I am not a rules person, so I have only a few. I have some tips that have worked for me.
To the tune of always wear sunscreen:
Show your face on video calls. Wear real (if casual) clothes. Take lunch without work notifications popping up.
If you have trouble focusing and must get through something that requires chunks of time, you can try the pomodoro technique, which is 25 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break.
Take advantage of the perks: if you want to run laundry or listen to loud music or watch Netflix during lunch, by all means. Make sure you get outside for 15 minutes a day whenever possible.
Set a timer to get up and stretch.
Make an effort to say thank you sincerely in an out-of-the-ordinary way once a week, on a call, through a text or email or note.
Communicate your priorities with your colleagues and boss, including when you check email (it doesn’t have to be every hour, folks) and when you’re unavailable (you don’t have to explain yourself).
Have a ritual to start and end the day so you’re not “on call” all day (it can be as simple as closing the door to a makeshift office or putting a laptop out of sight). Stick to normal-ish hours, including a bedtime. Shut down the work computer/tabs/documents/spreadsheets by 6 (or within 15 minutes of whenever your shift ends).
Mainly, be gracious with others and extend grace to yourself—though we tell ourselves whatever we need to tell ourselves about our work, most of our jobs aren’t that important (in these times, literally life or death); some people are lonely and want more interaction, some are rearranging caregiving for parents and elders, some are trapped with family and roommates or even children and babies (did I say trapped?). Some people have never WFH before and feel the need to prove they are, indeed, working by sending 40 emails. Some people are swimming through everyone on their team sending them 40 emails. Some people can’t focus due to anxiety about all that and more; others use work to distract from anxious feelings and dig in. Some of us don’t even have toilet paper at the moment. Basically, it’s the things we should be compassionate toward everyone about every day but don’t usually have the imagination or capacity for writ large. If you feel yourself judging your colleagues, try not to be such an asshole. (Might I suggest yoga, meditation, virtual birdwatching, or going for a walk?)
Here are more free resources to help get through coronavirus weirds; here’s a gratitude journal prompt to quell anxiety and offer you some courage.
You are enough. You have enough. You do enough.
