Coronavirus has changed everything. Most of us are now working from home. We are all experiencing the effects of “social distancing” and other impacts of the current lockdown which have dramatically restricted our lives. The biggest of which is that we have no idea when or how this will all end. Many of us are feeling anxious.
Having worked from home for several years now and been isolated from the country where I normally conduct my business and where, more importantly, most of my friends are based, I have unintentionally gained some experience of how to cope with working from home, the effects of social distance and the anxieties that arise from this.
I have also benefited from the regular practice of mindfulness. So from these perspectives, I offer the following 5 practical suggestions:
1. STRUCTURE & BALANCE TO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE
We are creatures of habit, routine and ritual.
Create a structure for the day and follow the same structure every day - of if you work have a work day structure Mon - Fri and then a weekend structure.
Break the day down into sections
For example:
Getting Up Routine: ablutions, walk into the garden / just outside to see what weather's like, breathe in some fresh air do a little exercise just to wake up.
Work: Coffee + do some work tasks/if not working engage in a project.
Exercise: Get out of the flat/house - I walk the dog or go buy food [even with current lockdown we are allowed out to buy food and separately to exercise.
Lunch break - I ALWAYS have a set lunch break and read my kindle for 20-30 mins - you could listen to music or do something else for 20-30 mins while you have lunch.
Lunch break is important as it marks the passage from morning to afternoon and is a complete psychological and emotional break.
Work: I spend a couple of hours after lunch engaged in work or a personal project.
Tea Break: have a tea/coffee/water break for 10 mins and just sit and take a few deep breaths and look out of the window and relax.
Exercise: Get out of doors and get fresh air and walk/jog for 20-30 mins. You may plan this so you walk past a friend's house and he/she could just "happen" to be sitting on their doorstep leaning over the fence or whatever and you have a quick face to face chat from 2 metres before continuing your walk. It is vital to have outside exercise wherever possible and walk/jog hard enough to break a sweat.
Socialise: Shower and prepare for the evening section of the day. Pour a drink - or have another water - and call a friend - better still call 2 or 3 friends and/or family. You may need to plan/arrange some of this but this is your daily social contact and it is important.
Dinner : Prepare your evening meal and think about and select your evening's entertainment - Netflix/Amazon/TV etc. I always find something to watch that is engaging and that takes me out of myself.
Bedtime : Try and get to bed early and/or on time every night. Sleep and rest are very important to strengthening your immune system. Try and get outside in the garden/backyard etc for 5-10 mins - to just look at the sky and take a few deep breaths - just before going to bed.
Take a book or kindle to bed to read before sleeping and to read in the night if you wake up or are a poor sleeper (like I am).
2. FRAMING YOUR PRESENT LIFE
This is absolutely the key to all this! Adopt a mindful approach to each day. Use this website for specific material and practical guidance on this.
In summary:
* Focus on each moment, each activity and task with your whole focus.
* Be present in all that you do.
* Live one day at a time.
* Live each day as if it was your last day on this earth.
* Find the meaning in the smallest of things.
Done mindfully every action and activity becomes deeply meaningful. This is a big subject and requires conscious effort - but the payback in learning “how to think” and even more importantly how to ”not think” - is massive. Again I would urge you to use the resources on this website - or any other such material if you have it.
3. EXERCISE INDOORS AND OUTSIDE EVERY DAY
As outlined above, exercise is key for physical health and mental health.
4. REGULAR DAILY SOCIAL CONTACT AND CONNECTION
As outlined above, social contact and connection is key for emotional and psychological health.
5. FINDING THE MEANING
The meaning, point and purpose of your experience of current times is entirely what you choose it to be.
You can allow this time to weaken you and diminish and disempower yourself, OR you can choose to create your own meaning and purpose and use this time to strengthen, refresh and empower yourself!
Please refer again to the notes in Point 2. above. If you would like a series of emails - offering brief messages of insight and encouragement - based on the Zen Tools website themes - approximately every 3 days - then see Zen Tools Email Series.
Contact me
Resources
Take a Mindful Approach to COVID-19
Harvard Business Review - articles on leading and working through a pandemic
How Not To Freak Out
The Power of Thankfulness: 5 Essential Tips
Energy Wants to Flow - How To Manage Your Energetic State
Level 2 Gratitude - Practising The Power Of Gratitude
Video - Some Good News with John Krasinski
LATEST ARTICLES
How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips
The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…
Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes
Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…
Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life
Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…
Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line
In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…
The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!
