0:00

Hi, everyone, Welcome to a special edition

0:02

of The One You Feed. This episode is

0:04

all about how to structure your time and

0:06

days now that so many more people

0:08

are working from home and have their families

0:11

at home with them. What I've done is reach

0:13

out to some previous guests and ask them

0:15

if they would share their thoughts with you, and

0:17

they, with incredible generosity

0:19

and at a moment's notice, made time to do so

0:21

in order to be of help at this critical

0:23

time. They're all productivity experts,

0:26

and I've asked them for some of their ideas

0:28

on how we can make this transition to working

0:30

from home and how to set some boundaries

0:32

for us between our work lives and our personal

0:35

lives. These are all new conversations

0:37

with previous guests. In addition,

0:40

we've been working hard over here to try and think

0:42

of some things that might help you and support you

0:44

in this difficult time. This episode

0:46

is one example of that. We'll have another

0:48

episode out on Tuesday, our regular day,

0:51

which is going to be about dealing with our emotions

0:53

and our fears during this time. I

0:55

again reached out to some of my favorite guests

0:57

from the past, and they generously agreed to come

0:59

back and talk with me about handling

1:01

our emotional and mental health. During

1:04

this period, We're also going

1:06

to be doing a few other things that I want to tell

1:08

you about, and all of what I'm about to

1:10

tell you can be found at one you feed

1:12

dot net slash help. First,

1:15

I'm going to start offering a free weekly

1:17

group coaching call. This is going to start

1:19

this Wednesday they at

1:21

new and Eastern time, and it will happen

1:24

at the same time each Wednesday thereafter

1:26

for the foreseeable future. It will be an

1:28

opportunity for you to ask questions, let

1:30

me know what you're struggling with, and I'll offer

1:33

my thoughts on how you can work through those

1:35

things and the most productive, healthy

1:37

and strengthening way. Secondly,

1:40

I'll be making a number of one on one coaching

1:42

spots available for free to healthcare

1:44

workers. So if you're a healthcare worker

1:47

and you're on the front lines of all this and you could

1:49

use a little bit of extra support, email

1:51

me at Eric at one you feed

1:54

dot net and we can talk. In

1:56

addition, I'm going to discount all

1:58

of the one on one coach programs, So

2:01

over the next several weeks, I'll be discounting

2:03

my private coaching services to make them accessible

2:05

to as many people as possible who need them.

2:08

So if you're wrestling with restructure in your

2:10

day, building new routines or habits,

2:13

or you're wrestling with your emotions and dealing

2:15

with those, or like most of us, you're

2:17

dealing with a blend of those things, the

2:19

coaching program might be a really good

2:21

support for you, and I will be offering

2:23

discounts on it over what we normally

2:26

do. You can get more details about

2:28

all these things at a new page we've created.

2:30

It's at one you feed dot net

2:33

slash Help. It'll have

2:35

details on how you can join the free weekly call,

2:38

how the healthcare workers can get in touch with

2:40

me, and how to learn about the discounted

2:42

coaching sessions. It'll also have a

2:44

link to the Facebook live session that I did

2:46

the other night, and anything else that

2:48

we create that will help during this

2:50

time, So go to one you feed dot

2:53

net slash help for all of that. Also,

2:55

if you're not connected to our email list

2:58

or on social media, this is a great time

3:00

to consider doing that because we'll continue

3:02

to share new things that we are offering via

3:04

all of those channels. And again

3:07

at when you feed dot net slash Help,

3:09

you can get access to all the free resources

3:11

and you can get on the email list there and

3:13

connect with us via social media. I

3:16

wish you the best in staying safe, healthy

3:19

and sane in this difficult time. I

3:21

hope you enjoy this episode about structuring

3:23

your time while being at home, and we'll have

3:25

another one out about dealing with difficult

3:27

emotions on Tuesday. Be well.

3:30

Thank you, and first

3:32

up, we have David Cadeby. He's the best

3:34

selling author, blogger, podcaster,

3:36

and speaker. On episode two eighty three

3:39

of the One You Feed podcast, David

3:41

and Eric discussed his book The Heart

3:43

to Start, Stop procrastinating

3:45

and Start Creating. Hi, David,

3:47

thanks for taking some time to come back on

3:49

and chat with me about how

3:52

people who are newly working

3:54

from home can be more effective

3:56

and deal with the unique challenges of

3:59

working from home. Thank

4:01

you for having me on. Eric, as I said, I was

4:03

just thinking about the same thing this morning, So

4:05

I guess great minds think alike. Yes,

4:09

yes, So people are working from

4:11

home in unprecedented numbers

4:13

and a lot of people who just are not

4:15

used to doing it or have never done it, and so

4:18

what are some things that they can they can

4:20

do to make that transition more seamless

4:23

for them. I think it really

4:25

starts with boundaries. I've

4:28

been working for myself a k

4:30

a. Working from home for thirteen years,

4:33

and you know, at first,

4:35

when you first start doing it, you think, oh,

4:37

this is so cool. I can

4:40

work whenever I want, I can work on the

4:42

couch, I can sit on my bed and work.

4:46

And it doesn't take too

4:48

long before you realize that

4:50

that's not a good idea. So I

4:53

think boundaries in general, Uh,

4:56

you know, I think there's three places where

4:58

you need to set boundaries. That's in your

5:01

time, your space, and

5:03

in your mind. And we can expand

5:05

on all those I want. Yeah, let's let's

5:07

uh, let's work through this. I think I

5:10

agree with you as somebody who

5:12

in the last year and a half, I guess,

5:14

spent a little bit longer than that move to working

5:17

from home exclusively, I have certainly

5:19

found the both the wonderful

5:21

parts of it and the challenging parts of it. And

5:23

I think I agree with you that what I have found is

5:26

I do need to set some boundaries.

5:28

So let's walk through each of those categories.

5:31

I think the first he said was time. Yeah,

5:33

the first is time, and it's

5:35

interesting because I think that working from home is really

5:38

not so much about time management

5:40

as it is mind management. All these things

5:43

are set up to create boundaries

5:47

in your mind because when you

5:49

work in an office, you've got eight hours,

5:52

but how many of us are really working for

5:54

all those eight hours? And then you

5:57

come home and now it's

6:00

really not so much how much time you're going to spend on

6:02

things, it's it's are you going to get things done?

6:04

And you usually find that you

6:07

just can't really focus for

6:09

eight hours. Um, So I think

6:11

first you want to set up some boundaries with your

6:13

time. And this

6:15

is extremely useful because there's so

6:17

many distractions at home, right Like you

6:20

know, I, for I guess I shouldn't

6:22

say fortunately, but I don't have kids. Fortunately

6:25

for my for my work, I don't have kids, don't

6:27

have that that aspect going on.

