Working From Home (WFH) Tips During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Part 2

......continued from Working From Home (WFH) Tips During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Part 1

2.  Manage relationship with colleagues, supervisors and other stakeholders 

They are facing similar challenges as you in working from home. For some it could be much worse. Imagine having to live quarantined in a small apartment with a spouse you are divorcing from or one who is abusive or a violent alcoholic. This crisis is a great opportunity to see your own position from another person’s point of view. Then, you can take some practical steps to help your interaction with your colleagues.

a.   Dress professionally for your WFH role (at least from the waist-up)

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• People who dress up differently for WFH compared to their free time report that doing so makes it easier for them to transition from free time to work and the other way. Liane Cassavoy's excellent post about giving the professional background impression shows how bathrobe and to-do-laundry in the picture frame doesn't give a professional image.

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• People with school-aged kids have reported that the whole family dressing up for going to school and work, then going for a quick walk around the block and coming back home to settle in their study or work spots have been more effective than just starting the day without this ritual. 

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b.    Make and follow your daily to-do-list

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• Putting clear time limits gives your mind a strong signal that this is the time you’ve got, and this is what you need to achieve (the to-do-list) in that time. It also signals intent to colleagues: 

“Yes, we’ve bonded, complained how our national health authorities should handle the Corona crisis better, but this is our to-do-list and we’re going to do it in this time limit.” 

• You are trying to locate your mental arousal level in the optimal zone (Yerkes-Dodson law of human arousal and performance, 1908). Too little stress and you get bored, lonely, and too much stress gives you burnout and breakdown. Remember, boredom and loneliness are consistently the biggest complaint about working from home according to research.  
• At the end of the work day, cross out all you’ve done from your to-do-list. Place your exercises (last week’s tips) also in this to-do-agenda. What does the Christian/Jewish/Islamic God do at the end of the sixth day of creation? 

“Saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good!” 

• Acknowledging achievement helps you discover meaning, and your chances of getting happiness as its by-product becomes much higher. 

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c.   Communicate more clearly

• If you’re the team leader, address every team member by their name. 
• Ask each person how they’re coping. Listen actively but keep it compact.
• Signpost the virtual meeting: “We have four topics on our 1-hour meeting agenda. We’re still in topic 2. Topic 3 will need a lot of discussion. Let’s speed up.”
• Say out clearly what you expect from each person, by when. 
• Make everyone’s work visible. Many shy persons don’t speak up on virtual meetings, especially with sketchy internet connections. It could make some others think that this shy person may not have anything to contribute. Making everyone’s work visible will help everyone feel motivated and valuable.
• Say clearly what challenges you’re having and what are your expectations about the team, each person and yourself as the team leader.
• It’s ok to say in advance “My kid can suddenly walk in. If she does, I’ll handle it and get right back.” This honesty will make you more human and approachable. 

d.    Double check all commitments

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• In face-to-face interactions we get visual cues, which may be missing in online meetings. 
• Some persons may have “Bad hair day” and choose not to have the video on. So, to compensate for the visual cues, double check by asking: 

“Am I right in understanding that you’ll deliver me this report by tomorrow 14:30?”

• Always thank people in meetings and wish them a good day when you sing-off. This creates a pleasant association about you and makes cooperation smoother.
• Be honest to your boss and colleagues about what you’re doing. Say clearly if you need to go for a short jog in the middle of the day (unless there is a crisis deadline).
• Focus on what you have produced at the end of the day. Can you show clearly what has been your contribution?  

e.   Discover something interesting – learning points

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• Have something to contribute – Avoid getting sucked up by the news and find something interesting you’ve heard, read or seen that would be of interest to others. Gossiping about others is banal, anyone can do that. But only great minds talk about ideas. 
• Try to search for some meaning – why are some processes followed. What is the etymology of this professional term? Doing this will give you a new inquisitive approach to life, and make you a far more interesting person. Remember: As Viktor Frankl said 

“success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.”

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3.   Negotiate with family members about sharing space, home office resources, internet connection and undisturbed working time

Previous experiences of working from home might be very different from the current one. Earlier you could go to the gym, local pub or out with friends to let off some steam. This is not possible now. So, you need new approaches.

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a)   Clarify ground rules

• When you or your partner/spouse are on a video conference and cannot be disturbed. 
• If there are small kids, can the other adult make sure that small kids will not be too noisy and barge in on mummy’s or daddy’s video conference? This is the classic viral video of kids barging in as they do in this hilarious BBC viral video.   
• If you are online conferencing, should others avoid playing online or watching movies using the same internet connection that would make your conference quality sketchy?
• When is the shared lunch or dinner time? When is the coffee break?

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b)   Discuss how each family member is coping and letting off steam

Families discussing this regularly are reporting lesser conflicts and frustrations than families who are not discussing these issues.

