Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to a special edition of The One
Speaker 1: You Feed. This episode is all about how to structure
Speaker 1: your time and days now that so many more people
Speaker 1: are working from home and have their families at home
Speaker 1: with them. What I've done is reach out to some
Speaker 1: previous guests and ask them if they would share their
Speaker 1: thoughts with you, and they, with incredible generosity and at
Speaker 1: a moment's notice, made time to do so in order
Speaker 1: to be of help at this critical time. They're all
Speaker 1: productivity experts, and I've asked them for some of their
Speaker 1: ideas on how we can make this transition to working
Speaker 1: from home and how to set some boundaries for us
Speaker 1: between our work lives and our personal lives. These are
Speaker 1: all new conversations with previous guests. In addition, we've been
Speaker 1: working hard over here to try and think of some
Speaker 1: things that might help you and support you in this
Speaker 1: difficult time. This episode is one example of that. We'll
Speaker 1: have another episode out on Tuesday, our regular day, which
Speaker 1: is going to be about dealing with our emotions and
Speaker 1: our fears during this time. I again reached out to
Speaker 1: some of my favorite guests from the past, and they
Speaker 1: generously agreed to come back and talk with me about
Speaker 1: handling our emotional and mental health. During this period, We're
Speaker 1: also going to be doing a few other things that
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about, and all of what
Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you can be found at one
Speaker 1: you feed dot net slash help. First, I'm going to
Speaker 1: start offering a free weekly group coaching call. This is
Speaker 1: going to start this Wednesday they at new and Eastern time,
Speaker 1: and it will happen at the same time each Wednesday
Speaker 1: thereafter for the foreseeable future. It will be an opportunity
Speaker 1: for you to ask questions, let me know what you're
Speaker 1: struggling with, and I'll offer my thoughts on how you
Speaker 1: can work through those things and the most productive, healthy
Speaker 1: and strengthening way. Secondly, I'll be making a number of
Speaker 1: one on one coaching spots available for free to healthcare workers.
Speaker 1: So if you're a healthcare worker and you're on the
Speaker 1: front lines of all this and you could use a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra support, email me at Eric at
Speaker 1: one you feed dot net and we can talk. In addition,
Speaker 1: I'm going to discount all of the one on one
Speaker 1: coach programs, So over the next several weeks, I'll be
Speaker 1: discounting my private coaching services to make them accessible to
Speaker 1: as many people as possible who need them. So if
Speaker 1: you're wrestling with restructure in your day, building new routines
Speaker 1: or habits, or you're wrestling with your emotions and dealing
Speaker 1: with those, or like most of us, you're dealing with
Speaker 1: a blend of those things, the coaching program might be
Speaker 1: a really good support for you, and I will be
Speaker 1: offering discounts on it over what we normally do. You
Speaker 1: can get more details about all these things at a
Speaker 1: new page we've created. It's at one you feed dot
Speaker 1: net slash Help. It'll have details on how you can
Speaker 1: join the free weekly call, how the healthcare workers can
Speaker 1: get in touch with me, and how to learn about
Speaker 1: the discounted coaching sessions. It'll also have a link to
Speaker 1: the Facebook live session that I did the other night,
Speaker 1: and anything else that we create that will help during
Speaker 1: this time, So go to one you feed dot net
Speaker 1: slash help for all of that. Also, if you're not
Speaker 1: connected to our email list or on social media, this
Speaker 1: is a great time to consider doing that because we'll
Speaker 1: continue to share new things that we are offering via
Speaker 1: all of those channels. And again at when you feed
Speaker 1: dot net slash Help, you can get access to all
Speaker 1: the free resources and you can get on the email
Speaker 1: list there and connect with us via social media. I
Speaker 1: wish you the best in staying safe, healthy and sane
Speaker 1: in this difficult time. I hope you enjoy this episode
Speaker 1: about structuring your time while being at home, and we'll
Speaker 1: have another one out about dealing with difficult emotions on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Be well. Thank you, and first up, we have David Cadeby.
Speaker 1: He's the best selling author, blogger, podcaster, and speaker. On
Speaker 1: episode two eighty three of the One You Feed podcast,
Speaker 1: David and Eric discussed his book The Heart to Start,
Speaker 1: Stop procrastinating and Start Creating. Hi, David, thanks for taking
Speaker 1: some time to come back on and chat with me
Speaker 1: about how people who are newly working from home can
Speaker 1: be more effective and deal with the unique challenges of
Speaker 1: working from home. Thank you for having me on. Eric,
Speaker 1: as I said, I was just thinking about the same
Speaker 1: thing this morning, So I guess great minds think alike. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So people are working from home in unprecedented numbers and
Speaker 1: a lot of people who just are not used to
Speaker 1: doing it or have never done it, and so what
Speaker 1: are some things that they can they can do to
Speaker 1: make that transition more seamless for them. I think it
Speaker 1: really starts with boundaries. I've been working for myself a
Speaker 1: k a. Working from home for thirteen years, and you know,
Speaker 1: at first, when you first start doing it, you think, oh,
Speaker 1: this is so cool. I can work whenever I want,
Speaker 1: I can work on the couch, I can sit on
Speaker 1: my bed and work. And it doesn't take too long
Speaker 1: before you realize that that's not a good idea. So
Speaker 1: I think boundaries in general, Uh, you know, I think
Speaker 1: there's three places where you need to set boundaries. That's
Speaker 1: in your time, your space, and in your mind. And
Speaker 1: we can expand on all those I want. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's work through this. I think I agree
Speaker 1: with you as somebody who in the last year and
Speaker 1: a half, I guess, spent a little bit longer than
Speaker 1: that move to working from home exclusively, I have certainly
Speaker 1: found the both the wonderful parts of it and the
Speaker 1: challenging parts of it. And I think I agree with
Speaker 1: you that what I have found is I do need
Speaker 1: to set some boundaries. So let's walk through each of
Speaker 1: those categories. I think the first he said was time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the first is time, and it's interesting because I think
Speaker 1: that working from home is really not so much about
Speaker 1: time management as it is mind management. All these things
Speaker 1: are set up to create boundaries in your mind because
Speaker 1: when you work in an office, you've got eight hours,
Speaker 1: but how many of us are really working for all
Speaker 1: those eight hours? And then you come home and now
Speaker 1: it's really not so much how much time you're going
Speaker 1: to spend on things, it's it's are you going to
Speaker 1: get things done? And you usually find that you just
Speaker 1: can't really focus for eight hours. Um, So I think
Speaker 1: first you want to set up some boundaries with your time.
Speaker 1: And this is extremely useful because there's so many distractions
Speaker 1: at home, right Like you know, I, for I guess
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say fortunately, but I don't have kids. Fortunately
Speaker 1: for my for my work, I don't have kids, don't
Speaker 1: have that that aspect going on. But there are other things.
