no TV, no laptop, no virtual assistants (echo or google home etc.) and absolutely nothing electronic that gives you any kind of distracting signals.
Let this be the tome for your loved ones.
Its the time your pet needs a cuddle, your kids want to share the excitement, and your better-half cares for a lovely smooch on the lips.
Hope to survive the COVID trauma!!
