Workaholics Anonymous: Work-from-home mania

On Wednesday 25th March 2020 (aka MCO Day 8), Mentalogue organized a casual meetup online for folks to talk about the work-from-home mania. It was the second session in their series for Workaholic Anonymous. It turned out to be a place to share and care in our current state of uncertainty, and a lovely pick-me-up for the midweek hump.

Clarrise from Mentalogue did a lovely job facilitating the discussion, and we had Li Hsia as the main counsellor for the session. We spent the evening sharing about what was going on for each of us, and then explored strategies that have helped some of us to get through the challenges and make the most of MCO.

What’s going on for us?

Time and work management

• Feeling bored and unproductive can make some of us overthink life decisions.
• A number of us felt frustrated because we have not achieved what we have planned or imagined ourselves doing

Financial concerns

• Resigning from a job at an unfortunate time and this economic climate makes it more difficult than usual to search for a new job.
• Work situations that depend on physical contact (e.g. teaching, organizing events, meeting clients) are the hardest hit.
• Even when not personally affected, we worry about family members and friends who have lost their jobs or been asked to take unpaid leave.
• Some people feel okay in the moment, but suspect that they might freak out in 3 months’ time.

Change in social interaction

• Avoid talking to friends because everyone is talking about Covid.
• Missing the human element, including meal times

Adjusting to new living and working situations

• Family not understanding work hours when we’re working from home
• Learning to work virtually (challenges include depending on self-discipline, being creative about how to efficiently get information from people and getting people to meet, oddly having to work longer hours because bosses don’t respect boundaries)
• Some things that could have happen quickly in a physical office takes longer (response time to emails and messages are longer)

Staying healthy

• Eating right becomes difficult, especially for those who don’t typically cook.
• Bad eating habits has led to breakouts, and doesn’t help with immunity.
• Exercise has dropped to the bottom of some of our priority lists since we can no longer attend gym classes. 

How have we been coping?

Productivity Tips

• Set small goals by breaking down your bigger goals
• At the end of each week, review and plan for the next week.
• Use apps like Todoist or Trello to help you keep track of your to-do list.
• Have an accountability partner; if working together with someone else helps to keep you focused, you can schedule a call with someone to do work together

Your capacity to follow a schedule depends on your personality. Rigid things don’t work for everyone, especially if you’re low in conscientiousness. Give yourself a list of things to do, but don’t set yourself a specific time to do it. “If you only do 1 or 2 of 5 things, it’s important to remember that doing 1 is better than doing none, because the default is zero”.  That is progress! 

Setting up and keeping to a routine (it’s not for everyone!)

• Stick to pre-determined work hours
• Set a work schedule, and explain to family that you need to focus during those hours
• Remove distractions during work time. Using the pomodoro method can help you to stay focus on tasks while taking regular breaks. 
• Remember that it is okay to slack a bit sometimes – just remind yourself that you’ll go back to the routine.