Speaker 1: There's a plant that I see that needs to be watered,
Speaker 1: or I need to do some dishes, things like that,
Speaker 1: and so if you can set up a boundary for
Speaker 1: those things where you know, maybe you do realize I
Speaker 1: need to water this plant or I need to do
Speaker 1: some dishes. You just stop for a second and say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that right now. I'm working
Speaker 1: between these hours and at eleven am, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a break and I'm gonna do that, or I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do that. That can wait until the
Speaker 1: end of the day. So setting up some boundaries with
Speaker 1: your time is really big because it can create that
Speaker 1: mental boundary that you naturally have when you're going into
Speaker 1: an office every day because you go into that office
Speaker 1: and what happens over time, you get conditioned so that
Speaker 1: you're suddenly in that right mental state to do work
Speaker 1: when you get in that office. You don't have it
Speaker 1: at home, So you have to create those spaces yourself.
Speaker 1: One of those ways is through time. Yep, yep, I agree,
Speaker 1: And I think that working from home is a great
Speaker 1: way to start trying out some working techniques like um
Speaker 1: the Pomodoro method or policy, because again, when we walk
Speaker 1: into an office, we sort of sit down, like you said,
Speaker 1: and we're in our work environment. We're gonna be there
Speaker 1: for eight hours, and some of that's really focused, some
Speaker 1: of it's not really focused, but we're kind of there,
Speaker 1: and at home it's very different, and so I find,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a lot more effective to be like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna work for a chunk of time,
Speaker 1: and then i'm gonna give myself a little break, and
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna work for a chunk of time. And
Speaker 1: these really focused blocks of time with breaks and being
Speaker 1: home means that those breaks, you can do things during
Speaker 1: those breaks that that you can't normally do at work,
Speaker 1: which is great. And then knowing when it's time to
Speaker 1: get back. And so you know, I sort of live
Speaker 1: by my timer, like all right, I'm on for an
Speaker 1: hour fifteen minute break, or I'm on for thirty minutes
Speaker 1: five minute break, but I set the timer for both
Speaker 1: the time I work and for the break time, so
Speaker 1: I know when it's time to return. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: really love that because if you're setting these these chunks
Speaker 1: of time, like you mentioned the Pomadoor technique, you might
Speaker 1: set a timer for forty minutes or twenty minutes or whatever.
Speaker 1: When you set that chunk of time, and it gives
Speaker 1: you that boundary within which to focus. You have to
Speaker 1: re architect your brain to be able to work from home,
Speaker 1: and your brain is plastic, so any thought that you have,
Speaker 1: you's gonna become easier for you to have that thought.
Speaker 1: So if you are every two minutes going and doing
Speaker 1: a chore while you're trying to get work done, you're
Speaker 1: going to carve those neural pathways. You're gonna set bad habits.
Speaker 1: But if you do create those spaces where there's twenty
Speaker 1: minutes that you're going to be focused and anything that
Speaker 1: you think about you can just kind of set off
Speaker 1: to the side. You're starting to carve those neural pathways
Speaker 1: to be focused on the thing that you're working at
Speaker 1: when you're in this home environment, which is going to
Speaker 1: be critical to your productivity. Yep, exactly. So Okay, so
Speaker 1: we've talked about time, what's the next boundary, the next
Speaker 1: boundaries space and you might have some idea. What I'm
Speaker 1: talking about here is that if you have a home
Speaker 1: office or a separate room that you can work in,
Speaker 1: that's great. That will help condition you so that if
Speaker 1: you can make it so that you're only working when
Speaker 1: you're in that space, and when you're in that space,
Speaker 1: you're only working, that's wonderful. Not all of us have
Speaker 1: that space, though, but there's other ways that you can
Speaker 1: manipulate your space so that you can condition yourself and
Speaker 1: create those boundaries, uh, so that you are in the
Speaker 1: right mental state to work when you're deciding it's time
Speaker 1: to work. I had a perfect example of this thirteen
Speaker 1: years ago when I started on my own. I had
Speaker 1: a tiny bedroom in San Francisco. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: imagine apartments are small in San Francisco. This bedroom was
Speaker 1: so small there was hardly any room between the bed
Speaker 1: that I had and the desk for there to even
Speaker 1: be a chair there. But what I did was I
Speaker 1: set up a boundary by changing the space when it
Speaker 1: was time for me to work. So you know those
Speaker 1: a little room dividers that you can get at probably
Speaker 1: Target or all sorts of places. They're also called show
Speaker 1: sogy screens. I don't know if people normally call them that,
Speaker 1: but I had one of those, like a translucent one,
Speaker 1: and I would set it up around my desk and
Speaker 1: I'd make a little cubicle for myself, and then I
Speaker 1: get like a little clip lamp and I just would
Speaker 1: sort of redirect the light upwards, the kind of change
Speaker 1: not only the space but also the lighting in the room.
Speaker 1: And then that's where I would work. And then when
Speaker 1: it was time to shut things down, I just shut
Speaker 1: off the lamp. I would oh the room divider around
Speaker 1: the desk so that I couldn't even see the desk anymore.
Speaker 1: So that way my brain was conditioned then so that
Speaker 1: when that was set up, it was time for me
Speaker 1: to work. When that was taken down, then I could sleep.
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about sleeping while I was working, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about working so much while I was sleeping. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great solution. And I have seen on social
Speaker 1: media this week there have been some some hilarious home
Speaker 1: setups of the way people are are working. People working
Speaker 1: on big garbage cans, people working on ironing boards. Apparently
Speaker 1: ironing boards are the ironing boards are the new adjustable desk.
Speaker 1: Oh the night in a standing sitting desk. I just
Speaker 1: got one of those. They're wonderful that they're wonderful to have,
Speaker 1: So I need to check that out. That sounds entertaining
Speaker 1: the season, these home setups. So yeah, but I think
Speaker 1: it's a great idea, and I think that you know,
Speaker 1: we can try uh And I think your example is
Speaker 1: a great ones for how can we sort of transform
Speaker 1: our space to sort of mark out these boundaries. So okay,
Speaker 1: so we've got time space and our final one, our mind.
Speaker 1: You can set up mental boundaries to help condition yourself
Speaker 1: to get into the right mind state for work, and
Speaker 1: also importantly to get out of that mind state and
Speaker 1: into a different mind state when work is over, when
Speaker 1: you've decided that work is over. And I think that's
Speaker 1: important to to have some kind of boundary late in
Speaker 1: the day where you know, after this time, I'm not
Speaker 1: working anymore. And so the way that you can create
Speaker 1: these mental boundaries is just through rituals, and I've already
Speaker 1: described a bit of one, which was the setting up
Speaker 1: of the room divider and setting up the lamp. That
Speaker 1: really changed the feeling of the space. But there was
Speaker 1: also a sense of rich all to that, and I
Speaker 1: didn't mention that. In addition to that, one thing I
Speaker 1: did was there was a certain album that I would
Speaker 1: play immediately when I started working, and it was the
Speaker 1: same album every time that I started, and and just
Speaker 1: had this this beginning to it where that was just
Speaker 1: my queue to get into the mental state to work. Additionally,
Speaker 1: I had an aroma therapy diffuser that I set up
Speaker 1: and I would specifically use Lemon, a Roman therapy sent
Speaker 1: and you could come up with whatever one you wanted,
Speaker 1: but adding those things on helped create a mental ritual
Speaker 1: that created that boundary. I've heard of all sorts of
Speaker 1: other things. It really doesn't matter what you decide as
Speaker 1: long as you do it over and over again. There's
Speaker 1: a writer who I know who has a Star Wars mug,
Speaker 1: and so he only drinks out of the Star Wars
Speaker 1: mug when he's going to write. So he knows that
Speaker 1: when he sets up his coffee, when he touches his
Speaker 1: Star Wars mug, that means it's time for him to write.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing a quote from some writer who was saying,
Speaker 1: you know, it really doesn't matter what you decide. You
Speaker 1: could say I'm gonna only right wearing flip flops on
Speaker 1: my back deck and that it was going to have
Speaker 1: a placebo effect and that's gonna help you get in
Speaker 1: the right state to work as long as you decide
Speaker 1: that is going to and you repeat it on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. I love those ideas. I Uh. There's a
Speaker 1: playlist on Spotify called Deep Focus, and the first song
Speaker 1: on it, I love that one. Yeah, that first song,
Speaker 1: what is it? It's uh never even looked till now.
