Work From Home in Covid 19 Lockdown - Week 6

Over the past few days a common complaint I have been hearing is around the number of meetings going up.

In many ways this was to happen when we moved to working from home. But your calendar shouldn’t become a monster that seems overbearing. In the first 2 weeks we expected meetings to go up simply because more information needed to be shared. There is the added comfort that in the office, ‘we can always walk over and find out’. Now that we are settling in to a rhythm of working remotely, it is time to revisit every meeting in your calendar. This isn’t a task just for managers, but for every individual. Review your calendar critically and ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this meeting directly for me?

• Am I learning or contributing?

• Can I be more effective, in or out of this meeting?

If you come to the conclusion that a meeting isn’t necessary or if the meeting is necessary but you don’t need to be there, communicate this with the meeting lead and your manager. Everyone should be open to discussing this and assessing if the meeting is truly necessary or can be tweaked. Some meetings may not be needed on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. They could be moved to fortnightly. Some could simply be abandoned. It is important that consensus be arrived at. The Senior VP Group would love to hear from managers on how they are coping with this issue.

There are also some subtle changes that you should bring into your work day. Don’t schedule back-to-back meetings. For every hour of a meeting, make sure you have a 15 minute break scheduled in. During this break time, leave your work area and go stand in a window. Look as far as your eye can see. This helps relax your eye muscles. Drink some sort of fluid, water is great but perhaps some sort of weak tea (without milk and sugar) would help. Avoid carbonated drinks especially if they are laden with sugar. These don’t work. Do some stretching exercises at least twice a day.

Lunch time should continue to be 30 minutes or thereabouts. Don’t skip it completely.

I continue to believe this is the best time to take out for yourself. Remember you are saving commuting time. It is good to learn a new skill or pursue a hobby. I want to share two courses that are free of cost and I encourage you to take them. The first one is a 15-day course offered by TCS. The course though targeted to students will help you understand business as a whole.

To register please go to https://learning.tcsionhub.in/courses/career-edge/ There are other courses there that are a bit more advanced.

This is the best time to make the best use of time. Don’t miss out.

I know I have to send you some points on Managing Stress. I will do my best to get that to you before we close for the weekend tomorrow evening.

Stay Indoors, Stay Safe, Stay Healthy