6:29

But there are other things. There's a plant

6:31

that I see that needs to be watered, or I need

6:33

to do some dishes, things like that, and

6:35

so if you can set up a boundary for

6:37

those things where you know, maybe you do realize

6:40

I need to water this plant or I need to do

6:42

some dishes. You just stop for a second

6:44

and say, okay, well, I'm not going to do that right

6:47

now. I'm working between these

6:49

hours and at eleven

6:51

am, I'm going to take a break and I'm gonna do that, or

6:53

I'm not going to do that. That can wait until the

6:56

end of the day. So setting up some boundaries

6:58

with your time is really

7:00

big because it can create that

7:03

mental boundary that you naturally

7:05

have when you're going into an office every

7:07

day because you go into that office and what happens

7:10

over time, you get conditioned so

7:12

that you're suddenly in that right mental state

7:14

to do work when you get in that office. You

7:16

don't have it at home, So you have to create those spaces

7:19

yourself. One of those ways is through

7:21

time. Yep, yep,

7:23

I agree, And I think that working

7:26

from home is a great way to start

7:28

trying out some working

7:30

techniques like um the Pomodoro

7:33

method or policy, because again,

7:35

when we walk into an office, we sort of sit

7:37

down, like you said, and we're in our work

7:40

environment. We're gonna be there for eight hours,

7:42

and some of that's really focused, some of

7:44

it's not really focused, but we're kind of

7:46

there, and at home it's very different,

7:49

and so I find, you know, it's a lot

7:51

more effective to be like, all right, I'm gonna work

7:53

for a chunk of time, and then

7:55

i'm gonna give myself a little break, and

7:58

then I'm gonna work for a chunk of time. And these really focused

8:01

blocks of time with breaks

8:03

and being home means that those

8:05

breaks, you can do things during those breaks

8:07

that that you can't normally do at work, which

8:09

is great. And then knowing when it's time

8:11

to get back. And so you know, I sort of live by my

8:13

timer, like all right, I'm on for

8:16

an hour fifteen minute break, or

8:18

I'm on for thirty minutes five minute break, but

8:20

I set the timer for both the time I work and

8:23

for the break time, so I know when it's time to return.

8:26

Yeah, And I really love that because if

8:28

you're setting these these chunks of time,

8:31

like you mentioned the Pomadoor technique, you might set a timer

8:33

for forty minutes or twenty minutes

8:36

or whatever. When you set that chunk of time,

8:39

and it gives you that

8:41

boundary within which to focus. You

8:43

have to re architect your brain to be

8:46

able to work from home, and your

8:48

brain is plastic, so any thought that you have,

8:51

you's gonna become easier for you to have that

8:53

thought. So if you are every

8:55

two minutes going and doing a

8:58

chore while you're trying

9:00

to get work done, you're going to carve those neural pathways.

9:03

You're gonna set bad habits. But if you

9:05

do create those spaces where

9:07

there's twenty minutes that you're going to be focused

9:10

and anything that you think about you can

9:12

just kind of set off to the side. You're

9:14

starting to carve those neural pathways to be

9:17

focused on the thing that you're working at when

9:19

you're in this home environment, which is going to

9:21

be critical to your productivity. Yep,

9:24

exactly. So Okay, so we've talked

9:26

about time, what's the next boundary, the

9:29

next boundaries space and

9:32

you might have some idea. What I'm talking

9:34

about here is that if you have a home office

9:37

or a separate room that you can work in, that's

9:40

great. That will help

9:42

condition you so that if

9:45

you can make it so that you're only working when

9:47

you're in that space, and when you're in that space,

9:49

you're only working, that's wonderful. Not

9:51

all of us have that space, though, but there's

9:53

other ways that you can manipulate

9:56

your space so that you can

9:58

condition yourself and create those boundaries,

10:01

uh, so that you are in the

10:03

right mental state to work when you're deciding

10:06

it's time to work. I had a perfect

10:08

example of this thirteen years ago when

10:10

I started on my own. I had a tiny

10:12

bedroom in San Francisco. I mean, you

10:15

can imagine apartments are small in San Francisco.

10:17

This bedroom was so small there

10:19

was hardly any room between

10:22

the bed that I had and the desk

10:24

for there to even be a chair there. But

10:27

what I did was I

10:30

set up a boundary by changing

10:32

the space when it was time for me to

10:34

work. So you know those a little room

10:36

dividers that you can get

10:39

at probably Target or

10:41

all sorts of places. They're also called show

10:43

sogy screens. I don't know if people

10:46

normally call them that, but I had one of those,

10:48

like a translucent one, and I would set it up

10:51

around my desk and I'd make a little cubicle

10:53

for myself, and then I get like a little clip

10:56

lamp and I just would sort of

10:58

redirect the light upwards,

11:01

the kind of change not only the space

11:03

but also the lighting in the room.

11:06

And then that's where I would work. And

11:08

then when it was time to shut things down, I

11:10

just shut off the lamp. I would oh

11:13

the room divider around

11:16

the desk so that I

11:18

couldn't even see the desk anymore. So that way

11:21

my brain was conditioned then so that

11:23

when that was set up, it was time for me

11:25

to work. When that was taken down, then

11:28

I could sleep. I wasn't thinking about sleeping

11:30

while I was working, and I wasn't thinking about working

11:32

so much while I was sleeping. Yeah,

11:34

that's a great solution. And I have seen on

11:37

social media this week there have been some

11:39

some hilarious home setups

11:41

of the way people are are working. People

11:43

working on big garbage cans,

11:46

people working on ironing boards. Apparently ironing

11:48

boards are the ironing boards are the new

11:50

adjustable desk. Oh

11:53

the night in a standing sitting desk. I just got

11:55

one of those. They're wonderful that they're wonderful

11:57

to have, So I need to check that out. That sounds

12:00

entertaining the season, these home setups. So

12:02

yeah, but I think it's a great idea, and I think that you

12:04

know, we can try uh And

12:06

I think your example is a great ones for

12:09

how can we sort of transform

12:11

our space to sort of mark

12:13

out these boundaries. So okay,

12:15

so we've got time space and our final

12:18

one, our mind. You

12:20

can set up mental boundaries

12:23

to help condition yourself to get

12:25

into the right mind state for work, and

12:27

also importantly to get

12:30

out of that mind state and into a different

12:32

mind state when work is over, when

12:34

you've decided that work is over.

12:37

And I think that's important to to have some kind

12:39

of boundary late in the day where

12:41

you know, after this time, I'm not working

12:44

anymore. And so the way that you

12:46

can create these mental boundaries is

12:48

just through rituals, and I've

12:50

already described a bit of one, which was the setting

12:53

up of the room divider and setting up the

12:56

lamp. That really changed the feeling of the space.