Speaker 1: It's called under the Wind by the Tides is the
Speaker 1: first song. But that's that song for me sort of
Speaker 1: triggers a little bit of a like, Okay, now it's
Speaker 1: time to sort of settle in and and work right now.
Speaker 1: So I think music is a great way to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so all those things you can use to just set
Speaker 1: up those boundaries. I think the boundaries part is really important.
Speaker 1: Is something that especially when you first get started. Uh,
Speaker 1: it takes a to learn the hard lesson that you
Speaker 1: need to create some boundaries. Yeah, it's it's absolutely essential.
Speaker 1: I have found working from home to be wonderful in
Speaker 1: some ways and as you said, extremely challenging and others.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing for me that I found
Speaker 1: so important is to get up and get out of
Speaker 1: the house a little bit. And now this is not
Speaker 1: a time to go like visit your local coffee shop
Speaker 1: right now. I've been really enjoying being out in nature
Speaker 1: a lot more. I find it. Nature is sort of
Speaker 1: always a great touchstone for me. But that's another one
Speaker 1: for me is remembering to get out of the house,
Speaker 1: because since I don't leave to go to work, if
Speaker 1: I don't make a point of getting out, I never leave,
Speaker 1: and then I start to get claustrophobic. You know, it's
Speaker 1: funny that you mentioned that, because I do the same thing.
Speaker 1: I'm a writer, so mornings I'm spending writing, but eventually
Speaker 1: I get kind of a mental log jam going. And actually,
Speaker 1: just before I got on this conversation with you, there's
Speaker 1: a park near my house that has all these beautiful
Speaker 1: bamboo trees in it. And know we're under quarantine, so
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people there, so that's important.
Speaker 1: Um So I was just in that park sitting and
Speaker 1: thinking and relaxing and uh, thinking a little bit about
Speaker 1: this conversation too. So I actually use it as a
Speaker 1: creative session to to prepare and and think about what
Speaker 1: I was going to talk about with you. Awesome, Well,
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, thank you so much for taking
Speaker 1: a few minutes to talk with this. He's have been
Speaker 1: really helpful, ideas great. Thank you so much for having
Speaker 1: me up. Next is Charlie Gilki, who was our guest
Speaker 1: on episode three hundred of the One You Feed podcast,
Speaker 1: where Eric and him discussed his book Start Finishing how
Speaker 1: to Go from Idea to don Hi, Charlie, happy to
Speaker 1: have you with us to talk here for a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. I appreciate you making the time. Hey, Eric,
Speaker 1: I'm super pumped to be back and appreciate being asked.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to do with this short little
Speaker 1: episode is just give people who are newly working from
Speaker 1: home some tips on how to make the transition and
Speaker 1: make it as seamless as possible and allow them to
Speaker 1: find some sanity in working from home. So maybe you
Speaker 1: could start off by just giving us a couple of
Speaker 1: tips that you have for people who are working from home. Now.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna lead my tip with sort of a
Speaker 1: mindset shift, because I think in when you first start
Speaker 1: working from home, people misdiagnose distractions and interruptions when really
Speaker 1: there are challenges with competing priorities and boundaries. And I
Speaker 1: say that because when you're at home, you're presented with
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. Maybe it's kids that are
Speaker 1: at home too, or maybe it's another adult working partner,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're sitting there in the middle of
Speaker 1: a work block and you're like, oh, I need to
Speaker 1: get groceries and maybe I need to do laundry, um,
Speaker 1: And those priorities don't exist in a way when you're
Speaker 1: at work. And so really understanding that so much of
Speaker 1: the distractions and interruptions that you might be facing are
Speaker 1: really the shifting priorities that go on with you, triggered
Speaker 1: by the environment to trans super super helpful. So one
Speaker 1: of the tips that I would put in place is
Speaker 1: that the very minimum recreate, re engineer their pre work,
Speaker 1: lunch and post work routines. Most people, whether they are
Speaker 1: intentional about it or not, do, in fact have a
Speaker 1: pre work routine. They have a lunch routine, and they
Speaker 1: have a post work routine, and those give the beginning, middle,
Speaker 1: and end of the day such that it turns that
Speaker 1: long what am I going to do today into coherent
Speaker 1: blocks which you can use more purposefully. What are some
Speaker 1: examples of those types of routines that people could put
Speaker 1: in place when they're at home, Because when we're working,
Speaker 1: some of those things they're they're very clearly bookended by
Speaker 1: things like a commute as an example, as a as
Speaker 1: a sort of enforced routine. But but we have a
Speaker 1: commute that allows us to transition absolutely, And so something
Speaker 1: I've worked with with people for years and it sounds crazy, Eric,
Speaker 1: but I will encourage people who are newly working from
Speaker 1: home to actually walk around the block one way at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the day, and then walk around the
Speaker 1: block the other way at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: and that creates a similar level of space and movement
Speaker 1: that parallels the commute. And it also gets people to
Speaker 1: trigger into like, oh yeah, when I come home, I
Speaker 1: normally do acts and normally like scoop the loador box
Speaker 1: I normally do all these sort of things. And you
Speaker 1: can actually piggyback upon those native routines that you built, um,
Speaker 1: and so absolutely recreating your commute um, you know, not
Speaker 1: having it be the I wake up in the morning
Speaker 1: and I stepped six ft and I'll start working at
Speaker 1: the table. It's a very good thing to do. Another
Speaker 1: thing that I've talked about with some people is, you know,
Speaker 1: if you've been making lunch for yourself and kids to
Speaker 1: take it to work, maybe keep doing that. Right, there's
Speaker 1: no reason that you can't go ahead and get all
Speaker 1: that set up in the morning, just the same way
Speaker 1: as you would if you were going to work. And
Speaker 1: then when it's lunchtime, you're not having yet another thing
Speaker 1: to do on top of eating lunch, and so you
Speaker 1: just eat what you pre made and what I want
Speaker 1: to lean into here, or at least amplify here. Is
Speaker 1: that so many of these routines have a physical movement
Speaker 1: component to it, and that's really important. Macau. Not only
Speaker 1: does it give you space from the devices, not only
Speaker 1: does it give you space from the anxieties and the news,
Speaker 1: it actually recruits your body into helping you memorize, process,
Speaker 1: move stretch, things like that. And so any of these
Speaker 1: routines that have a movement component are just going to
Speaker 1: be so much better for you than you know, sitting
Speaker 1: in a chair or sitting and sitting you know, on
Speaker 1: the couch all day because again, you don't have stairs
Speaker 1: to climb, you don't have parking around too, you don't
Speaker 1: have a bus you need to catch, um, and all
Speaker 1: those things do work for us at a lot of
Speaker 1: times we don't see. Yeah, I think finding ways to
Speaker 1: to move is a challenge, and particularly so right now.