• What are the shared activities that you’ll be doing together now that going to the gym, shopping mall, movies together are not feasible?
• How is each family member doing their part to support the others?
• Set targets - How do we celebrate week 3, 4, 5, 6 etc., of quarantine?

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4.   Manage your own feelings, attitude and optimism more skilfully

This is the most important part of everything. 

If you can’t manage yourself, you will quickly ruin the atmosphere of your home, and then also your colleagues will react negatively to you.

a)   Health - Stay fit and maintain your energy level

• You are only 5-15 steps from the fridge – how to stay fit when you can’t go to the gym or play tennis regularly?
• Micro-exercise regularly. Do some push-ups. Doing something physical will let the steam off. That really helps. Stretch regularly. Walk around your home, or do some push-ups every two hours. If you live in a two-storey house and are working in the ground floor, use the upstairs bathroom every time you need to use one. This way you get some exercise.

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• Sore elbows are a big problem. Use the spring-finger-grip exerciser. These cheap exercising tools help prevent painful tennis-elbow, joint pains.

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b)    Keep clearly defined work hours and a to-do-list for each day

• Having clear limits helps better maintain your work-life balance! Primarily it gives your conscious and unconscious minds a strong signal that this is the time I’ve got, and this is what I need to achieve (the to-do-list) in that time.
• Make a to-do list – even a few errands. At the end of the work day, cross out all you’ve done. This gives a feeling that you have achieved what you should. Place your exercises (last week’s tips) also in this to-do-list. Remember: You are trying to locate your stress level in the optimal zone (Yerkes-Dodson law of human arousal and performance, 1908). Too little stress and you get bored, lonely, and too much stress gives you burnout and breakdown. Stay productive and nor bored.  

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c)     Pay attention to nutrition and immunity boosting 

• What are the foods, drinks and supplements that boost your immunity and keep your energy level high? There is a lot of individual differences here. Discussing this issue with family members will create a we-are-in-this-together feeling, which means less conflict and more synergy. Besides, this discussion will help you see family members as unique persons. 

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d)    Check your attitude and motivation 

• Sometimes you will feel that you can’t get anything done. Stop working at once and do something physical, clean the office and home. Go out for a spin if you can. Then sit down (in some other place than the work spot), close your eyes, breathe deeply in and out and calm yourself. You can also listen to some relaxing music and lie down. 
• Find learning points in the whole WFH situation. How have others responded to this crisis? What are the funny anecdotes and experiences you have heard? Any tips you could share? Any tips you could apply and experiment?
• Reach out to other people and discuss with them. This will help you loosen the power grip of the constant stream of complaints and negative thoughts from bad news going round and round in your own head.
• Be grateful – lots and lots of people do not have the work that you are complaining about. Cultivating daily a sense of gratefulness creates more space in you for positive feelings and optimism. It takes only a little bit of light to remove the darkness. When people around you see how you have brought more light in yourself, they respond in kind and soon you all feel much stronger optimism, positive feelings about WFH and then you get more work done.

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Source: 

• Yerkes R M, Dodson J D. (1908) Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 18 (5): pp. 459–482.
• Thompson, Derek. The Coronavirus Is Creating a Huge, Stressful Experiment in Working From Home. The Atlantic. March 13, 2020

Working From Home (WFH) Tips During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Part 1

WFH (Working From Home) is here to stay for some time, with the Covid-19 pandemic not slowing down yet. 

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WFH need not be a nightmare. With the right skills, you can make it an opportunity for saving time and money on commuting. 

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Working digitally online can give you new skills, in addition to keeping you alive by avoiding the virus. 

What You Need for Working From Home Successfully

There are four areas of your life you need to manage a bit differently now, with mandatory WFH: 

1. Leverage workspace, equipment and internet connection use
2. Manage relationship with colleagues, supervisors, and stakeholders 
3. Negotiate with family members about sharing space, home office resources, internet connection and undisturbed working time
4. Manage your feelings, attitude and motivation more skilfully

Here are some tips that would help you make working from home (WFH) less nerve-racking, more efficient and enjoyable.

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1.   Leverage workspace, equipment and internet connection usage

The most crucial thing in WFH is keeping your energy levels high. If you can keep your energy levels higher for longer periods, you will be more productive. As you get more things done in less time, you can then devote time and energy to taking care of family issues, recharging yourself and relaxing.

• Have a place in your house where you work, and a separate place where you relax. If you work on the sofa, and then try to relax by watching Netflix on the same laptop, it doesn’t give you much relaxation. Move your work to a separate table e.g., the kitchen table, sit on cushions on the floor for working. So, when you finish working and move to a different corner of the room or to the sofa to watch a movie, there is a clear break from your work position.

• Slouching on the sofa reduces your energy level, and you become less efficient in your work. Remember to sit erect with a straight back while working as this will keep you more energetic. Do these exercises regularly: e.g., Neck-roll, backward/forward shoulder roll, chest opener and spine twist to stay more energetic. Here's a nice video of these easy exercises (no need to buy any expensive equipment).