12:58

But there was also a sense of rich all to that, and

13:01

I didn't mention that. In addition to that,

13:03

one thing I did was there was a certain album

13:06

that I would play immediately

13:08

when I started working, and it

13:10

was the same album every time

13:13

that I started, and and just had

13:15

this this beginning to it where

13:18

that was just my queue to get

13:20

into the mental state to work. Additionally, I

13:23

had an aroma therapy diffuser that

13:25

I set up and I would

13:27

specifically use Lemon, a Roman

13:29

therapy sent and you could come up with whatever one

13:32

you wanted, but adding

13:34

those things on helped create

13:36

a mental ritual that

13:38

created that boundary. I've heard of all sorts

13:40

of other things. It really doesn't matter

13:43

what you decide as long as you do it

13:45

over and over again. There's a writer who

13:47

I know who has a Star Wars

13:49

mug, and so he only drinks

13:52

out of the Star Wars mug when he's

13:54

going to write. So he knows that when he sets up

13:56

his coffee, when he touches his Star Wars

13:58

mug, that means it's time for him to

14:00

write. I remember hearing a

14:02

quote from some writer who was saying, you know, it

14:04

really doesn't matter what you decide. You could

14:07

say I'm gonna only right

14:09

wearing flip flops on my back

14:12

deck and that it was going to have a placebo

14:14

effect and that's gonna help

14:17

you get in the right state to work as

14:19

long as you decide that is going to and

14:22

you repeat it on a regular basis.

14:24

I love those ideas. I Uh.

14:26

There's a playlist on Spotify called

14:28

Deep Focus, and the first song on

14:30

it, I love that one. Yeah, that first

14:33

song, what is it? It's uh

14:35

never even looked till now. It's called under the Wind

14:37

by the Tides is the first song. But that's

14:40

that song for me sort of triggers a

14:43

little bit of a like, Okay, now it's time

14:45

to sort of settle in and and work

14:47

right now. So I think music is a great way to do

14:49

that. Yeah, so all those things you can use

14:51

to just set up those boundaries. I

14:53

think the boundaries part is really

14:55

important. Is something that especially when you first get

14:57

started. Uh, it takes a to

15:00

learn the hard lesson that you need

15:02

to create some boundaries. Yeah, it's

15:04

it's absolutely essential. I have found working

15:07

from home to be wonderful

15:09

in some ways and as you said, extremely

15:11

challenging and others. I think the other

15:13

thing for me that I found so

15:16

important is to get up

15:18

and get out of the house a little bit. And now

15:20

this is not a time to go like visit your local coffee

15:22

shop right now. I've been really enjoying

15:24

being out in nature a lot more. I find it.

15:27

Nature is sort of always a great touchstone

15:29

for me. But that's another one for me is

15:31

remembering to get out of the house, because since

15:33

I don't leave to go to work, if I don't make

15:36

a point of getting out, I never leave,

15:38

and then I start to get claustrophobic. You know, it's

15:40

funny that you mentioned that, because I do

15:42

the same thing. I'm a writer, so mornings

15:45

I'm spending writing, but eventually

15:47

I get kind of a mental log jam going. And

15:50

actually, just before I got

15:52

on this conversation with you, there's a park near

15:54

my house that has all these beautiful

15:57

bamboo trees in it. And know

16:00

we're under quarantine, so there's not a lot of people there,

16:02

so that's important. Um

16:04

So I was just

16:06

in that park sitting and thinking

16:09

and relaxing and uh, thinking

16:11

a little bit about this conversation too. So I actually

16:14

use it as a creative session to

16:16

to prepare and and think about what I was going

16:18

to talk about with you. Awesome, Well, I love

16:20

it. Well, thank you so much for taking

16:22

a few minutes to talk with this. He's have been really helpful,

16:25

ideas great. Thank you so much for having

16:27

me up. Next is Charlie

16:29

Gilki, who was our guest on episode

16:31

three hundred of the One You Feed podcast,

16:34

where Eric and him discussed his book

16:36

Start Finishing how to Go from Idea

16:39

to don Hi, Charlie, happy

16:41

to have you with us to talk

16:43

here for a couple of minutes. I appreciate you making the time.

16:45

Hey, Eric, I'm super pumped to be

16:47

back and appreciate being asked. So

16:50

what I'm trying to do with this short

16:52

little episode is just give people

16:54

who are newly working from home some

16:57

tips on how to make the transition and

17:00

make it as seamless as possible and

17:02

allow them to find some sanity

17:05

in working from home. So maybe

17:07

you could start off by just giving us a couple

17:09

of tips that you have for people who

17:11

are working from home. Now. So

17:13

I'm gonna lead my tip with

17:16

sort of a mindset shift, because I

17:18

think in when you first start

17:20

working from home, people misdiagnose

17:22

distractions and interruptions when

17:25

really there are challenges with competing

17:27

priorities and boundaries. And

17:29

I say that because when you're at home, you're

17:32

presented with a lot of different things.

17:34

Maybe it's kids that are at home too, or maybe it's

17:36

another adult working partner,

17:38

and you know, you're sitting there in the middle of a work block and you're

17:41

like, oh, I need to get groceries and maybe I need to do laundry,

17:44

um, And those priorities don't exist in

17:46

a way when you're at work. And so really understanding

17:48

that so much of the distractions and interruptions

17:50

that you might be facing are really the

17:52

shifting priorities that go on with you, triggered

17:55

by the environment to trans super super helpful.

17:57

So one of the tips that I would put in place is

17:59

that the very minimum recreate, re

18:02

engineer their pre work, lunch

18:05

and post work routines. Most people,

18:07

whether they are intentional about it or not,

18:10

do, in fact have a pre work routine. They

18:13

have a lunch routine, and they have a

18:15

post work routine, and those give

18:18

the beginning, middle, and end

18:20

of the day such that it turns that

18:22

long what am I going to do today into

18:24

coherent blocks which you can use more purposefully.

18:27

What are some examples of those types

18:29

of routines that people could put in place when

18:31

they're at home, Because when we're working,

18:33

some of those things they're they're very clearly

18:36

bookended by things like a commute as

18:38

an example, as a as a sort of

18:41

enforced routine. But but we have a commute

18:43

that allows us to transition absolutely,

18:45

And so something I've worked with

18:47

with people for years and it sounds crazy, Eric,

18:50

but I will encourage people who are newly

18:52

working from home to actually walk around

18:54

the block one way at the beginning of the day, and

18:56

then walk around the block the other way at the end of the day,

18:58

and that creates a similar level of space

19:01

and movement that parallels

19:04

the commute. And it also gets people

19:06

to trigger into like, oh yeah, when I come home,

19:08

I normally do acts and normally like scoop

19:10

the loador box I normally do all these sort

19:13

of things. And you can actually piggyback upon

19:15

those native routines that you built, um,

19:18

and so absolutely recreating

19:21

your commute um, you know,

19:23

not having it be the I wake up in the morning

19:25

and I stepped six ft and I'll start working

19:27

at the table. It's a very good thing to do. Another

19:30

thing that I've talked about with some people is, you know, if

19:32

you've been making lunch for yourself

19:34

and kids to take it to work, maybe

19:36

keep doing that. Right, there's no reason that

19:39

you can't go ahead and get all that set up in the morning,

19:41

just the same way as you would if you were going to work. And then

19:43

when it's lunchtime, you're not having

19:45

yet another thing to do on top of eating lunch,

19:48

and so you just eat what you pre made and

19:50

what I want to lean into here, or at least

19:52

amplify here. Is that so many of these routines

19:54

have a physical movement

19:57

component to it, and that's

19:59

really important. Macau. Not only does it

20:01

give you space from the devices, not only

20:03

does it give you space from the anxieties and the

20:05

news, it actually recruits your body into

20:08

helping you memorize, process, move

20:11

stretch, things like that. And so any of these

20:13

routines that have a movement component are just going

20:15

to be so much better for you than you

20:17

know, sitting in a chair or sitting and sitting you

20:19

know, on the couch all day because again,

20:21

you don't have stairs to climb, you don't have parking around

20:24

too, you don't have a bus you need to catch, um,

20:26

and all those things do work for us

20:28

at a lot of times we don't see. Yeah, I

20:30

think finding ways to to move is

20:32

a challenge, and particularly so right now.