Speaker 1: Absolutely um. And you know, I'm fortunately I live in
Speaker 1: Portland right now and it's sunny and the weather is nice,
Speaker 1: and so I understand that there are other places in
Speaker 1: the world in the United States that maybe it's still
Speaker 1: snowy and cold outside and unless it's super freezing. Um.
Speaker 1: That distance that the amount of times it takes you
Speaker 1: to put on your clothes and go outside and walk
Speaker 1: is actually really good integration and separation time from whatever
Speaker 1: maybe whole going onto your attention from the news cycle
Speaker 1: or from the social media cycle. Yeah, I'm in Columbus
Speaker 1: and it has been cold in wintry. We had surprising
Speaker 1: amount of snow the other day. But I've been certainly
Speaker 1: making a point to get outside, walk, bundle up, just
Speaker 1: be outdoors and move some just because I felt like
Speaker 1: I've needed it for sure. Yeah. UM, another thing to
Speaker 1: think about as far as routines, or it's not quite
Speaker 1: a routine, but as close as making your environment work
Speaker 1: for you. UM. A lot of times our home offices
Speaker 1: are our home offices or kitchen tables, depending upon which
Speaker 1: way you roll with that. UM aren't necessarily set up
Speaker 1: for us to be focused and you know, not distracted,
Speaker 1: not interrupted, And so maybe it's time to change. For instance,
Speaker 1: you know, if you have a TV room and entertainment room,
Speaker 1: maybe it's time to sort of change that around. You know,
Speaker 1: co off that is your office, Maybe get the TV out,
Speaker 1: or if you know that there are certain things, especially
Speaker 1: electronics in your room that are distracting you, it may
Speaker 1: be worth taking time to remove those things completely rather
Speaker 1: than fidgeting with them and fighting with them all day. Um.
Speaker 1: And so you know, while we have this general background
Speaker 1: anxiety because of the pandemic and a new way of
Speaker 1: working and social media cycle news cycle, last thing you
Speaker 1: need to do is fight with your environment too. And
Speaker 1: simple changes make a huge difference here. And sometimes it's
Speaker 1: replacing that you know, used chair that you've got six
Speaker 1: years ago at the good will store and actually buying
Speaker 1: a for real office chair. And to this point, we've
Speaker 1: got to remember that this may not be a short
Speaker 1: term thing. It might not be three or four weeks
Speaker 1: where we're working from home. This could be three, six,
Speaker 1: nine months. And so your environment over the long term
Speaker 1: is going to matter way more than your willpower, way
Speaker 1: more than any sort of grit that you want to
Speaker 1: put into it. So it might be time to invest
Speaker 1: in some of those things that makes it work for you.
Speaker 1: Totally makes sense. And I think that idea about trying
Speaker 1: to get our environment to work for us. It makes
Speaker 1: me think of wrestling with the news cycle or wrestling
Speaker 1: with social media. I found that it's been helpful sometimes
Speaker 1: when I feel like I'm not winning wrestling match to
Speaker 1: let my devices do the limiting for me. So there,
Speaker 1: you know, there's lots of tools on our phones, on
Speaker 1: our computers that can block us, can actually stop us,
Speaker 1: like no more Twitter, Eric, like you're done. And so
Speaker 1: if if we are finding that, like we're setting an
Speaker 1: intention I want to spend less time doing that. I
Speaker 1: want to spend less time, and we're still not finding
Speaker 1: ourselves able to hold that intention, then it's really can
Speaker 1: be useful to use some of those tools to set
Speaker 1: some of those limits for us, because this is a
Speaker 1: hard time to set those limits, for sure, harder for
Speaker 1: me than normal by a long shot. I absolutely agree. Um,
Speaker 1: there's an app called Cold Turkey Blocker that saves my
Speaker 1: bacon every day because it allows me to set up
Speaker 1: different applications and websites. And I also want to talk
Speaker 1: about environment here. So one of the things that you
Speaker 1: could do is rather than fight your phone in the
Speaker 1: distractions all day, like keep your phone in the kitchen
Speaker 1: when you're working upstairs in your home office. And you
Speaker 1: know that physical distance, and there's plenty of research that
Speaker 1: shows that just having your phone in your work area
Speaker 1: decreases your i Q, decreases your focus and so it's
Speaker 1: not about what the phone is actually doing. It's about
Speaker 1: your relationship with the phone in its proximity to you.
Speaker 1: And so, for instance, my wife and I we have
Speaker 1: a cubby where our iPhones. So we walk in the
Speaker 1: house the iPhones going to cubby. They stay there most
Speaker 1: of the day, most of the time until we intentionally
Speaker 1: go back and like, you know what, I actually want
Speaker 1: to check my test messages to see what's going on.
Speaker 1: And then we do that and then we put it
Speaker 1: back in the cubby and go on with our lives.
Speaker 1: It harkens back to that time. Eric, you probably remember
Speaker 1: where we used to have to go to a wall
Speaker 1: where where they had a phone on it, right and
Speaker 1: actually answer the phone or go to the actual voicemail machine,
Speaker 1: do our business there and then go on with the
Speaker 1: rest of our lives. And so, um, that was supported
Speaker 1: for us then and turns out it's super supportive for
Speaker 1: me and Angela now excellent. Any other ideas for people,
Speaker 1: I would say that if you're newly working from home, Um,
Speaker 1: something that surprises people. There are two things that surprised people.
