What Do You Wear While Working From Home?
Does it matter? After all no one from work is looking.
The Anaya is getting ready to go to work. She is dressed in her favourite turquoise blue trousers with a clean white shirt today. She does a quick touch up of her lipstick and gives one last look at her earrings. They look gorgeous with her white shirt. Keys in her hand, jingling, she steps out of her cosy apartment, climbs down the stairs, takes a walk around the block, to reach her office. She takes her keys out and lets herself in to her cozy apartment again. That’s right. She works from home. Once inside, she walks towards the room on her left. A sign that reads, “Anaya at work” hangs on the door. Why then, you may ask, did she take the effort of getting dressed, walking out of the door and so on? Well, that’s how she gets in to the “work mode”. She has a delegated space in her house which is meant for work. She has conditioned herself to work only there and no where else in the house. She is at her desk by 9.30 every morning after seeing her kids off to school. She takes a half hour lunch break around 12.30 and uses that time to catch up on the latest news or with a long last friend. After which she is back at her desk. She takes a break to walk her dog around 3 for about 10 minutes. “My way of getting out for a bit of fresh air,” she says. She then wraps up around 5.30, just about the time her kids come back home. She shuts her office, takes the stairs down to receive her kids from the bus. Back home, she freshens up before she fixes them something to eat. Her work phone is off and out of sight. She makes sure she is completely present while at home. Her husband gets back home in time for dinner. The family catches up over dinner and clean up together soon after. A little bit of television and sometimes soothing music. A bedtime story for the kids and it is time to hit the bed.
As surreal as that sounds, Anaya says she has figured out the best work schedule for herself. The flexibility of the remote job she holds gives her the opportunity to care for family and spend time with them without the pressure of work breathing down her neck, all the time. Getting dressed for work and taking that short commute, prepares her mind to get into work mode, which enables her to focus on her work set out for the day. “There are days when things don’t follow a strict schedule. I do plan pockets of time for getting out, doing a little yoga with friends, before I come back to my work mode and begin work.”
What happens during times of pressing deadlines? No more pockets of time for leisure?
Anaya says that there are times when work load increases and it becomes difficult to follow strict schedules. “In those times, as far as possible, I keep work out of the time that is spent with family. That keeps me sane:) So for the extra hours, I wake up an hour or two before the rest of the household gets up. If I must do that, then I make sure I go to bed earlier the previous night. Those days, family dinners get shorter sometimes so that I hit the bed sooner. But. weekends are after all there to make up.“
How do you make sure you don’t burn out while working from home?
“As far as possible, I make sure my daily schedule has time for family, things that I enjoy doing and of course exercise. More importantly keeping that work phone switched off after my dedicated work schedule has helped a great deal. Thanks to my manager, I am aware of the possibility of burnout especially while working from home. He has been very understanding and is more worried about me burning out than myself:))”
How do you switch on your work mode?
If you would like to share your story so that many others could get inspired and adopt better remote work lifestyles, write to us at info@merrygowork.com.
Previously published on www.merrygowork.com