20:35

Absolutely um. And you

20:37

know, I'm fortunately I live in Portland right now and it's

20:39

sunny and the weather is nice, and so I understand

20:41

that there are other places in the world in the United

20:43

States that maybe it's still snowy and cold outside

20:46

and unless it's super freezing.

20:49

Um. That distance that the amount

20:51

of times it takes you to put on your clothes and go outside

20:53

and walk is actually really good integration

20:56

and separation time from whatever

20:59

maybe whole going onto your attention from the news

21:01

cycle or from the social media cycle. Yeah, I'm

21:03

in Columbus and it has been cold in

21:05

wintry. We had surprising amount of snow

21:07

the other day. But I've been certainly making a point

21:10

to get outside, walk, bundle

21:12

up, just be outdoors and move some just

21:14

because I felt like I've needed it for sure.

21:17

Yeah. UM, another thing to think about as far

21:19

as routines, or it's not quite a routine,

21:21

but as close as making your

21:23

environment work for you. UM.

21:25

A lot of times our home offices

21:27

are our home offices or kitchen tables,

21:29

depending upon which way you roll with that. UM

21:32

aren't necessarily set up for us

21:34

to be focused and

21:36

you know, not distracted, not interrupted, And

21:38

so maybe it's time to change.

21:42

For instance, you know, if you have a TV

21:44

room and entertainment room, maybe it's time to sort

21:46

of change that around. You know, co off

21:48

that is your office, Maybe get the TV out, or if

21:50

you know that there are certain things, especially electronics

21:53

in your room that are distracting you, it

21:55

may be worth taking time to remove

21:57

those things completely rather than fidgeting with

21:59

them and fighting with them all day. Um. And so

22:01

you know, while we have this general background

22:03

anxiety because of the pandemic and a new

22:05

way of working and social media cycle news

22:07

cycle, last thing you need to do is fight

22:10

with your environment too. And simple

22:12

changes make a huge difference here. And sometimes

22:15

it's replacing that you

22:17

know, used chair that you've got six years

22:19

ago at the good will store and actually

22:22

buying a for real office

22:24

chair. And to this point, we've got to remember

22:26

that this may not be a short

22:28

term thing. It might not be three or four weeks

22:31

where we're working from home. This could be three, six,

22:33

nine months. And so your

22:36

environment over the long term is going to matter

22:38

way more than your willpower, way more

22:40

than any sort of grit that you want to put

22:42

into it. So it might be time to invest

22:44

in some of those things that makes it work for you. Totally makes

22:47

sense. And I think that idea about trying

22:49

to get our environment to work for us.

22:51

It makes me think of wrestling with the news

22:53

cycle or wrestling with social media. I

22:55

found that it's been helpful sometimes

22:58

when I feel like I'm not winning wrestling

23:00

match to let my devices

23:03

do the limiting for me. So there, you know, there's

23:05

lots of tools on our phones,

23:07

on our computers that can block us, can actually

23:09

stop us, like no more Twitter, Eric,

23:12

like you're done. And so if

23:14

if we are finding that, like we're setting

23:16

an intention I want to spend less time doing that. I want

23:18

to spend less time, and we're still not

23:21

finding ourselves able to hold that intention,

23:24

then it's really can be useful to

23:26

use some of those tools to set some of those

23:28

limits for us, because this is a hard time

23:31

to set those limits, for sure, harder for

23:33

me than normal by a long shot.

23:35

I absolutely agree. Um, there's an app

23:38

called Cold Turkey Blocker that saves

23:40

my bacon every day because

23:42

it allows me to set up different applications

23:44

and websites. And I also want to talk about

23:46

environment here. So one of the things that you could

23:49

do is rather than fight your phone in the distractions

23:51

all day, like keep your phone in the kitchen when you're working

23:53

upstairs in your home office. And you

23:55

know that physical distance, and there's plenty of research

23:57

that shows that just having your phone in

24:00

your work area decreases your i Q, decreases

24:03

your focus and so it's not about what the

24:05

phone is actually doing. It's about your relationship

24:07

with the phone in its proximity to you. And so, for

24:09

instance, my wife and I we have a cubby

24:11

where our iPhones. So we walk in the

24:13

house the iPhones going to cubby. They stay there

24:16

most of the day, most of the time until we intentionally

24:18

go back and like, you know what, I

24:20

actually want to check my test messages

24:23

to see what's going on. And then we do that and then we put

24:25

it back in the cubby and go on with our lives. It harkens

24:27

back to that time. Eric, you probably remember where

24:29

we used to have to go to a wall where where they had

24:31

a phone on it, right and actually

24:33

answer the phone or go to the actual voicemail

24:35

machine, do our business there and then go

24:37

on with the rest of our lives. And so, um,

24:40

that was supported for us then and turns

24:42

out it's super supportive for me and

24:44

Angela now excellent. Any

24:46

other ideas for people, I would

24:48

say that if you're newly working from home,

24:51

Um, something that surprises people. There

24:53

are two things that surprised people. One is how

24:55

lonely and isolating it could be. I might get to that in

24:57

a second. The first is that

25:00

you realize how much you can get done in a short

25:02

amount of time without all the distractions from work,

25:05

without all the people poking over your head and so

25:07

and so forth. And there's this really awkward

25:09

thing that many new newly working from home

25:11

people find out. It's like, wait a second, I could actually get

25:13

everything done in five hours a day because I don't

25:16

have nearly as many meetings if if your office

25:18

is doing that, or you know, not nearly as many interruptions

25:20

and distractions, and so I would be

25:22

having a lot of conversations with yourself and maybe your

25:25

teammates and co workers about what

25:27

you do with that extra

25:29

three or four hours where you're not actually

25:32

doing something productive, but you're kind of at the computer

25:34

because you're supposed to be. UM.

