I sit here now, at my desk at home, happy to remain employed during a pandemic. For many, that is not their lived experience, and for that I truly feel saddened. This time we are living in right now is so fraught with life shattering consequences for many, and when I feel lonely, or stressed out about working from home, and living alone, I often remind myself how fortunate I am to have a home and a career that has not yet been impacted by the chaos of 2020.
For those who are suffering from unemployment, underemployment, or are employed in positions that are risky right now, I feel incredibly sadness and a sense of helplessness that I cannot fix things. I am not alone in those feelings, as I hear and see those same feelings expressed by so many. Not only a sense of helplessness for the economy, but for those who have for so long been on the receiving end of systemic racism. There, I feel I can do more, however, by standing up against racism, speaking out, and using my white privilege to benefit others.
I am rambling this morning (in part because I talk to my puppy way too much, and I need an outlet). To my point for today, I want to speak to the challenges of working from home during the pandemic. Again, it is better than not working, and that is something I remind myself of daily. Still, let's talk about some of those challenges and how we can combat them.
While it is nice to avoid commuting to work, a benefit I truly appreciate, especially having spent over a decade commuting in Los Angeles traffic, it still has it downsides, working from home. For one, research suggests that people often use the drive to and from work to prepare for the day on the way in to work, and decompress from work on the way home. It is a buffer between work and home, and when you work at home it is challenging to find the buffer. So, what can we do about this? We can make our own buffer.
Research suggests that taking 15 minutes at the beginning of your workday to plan your work helps organize your thoughts and transition from home to work. Some participants in this research found that walking for 15 minutes before working helped them transition from home life to work life. Sitting in your work space and starting your day there with 15 minutes of preparation can also help.
When you finish your work day, leave your work space and go for a walk, meditate, or do something that allows you to decompress from your work, put it aside, and have some quiet time that prepares you for your home life. In Germany, many practice an end-of-day routine called "Feierabend". This is typically a celebratory beer at the end of the work day, but you can make your own celebratory finish to the work day- a walk, a glass of wine, a snack, or a call to someone you know or love.
Missing out on the typical work/home buffer brings me to the next issue. Delineating between being at work and being at home. When you typically leave work, it may be easy to mentally and literally leave work at your desk or workspace. But, when work is at home, it may be more challenging to put aside the tasks you didn't complete, the emails you didn't read, etc. So, as part of that buffer zone you create as you transition from work to home, it is helpful to use some visual imagery to 'leave work'. Shut down the computer, put down the work tools, and commit to leaving 'work' emotionally, cognitively, and literally, until the next work day begins for you. And practice 'feierabend'.
As part of this delineation between work and home, don't go to your desk unless you are at work. Don't open work email unless you are at work. Remove your phone's notification sound from your work email. Leave work, and go 'home'. The same goes for the opposing transition: when you go to your work area at home, leave home, too. It can be very easy to blur the lines between home and work, taking care of the laundry or tending to other household tasks while you are at work, but avoid that if possible, so you can be productive at work, and then later, productive at home, keeping the two separate.
I recognize for many this is not possible, if you have children who are schooling from home. One tip I read about last week was from a working mom who had kids at home. She put a string of colorful lights around the door to her work area. This string of lights had a control button that allowed her to change the color at will, from red to yellow to green. She told her kids that when the lights were red, she was working on something really important and they were not to interrupt her unless it was a medical emergency. If the lights were yellow, they could interrupt if it was important, but they had to knock first and wait for her to respond. If the lights were green, they could knock and enter if they needed or wanted her. This is a great system!
To help make the clear distinction for yourself and anyone you might be living with, have a routine, a schedule. A time you regularly sit down to work, and a time you leave work. Have a space that is your work space, so when you leave that space, you can transition out of work. Even if it is a corner TV tray/table in your small apartment, have a space that is only used when you are at work.
I previously wrote about the benefits of list making, and a work list is a great one. Having a list with items you can actually 'check off' when they are completed helps us visualize our progress. This is especially important for those days when you feel like you didn't get anything done. The first thing on your list should be the 'must finish' item(s), the item you continue working on no matter what comes up in your email or gets added to your list.
It can be difficult to 'leave' work when you feel like there are so many items on your list that didn't get finished, but finishing that one 'must finish' item helps.
This also brings me to my last item for today, and it is also about that list. Research has found that the way you view that list at the end of the day is important for your well-being. If you look at your list and see that everything you listed has been done, well that is a great day! No doubt! But, those days are probably not all that common. If you look at the list at the end of the day, and most days end with items unchecked, that can leave your frustrated, or feeling like you should keep working, or a host of negative emotional experiences. So, instead of looking at the list and focusing on the unchecked items. researchers have found a better solution. Keep a journal on your desk, or on your computer, and write a quick entry at the end of each day, summarizing the things you DID get done. Writing it out helps shift our focus to the positives instead of the negatives. If there is one thing we can conclude from decades of research on well-being, our mindset plays a huge role for each of us. It certainly isn't everything that contributes to our well-being, but it is something we can work with, and change for the better. And that sure helps me feel hopeful in a year that seems full of hope-crushing circumstances.
So, hang in there. If you are working from home, try to implement some of these tips from the science of well-being. I hope they help. Even if you aren't working from home, I hope these are still helpful!
Be well, stay safe, and take care.
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