Speaker 1: One is how lonely and isolating it could be. I
Speaker 1: might get to that in a second. The first is
Speaker 1: that you realize how much you can get done in
Speaker 1: a short amount of time without all the distractions from work,
Speaker 1: without all the people poking over your head and so
Speaker 1: and so forth. And there's this really awkward thing that
Speaker 1: many new newly working from home people find out. It's like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, I could actually get everything done in
Speaker 1: five hours a day because I don't have nearly as
Speaker 1: many meetings if if your office is doing that, or
Speaker 1: you know, not nearly as many interruptions and distractions, and
Speaker 1: so I would be having a lot of conversations with
Speaker 1: yourself and maybe your teammates and co workers about what
Speaker 1: you do with that extra three or four hours where
Speaker 1: you're not actually doing something productive, but you're kind of
Speaker 1: at the computer because you're supposed to be. UM. I
Speaker 1: don't have any super solid answers that that's going to
Speaker 1: be team dependent. But if you find yourself at two
Speaker 1: o'clock in a day and there's just not a whole
Speaker 1: lot for you to do and you're sort of itching
Speaker 1: and things like that, you haven't done anything wrong. It's
Speaker 1: just that there may not be nearly as many work
Speaker 1: distractions and interruptions and meetings going on. Right now, and
Speaker 1: it's a really good time for you to maybe get
Speaker 1: caught up on some back objects, you know, maybe get
Speaker 1: caught up on some of those back emails. But also
Speaker 1: it could be a good time for for you to
Speaker 1: connect with your other teammates who are isolated too. So
Speaker 1: in some of the work I've been doing with the
Speaker 1: organizations UM that are standing and remote, teams have had
Speaker 1: to remind them that, like, teams need time for just
Speaker 1: bombing in chit chat and the manager is always like,
Speaker 1: I'm not paying people to chit chats, Like, well, you've
Speaker 1: been doing it for years, um, it just hasn't been
Speaker 1: demarketed as so. But like maybe you coordinate with some
Speaker 1: of your other teammates who are also during that low period,
Speaker 1: and you catch up with each other not just about work,
Speaker 1: but about how you're doing UM and you know what's
Speaker 1: going on in your life. And depending upon your team
Speaker 1: and your manager, that counts is work and again it's
Speaker 1: what you normally do, which is why working from home
Speaker 1: can be so lonely because you just don't have those
Speaker 1: touch points right right. We do lose a lot of
Speaker 1: that interaction that we take for granted with other people,
Speaker 1: and it can be very isolating. And I think I
Speaker 1: had another guest we're talking about at this about how
Speaker 1: you know, when we're in person, there's certain things that
Speaker 1: we do. There's just ways of relating to each other
Speaker 1: that that express warmth and kindness and support and appreciation
Speaker 1: that when we go to all digital channels, particularly a
Speaker 1: lot of emails and stuff, that stuff just all gets
Speaker 1: stripped out. And so it's really important to think about
Speaker 1: that stuff. And and I think for all of us
Speaker 1: right now, you know, one of the ways to deal
Speaker 1: with being under a lot of crisis is while not
Speaker 1: ignoring the very real challenges that we're individually facing, is
Speaker 1: also to ask ourselves, well, where can I support others also?
Speaker 1: And and I think this is an area that there's
Speaker 1: an almost unlimited amount to do in supporting the people
Speaker 1: around us and just connecting with people and seeing how
Speaker 1: they are. Absolutely and it's small things that happen every
Speaker 1: day at work, like someone asking you if you'd like
Speaker 1: them to grab coffee for you while they're getting their
Speaker 1: own right. It's a it's a simple thing, but it
Speaker 1: reminds you that you're a part of a team and
Speaker 1: that people are thinking about you. And I care about you. Um,
Speaker 1: And when you're at home for a week and you
Speaker 1: haven't had someone to ask you if they like you
Speaker 1: to get coffee or if they like to get coffee
Speaker 1: for you, then it's easy to feel forgotten. Another thing
Speaker 1: that I was talking about with my wife earlier is
Speaker 1: that when we switched to virtual working, a lot of
Speaker 1: times we switch from a verbalization um or a lot
Speaker 1: of us talk at work, we chit chat with each
Speaker 1: other like physically talking, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: in remote work environment, things are reading and reading and
Speaker 1: writing centric, and not all of us are reading and
Speaker 1: writing centric, and some some of us struggle with getting
Speaker 1: our thoughts down in words right, and then we come
Speaker 1: across caustic and we lose our warmth and things like that,
Speaker 1: and so um, that's another challenge people find when when
Speaker 1: working from homes, like, oh, I have to do a
Speaker 1: lot more writing and reading than I'm used to that
Speaker 1: I care for, and then I don't really know how
Speaker 1: to do it could be super frustrating. So again, with
Speaker 1: those checking moments that I mentioned earlier, maybe instead of
Speaker 1: spending seventy five minutes writing emails and slack updates all
Speaker 1: all day, you get on the phone and talk fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes with your teammate in the way that you normally
Speaker 1: do and get out of all that jazz. That's a
Speaker 1: great idea. Well, Charlie, thank you so much for taking
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes to share some of these ideas
Speaker 1: with us. I really do appreciate it, and I know
Speaker 1: it'll be helpful to the listeners. Eric, thanks for having me,
Speaker 1: and thanks for your leadership and making this happen my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Coming up next is Chris Bailey, who we had on
Speaker 1: episode number two four four and Chris, we're in a
Speaker 1: yearlong productivity project where he studied and ran experiments on
Speaker 1: the subject. In that episode, we discussed his book hyper Focus,
Speaker 1: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction. Hi, Chris,
Speaker 1: it's good to have you back on. Good to be
Speaker 1: back on. Man. How are you holding up over there
Speaker 1: in Ohio? Holding up? Okay? I think, like everybody, a
Speaker 1: lot of uncertainty, for sure, how about it? Yeah, It's
Speaker 1: it's so crazy because you can't even talk about what's
Speaker 1: going on right now because between now and when this
Speaker 1: episode comes out, the whole world will have changed again.
Speaker 1: But we're hanging in there. We just got done with
Speaker 1: some travel and now we're we're just chilling at home
Speaker 1: and waiting things out. I guess, which is what people
Speaker 1: are saying to do. Yep, yep, us too well. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get you back on and have you share
Speaker 1: a little bit with our listeners some tips about how
Speaker 1: to transition to working from home. So many of us
Speaker 1: are finding ourselves working at home now that may be
Speaker 1: new for a lot of people, and so I just
Speaker 1: was wondering if you could share some ideas and strategies
Speaker 1: for how to make that transition. Yeah, for sure. You know,
Speaker 1: I think it's important to preface any of these strategies
Speaker 1: saying that this isn't really a normal time, because we
Speaker 1: we all have so many more distractions than we usually do.
Speaker 1: And so i'd preface this advice by saying, you know,
Speaker 1: just reminding folks, basically, you know, I study productivity. I
Speaker 1: kind of have a somewhat of a grasp of what
Speaker 1: gets in the way of our focus, of our productivity,
Speaker 1: and I should preface all this by saying that it's
Speaker 1: okay to not be as productive as you normally are
Speaker 1: right now. Um, It's okay if you find it impossible
Speaker 1: to focus or to make sense of the current situation
Speaker 1: or to understand what's coming next. You know, productivity is
Speaker 1: the very last thing on some people's mind, especially during
Speaker 1: a global pandemic that's shutting down a lot of the world.
Speaker 1: But that said, you know, I'm I'm happy to help
Speaker 1: where I can because we still do have, you know,
Speaker 1: obligations to bring forward to the front of our consciousness
Speaker 1: with our work. UM And so maybe you know, I
Speaker 1: put together a couple of notes here for for listeners
Speaker 1: of the podcast um both to to not only be
Speaker 1: productive but while working from home, but also to be
Speaker 1: productive and kind of a crisis mode if you will,
Speaker 1: if you think that'd be helpful. Yeah, I think the
Speaker 1: goal isn't necessarily like, you know, how do we get
Speaker 1: people to maximize their uput. It's just really this is
Speaker 1: a strange time, and I think some people are finding
Speaker 1: I'm working from home and and all I'm doing is
Speaker 1: I'm just working. And other people are saying I can't
Speaker 1: get anything done, I can't concentrate, you know, And so
Speaker 1: just some orienting ideas in this time, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: So my approach to productivity, as you might know, is
Speaker 1: there's not like a one size fits all things. So
Speaker 1: I'll give a few bite size pieces of advice, that
Speaker 1: kind of a buffet of advice that folks can choose from.