25:36

I don't have any super solid answers that that's going to

25:38

be team dependent. But if

25:40

you find yourself at two o'clock

25:42

in a day and there's

25:45

just not a whole lot for you to do and you're sort

25:47

of itching and things like that, you haven't done

25:49

anything wrong. It's just that there

25:51

may not be nearly as many work distractions

25:53

and interruptions and meetings going on. Right now,

25:56

and it's a really good time for you to maybe

25:58

get caught up on some back objects, you

26:01

know, maybe get caught up on some of those

26:03

back emails. But also it could

26:05

be a good time for for you to connect

26:07

with your other teammates who are isolated

26:09

too. So in some of the work I've been doing with the organizations

26:13

UM that are standing and remote, teams have had to remind

26:15

them that, like, teams need time

26:17

for just bombing in chit chat

26:20

and the manager is always like, I'm not paying people to

26:22

chit chats, Like, well, you've been doing it for years, um,

26:24

it just hasn't been demarketed as so.

26:27

But like maybe you coordinate

26:29

with some of your other teammates who are also during

26:31

that low period, and you catch up with each other not

26:33

just about work, but about how you're doing

26:35

UM and you know what's going on in your life.

26:38

And depending upon your team and your manager,

26:40

that counts is work and again it's what you normally

26:42

do, which is why working

26:45

from home can be so lonely

26:47

because you just don't have those touch points right

26:50

right. We do lose a lot of that

26:52

interaction that we take for granted

26:54

with other people, and it can be very isolating.

26:57

And I think I had another guest we're

26:59

talking about at this about how you know, when we're

27:01

in person, there's certain things that we do.

27:03

There's just ways of relating to each other that

27:05

that express warmth and kindness and

27:08

support and appreciation that when

27:10

we go to all digital channels, particularly a lot

27:12

of emails and stuff, that stuff just all gets stripped

27:14

out. And so it's really important to

27:16

think about that stuff. And and I think for all

27:19

of us right now, you know, one of the ways to

27:21

deal with being under a lot of crisis

27:23

is while not ignoring the very real

27:25

challenges that we're individually facing, is

27:27

also to ask ourselves, well, where can I support

27:30

others also? And and I think this

27:32

is an area that there's an almost unlimited amount

27:34

to do in supporting

27:36

the people around us and just connecting

27:38

with people and seeing how they are. Absolutely

27:41

and it's small things that happen every day

27:43

at work, like someone asking you if

27:45

you'd like them to grab coffee for you while they're getting

27:47

their own right. It's a it's a simple

27:50

thing, but it reminds

27:52

you that you're a part of a team and that people are thinking

27:54

about you. And I care about you. Um,

27:56

And when you're at home for a week and you haven't

27:58

had someone to ask you if they like you to get coffee

28:00

or if they like to get coffee for you, then it's

28:03

easy to feel forgotten. Another thing that I

28:05

was talking about with my wife earlier is

28:07

that when we switched to virtual working,

28:09

a lot of times we switch from

28:12

a verbalization um

28:14

or a lot of us talk at work, we chit chat with

28:16

each other like physically talking, and

28:18

then all of a sudden, in remote

28:20

work environment, things are reading and reading

28:22

and writing centric, and not all of us

28:24

are reading and writing centric, and some some of us

28:26

struggle with getting our thoughts down

28:29

in words right, and then we come across

28:31

caustic and we lose our warmth and things like that, and

28:33

so um, that's another challenge people

28:35

find when when working from homes, like, oh, I

28:37

have to do a lot more writing and reading

28:39

than I'm used to that I care for, and then I

28:41

don't really know how to do it could be super frustrating.

28:44

So again, with those checking moments that I mentioned earlier,

28:47

maybe instead of spending seventy five

28:49

minutes writing emails and slack updates all all

28:51

day, you get on the phone and talk fifteen minutes

28:53

with your teammate in the way that you normally do and get out

28:55

of all that jazz. That's a great idea. Well,

28:58

Charlie, thank you so much for taking a

29:00

couple of minutes to share some of these ideas with

29:02

us. I really do appreciate it, and I know it'll be helpful

29:04

to the listeners. Eric, thanks for having me, and thanks

29:06

for your leadership and making this happen my pleasure.

29:09

Coming up next is Chris Bailey, who

29:12

we had on episode number two four

29:14

four and Chris, we're in a yearlong

29:16

productivity project where he studied

29:18

and ran experiments on the subject. In

29:21

that episode, we discussed his book hyper

29:23

Focus, How to Be More Productive

29:25

in a World of Distraction. Hi,

29:28

Chris, it's good to have you back on. Good

29:30

to be back on. Man. How are you holding up

29:32

over there in Ohio? Holding up? Okay?

29:35

I think, like everybody, a lot of uncertainty,

29:37

for sure, how about it? Yeah,

29:39

It's it's so crazy because you can't even

29:42

talk about what's going on right now because between

29:45

now and when this episode comes out, the

29:47

whole world will have changed

29:50

again. But we're hanging in there.

29:52

We just got done with some travel and now

29:54

we're we're just chilling at home and

29:56

waiting things out. I guess, which is what people

29:59

are saying to do. Yep, yep, us too

30:02

well. I wanted to get you back on and

30:04

have you share a little bit with our listeners

30:06

some tips about how to transition

30:09

to working from home. So many of us are finding

30:12

ourselves working at home now that may be new

30:14

for a lot of people, and so I just was wondering if you could

30:16

share some ideas and strategies for

30:18

how to make that transition. Yeah,

30:20

for sure. You know, I think it's

30:23

important to preface any of these

30:25

strategies saying that this isn't

30:27

really a normal time,

30:29

because we we all have so many more

30:31

distractions than we usually

30:34

do. And so i'd preface this advice

30:36

by saying, you know, just

30:39

reminding folks, basically, you know, I study

30:41

productivity. I kind of have a

30:43

somewhat of a grasp of what gets in the way

30:45

of our focus, of our productivity,

30:48

and I should preface all this by saying that it's

30:50

okay to not be as

30:52

productive as you normally are right

30:54

now. Um, It's okay if

30:57

you find it impossible to focus

30:59

or to make sense of the

31:01

current situation or to understand what's

31:04

coming next. You know, productivity

31:06

is the very last thing on some

31:08

people's mind, especially during

31:10

a global pandemic that's

31:12

shutting down a lot of the world. But that

31:15

said, you know, I'm I'm happy to help where I can

31:17

because we still do have, you

31:19

know, obligations to bring forward

31:21

to the front of our consciousness with our work.

31:24

UM And so maybe you know, I put

31:26

together a couple of notes here for for listeners

31:28

of the podcast um

31:30

both to to not only be productive

31:33

but while working from home, but also to

31:36

be productive and kind of a

31:38

crisis mode if you will,

31:40

if you think that'd be helpful. Yeah, I think

31:43

the goal isn't necessarily like, you

31:45

know, how do we get people to maximize their uput.

