Like millions of other people in the UK it is coming up to a year of working from home due to the Covid pandemic. I am one of the lucky ones in that I can do my job 100% remotely and all I really need is an Internet connection and a laptop. I don’t even need pants anymore! Here are some of the things I have learned in the last 11 months:
Take regular mini-breaks
And I mean proper breaks away from the screen. I don’t mean shove a sandwich down your throat while something is running on your laptop (not literally) or you are checking through emails. Even if you are working from home on your own, don’t be that disgusting fucker who eats a big messy sandwich with one hand and types with the other while pieces of butty debris pepper the keyboard like a salad asteroid shower. Go away from your desk/kitchen table and go and look at a tree or something.
Try not to have a 24 hour news channel on in the background
My routine every weekday is to drop the kids off at school, come home and switch on BBC News for as long as my brain can take it. I only last about 10 minutes and usually, even in the middle of a pandemic, there is only so much news they can roll at you so it just ends up repeating anyway. If you feel like Victoria Derbyshire is a personal friend, you are watching too much news. If you watch the same weather broadcast twice turn it off, you’ve clocked the news. It is done. And it will only depress you anyway.
If the television is on after my dose of news, I usually have something travel-related on in the background. Not because I am a smug wanker, but just because it’s a nice reminder there is a big world out there waiting to be explored when all this shite is over (okay that sounded a bit wank).
Get dressed
Regardless of my pants jape earlier I do actually get dressed in the morning. You don’t have to wear a suit with matching waistcoat, cravat and bowler hat but some sort of routine is important (breakfast beers do not count as a healthy routine).
Have an actual lunch break
Even when I worked in an office full-time I almost always went outside at lunchtime, even if the weather was biblical. You always used to get that one person who would shriek in surprise if you told them you were going out if it was raining, as if it was acid rain falling from the sky. There is something decidedly unnatural about being inside all day in artificial lighting. Basically if you go outside and it’s not even that bright and you are squinting then you’re not getting enough daylight and will eventually turn into a mole. Possibly.
Be kind to yourself
I don’t mean the type of kind where you buy yourself a Playstation 5 (as if there are any of those to buy anyway). I mean just in general, especially if you are at home with the kids. You are doing your best in (and I hate this term) unprecedented circumstances. Don’t beat yourself up. And if you do find a Playstation 5 supplier that isn’t some greedy bot twat on eBay let me know; that would be really kind of you.
Remember this will all be over one day
Despite the appalling death toll in the UK, one day the pandemic will be over or at least managed to a point where life will return to something approaching normal. There will be positive benefits. People who have jobs which can be done from home will very likely continue to work from home for a big chunk of the week, easing pressure on stressful commutes and rushing around before and after work. And I’m convinced that the crisis has taught most people that the important things in life are not material possessions or chasing more money and a bigger house; the truly vital things are free. The freedom to go for a walk or a bike ride somewhere, catching up with family and friends. These things we have been mostly denied for nearly a year are the most important. Also, again, if you do find somewhere selling a Playstation 5, do let me know. This is also important.
Daniel McChrystal 