New learnings

It's Week 4 of Work from home (WFH).

I'm now senior to most of my friends who are about a week old at WFH. I also had the advantage of preparing myself (only partially though!) for this contingency, as it was self- imposed unlike most others.

In March, I started on my venture after quitting a full time job, with the primary objective of doing something worthwhile without having to go to office every day. It started off well, with a proper plan of working 10 to 3, with umpteen unconditional breaks. But the thought that the credit to bank account will happen, only if I really do something brought me back to my seat. I had set up a table and chair in the least distracting room, which had the luxury of a fan, a window-side seat and chargers. I read blogs written by several startup founders who claimed they started in a garage or store room. I took breaks to attend to chores and when my daughter came home from school, and she bestowed kisses upon me for my presence. It was magical!

Then came the twist in the tale, when a virus of Chinese origin slowly crept in and started sending shock waves in small doses across the country. One Sunday, it was announced that all kindergartens in Chennai would remain closed for the next two weeks. This was a contingency I knew was coming by mid of April with vacations; but its sudden onset had me trapped. Thus began the third week of WFH which was a package. It brought out all possible avatars of me trying to balance between a stay at home mum and WFH mum. My mother carried out the stupendous task of pacifying the little kid and the grown up kid.

It's Week 4 now, and I have learnt a few lessons for life, in a short while. I have tweaked my schedule to accommodate the needs of my little partner. This means working lesser hours, but more productively. I found means to keep her occupied for a particular amount of time in ways that she enjoyed. Co-working was indeed working for us, where we shared the table doing different things.I told her it was study-from-home for her too. I realized that the little child was using resistance as a means to gain my attention. Now we agreed on a mutual deal that has started working for the two of us.

The big lessons I learnt during these trying times was the application of a few management principles. I learnt to identify value adding tasks, and spend quality time on them. See how some concepts we learnt in our Business studies too can come handy in life situations (remember the principles of Value addition!). I learnt to ignore the numerous forwards sent by anxious friends and family, who are all too eager to combat the larger-than-life virus. I learnt to set aside time for things that mattered to me in life, like work-out, sustaining the creative instincts and of course most importantly keeping my little 'key' stakeholder happy! As Commerce students, we were taught to always remember that valuing the key stakeholder's interests is vital. Sometimes we tend to do everything possible without realizing that our stakeholders don’t really appreciate or benefit from what we do.

Most important lesson which is critical at the current juncture is understanding the difference between controllable and non-controllable factors. I started identifying the controllables by taking necessary precautions and stopped brooding over uncontrollables.

As I'm adding to my kitty of learnings, I hope the next 21 days will serve as a platform for many new learnings and little achievements that will leave a lasting impression on my life. I dont know if this is a coincidence, but there is an age old belief that it takes 21 days for developing a habit, as thats the time required for new neuropathways to be fully formed in the brain. Not all learnings come from online sites and courses; we just need to unlearn and disconnect from the unwanted, to be able to connect to the inner self.

Happy Working from home, Happy learning. Lets stay postive, healthy and extract some good out of undesirable situations.