31:47

It's just really this is a strange time, and

31:49

I think some people are finding I'm

31:52

working from home and and all I'm doing

31:54

is I'm just working. And other people are saying

31:56

I can't get anything done, I can't concentrate,

31:58

you know, And so just some orienting

32:01

ideas in this time, yeah,

32:03

for sure. So my approach to productivity,

32:06

as you might know, is there's not like a

32:08

one size fits all things. So I'll give a few

32:11

bite size pieces of advice,

32:13

that kind of a buffet of advice that folks

32:15

can choose from. Number one, don't

32:18

keep chips in the house. That this is my number

32:21

one rule for working from home. I

32:23

will eat an entire bag or two of chips um

32:25

in in one sitting. And so that's

32:27

that's step zero. But once you get

32:31

that part, what's that I said, Chris

32:33

is probably gonna edit that part out, but hopefully

32:35

he'll he'll keep it in. But yeah,

32:38

keep it in for it. Yeah, if you get if you're

32:40

trying to get it down to time. But but I would

32:42

start by suggesting that people give

32:44

themselves a bit more time to

32:46

settle into into important tasks and just

32:48

be patient with yourself. So if

32:50

your mind is busier right now, it's going to be a

32:53

bit more difficult to focus that

32:55

than usual. So give yourself

32:57

a few more minutes than usual to settle

32:59

into important tests that require

33:01

a bit more concentration. You'll probably just

33:04

need that time so your mind can

33:06

settle down a bit. And

33:08

another thing to mention is because

33:11

we're not commuting when we're working from home,

33:13

we we do have a bit extra time

33:16

at the beginning and the end of

33:18

our day. Um. And something that I

33:20

know you talk a lot about on the on the podcast.

33:23

Something I talk a lot about two is to

33:25

find things that you're able to a

33:28

saver or slow down with. And

33:30

this is so important. We we have so much news

33:32

bouncing around, not only in the world but in

33:35

our own minds after we consume it, while

33:37

we're trying to to process the things

33:39

that we consume. So maybe even

33:41

in the morning, before connecting to the

33:43

news, you can do something slow. You can cook

33:45

a nice meal, take a walk, UM,

33:48

do a yoga video on YouTube.

33:51

Do you know, run on your treadmill, go for

33:53

a run around the neighborhood if if you're

33:55

able to do so while keeping up the

33:57

social distancing um. You

33:59

know, see that amount of time that you would

34:01

normally spend commuting as time

34:04

with which you can invest

34:07

in your mental health a little bit and

34:09

and overcome any anxiety

34:12

that you might have around the current

34:14

time. And you know, if you do

34:16

feel anxious, do work that doesn't require

34:18

a deep level of concentration

34:20

and thinking. Um. But it's worth doing

34:23

the focused work strategically too. So

34:25

we have kind of these two types

34:27

of tasks that we do. We have

34:29

the things that require a greater

34:32

level of focus of concentration, and

34:34

then we have kind of the maintenance things, you

34:36

know, organizing folders on our computer

34:39

and keeping up with email that we can do

34:41

when our mind is in a bit more of a frenzied

34:44

state. Um. And so I would suggest

34:46

doing those strategically, such

34:49

as the deep work tasks right

34:51

before you even check the news in

34:53

the morning, maybe used connecting to the

34:56

state of the world and what the

34:58

heck is going on right now as

35:00

a sort of sell that or reward

35:03

after you you do

35:06

your deepest tasks. That's

35:08

a great idea. And I think a lot of

35:10

people are, you know, connecting to

35:12

the news and trying to figure out I know, I'm

35:14

trying to figure out what's a reasonable amount

35:16

of that, when to do it, how much to do it? And

35:19

uh. I'm also finding with myself and

35:21

coaching clients that using

35:24

some of the technology that exists to set

35:26

the limits for us can be really helpful right

35:28

now because I'm finding myself

35:30

setting a limit and then going right past it,

35:32

setting a limit going right past them. So I'm finding

35:34

it helpful to sort of let my phone

35:37

say nope, that's enough. You

35:39

you're blocked well, and

35:41

this is this is a period of time in which you

35:43

should be really paying attention

35:45

to how the news makes you feel. Um

35:48

So, we're we're not connected with this

35:50

enough during normal periods of time. But

35:53

notice how your mood changes

35:55

after consuming the news for a little bit. If you're

35:58

watching a stream of cn AND

36:00

online, or you're or you you have

36:02

the news kind of turned on in the background, or

36:04

you're do some some anxiety

36:06

scrolling and refreshing Twitter throughout the day,

36:09

really notice and reflect

36:11

on how your mood changes before and after

36:14

that experience. Um And, if you

36:16

find that it's affecting your mood, take

36:18

steps to defend

36:21

your mental health, especially um

36:23

so if you can at all tend

36:25

to those distractions intentionally rather than

36:27

just whenever you feel a bit stressed out. And

36:29

like you know, like this is kind of the ironic thing

36:32

about the time that we're in right now, is

36:34

that by consuming the

36:36

news, we feel a bit more

36:38

in control of our situation because we

36:40

are more knowledgeable about it. But

36:43

at the same time we realize how out

36:45

of control some things are, which

36:47

may ironically lead us to feel less

36:49

control over our life overall.

36:52

And so by scheduling it, something

36:54

that I've been doing is start the day.

36:56

I realized, Okay, I need to get my most important

36:59

things done first thing in the morning. Um,

37:01

I'll do them. Then I'll treat myself to a bit

37:03

of news at ten or eleven in the morning, usually

37:05

when our Prime Minister here in Canada has this

37:07

daily press conference, and then I'll go back

37:09

to it, and when I feel the

37:12

need to check something, I'll write down the thing

37:14

that I want to check. Okay, I want to check the New York Times.

37:16

I want to check the wall streets. Okay,

37:18

I want to check the globe and mail. And

37:20

I'll make a little list to tend to during

37:23

my next scheduled period of time during

37:25

which I need I want to distract myself.

37:28

And then I have the to do list that I that I

37:30

usually have the rest of the time, so that I

37:33

can have kind of a balance and maintain

37:36

some modicum of mental

37:38

calm throughout this busy time right now. Yea,

37:41

yea, those are great ideas. Other

37:43

ideas about working from home,

37:45

Yeah, so track your time. This is a

37:47

great opportunity to really see

37:50

how you're putting in your hours

37:52

every single day. Um, you can just

37:54

keep a little I have a little notepad here

37:56

that I'm flipping through right now in a pen,

37:59

and I just write down how I spend every fifteen

38:01

minute block of time because it keeps you accountable

38:04

on a minute by minute basis um.

38:06

And also the that idea

38:08

of anxiety scrolling is is key. Keep

38:10

that to a minimum notice when you're doing

38:13

it. Have rituals that you you depend

38:15

upon as well. So one of the

38:17

biggest pieces of advice that

38:20

that that I'd usually put at the top of

38:22

this list of of advice if

38:24

we weren't in the current situation that we're in, UH

38:27

is to have a dedicated workspace in your house

38:29

and and have rules if you're sharing your house

38:32

with other people. So my wife and I

38:34

were both working from home right now, and we have little

38:36

stickies that we attached to the outside

38:38

of our laptop saying working with a

38:40

smiley face when we don't

38:43

want to be interrupted when we're when we're focused

38:45

on something. But headphones are a

38:47

great social signal for that too.