Speaker 1: Number one, don't keep chips in the house. That this
Speaker 1: is my number one rule for working from home. I
Speaker 1: will eat an entire bag or two of chips um
Speaker 1: in in one sitting. And so that's that's step zero.
Speaker 1: But once you get that part, what's that I said,
Speaker 1: Chris is probably gonna edit that part out, but hopefully
Speaker 1: he'll he'll keep it in. But yeah, keep it in
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, if you get if you're trying to
Speaker 1: get it down to time. But but I would start
Speaker 1: by suggesting that people give themselves a bit more time
Speaker 1: to settle into into important tasks and just be patient
Speaker 1: with yourself. So if your mind is busier right now,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a bit more difficult to focus
Speaker 1: that than usual. So give yourself a few more minutes
Speaker 1: than usual to settle into important tests that require a
Speaker 1: bit more concentration. You'll probably just need that time so
Speaker 1: your mind can settle down a bit. And another thing
Speaker 1: to mention is because we're not commuting when we're working
Speaker 1: from home, we we do have a bit extra time
Speaker 1: at the beginning and the end of our day. Um.
Speaker 1: And something that I know you talk a lot about
Speaker 1: on the on the podcast. Something I talk a lot
Speaker 1: about two is to find things that you're able to
Speaker 1: a saver or slow down with. And this is so important.
Speaker 1: We we have so much news bouncing around, not only
Speaker 1: in the world but in our own minds after we
Speaker 1: consume it, while we're trying to to process the things
Speaker 1: that we consume. So maybe even in the morning, before
Speaker 1: connecting to the news, you can do something slow. You
Speaker 1: can cook a nice meal, take a walk, UM, do
Speaker 1: a yoga video on YouTube. Do you know, run on
Speaker 1: your treadmill, go for a run around the neighborhood if
Speaker 1: if you're able to do so while keeping up the
Speaker 1: social distancing um. You know, see that amount of time
Speaker 1: that you would normally spend commuting as time with which
Speaker 1: you can invest in your mental health a little bit
Speaker 1: and and overcome any anxiety that you might have around
Speaker 1: the current time. And you know, if you do feel anxious,
Speaker 1: do work that doesn't require a deep level of concentration
Speaker 1: and thinking. Um. But it's worth doing the focused work
Speaker 1: strategically too. So we have kind of these two types
Speaker 1: of tasks that we do. We have the things that
Speaker 1: require a greater level of focus of concentration, and then
Speaker 1: we have kind of the maintenance things, you know, organizing
Speaker 1: folders on our computer and keeping up with email that
Speaker 1: we can do when our mind is in a bit
Speaker 1: more of a frenzied state. Um. And so I would
Speaker 1: suggest doing those strategically, such as the deep work tasks
Speaker 1: right before you even check the news in the morning,
Speaker 1: maybe used connecting to the state of the world and
Speaker 1: what the heck is going on right now as a
Speaker 1: sort of sell that or reward after you you do
Speaker 1: your deepest tasks. That's a great idea. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people are, you know, connecting to the
Speaker 1: news and trying to figure out I know, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what's a reasonable amount of that, when
Speaker 1: to do it, how much to do it? And uh.
Speaker 1: I'm also finding with myself and coaching clients that using
Speaker 1: some of the technology that exists to set the limits
Speaker 1: for us can be really helpful right now because I'm
Speaker 1: finding myself setting a limit and then going right past it,
Speaker 1: setting a limit going right past them. So I'm finding
Speaker 1: it helpful to sort of let my phone say nope,
Speaker 1: that's enough. You you're blocked well, and this is this
Speaker 1: is a period of time in which you should be
Speaker 1: really paying attention to how the news makes you feel.
Speaker 1: Um So, we're we're not connected with this enough during
Speaker 1: normal periods of time. But notice how your mood changes
Speaker 1: after consuming the news for a little bit. If you're
Speaker 1: watching a stream of cn AND online, or you're or
Speaker 1: you you have the news kind of turned on in
Speaker 1: the background, or you're do some some anxiety scrolling and
Speaker 1: refreshing Twitter throughout the day, really notice and reflect on
Speaker 1: how your mood changes before and after that experience. Um And,
Speaker 1: if you find that it's affecting your mood, take steps
Speaker 1: to defend your mental health, especially um so if you
Speaker 1: can at all tend to those distractions intentionally rather than
Speaker 1: just whenever you feel a bit stressed out. And like
Speaker 1: you know, like this is kind of the ironic thing
Speaker 1: about the time that we're in right now, is that
Speaker 1: by consuming the news, we feel a bit more in
Speaker 1: control of our situation because we are more knowledgeable about it.
Speaker 1: But at the same time we realize how out of
Speaker 1: control some things are, which may ironically lead us to
Speaker 1: feel less control over our life overall. And so by
Speaker 1: scheduling it, something that I've been doing is start the day.
Speaker 1: I realized, Okay, I need to get my most important
Speaker 1: things done first thing in the morning. Um, I'll do them.
Speaker 1: Then I'll treat myself to a bit of news at
Speaker 1: ten or eleven in the morning, usually when our Prime
Speaker 1: Minister here in Canada has this daily press conference, and
Speaker 1: then I'll go back to it, and when I feel
Speaker 1: the need to check something, I'll write down the thing
Speaker 1: that I want to check. Okay, I want to check
Speaker 1: the New York Times. I want to check the wall streets. Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to check the globe and mail. And I'll
Speaker 1: make a little list to tend to during my next
Speaker 1: scheduled period of time during which I need I want
Speaker 1: to distract myself. And then I have the to do
Speaker 1: list that I that I usually have the rest of
Speaker 1: the time, so that I can have kind of a
Speaker 1: balance and maintain some modicum of mental calm throughout this
Speaker 1: busy time right now. Yea, yea, those are great ideas.
Speaker 1: Other ideas about working from home, Yeah, so track your time.
Speaker 1: This is a great opportunity to really see how you're
Speaker 1: putting in your hours every single day. Um, you can
Speaker 1: just keep a little I have a little notepad here
Speaker 1: that I'm flipping through right now in a pen, and
Speaker 1: I just write down how I spend every fifteen minute
Speaker 1: block of time because it keeps you accountable on a
Speaker 1: minute by minute basis um. And also the that idea
Speaker 1: of anxiety scrolling is is key. Keep that to a
Speaker 1: minimum notice when you're doing it. Have rituals that you
Speaker 1: you depend upon as well. So one of the biggest
Speaker 1: pieces of advice that that that I'd usually put at
Speaker 1: the top of this list of of advice if we
Speaker 1: weren't in the current situation that we're in, UH is
Speaker 1: to have a dedicated workspace in your house and and
Speaker 1: have rules if you're sharing your house with other people.
