Staying Calm during COVID

You may have enjoyed some of the ways live TV has been gatecrashed by little people of late. The now infamous “Mummy, what’s his name?” clip shows both the challenge of home working with young children and the brilliantly professional and kind response of the BBC reporter in response.

Interruptions (whilst always interfering with our productivity) have ramped up to a new level during home working. Whether it’s hungry children, delivery drivers or even the home phone cutting through your day - we cannot escape the interruptions at home.

Work-place interruptions can be just as frustrating, but our tolerance for them seems to be higher. Perhaps as they happen in our workplace, we feel less guilty about them?

However, a full 5 months of working with unsolicited interruptions is enough to drive anyone to distraction. And here’s where the two collide.

Interruptions are essentially another train of thought  gatecrashing your focus. They can break our...

Working from home, for some, has become the norm. Our working days are no longer punctuated with the breaks and refrains they previously were; no more ‘water cooler’ moments or pauses for casual conversation in the shared kitchen space at work.

We are now aware how vital these moments were for spontaneous collaboration with our colleagues. That problem you were pontificating while waiting for the kettle to boil, was discussed with the colleague finding their preferred type of tea. The sudden post-meeting brainwave you had en route back to your desk could be shared as you walked through the office space.

Instead, we have fixed social interactions and too often, only written correspondence with our colleagues as we work from our home settings.

This can lead us to feel equally overwhelmed and underwhelmed or under-stimulated by some of the work tasks we’re facing. Without the collaboration of our colleagues, we can sometimes fail to find the enthusiasm we once did...