38:49

And one of the biggest things that I can recommend,

38:52

ironically, sometimes the best way to calm

38:54

our mind is to do something active, and

38:56

so getting exercise every

38:59

single day, especially if you're

39:01

forced to self isolate. This

39:03

is out of anything on this list.

39:05

You know, take a few of these things. Take the ones you

39:08

think would work for you. But exercise

39:10

is not really a suggestion,

39:13

it's it's almost a requirement because

39:15

we have less activity when we're

39:17

just staying at home and working from

39:19

home. Um, and so we need to compensate

39:22

for that. So all right, I guess to recap.

39:25

So take your time with tasks.

39:27

UH. Take the time that you'd spend commuting

39:30

and do something slow with it. If you

39:32

feel anxious, do something that doesn't require

39:35

deep concentration or deep thinking. Do

39:38

focused work in the morning before connecting

39:40

to the news. Perhaps, um maybe if

39:43

you have a kids at home, take

39:45

a split shift with your partner if you're

39:47

there alone. Maybe be strategic about

39:49

their screen time when you're

39:51

in important calls. Don't keep chips

39:53

lying around the house. Have to do list every

39:55

day. UH, schedule some

39:58

news and distraction time. Work

40:00

out, Please work out to maintain

40:03

your mental health, and have some rituals

40:05

that that you depend upon and track

40:08

your time. That's a lot of stuff, but things

40:11

and the ones that work for you, and leave

40:14

the rest but just a bunch of suggestions

40:17

that hopefully folks find helpful. Thank

40:19

you, Chris. That's wonderful. I really appreciate

40:22

you taking a couple of minutes, and that was a very good summary,

40:24

and listeners will know I'm on board with the

40:26

exercise. It's kind of key

40:28

to my mental health in all times

40:31

and feels especially important now.

40:33

And it's so important. It just is.

40:35

Yeah, you can do every single exercise in

40:37

the world with a resistance band, and you can

40:40

always adjust how intense it is by

40:42

grabbing the band at a different place. It's

40:44

like ten bucks for one. It's a great investment

40:47

right now, and just investing in

40:49

you right now is is a good investment

40:51

right now. Indeed. All right, Well, thank you

40:53

so much, Chris. I really appreciate you sharing

40:56

some of these ideas with our listeners. Thank you

40:59

for our fine guest. We have Liz fosse

41:01

Line, whose work has been featured by

41:03

The New York Times, The Economist, and

41:06

NPR. On episode three and

41:08

ten, her and Eric discussed her book

41:10

No Hard Feelings, The Secret Power

41:13

of Embracing Emotions at Work. Hi,

41:15

Liz, Hi, it's a pleasure

41:18

to talk with you again. You are a

41:20

guest on the main episode

41:22

of the One You Feed. But what I'd like to talk with

41:25

you now about is just to get

41:27

some ideas from you on

41:30

things that people can do, some

41:32

some short actionable

41:34

advice on how to make the

41:36

transition to working from home and how to do

41:38

that more effectively. Yeah, thanks, Eric,

41:41

that's a great question, and I'm sure a lot of people

41:43

are making that shift right

41:45

now. I think the first

41:48

thing is really just to acknowledge that it's

41:50

okay to feel feelings at this time.

41:52

It's an unprecedented time. Um,

41:55

I think you know, there's not only work

41:57

to do, but there's just a lot of emotional labor

42:00

that we're all doing, sort of showing

42:02

up to meetings, trying to be normal, trying

42:04

to focus when there's obviously the

42:07

world is shifting in major ways. So the first is

42:09

just to give yourself some space, be

42:11

kind to yourself, that kind of thing.

42:14

Yeah, that's a really good one, because I do think

42:16

everybody is having trouble concentrating

42:18

and focusing right now. It's pretty endemic.

42:21

Okay, So we give ourselves sort of permission

42:23

that it's okay to feel the way we're feeling

42:25

about what's happening. Yeah, And then

42:27

I think that goes for managers as well.

42:29

So if you have one on ones,

42:32

you know, maybe add a few minutes to the beginning

42:34

or to the end to check in on how people are

42:36

doing. Also just being cognizant,

42:39

especially if you know that your

42:41

people have good intentions and work hard in

42:43

the office. Right now, they might be dealing

42:45

with their kids, might be home to which obviously

42:47

can be distracting. Um,

42:50

but just making space for those kinds of conversations,

42:53

uh, and allowing maybe for a little more flexibility

42:55

with hours too, if it's easier for people

42:57

to shift when they're working or when they're online.

43:00

And so one thing there that you can do is maybe

43:02

meet as a team or send out an email thread and

43:04

say, like, what are people's preferred hours

43:06

and can we agree on like a chunk

43:08

of four hours when we're all available.

43:11

And then the rest is sort of do your work

43:13

when you can spot it in And so, what are

43:15

some tips for people about

43:17

how to think about working for home because it

43:19

is a very different experience, right, We've

43:22

got our routines in the office, we get home,

43:24

it's like the distractions are almost

43:26

endless. Yeah, So I think it's important

43:29

if you, especially if you love your routines in

43:31

the office, to set up routines

43:33

for yourself at home. So one thing

43:36

I'd recommend is actually having a designated

43:38

workspace and keeping that workplace tidy.

43:41

When you wake up or when you're going you know,

43:43

quote unquote going to work, put

43:45

on clothes, get out of the pajamas. It's

43:47

really easy to just you know, snack

43:50

all the time or stay in your pajamas.

43:52

But I think it can help you feel a

43:54

sense of normalcy and be more productive

43:56

if you're still keeping up some

43:59

of the habits that you used to have. And

44:01

then also I think one of the things

44:03

too that actually I've been receiving

44:05

a lot of emails from people because I've been asking

44:07

what are you dealing with in this time of transition

44:10

as you're working from home, often for the first time.

44:12

And people also say it's really hard to remember

44:14

to take breaks. So take

44:17

a lunch break, maybe make it virtual,

44:19

get together with some coworkers and set aside

44:21

an hour to eat and talk about not work,

44:24

because when you're home, you're not getting up

44:26

to grab a cup of coffee with people, You're

44:28

not having people swing by your desk, and so

44:31

you might be just like hunched over your computer for

44:33

many hours, and it's just as

44:35

important to get up, walk around

44:37

keep your mental health up as well. Yeah,

44:40

I think that's totally true. And then I think there's

44:42

also, you know, the opposite that

44:44

some people have, which is they find it hard to

44:47

be very focused at home and they're kind

44:49

of all over the place. And I think another

44:51

approach for that is is kind of like you said,

44:53

to to think about like

44:56

chunks of time that we're going to work.

44:58

There's a way of working called pulse in right,

45:00

where you do very focused junks

45:02

of time focused you know, followed by brakes.

45:04

And this can be really I think can be really

45:06

helpful at home and you can actually then

45:09

some of your breaks can be things that you don't

45:11

normally get to do at the office. They can be brakes

45:13

where you see the dog, see the cat,

45:15

you enjoy some of the things around your house.

