74 days of introspection
#WFH learnings during the COVID-19 circuit breaker
The COVID-19 global pandemic hit the world by storm. Regardless of where in the world you live, people all across the world are empathizing the same set of frightening circumstances:
- Fear of self/family/friends getting infected with COVID-19
- Fear of losing jobs during a time in which the economy seems to be on a downward spiral with an unforeseeable end
- Fear of anxiety and depression caused by social isolation as a result of having to adjust to the “new normal” of working from home
Even though the circuit breaker period brought along the toughest days of social isolation, it also turned out to be 74 very insightful days of my life.
23 January 2020
Singapore announced the first official COVID-19 case, and in the weeks that followed, my office building was one of the first buildings to be hit with the virus in Singapore. It was a frantic time as we quickly switched to WFH.
At first, between 23 January — 6 April 2020, it felt like a flexible work schedule as we were still permitted to meet with colleagues and friends. However, due to the vastly escalating number of cases in Singapore, an island-wide circuit breaker was announced on 7 April 2020.
The government informed us that the circuit breaker was only going to last 1-month, which at first was hard to stomach due to the thought of not having any social interaction for 30 days, but the silver lining was that there was an end in sight with 4 May 2020 as the tentative end date.
However, a few weeks into the circuit breaker, the date was further extended to 1 June 2020, following which the reopening of the economy and social activities would resume in Phase 2 on 19 June 2020.
During this time, I learned a full integration of physical, mental, and spiritual life lessons
1. Physical
1 .1— Analyzing data metrics doesn’t only make you a better researcher, but it also makes you a more mindful individual.
Earlier this year I started placing data tracking metrics on my projects to track funnels, drop-offs, and transact/engage rates, but I only discovered the real value of data when I started tracking my lifestyle habits. 2 weeks into the circuit breaker, I purchased a Fitness Tracker and a Body Composition Scale, and I started to track:
- Number of steps that I walked in a day (10,000 steps/day)
- Quality of sleep (deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep)
- Body composition score (BMI, Muscle, Water, Protein, Body Fat Visceral Fat, Bone Mass, Body Age, Basal Metabolism)
- Intermittent Fasting (16:8 circadian rhythm window)
- Ketosis (BHB)
Tracking my health metrics allowed me to set on a path of continuous self-improvement, in which my daily motivation was to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday.
1.2 — Nature Nurtures
As gyms and exercise studios around the city were mandated to close during the circuit breaker period, my only form of exercise was to go on a daily 8-kilometer walk outdoors to achieve my goal of 10,000 steps. Before the circuit breaker, I did not have the luxury of spending 2-hours/day walking through Singapore’s most beautiful parks, inhaling fresh air. The walks quickly became a form of therapy — filling my lungs with clean air, energizing my spirit, clearing my eyes, refreshing my body, clearing up my skin, and overall making me feel grateful to be alive.
2. Mental
2.1 — Everything in life is finite, even when there is no end in sight.
Our lives revolve in cycles, we have good periods and bad periods, but neither lasts forever. Although there were days that felt painstakingly lonely, what kept me going was the fact that I had teammates to lean on during this time.
2.2 — Your teammates become your family.
Due to the ‘WFH’ circumstances, I realized that I was spending most hours of the day speaking to my teammates in Singapore. Regardless of whether it was aligning on a project over Microsoft Teams, weekly 1.5-hour team sync-ups, or Friday evenings singing karaoke to each other — my team became my family.
My colleagues became family overnight as I shared some of the most intimate moments of my life with them. 37 days into the circuit breaker, I lost my Paternal grandmother and since my family lives in a different country, I was unable to fly back for her funeral. The first 2 days that followed after her passing left me absolutely distraught but after one call to my manager, the next thing I knew — I had hot homemade food delivered to me at every mealtime, multiple bouquets of colorful flowers sent across to brighten my day, and heartfelt notes to comfort me through the grieving process.
Even though I couldn’t see them, my team in Singapore stepped up for me during a time in which I needed to feel the comforts of family most. This time certainly bonded me closer to each and every team member from weekly team meetings to karaoke singfests over the weekends.
2.3 — Blurred lines teach you that time does not need to be quantified
When you no longer have to catch the train at 8 AM and be at your desk from 9 AM — 6 PM, what role does time play in your life? At the cost of becoming a borderline insomniac, I learned that I ended up working, thinking, and staying awake much more between the hours of 8 AM — 4 AM, with just a short nap to recharge between 4 AM — 8 AM.
It made me realize that as a species, people are the only ones that quantify time. Animals live for each day, they don’t divide time into days/months/years, seasons, or fiscal calendars, they just focus on going from one moment to the next, and perhaps this is the best lesson that we can learn from them.
We believe that time lost cannot be recovered, yet we forget that every day we have another chance to create a better past by living in the moment and becoming the best versions of ourselves for the future.
3. Spiritual
3.1 — Finding Your Ikigai
It’s easy to get lost in a giant corporation of 12,000 brilliant minds. The multitude of daily tasks makes it easy to lose sight of your Ikigai.
Ikigai: Your reason for being. The intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs.
(Defined by Albert Liebermann and Hector Garcia)
Beyond working on projects that drove the needs of my organization, I wanted to take a moment to identify the one project that was my Ikigai. Upon reflecting on my work travels to Indonesia and India in 2019, I inherently knew that those were the areas in which I could add the maximum value, and make a difference. I decided to make it my personal goal to constantly innovate and strive to be the best digital bank that creates the most meaningful, and life-changing products and services in these emerging markets with which I had a very personal connection.
3.2 — Thoughts Become Things
The timeless hours on the weekends also provided me with an opportunity for spiritual self-observation. One weekend, I re-watched “The Secret” documentary by Rhonda Byrne and it reminded me that we can manifest the life of our dreams. We can have, do, or be anything that we want through the process of carefully curating positive thoughts. As we train our minds to — “Ask, Believe and Receive” we can tune our subconscious to be in sync with the laws of the universe. I spent the rest of that weekend creating a vision board of what I want to achieve in the next 5 years, and now I wake up to it every day with newfound motivation.
We may have not reached the end of this pandemic, but when I reflect back upon this time years from now, I’ll be grateful for the lessons that I learned.