Speaker 1: So my wife and I were both working from home
Speaker 1: right now, and we have little stickies that we attached
Speaker 1: to the outside of our laptop saying working with a
Speaker 1: smiley face when we don't want to be interrupted when
Speaker 1: we're when we're focused on something. But headphones are a
Speaker 1: great social signal for that too. And one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things that I can recommend, ironically, sometimes the best
Speaker 1: way to calm our mind is to do something active,
Speaker 1: and so getting exercise every single day, especially if you're
Speaker 1: forced to self isolate. This is out of anything on
Speaker 1: this list. You know, take a few of these things.
Speaker 1: Take the ones you think would work for you. But
Speaker 1: exercise is not really a suggestion, it's it's almost a
Speaker 1: requirement because we have less activity when we're just staying
Speaker 1: at home and working from home. Um, and so we
Speaker 1: need to compensate for that. So all right, I guess
Speaker 1: to recap. So take your time with tasks. UH. Take
Speaker 1: the time that you'd spend commuting and do something slow
Speaker 1: with it. If you feel anxious, do something that doesn't
Speaker 1: require deep concentration or deep thinking. Do focused work in
Speaker 1: the morning before connecting to the news. Perhaps, um maybe
Speaker 1: if you have a kids at home, take a split
Speaker 1: shift with your partner if you're there alone. Maybe be
Speaker 1: strategic about their screen time when you're in important calls.
Speaker 1: Don't keep chips lying around the house. Have to do
Speaker 1: list every day. UH, schedule some news and distraction time.
Speaker 1: Work out, Please work out to maintain your mental health,
Speaker 1: and have some rituals that that you depend upon and
Speaker 1: track your time. That's a lot of stuff, but things
Speaker 1: and the ones that work for you, and leave the
Speaker 1: rest but just a bunch of suggestions that hopefully folks
Speaker 1: find helpful. Thank you, Chris. That's wonderful. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking a couple of minutes, and that was a
Speaker 1: very good summary, and listeners will know I'm on board
Speaker 1: with the exercise. It's kind of key to my mental
Speaker 1: health in all times and feels especially important now. And
Speaker 1: it's so important. It just is. Yeah, you can do
Speaker 1: every single exercise in the world with a resistance band,
Speaker 1: and you can always adjust how intense it is by
Speaker 1: grabbing the band at a different place. It's like ten
Speaker 1: bucks for one. It's a great investment right now, and
Speaker 1: just investing in you right now is is a good
Speaker 1: investment right now. Indeed. All right, Well, thank you so much, Chris.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you sharing some of these ideas with
Speaker 1: our listeners. Thank you for our fine guest. We have
Speaker 1: Liz fosse Line, whose work has been featured by The
Speaker 1: New York Times, The Economist, and NPR. On episode three
Speaker 1: and ten, her and Eric discussed her book No Hard Feelings,
Speaker 1: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. Hi, Liz, Hi,
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure to talk with you again. You are
Speaker 1: a guest on the main episode of the One You Feed.
Speaker 1: But what I'd like to talk with you now about
Speaker 1: is just to get some ideas from you on things
Speaker 1: that people can do, some some short actionable advice on
Speaker 1: how to make the transition to working from home and
Speaker 1: how to do that more effectively. Yeah, thanks, Eric, that's
Speaker 1: a great question, and I'm sure a lot of people
Speaker 1: are making that shift right now. I think the first
Speaker 1: thing is really just to acknowledge that it's okay to
Speaker 1: feel feelings at this time. It's an unprecedented time. Um,
Speaker 1: I think you know, there's not only work to do,
Speaker 1: but there's just a lot of emotional labor that we're
Speaker 1: all doing, sort of showing up to meetings, trying to
Speaker 1: be normal, trying to focus when there's obviously the world
Speaker 1: is shifting in major ways. So the first is just
Speaker 1: to give yourself some space, be kind to yourself, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Yeah, that's a really good one, because
Speaker 1: I do think everybody is having trouble concentrating and focusing
Speaker 1: right now. It's pretty endemic. Okay, So we give ourselves
Speaker 1: sort of permission that it's okay to feel the way
Speaker 1: we're feeling about what's happening. Yeah, And then I think
Speaker 1: that goes for managers as well. So if you have
Speaker 1: one on ones, you know, maybe add a few minutes
Speaker 1: to the beginning or to the end to check in
Speaker 1: on how people are doing. Also just being cognizant, especially
Speaker 1: if you know that your people have good intentions and
Speaker 1: work hard in the office. Right now, they might be
Speaker 1: dealing with their kids, might be home to which obviously
Speaker 1: can be distracting. Um, but just making space for those
Speaker 1: kinds of conversations, uh, and allowing maybe for a little
Speaker 1: more flexibility with hours too, if it's easier for people
Speaker 1: to shift when they're working or when they're online. And
Speaker 1: so one thing there that you can do is maybe
Speaker 1: meet as a team or send out an email thread
Speaker 1: and say, like, what are people's preferred hours and can
Speaker 1: we agree on like a chunk of four hours when
Speaker 1: we're all available. And then the rest is sort of
Speaker 1: do your work when you can spot it in And so,
Speaker 1: what are some tips for people about how to think
Speaker 1: about working for home because it is a very different experience, right,
Speaker 1: We've got our routines in the office, we get home,
Speaker 1: it's like the distractions are almost endless. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: think it's important if you, especially if you love your
Speaker 1: routines in the office, to set up routines for yourself
Speaker 1: at home. So one thing I'd recommend is actually having
Speaker 1: a designated workspace and keeping that workplace tidy. When you
Speaker 1: wake up or when you're going you know, quote unquote
Speaker 1: going to work, put on clothes, get out of the pajamas.
Speaker 1: It's really easy to just you know, snack all the
Speaker 1: time or stay in your pajamas. But I think it
Speaker 1: can help you feel a sense of normalcy and be
Speaker 1: more productive if you're still keeping up some of the
Speaker 1: habits that you used to have. And then also I
Speaker 1: think one of the things too that actually I've been
Speaker 1: receiving a lot of emails from people because I've been
Speaker 1: asking what are you dealing with in this time of
Speaker 1: transition as you're working from home, often for the first time.