To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…
The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin
Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…
The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win
The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…
Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed
It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…
The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent
What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…
Zen Enlightenment [Satori] - The Stink Of Zen
Lost In Our Delusions About Enlightenment. There is something in human nature - a desire to glamorise, sanctify, objectify and idolise – that elevates people who have offered deep insights to the huma…
5 Zen Mindsets For Mastery - In Any Area Of Your Life
The Wisdom Of A Person Who Masters In Any Art Is Reflected In Their Every Attitude. The state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your performance in any area of life t…
Dealing With The Toxicity Of Online Dating - 6 Key Tips From A Clinical Psychologist
Toxicity Is The Price Tag Of Accessibility. In the early days of online dating, users were vetted and had to go through a registration process and agree to comply with a code of conduct designed to en…
Why Understanding Ergodicity Is Critical To Your Long Term Survival
How Not To Be Fooled By Randomness. Ergodicity is an ugly word from the world of mathematics. It is an umbrella term for two sets of conditions of probability and outcome. These two conditions form th…
Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - Ego Is The Enemy
How You Frame A Situation Has A Profound Impact On How You Respond To It Emotionally. Imposter syndrome is a psycho-emotional experience of a fear of being found out as incompetent despite ongoing evi…
The Challenges Of The Road Less Traveled
Issues You'll Face When Playing The Long Game. The challenges of the road less traveled is loosely based around the phrase popularised by M.Scott Peck with his book "The Road Less Traveled". This arti…
How To Benefit From the Unseen Margins - 5 Key Tips For Success
These Unseen Margins Can Have A Very Dramatic Impact On Your Life. To understand how to benefit from the unseen margins we need to start by understanding what they are and where we find them. In this…
The Art Of Thinking Clearly - How To Do More Than Just Survive And Reproduce
3 Key Tips The art of thinking clearly starts with the sobering realisation that our brains are designed to achieve two things: Survival and Reproduction! 98% of our thinking is unconscious, automatic…
Algorithms to Live By - 5 Useful Rules Of Thumb
5 Useful Heuristics From Algorithms To Live By The thesis of the book "Algorithms to Live By" is that algorithms developed for computers can be used by people in everyday life in a wide range of situa…
Finding Signal In The Noise - How To Avoid The Noise Bottleneck
The Art Of Being Wise Is The Art Of Knowing What To Overlook. We are blessed and cursed to live in the digital age. We have access to more information than we can possibly handle yet we struggle to fi…
The Checklist Manifesto - Your Personal Safety Net
A Checklist Is A Safety Net That Encourages Better Results And Prevents Avoidable Mistakes. The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correc…
How Not To Be Stupid - 4 Key Tips
How To Avoid The 7 Causes Of Everyday Stupidity. We are all capable of everyday stupidity as we undertake routine tasks in our business and working lives and also in our personal lives. This is not ab…
Beginners Mind And The Voice Of Experience
Only The Experts Survived Evolution.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." These are the famous words of Shunryu Suzuki in "Zen Mind, Beginner's Min…
The Art Of Being Alone Is A Skill
Let's Make Today A Good Day. You may not have chosen the condition of being alone, and it may have been imposed upon you by circumstances beyond your control, but your response to the situation is wit…
Intuition & Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Calling Here?
How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? We all struggle with these inner voices…
Like A Prayer - Life Is A Mystery
It Isn't The Process Of Prayer That’s The Problem, It’s The Way It’s Framed. Regardless of what we feel about Madonna or her song the topic of prayer often arouses strong reactions. Usually, it is som…
Fear Of Missing Out - "I'll Have What She's Having!"
We Follow The Herd - We Mimic Other People's Choices. Fear of missing out - or FOMO as it is popularly referred to - is the feeling that everyone else in your peer group is having much more fun than y…
Free - Self Improvement Resources
Exercising Balance and Discernment. I have just updated these self improvement resources with a number of additional sources of material that are practical and can help you change your life. Check it…
Your Higher Self - Your Hardwired Portal To The Universe
This Is The You That Is Beyond Your Thinking Mind. This is the big you, the transcendent you, the you that is often referred to as your higher consciousness or higher self. This is the you that acts a…
The Power Of Gratitude - It's Good For You!
Gratitude And Attitude Are Not Challenges, They Are Choices. The power of gratitude quite simply is that it is good for you! Many of us were raised by parents who instilled in us the social niceties o…
Living With Your Thoughts - 4 Tools To Help You
Develop A Good Working Relationship With Your Mind. The first step in living with your thoughts is to understand and develop a good working relationship with all areas of your mind. The key to develop…