Stay at Home, Stay Productive, Stay Creative
How to keep yourself from going outside your home?
Staying productive during the Work From Home (WFH) period is indeed challenging. Physical distancing, which has been implemented in several countries, is intended to slow down the spread of the current COVID-19 pandemic by encouraging people to do their regular activities at home.
As a proactive measure to tackle the transmission of the pandemic, Tokopedia also applies the Working from Home (WFH) system, where Nakama work and do other activities from home. Some are wondering… how do over 4,900 people stay productive and creative at home?
Feed your hungry soul… and stomach!
A routine that Fabrianne Hadikrisno, Executive Assistant, does to motivate herself to stay productive is to get up in the morning and dress up as if she’s going to the office. Then, she cooks her breakfast and prepares to work at the desk. Occasionally, Fabrianne also changes her area of work within her home environment as an alternative to reduce boredom.
According to Fabrianne, the key to effectively work from home is proper time management. For her, scheduling her activities in advance through journaling or using Google Calendar has helped her keep her work well-organized.
Physical distancing also allows Fabrianne to exercise one of her hobbies, cooking. Fabrianne likes to try new recipes or to add a little twist to recipes that she has previously cooked. Since cooking is quite time-consuming, Fabrianne believes cooking can help pass the time and be used as a way to avoid boredom.
“Not only can I fill my spare time, but also fill my stomach,” she said.
Control your schedule (and your game)
Melvandito, or Dito, Software Engineer, admitted that he sometimes forgets the time while practicing physical distancing. However, he tries to keep his activities well-balanced between eating, working, and cleaning the house.
“Because I forget things easily, I usually set alarms which reminds me to do my activities. However, it’s important that we don’t snooze too much! To help you stay focused, listening to your favorite song can be an alternative. You can also try listening to jazz or blues, a genre that you often hear at cafes,” said Dito.
According to him, it’s also important to use break times in between our working hours to maintain our productivity. For him, playing games during his break time is always a good idea to help him refresh his mind and brighten up his mood. Nonetheless, always remember to balance the time between work and leisure!
Sing a song, sing along~
Widodo, our Test Engineer, has also shared with us his tips during this WFH period. According to him, we must set clear targets for us to complete at work every day, to draw the line between personal and professional life. In order to achieve his daily targets, Dodo always maintains clear communication with his team through daily meetings and leveraging several communication platforms.
When he has free time, Dodo usually fills up his free time by playing guitar. He also live-streamed his guitar performance through his Instagram account.
“Playing your favorite songs can be an interesting activity while you practice physical distancing. For me, in addition to keeping us in a good mood, playing guitar can also relieve us of our boredom and fatigue from being at home all day.”
Physical distancing? Well, we are doing yoga virtually!
For Firda, she is grateful for being in the Social Media team, as they have a pretty strict schedule every day where they catch up and finish their job between 9 AM to 5 PM through Google Hangout. Even if someone has to go to another conference call meeting, they have to come back to the team’s call room after.
“It definitely helps me in managing all the deadlines and it makes us feel like we’re not alone in this situation. After 6 PM, I limit myself from doing any work-related stuff and try to read books or practice yoga.”
Since the yoga studio where she teaches on weekends is now closed, she goes live on Instagram and teaches yoga online to encourage people to stay active. She tries to not let physical distancing hold her back from creating a safe space for anyone who might need it, even if it has to be done virtually.
“We can’t forget that we’re human beings who need human connection. So it’s amazing to see a lot of people who stay on Instagram Live during this time — feeding their hunger to be seen and heard.”
