It’s 11:12am on a Wednesday (edit: posting this a few days later) and so far today I’ve had the pleasure of joining meetings via Google Hangouts, WebEx, and GoToMeeting, not to mention conversations on Slack, Google Hangout, email, and text! My only dream these days is for someone to develop a conferencing aggregation tool so that whenever I have a customer meeting it doesn’t require downloading an entirely new piece of software.
I hope everyone’s staying healthy and sane out there. Lucky for me, thanks to my injuries and surgeries, I’ve had lots of recent practice in the art of remote work. Don’t get me wrong – remote work and I still wage a daily war for control over my mental health, but at least I have an idea of what to expect.
I can’t tell if I prefer the “10 Tips for Working at Home” articles to the “10 Tips for Wellness” ones, but at least the health and wellness influencers are being slightly drowned out during this chaotic time. It never ceases to amaze me how many ways people can write the same things over and over and pretend they’re sharing new ideas.
In the spirit of solidarity with those who are finding remote work difficult, I’ve created a comparison chart between what this article – “25 Working from Home Tips to Slam-Dunk Tasks” – recommends, and what I’ve actually been doing for the past weeks.
| Article Recommendation | Maddy’s Reality |
|---|---|
| Build a permanent workspace. | Oscillate working between my bed, my couch, and my kitchen table. Carry my laptop, my notebook, and a fuzzy blanket between these locations. |
| Invest in technology. | n/a? I’ve tried to set up an extra monitor before to increase productivity, but I just end up continuing to work on one screen and watch sports on the other. |
| Set “Work Hours.” | Ummm….. 6:30am-2pm and then 4pm-7pm? And then maybe check my email again at 9pm? Is that what they mean by work hours? |
| Avoid “Work Creep.” | When I first read this tip my mind immediately went to the weird guy in the office who I’ve never worked with but always tries to chat with me in the hallway… turns out the article is referencing work creeping into your personal life. Ok, so I’m not doing well at avoiding that – see above “work hours” – but, on the bright side, I no longer have to worry about dodging the other “work creep” in the office! |
| Make To-Do Lists. | I do that already. And they usually just include things I’ve already done, so that I can check them off immediately and feel “productive” and “accomplished.” |
| Don’t Work in Your PJs. | Unrealistic. |
| Eat a Healthy Lunch or Snack. | A family-size bag of chips counts as a healthy snack if I bought it at Whole Foods. I don’t make the rules. |
If anyone needs a friend to FaceTime, you know where to find me (at my house, in my underwear or PJs, questioning the purpose of life). Or leave an anonymous note/comment/question. I think a semi-conscious goal of mine is to become one of those people that’s so famous that random people on the internet ask them questions about their life. Imagine being that important.