Working remotely for the first week!
With the accelerated spread of the Corona (COVID-19) virus around the world, most if not all the tech companies around have pushed their employees to work from their homes!
This type of movement is to decrease the spread of the virus, we can count it under safety measurement that EACH company shall do.
Well, I always have been thinking about, how can I manage my time better :(. Not surprisingly I am coming from a dynamic environment where time management and planning are not our things. Several reasons behind that; from the unstable economy to the sinusoidal political situations in this area. And to be honest, people around this area are not fans of time management and planning. I believe you guessed which area I am talking about? hmm? Sure not Germany, it is the middle east.
Our company has pushed us to work from home instead of coming to the office, which may be considered risky these days. We haven’t worked remotely before, so it would be a good experience for the company and for us as individuals !.
Usually, I reach the office between 9 am — 10 am and leave between 6.30 pm — 7.30 pm ( if nothing special to leave for earlier :D). Sometimes, I found myself distracted during the day so I may stay at the office until 10 pm. The time can be passed by checking maintenance requirements or reading about technologies, just to compensate for the feeling of “I haven’t worked enough today”. And when I get home I would be exhausted and just sleep till the next morning and the cycle continues!
So what could differ now? I just get curious about how won’t I get distracted at home, will I be productive ?!!!. How wouldn’ I talk to the walls! How wouldn’t I enjoy cooking and talking to my fridge door every 5 mins! How would I handle these difficulties, that I faced whenever I work from home as a freelancer or when I was studying for school exams years ago. Following the wisdom said by me “In order to come over fears, you have to do nothing, and maybe face them :p maybe”.
Here how my first week went. I tried my best to wake up at ≤9.00 am since our team members have fixed an online meeting every 9.30 morning!! So, being virtually late is not accepted :D.
Then after the meetings, I noted the minute I started to get into the focus-pocus mode.. Until I got fed up (~45 minutes later). Then have 15 minutes of the fridge-human communication session, and get back until it is midday. Time to cook the lunch and give me 1.5 hours of break, then kick-off again. Until it is 18:30 I read emails and shutdown.
Now in the small breaks of 10–15 mins, it is time to do something else, something beneficial!!. Well, on the first day I tried to subscribe to a premium package of those dating apps -may be to have a queue after the virus problems finish- but the apps rejected my credit-card! their loss :D. So instead, I subscribed to a premium package of LinkedIn and started to watch the good content over there.
LinkedIn Learning courses are presented in a different and nice way, short videos that keep you attracted to the content and fit within the breaks timeslots, I really enjoyed them.
What is the outcome? How to measure it?
The outcome I have measured just before writing this story. I prefer to use the classic way instead of apps. I have taken notes with a pen on a piece of a notebook of each spent time slot for each day throughout the week. Each slot filling in it some description of what was it spent for, and what distractions happened.
I found out, the first week was passed good, with minimum distractions! I had 30 hours of full productivity working on different tasks from research to maintenance!! this is so cool ( at least for me since it is just the beginning). Because the labor system here requires 45 hours to work at the office, and as you can guess! it is not a one-to-one relationship, you may not have the ability to stay focused more than 6–7 hours a day — unless you have great focusing abilities. So, now I have better insights into my capabilities and how to manage them. This is the output as an individual worker, as a team member, I am still trying to analyze the outcomes.
Away from work or sitting in front of the laptop , how my time was filled?
Easy peasy, I believe in kitchen and kitchen believes in my tummy, so if I am not in front of my laptop I am in the kitchen crafting something — maybe eatable maybe not. Sometimes with my mobile, I read medium posts, sometimes check some stupid non-beneficial youtube videos just to forget reality little bit.
Time is like a sword, if you don’t manage it well it will cut you
As a conclusion, I believe the world business ecosystem will significantly change before/after the Corona spread. Companies would tend to change their strategies, the individuals would do the same.
If it is your first time working from home or even its the first time forced to stay at home, do not waste the time. Craft a habit, learn something new (language, hobby …etc.) or maybe cook something and send a plate to me :D. If you just let the time pass, you will feel bloody bored!