Speaker 1: And people also say it's really hard to remember to
Speaker 1: take breaks. So take a lunch break, maybe make it virtual,
Speaker 1: get together with some coworkers and set aside an hour
Speaker 1: to eat and talk about not work, because when you're home,
Speaker 1: you're not getting up to grab a cup of coffee
Speaker 1: with people, You're not having people swing by your desk,
Speaker 1: and so you might be just like hunched over your
Speaker 1: computer for many hours, and it's just as important to
Speaker 1: get up, walk around keep your mental health up as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's totally true. And then I think there's also,
Speaker 1: you know, the opposite that some people have, which is
Speaker 1: they find it hard to be very focused at home
Speaker 1: and they're kind of all over the place. And I
Speaker 1: think another approach for that is is kind of like
Speaker 1: you said, to to think about like chunks of time
Speaker 1: that we're going to work. There's a way of working
Speaker 1: called pulse in right, where you do very focused junks
Speaker 1: of time focused you know, followed by brakes. And this
Speaker 1: can be really I think can be really helpful at
Speaker 1: home and you can actually then some of your breaks
Speaker 1: can be things that you don't normally get to do
Speaker 1: at the office. They can be brakes where you see
Speaker 1: the dog, see the cat, you enjoy some of the
Speaker 1: things around your house. If you if you sort of
Speaker 1: structure it in that way, your brakes can actually be
Speaker 1: more enjoyable breaks at home if you plan it out
Speaker 1: that way and think about it. Yeah, definitely, And if
Speaker 1: people are really having a hard time focusing, I think
Speaker 1: it can often help at the end of each day
Speaker 1: and your quote unquote work day by got a list of,
Speaker 1: let's say, three things you want to get done the
Speaker 1: next day, and that can help you when you come
Speaker 1: to your desk and you sit down, Let's say you
Speaker 1: just had your cup of coffee. Maybe you just get
Speaker 1: in the flow and if you knock out those three
Speaker 1: things right away, then it's you know, not as big
Speaker 1: a deal if you're less focused. But that's a good
Speaker 1: way of holding yourself accountable and just having a plan
Speaker 1: every day when you wake up. Yep. Any other ideas
Speaker 1: that you want to add that you think are really
Speaker 1: helpful for people in this time, Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: think the two others that I'd add are so like
Speaker 1: I said, I'm based in San Francisco and we're being
Speaker 1: asked not to go to the gym where many of
Speaker 1: them are closed. So just putting time on your calendar
Speaker 1: to get some physical activity. Um, I really love it's
Speaker 1: called the seven Minute Workout, which is on YouTube. But
Speaker 1: just remembering again, it's like these regular routines that also
Speaker 1: keep the blood pumping and keep our mental health up.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I would say is while so
Speaker 1: many of us are making this shift to working from home,
Speaker 1: being cognizant and recognizing that not everyone can do that.
Speaker 1: So health care professionals, um, people who are delivering food
Speaker 1: or cashiers, they cannot work from home. And so if
Speaker 1: you do go out, you know, social distancing, wash your hands,
Speaker 1: thank them for what they're doing. I think this is
Speaker 1: a time when we just need to be really thoughtful
Speaker 1: and supportive of one another. That's a great point that
Speaker 1: not everybody is able to do this, and yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a wild time. So I think a little
Speaker 1: kindness goes a long way right now, It does, it
Speaker 1: does for sure. Did you have one other Yeah? So
Speaker 1: I think one other thing that gets lost when we're
Speaker 1: working from home is praise. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: research that shows when you're communicating digitally, so emailing, slack, messages,
Speaker 1: whatever sort of your digital communication platform is, we often
Speaker 1: get into efficiency mode where we're just hammering out, like
Speaker 1: this is what needs to be done, here's the bullet point.
Speaker 1: Can you check this over for me, and we forget
Speaker 1: those little spontaneous moments which often happen when we're walking
Speaker 1: to the bathroom, we're walking to a meeting together, when
Speaker 1: we'll say like, oh, you did a really great job
Speaker 1: in that meeting, or I so appreciated this other thing
Speaker 1: you did for me. So just emotionally proofreading your messages,
Speaker 1: making sure that you're being explicit about praise, that you're
Speaker 1: thanking each other, That these sort of informal gestures that
Speaker 1: go a long way towards cultivating relationships in a sense
Speaker 1: of belonging, that you're not dropping those just because you're
Speaker 1: no grow in the same location. That is a really
Speaker 1: good one, because yes, so much of our digital interaction,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's just efficiency, it's just boom boom,
Speaker 1: boom boom, and all tone gets lost and all warmth
Speaker 1: tends to get lost, which we know is really important. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is a common thing that remote workers say
Speaker 1: is just feeling like they just don't get the praise
Speaker 1: that they that they feel like they deserve. And so
Speaker 1: I think now that we're so many of us are
Speaker 1: working from home, really keeping that top of mind can
Speaker 1: go a long way. How are you coping working from home?
Speaker 1: Do you do it often or is this a relatively
Speaker 1: new thing for you. So my company is a policy
Speaker 1: where you can work from home one day a week,
Speaker 1: which is drastically different than all the time. Um So,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely I think for me, I've found it hard
Speaker 1: to focus. I get sucked into the news or like
Speaker 1: I just have to avoid Twitter because I will just
Speaker 1: be on Twitter for an hour and then start panicking.
Speaker 1: So I've actually set myself some pretty strict limitations around
Speaker 1: news consumption. Um I have ten minutes in morning and
Speaker 1: then ten minutes at lunch and ten minutes in the evening,
Speaker 1: and that helps me feel like I'm on top of things.
Speaker 1: I know what's going on, i know what I should
Speaker 1: be thinking about, but I'm not sort of spiraling into
Speaker 1: reading every single firsthand account of a scary situation. Um So,
Speaker 1: really trying to protect my mental health and then as
Speaker 1: a byproduct, focus and productivity. Yeah, I think that's such
Speaker 1: a challenging dilemma right now, which is how much information
Speaker 1: is enough? You know? How do I then turn that
Speaker 1: off and get back to the other parts of my
Speaker 1: life that are really important and just not get lost
Speaker 1: in that rabbit hole, because it's really easy to do
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, I think the best thing we can
Speaker 1: all do right now is protect our mental health, be
Speaker 1: kind to others, emotionally proof Fred your messages you know,
Speaker 1: just um as much as possible, try to stay calm
Speaker 1: and maintain some sense of normalcy, even though obviously much
Speaker 1: much easier said than done. But I think really of
Speaker 1: making it a point to do that can help everyone
Speaker 1: get through these next few weeks wonderful. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: loved the point about exercise. It's such a useful thing
Speaker 1: I've and I've been sort of using the opportunity of
Speaker 1: like not going places to exercise so much as opportunity
Speaker 1: really be outside in nature a lot. And the combination
Speaker 1: of moving my body and being in nature has been
Speaker 1: really nice because nature it's just kind of going about
Speaker 1: its business right. The trees are getting ready to bloom
Speaker 1: there doing their thing. The squirrels or they seem to
Speaker 1: be just perfectly doing what squirrels do. It's it really
Speaker 1: gives me. Uh, it's it's comforting, and it's just a
Speaker 1: it's a change for being in a gym, but it's
Speaker 1: been a pleasant and a welcome one for me for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. I think that's a great suggestion, and
Speaker 1: I should start taking walks more regularly. The natural world
Speaker 1: is always I find a very good touch point when
Speaker 1: the human world seems insane. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking a few minutes to share some
Speaker 1: of your ideas on how to handle this new working
Speaker 1: from home that a lot of people are doing. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending some time with us. Yeah, and thanks
Speaker 1: for helping raise awareness of issues and then helping people
Speaker 1: find solutions. Doing our best. I think we all are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks again. Okay, thanks everybody. We hope you've got a
Speaker 1: lot out of that episode. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: great advice in there and a lot of great things
Speaker 1: to think about. We will be back, as Eric mentioned
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, by