Yes, you read that right! Many are constantly unhappy about how ‘work from home’ disrupts their life, their work-life balance, their mental health. Well, I do agree, it does! But, with a global pandemic out there, if you are privileged to have an opportunity to work from home, then you should do that responsibly and live every bit of it. 

As an extrovert, initially, I disliked staying at home and missed my work colleagues and being in the office. Personal face-to-face interaction is great, and sometimes even necessary, but many of us do our best work away from our cubicles and the 9–5 routine. I’m more creative, more focused and more productive when I work from home. Personally speaking as an ‘easily distracted person’, it’s been extremely helpful for me as I’m able to focus and get things done better at home. By saving on travel time, I’m able to be more productive. While few of us are still adjusting to a new life under the threat of contracting COVID-19, many of us (including me) are simply shrugging and saying “welcome to a new normal.”

I love routine and I have also realized that a routine helps to keep going and gives a sense of normalcy. With this in mind, I put together a list for myself, to keep me going through these difficult times which helped keep things as normal as possible. I hope you get some cues from this and I look forward to hearing your WFH tips.

Working from home can create a lot of distractions, so I always try to stick to a schedule. Everyone’s schedule may be different so I always try to ensure I communicate my preferred hours to my team. Every morning, I check my schedule for the day and make a to-do list with short term goals for the day and at times for the week. This really helps me be on my toes. PS: I always include some time for a little nap in my schedule. Because we all need that energy boost after hogging some yummy home-cooked food, don’t we? 😛

The first thing I do is, get up, get out of bed, get ready for the day as though it were any other. Trust me, this really helps to get me ready for the long day ahead. On some days, I do wear makeup and put on my favourite lipstick! This helps me feel fresh and kicked about designing for the day because this isn’t a sick leave!

I’m fortunate enough to have enough space to dedicate an entire room of my house to work. If you don’t have one, pick a corner of any space you have and declare it as your home office. Fortunately my company Freshworks helped me to set up a comfortable office space at home. With an allowance to buy ergonomic chairs, tables, accessories, etc., which made WFH more comfortable. I love this corner of my room and I’ve set it up with all of my work essentials (laptop, phone chargers, pens, notepads…) and a speaker to tune in to my favourite music and start designing.

Here’s a sneak peek into my WFH station:

And also to make sure my parents know that I am in a meeting, I have sticky notes stuck outside my room. My mom collects them and calls them ‘Ms. Busy Shah’s Notes!’ 

Thanks to technology, there are endless tools for making communication soo easy during remote working. If you still need ideas on digital tools to keep you connected during the pandemic, you can read this blog. Constantly being in touch with your teammates minimises the risk of feeling lonely and depressed. I always try my best to over-communicate and make sure, all my teammates know what I’m working on, what difficulties I’m facing and the solutions I’ve found. I’m constantly connected with my teammates offline as well, sharing memes and movie suggestions, just like we would, back in the office. Hence, no separation anxiety :P. On Friday evenings we have ‘virtual happy hour’, where we discuss everything under the sun except work and get ready for the weekend! Sounds like a typical Friday evening, back in the office… right?! And from the comfort of my home 🙂

Overworking is not a sign of true work-life balance and will lead to a burn-out easily. Taking enough time out for lunch and coffee breaks, like we would do back in the office, really helps. I use this time to have conversations with my parents, chat with my friends or just browse through social media. It’s a good idea to step away from work for a few minutes to stay sane, especially since we’re working from the same place all through the day!

I’m a foodie who loves to explore new places during the weekends. With restaurants shut and no hope of Swiggy or Zomato delivering, I had to hit the kitchen and cook all that I craved. Luckily, my mom, my in-house Master Chef, teaches me to cook and of course, Youtube and Instagram have some amazing recipes. My girl gang also shared some recipe that I can try. I really enjoy the cooking sessions with Mom, with the occasional taunts on how I ruin her kitchen and increase her workload. I also get some inside stories from her mishaps when she first learnt cooking from her mom back in the ’70s. These are moments, which I believe, I wouldn’t have got an opportunity to experience, had I been going to the office every day! Because I’m a lazy bum – can’t cook if I go to the office, can’t go to the office if I cook. Period.

Well, it also feels like a little summer vacation to me, as all my cousins and friends are free on weekends with no plans to go out, thanks to the lockdown. I started planning a bunch of hangouts with my family and close friends. We started spending a lot of time during the weekends on Zoom calls talking about COVID-19, of course, but we also played some games together, which was super fun and allowed us to laugh and rekindle some nostalgic memories. Antakshari, Quiz, Tambola, Task games on the family WhatsApp groups have been a major time pass. Yes, we turned our family WhatsApp groups into something more than the usual wishes and forward messages, with fun conversations and sharing nostalgic memories.

Also, there are many fun online games like Ludo, Codenames.plus and Skribbl.io, which have been good entertainers and part of my weekend schedule. I think you should try them too, and thank me later :). And not to forget, all my days end with a game of cards with my lockdown family.

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Netflix and Naasto

These have also been major entertainers! For people who don’t know, Naasto means Snacks in Gujarati. Netflix and Chill is too mainstream and just not possible because of Social distancing :P. Well, coming back to Netflix and Naasto, during these 3 months, I’ve binge-watched series from all genres except horror. Give me a Netflix/Amazon series and a pack of my favourite Cornitos Cheese and Herbs Nachos and I would sit all day long and just binge-watch. I’m sure you love doing this too :).

I love dancing! I haven’t practised it for the longest time. But with soo much time in hand and no weekend plans, I started practising dance by learning dance routines from various online dance channels. Two of my favourite Bollywood dance Instagram pages are @Teamnach and @natyasocial. You can also dig deep and resume doing the things you loved but stopped doing for the lack of time or sheer laziness.

Many times we ‘take little things for granted’. I understand that whatever I have mentioned here is because I am among the privileged few, but I strongly believe that happiness lies within what you have. This is a good time to realize that, appreciate it and feel good about those things and connect with the people who you love and care about! Sadly, it took a lockdown to make me realise this, but it’s better late than never! This pandemic has helped me come closer to my family, friends and most importantly myself!  And I’m definitely going to continue doing all these even after things unlock and we slowly move towards the ‘old normal’.

This is our new normal and sooner or later, we will have to embrace it! Maintain your highest quality of work, but give yourself the time to be happy and enjoy. Because trust me, this literally means ‘all the time in the world’ one could get. Make the most of it and don’t let the fear overpower you or your mental health.

Stay home, stay safe and stay happy. 

Work from home as long as you can. There are many people out there because they need to and have no choice! So if you have the privilege of choice, please choose to work from home, for you and for them.