Several weeks ago, fresh “in” to this New Normal, in the middle of the day I left a Zoom call and took a hard Einstein-style cat nap on the bed conveniently located just inches from my office desk. I felt guilty, self-conscious and unsure why a deep sleep was so quickly available to me. For a few moments I did the thing I didn’t think I could do: I was unavailable.
And why is that? This generous act of self-compassion, to care for oneself first is taboo and un-spokenly so: we are the last ones we take care of. Couple that with the effort to meet our teams where they are (Virtual): and I believe we have too many humans on Zoom or TEAMS for too long, without taking breaks, offering ourselves equal time alone in the creative space of debriefing meetings, writing and designing. Remote work does not equal being available in the Virtual Space all the time. That’s a story I told myself.
We are missing our natural transition times: driving to meetings, walking down the hall to the restroom or kitchen, saying hello to a colleague nearby. The brain is not shifting activity: these respites were not only purposeful but also extremely beneficial to our cognitive health. Asking the brain to down-shift momentarily can increase our productivity and joy in the Home Office.
Last week I took back my schedule and wrote in swaths of time for desk work. I spent a few minutes each day checking on my independent teen and pre-teenager. I stopped taking 8 am meetings and ended the day at 6. I sourced the collective wisdom of my social media communities and here is an offering of one-hundred ways to counter-balance the side effects of Zooming in.
1. Go to the restroom without apology or haste.
2. Take five-minutes for a mindful walk outside.
3. Create your own flow of three yoga poses.
4. Drink a tall glass of water.
5. Divide your house into five zones. Clean one zone daily M-F.
6. Sit in silence for five-minutes, ring a bell or set a timer on your phone.
7. Sit in the car and listen to loud music as if you would to drive to a meeting.
8. Set up 2-3 areas of your house for remote work and offer yourself a new view during the day.
9. Take a power nap, yes this is allowed.
10. Wash a window.
11. Fold laundry.
12. Tidy your desk.
13. Powder your nose.
14. Apply lip gloss.
15. Calm the dog.
16. Voice check.
17. Set an intention for your next virtual meeting.
18. Give your dog a massage.
19. Call a friend or family member you’ve been meaning to check on: make a list at the start of the week.
20. Write a postcard to a young person you know.
21. Flip and rotate your matress.
22. Spend time just sitting with Jesus. Be silent. Let his peace be your peace.
23. Change the laundry from the washer to the dryer.
24. Take the dogs for a walk.
25. Water your plants.
26. Unload, load the dishwasher.
27. Create a prayer candle in your common area and light it for those in need. Place a name on a small card near the candle each day.
28. Plant a vegetable garden and take time to water it every day.
29. Sit outside with a frosty glass of tea listening to the birds.
30. Divide a landscaped bed into sections and take a section at a time to pull weeds or trip hedges.
31. Spend a few moments to reflect on friends and family, whomever God lays on your heart, write them a real letter. It can be one of thanks, something they did that you are grateful for, memory you treasure from long ago or just that you are thinking of them.
32. Take five deep breaths; with each, breathing in something you want to fill your heart and exhaling what you want to expunge. Example: breathing in courage, breathing out fear; breathing in trust, breathing out angst. (Source: Thich Nhat Hanh)
33. Make masala chai and serve in fancy cups.
34. I take the time to refill my coffee with a fresh pour-over, and stand on my patio steps with the sun on my face
35. Go sit at the piano and play or write a new song.
36. Take a moment to stretch and take some deep breaths.
37. Turn on a personal fan.
38. Tell your children that you love them and that you are proud of how well they are handling the pandemic.
39. Gather eggs.
40. Check the garden.
41. Encourage the plants.
42. Throw sticks for the dog.
43. Watch the birds.
44. Sweep a porch or a back deck.
45. Make a healthy snack.
46. Brew some herbal tea.
47. Happily bother a sleeping cat.
48. Go for a run.
49. Write your partner a note of love and appreciation.
50. Dust a fan.
51. Read a poem.
52. Read the Hobbit over time with your children.
53. Write a family schedule for the week.
54. Plan a family meeting.
55. Make placecards for your family dinner.
56. Set up an art station in your house with supplies (example: coloring pages, collage)
57. Clean your laptop and your phone.
58. Sweep the garage.
59. Open the windows in the house.
60. Clean out a drawer.
61. Write a journal entry.
62. Free-write, pen and paper for five minutes without stopping.
63. Empty the refrigerator or pantry (or both!) of expired items.
64. Make popsicles.
65. Slice an apple and offer your kids a healthy snack.
66. Check on a neighbor.
67. Fill the birdfeeder.
68. Fluff the pillows.
69. Play music.
70. Check on your friends at home with small children.
71. Organize your jewelry or ties.
72. Cancel your digital subscriptions.
73. Make care kits for the homeless.
74. Bake cookies.
75. Write a haikiu (a short, three-lined poem from Japan with syllabic structure of 5/7/5)
76. Sing at the top of your lungs.
77. Rest in shavasana (corpse pose) for ten minutes.
78. Research restorative yoga poses and try a new one each week.
79. Create a home meditation or prayer space.
80. Read a verse of scripture.
81. Learn a new word and teach it to someone else.
82. Adopt a grandparent from a retirement home and check-in with them often.
83. Adopt a friend’s young child and check-in with them often; sending notes in the mail.
84. Drink a cup of tea mindfully (research mindful eating and drinking).
85. Take a shower (if you haven’t).
86. De-brief your last meeting.
87. Write and agenda and outcomes for your next meeting.
88. Pull the scrabble board out and play a round or two.
89. Doodle.
90. Sit with both arms extended up in a wide “V”: hold for one minute breathing deeply.
91. Call a beloved teacher and tell them why they were great.
92. Organize your jewelry and take photos for your files.
93. Write a blog post.
94. Watch a TED talk.
95. Download the Marco Polo app and start communicating with friends and family.
96. Work on your Family Ancestry.
97. Sit and do nothing.
98. Listen to the birds.
99. Put your feet up.
100. Create existence in your calendars a few of your favorite ideas above. Have new ideas? Please share them with me!
Be generous with yourself: we are all getting through this together as the perfectly imperfect human beings that we are. We’ve accomplished a remarkable transition to working from home in short amount of time. Now it’s time to make working for home work for us. Enjoy new joys.
Thank to special contributors: Jennifer Stanton Hargrave, Rowena Raroque-Watters, Debby Fosdick, Lollie Tompkins, James F. Fosdick, Stephanie Cole, Allison Perkins, Diana Marquis, Dyana Pari Nafissi Holzworth, Claire Sexton, Mary Beth Whitman Goodrich, Leslie Barker Garcia, Nana Boardman, MK Benton Sharp, Mickey Parson, Jenny Apperti, Melody Hamilton, Lisa Reed, Caren Lock, Laura Neff, Nancy Dorrier and Kelly Irwin Heatly.
Resources:
Wonderful..and let’s me “ off the hook” as it doesn’t say “learn anew language”....
ReplyDelete