45:17

If you if you sort of structure it in that way,

45:19

your brakes can actually be more

45:21

enjoyable breaks at home if you plan

45:24

it out that way and think about it. Yeah, definitely,

45:26

And if people are really having a hard time

45:29

focusing, I think it can often help at

45:31

the end of each day and your

45:33

quote unquote work day by got

45:35

a list of, let's say, three things you

45:37

want to get done the next day, and that can

45:40

help you when you come to your desk and

45:42

you sit down, Let's say you just had your cup of coffee.

45:44

Maybe you just get in the flow and if you knock

45:47

out those three things right away, then

45:49

it's you know, not as big a deal if you're less focused.

45:51

But that's a good way of holding yourself accountable

45:54

and just having a plan every day when you wake

45:56

up. Yep. Any other ideas

45:58

that you want to add that you think are really helpful

46:00

for people in this time, Yeah, I mean I

46:02

think the two others that I'd

46:04

add are so like I said, I'm based in San

46:06

Francisco and we're being asked not

46:09

to go to the gym where many of them are closed. So

46:11

just putting time on your calendar to get

46:13

some physical activity. Um, I really

46:15

love it's called the seven Minute Workout, which

46:17

is on YouTube. But just remembering

46:20

again, it's like these regular routines that

46:22

also keep the blood pumping and keep our

46:24

mental health up. And the last thing I would

46:26

say is while so many

46:28

of us are making this shift to working from

46:30

home, being cognizant and

46:32

recognizing that not everyone can

46:35

do that. So health care professionals, um,

46:37

people who are delivering food

46:40

or cashiers, they cannot

46:42

work from home. And so if you do go out,

46:45

you know, social distancing, wash

46:47

your hands, thank them for what they're

46:49

doing. I think this is a time when we

46:51

just need to be really thoughtful and supportive

46:53

of one another. That's a great point

46:55

that not everybody is able to do this,

46:58

and yeah, it's a it's a

47:00

wild time. So I think a little

47:02

kindness goes a long way right now, It

47:04

does, it does for sure. Did you have one

47:06

other Yeah? So I think one

47:08

other thing that gets lost when

47:11

we're working from home is praise.

47:13

So there's a lot of research that shows when

47:16

you're communicating digitally, so

47:18

emailing, slack, messages,

47:20

whatever sort of your digital

47:22

communication platform is, we often

47:25

get into efficiency mode where we're just hammering

47:27

out, like this is what needs to be done, here's the bullet

47:29

point. Can you check this over for me, and

47:31

we forget those little spontaneous

47:33

moments which often happen when we're

47:36

walking to the bathroom, we're walking to a meeting together,

47:38

when we'll say like, oh, you did a really great job in that

47:40

meeting, or I so appreciated this other

47:42

thing you did for me. So just emotionally

47:45

proofreading your messages, making

47:47

sure that you're being explicit about praise,

47:49

that you're thanking each other, That these sort

47:51

of informal gestures

47:53

that go a long way towards cultivating

47:56

relationships in a sense of belonging, that you're

47:58

not dropping those just because you're no grow

48:00

in the same location. That is a really good

48:02

one, because yes, so much of our digital

48:04

interaction, like you said, it's just efficiency, it's just boom

48:06

boom, boom boom, and all tone

48:08

gets lost and all warmth tends to get

48:11

lost, which we know is really

48:13

important. Yeah, and this is a common thing

48:15

that remote workers say is just feeling like

48:18

they just don't get the praise that they that they

48:20

feel like they deserve. And so I think

48:22

now that we're so many of us are working from home,

48:25

really keeping that top of mind can go

48:27

a long way. How are you coping working from

48:29

home? Do you do it often or is this a relatively

48:31

new thing for you. So my company

48:34

is a policy where you can work from home one day

48:36

a week, which is drastically

48:38

different than all the time.

48:41

Um So, I'm definitely I

48:44

think for me, I've found it hard to focus.

48:46

I get sucked into the news or

48:48

like I just have to avoid Twitter because I will just be

48:51

on Twitter for an hour and then start panicking.

48:53

So I've actually set myself some pretty

48:56

strict limitations around news consumption.

48:58

Um I have ten minutes in morning and then

49:01

ten minutes at lunch and ten minutes in the evening,

49:03

and that helps me feel like I'm on top

49:05

of things. I know what's going on, i know what

49:07

I should be thinking about, but I'm not

49:10

sort of spiraling into reading

49:13

every single firsthand account of a scary

49:15

situation. Um So, really

49:17

trying to protect my mental health

49:19

and then as a byproduct, focus and

49:21

productivity. Yeah, I think

49:23

that's such a challenging dilemma right

49:26

now, which is how much information

49:28

is enough? You know? How do I then turn

49:30

that off and get back to the other parts

49:33

of my life that are really important

49:35

and just not get lost in that rabbit hole, because

49:37

it's really easy to do right now. Yeah,

49:39

I think the best thing we can

49:41

all do right now is protect

49:44

our mental health, be kind to others, emotionally

49:46

proof Fred your messages you know, just

49:49

um as much as possible, try

49:52

to stay calm and maintain some sense of

49:54

normalcy, even though obviously

49:56

much much easier said than done. But

49:58

I think really of making it a point to

50:00

do that can help everyone

50:03

get through these next few weeks wonderful.

50:05

Yeah, and I loved the point about exercise.

50:07

It's such a useful thing I've and I've

50:10

been sort of using the opportunity

50:12

of like not going places to

50:14

exercise so much as opportunity

50:16

really be outside in nature a lot. And

50:18

the combination of moving my body and

50:20

being in nature has been really nice because

50:23

nature it's just kind of going about its business

50:25

right. The trees are getting ready to bloom there doing

50:27

their thing. The squirrels or they seem

50:29

to be just perfectly doing

50:31

what squirrels do. It's it really gives

50:34

me. Uh, it's it's comforting, and

50:36

it's just a it's a change for being in a gym,

50:38

but it's been a pleasant and a welcome one

50:40

for me for sure. Yeah, I love that.

50:42

I think that's a great suggestion, and I should start taking

50:45

walks more regularly. The natural

50:47

world is always I find a very good

50:50

touch point when the human world

50:52

seems insane. Yeah. Absolutely,

50:55

Well, thank you so much for taking a few minutes

50:57

to share some of your ideas on

50:59

how to handle this new

51:02

working from home that a lot of people are doing. I

51:04

appreciate you spending some time with us.

51:06

Yeah, and thanks for helping raise awareness

51:09

of issues and then helping people find solutions.

51:12

Doing our best. I think we all are. Yeah,

51:14

thanks again. Okay, thanks everybody.

51:16

We hope you've got a lot out of that episode.

51:18

There was a lot of great advice in there and a lot

51:20

of great things to think about. We will

51:22

be back, as Eric mentioned on Tuesday,

51:25

by