HOW I AM MANAGING WORKING FROM HOME (DURING SHELTER IN PLACE)

I know this is not the usual content for this space. Still, with everything going on right now, travel content did not seem appropriate. Don’t worry as soon as it is safe, I will back on the road. For now, I am sheltered in place (aka quarantined / lockdown) at home and only leaving when it is absolutely essential. I hope you and yours are staying safe, and while I may not have met each and every one of you - know that you are in my thoughts.

My office shut down officially on March 17th; since then, I have been working from home and have left my home precisely three times since then; once to pick up my allergy meds and twice for food. I am incredibly lucky to be a profession where I can work from home; it is not something I take for granted at all. Before the worldwide Shelter in place orders, I have worked remotely on and off for years. Starting last fall, I started a no commute day once a week. With all of that work from home experience, I have picked up a few best practices for working from home. If you have the privilege to work from home, here are some tips that have been useful to me over the past year,

• THE TV STAYS OFF. Although I like some level of controlled noise, I found that having the TV on is a recipe for an unproductive day. Instead of the TV, I listen to music or a podcast, and sometimes I just turn everything off to have total silence. 

• WAKE YOURSELF UP. When I first got the opportunity to work from home years ago, I would roll out of bed five minutes before the workday started and then spend half the day groggy and barely present. These days, I get up; take a show, and get dressed (READ: a mix of PJs and Gym cloths); have my cup of tea and then get the day started. Just the simple act of taking a shower made a massive difference in my mood and pace. 

• HAVE A MUST DO LIST. Set a plan for the day, a list of things you need to get done. Be realistic - somedays I have just one primary task that will take up the whole day; other days, it is smaller tasks. Having that list guides how I use the day and gives me something to measure my day against come shut downtime.

• POWER SESSION. This is a new one for me because it seems half of my day is spent on status phone calls. Last week, I spent the first six hours of the day on conference calls and then worked till 10 p.m. to get caught up. To limit that, I set power sessions of an hour/hour and a half and block the time on my calendar; I close out of emails and work IM, or I set my status to do not disturb, and I focus on getting a task completed. Somedays, I start earlier than my team, so I can get some jobs off my list before the distractions of emails / IMs begin to trickle in. 

• YOUR SET UP MATTERS. At least once a week, I am grateful for my friend “T” who gave me a second screen to work with; it has been a massive difference-maker. I am not sure if I will be as productive without it. I still need to get a proper desk chair, but I am not complaining. Depending on where you live, deliveries of nonessentials may be delayed or deferred, so you may not be able to do much about your set up now. I don’t have a work desk so I use my dinning as my work desk. If you can avoid working from your bed or couch, that will be my recommendation.

• TAKE BREAKS. Get up and move; don’t sit at the same spot. I divided my lunch break into three 20 minute segments. Around noon, I get up to have lunch away from my desk; then close to 2:30 p.m., I have my afternoon cup of tea, and then about 5:30 p.m., I do a 20-minute dance workout session. I have alarms set on my phone to force me to get up and take those breaks.

• START AND END TIME. In the early days of the Shelter in place orders, I was working long hours. Partly because it is one of the busiest times of the year for my sector, but also because it felt like there was no end to the workday or workweek. Last week, I started setting an end time for myself - somedays it is 7:30 p.m. other days it is 10 p.m. depending on what work I need to get through on that day. This is especially important if you have to work on the weekend, limit yourself. It is easy to get on the zone and realize you have worked seven days the week.

• ROUTINE HELPS. I have found that having a routine is critical for me, and as much as possible, I try to stick to that routine daily. If you need to formulate a routine - I share mine below and in this post

  • 6:30 - Wake up / Meditation

  • 7:15 - Catch up - I use this time to do bills; clean; sort / fold laundry; update budget (general life matters); Instagram (LOL) 

  • 7:40 - Shower and get ready; make my morning tea

  • 8:15 - 8:30 - Start the workday: my start time varies, but I usually try to be online by 8:30

  • 8:30 to 12 - Work matters

  • 12 - Lunch

  • 12:20 - Work matters

  • 2:30 - Afternoon tea

  • 2:50 - Work matters

  • 5:30 - Workout

  • 5:50 - Work matters (this could go till at least 7:30; later if there is a deadline)

  How are you managing working from home ? Share your tips.