Saturday, April 4, 2020

Working from Home...

...is not my favorite! But it's our reality right now, with good reason. Three weeks in, I wanted to share three things I'm noticing, three challenges I'm facing, and three benefits I'm seeing.

Three Things I'm Noticing:

1. My schedule is later than usual. I am waking up later, working later, and going to bed later.

2. My eating habits are really different. Rather than eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I am snacking or eating smaller meals all day long. Still trying to find the balance on this one - I don't think the different habits are necessarily bad, but I need to re-calibrate how much I should eat for larger meals, knowing I am snacking more in between.

3. I now know what my pet does all day. I say this tongue in cheek, but seriously, I've gotten the chance to observe my cat's habits like never before! At least, her habits with me being home - I wonder if it's different without any humans around? ;-)

Three Challenges I'm Facing:

1. It is really hard to "shut off" work for the day and move onto "me time". I mean, my work (computer) is sitting in the middle of the kitchen table, staring me in the face! But it's better than a couple of weeks ago, before I was able to get my work computer, and I was doing all of my work on my personal device - talk about no separation!

2. I'm tired of my chair! Sitting all day is hard, and especially when it is in the same chair, day after day. I noticed that my back was hurting this week due to some of the ways I have been turning to work on my double monitor (which I am SO thankful for), so I adjusted my setup. It helped, but still, I think I might have to find a couple of different places to with and work so that my body isn't in the same position all of the time.

3. So. Much. Screen. Time. I have never been a person who focuses too much on screen time (I believe that what you are doing on that screen is far more important than counting minutes), but by the end of the day/week, even social things like happy hours via Zoom feel like one too many activities on the screen.

Three Benefits I'm Seeing:

1. No commute! Seriously, this saves time and mental energy, leaving more of both for doing the things I really want or need to be doing.

2. More flexible hours! I've often found that I do well when I wake up early, work for a couple of hours, take a long break, and then get on with my work day. Right now, I can do that, and I've taken advantage of that several time!

3. More collaboration! As counter-intuitive as this sounds, we have been collaborating so much more. One of the barriers to this during "regular life" is time and space - it's hard to all be in the same place together. When we are all working from home, that barrier is instantly removed, and it's easier to get together virtually! I've been so energized by seeing how communities are coming together.

I know we will continue to get through this - here's to week #4!

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