Weekends are now the hallowed space: 5 pm Friday comes and I breathe a sigh of relief. Weekends are a little different than they were before, but for those of us managing the remote office and home schooling, Monday-Friday 9-5 are a LOT different. And, for those of us not home schooling they are a lot different, too.
Today is Sunday and I see the crest of time in the horizon before I am back in “gear”: to be “on” for our museum team, prepared for my new online classes for UTD Employees and a wee bit ahead of my children’s plans to turn on Fortnight between online instruction. I could say it’s frantic and a mess, and I am choosing not to. Because how it is in our house, office, school is a choice.
So, here are a few words from the home front that I hope will be helpful to you as we peer into Week Four of shelter-in-place.
Declare how it will be: take five minutes and write about this week. Set your timer and keep the hand moving (this is a free write, pen and paper). Create a vision for what will be. You will surprise yourself how, once you’ve written it, the future can be what you see, not what happens to you.
Cut your screen time in half. I’m doing this today: as much as I love the nearer-connection of Zoom, Teams and Webex (and promoted it last week), I am also noticing eye strain. Are you? By Friday of last week I was putting on my awful readers and leaning too far into my laptop. Our boys’ eyes were reddening too. I’m sure it’s part pollen, part Fortnight, part social media (for me) but we all know, this is new, and there is a limit. Listen to the side effects. Your body is telling you something.
Be the boss. The calendar doesn’t run you. You run the calendar. Look out this week and take off what isn’t directly advancing your work. I know I need “think space” in next week and I found from last week I accepted all meeting requests and moved meetings to make it all “work”. We’re missing drive time, prep time, de-brief meeting time, desk time and breathe time. We, as the authors of this new world of Remote Work, get to say what the day looks like.
Lift up the laptop. For that ½ of the week you are designing on zoom, the center of the screen should be at eye-level. Your neck might be telling you this, too. (See “listen to the side effects above). Chair yoga is a great anti-dote to your new neckaches.
Love yourself. Take a nap when you’re tired (children permitting). Take a mindful self-compassion moment:
- Sit in a position that is comfortable for you: no straining, holding. Relaxed, yet alert.
- Lower or close the eyes.
- Place the palm of your hand gently over your heart space.
- Create a prayer/ phrase or mantra (a word or phrase to aid concentration) to say to yourself. Examples: “breathing in, breathing out” (Thich Nhat Hanh), “this, too” (Tara Brach) or I am here, Everything will be alright, Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
I believe we’re leading two lives right now:
- There is the Self managing all of the suffering we are seeing and may already be experiencing directly. We are grieving the loss of our innocence and the old normal.
- There is the Self managing our Shelters: creating a new normal, keeping the work and school work flowing. Holding it all together, or as it goes for me: trying to.
And guess what? Both lives show up in one perfectly imperfect human. Give yourself permission to be with both: talk to a friend or family member about how you are in this fourth week. Write about it. Hold yourself in a space of allowing yourself to try things, fail and forgive. Two things I know: we’re all in this together, and we may be at this for a while. Shine on, Dear Friends.
Post script:
For the past six years, I have worked with Dorrier Underwood on how to lead in my work and in my being. I source their expertise here both in designing meeting and fulfilling goals. Additionally, my training in yoga and mindfulness have helped prepare me for this moment…and the moments to come.
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