WAY Out of Sorts Working From Home? Actions to Maintain Your Productivity and Sanity

By Evelyn Milani

We will get through this crisis. We are adapting to a new way to work in order to protect each other, especially our loved ones and our health care providers. We also need to show compassion for those millions of people who have been affected by layoffs.

Change is hard even in the best of times. When you compound change with a Global Pandemic, stress, worry and insecurity are loaded on top of the feelings of change. We are all adapting to having kids at home (or pets who bark when Amazon arrives), and participating on conference calls, video meetings and client encounters. I even conducted a skype interview with a Senior Engineer yesterday who had his 18 month old crawling all over, his wife is an RN and working multiple shifts. WOW! We need to pat ourselves on the back for hanging in there!

Here are a few tips to maintain your sanity and productivity:Breathe/Deep/Often and hold for a count of four at the top of the breath. This will help re-set a busy, frenetic mind.

Create a schedule-use a written task list and re-prioritize often. Get up at the same time everyday and show up for success, ie: don’t lounge in pajamas.

Modularize your day to show attention to your kids, family and pets. Coordinate with your company’s leadership team so you have time to attend to children and family; everyone is feeling super-vulnerable now and if you set aside 30min every few hours with your kids, everyone will feel better.

Turn off the news. Set a goal to check in once a day so as to not become overwhelmed and hyper-focused on things that may not be in your control TODAY.

Hang in there and please be kind to everyone! [email protected]