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• Work from a place in your home that boosts your mood and has good natural light.

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• Angle your laptop/computer screen so that the glare from outside light doesn’t make you squint. It is also annoying for others if they can’t see your face properly in online meetings.

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• Take care of the tools you need. This means taking care of your computer software and ensuring that it works well.

• Clean your computer screen and keyboard with a microfibre cloth gently.

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• Free up space on your computer. Check if you have many unwanted programmes, then delete or uninstall them properly. Keep running only those programmes you need before going online for video conference, which requires a lot of memory and capacity from your computer. 

• Place the internet router or modem in a place that serves all your family users equally. If you have a choice of 5 GHZ and 2.4 GHZ, 5 GHZ is faster but 2.4 GHZ goes through walls better, so try which one works better for you. Here’s some more information about locating your modem to get the best speeds.

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Service your computer/laptop regularly. Delete temporary files and cookies. The more you are online; the more temporary files accumulate and slow down your computer significantly. 

For Windows computers: Open Internet Explorer and select the Tools menu, Select “Internet Options” from the drop-down menu. Select “Settings” under “Browser History” in the “General” tab. Select “View files” in the “Temporary Internet Files” tab. Select all the files (CTRL-A), right-click and select “Delete”.

For Mac users: From Safari menu bar select “Preference”, select the “Privacy” tab, click “Manage Website Data”. Click “Remove all”  and then  click “Done…” to confirm.

More tips in the next post: How to manage relationships with colleagues, supervisors and stakeholders

See the CORONA COVID-19 Pandemic from the Sars-Cov2 Virus Point of View

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Just a little thought exercise: 

Imagine you are a Sars-Cov2 virus, i.e., a Corona Virus, COVID-19 or Wuhan-virus or Chinese Virus (as the president of a certain country insists on calling me). 

So, who am I? Coronaviruses (COVs) infect human and animals, causing mainly respiratory, enteric, renal, and neurological diseases.

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There are four genera of these: alpha-COV, beta-COV, gamma-COV, and delta-COV. And here's my pedigree, so you know what you're signing up for. I belong to the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria. 

Proudly, I can say that I am the largest among known RNA viruses. 

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Records of my family history go back to 10 000 BCE and I have about 200 siblings. You really don't want to mess with some one them e.g, Ebola with 90% kill rates. I'm one of the smartest viruses in the family as I don't kill the carrier hosts that fast, so I get to spread far and wide and so I can put the biped carbon-based life-form's entire civilisation in a crisis. 

In this century, there's been already 3 zoonotic outbreaks of beta-COVs: 

1. SARS-CoV in 2002-2003
2. MERS-CoV in 2012, Saudi Arabia
3. SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, Wuhan, China  

But, overall it's been about a hundred years since the planet has had a pandemic of such magnitude as the current pandemic and this has left everyone clueless about how to handle it. Only countries with recent experience of epidemics like SARS have managed better.

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Though the exact genetic code mutation is new, I have lived since times immemorial in the bodies of wild animals in the deep forests. It was a symbiosis agreement. I didn’t kill them and they didn’t start eradicating me.

Only recently, humans, a biped carbon-based life-form began decimating the deep forests and capturing these wild life-forms, often for aphrodisiacs. 

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Now what is left of our deep forest home, looks mostly like this: 

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Really, can anyone live there now?

It's not that these biped carbon-based lifeforms is on any endangered species list or under any threat, in fact they  have grow by 18 million this year.

Their environment footprint is entirely out of proportion and has pushed the planet almost beyond the planetary boundaries. I, Sars-Cov2 virus, along with other compatriots am now homeless and host-less. 

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Think of it, as a living organism, who would want to just die out? So, what is the only viable option? In a rapidly changing digital environment, change of residence into a mobile host is a smart move. As I am a zoonotic virus, I can transfer from animals to humans pretty quickly, I can also move from the upper-respiratory tract of humans to the lower, unlike some other viruses, and things have begun to look like this, unfortunately for the biped carbon-based life-forms.

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You break my home, biped carbon-based life-form (humans), I move into yours, what’s unfair about that? I come as a pandemic (you make it an infodemic!), so I'm in for a long stay.

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Unfortunately, the carbon-based life-forms denied that the Covid-19 was a serious outbreak.

Then, you can easily understand, how not only the behaviour responsible for creating this problem was swept under the carpet, but a policy of denial continued. Now, what can a virus like me do about such callousness!

So, dear biped carbon-based life-form (aka human), give me back my home and hosts, and let me live undisturbed in them, then I’ll bless your home and leave and the Covid-19 pandemic ends soon. 

Fair deal, huh? 

Now, how likely is that? Well, there are some signs that some countries are trying to wake up and ban wildlife hunting.

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If you want to do your part to help, you can sign this petition.