Thoughts from Week 2 - working from home!

What a week, I started making notes as my week went by, of good, bad and funny things. I've gone from being a nomadic worker (not had a fixed desk or office in years) to self isolating with the family, like many not on the front line of healthcare, delivery, supply chain and logistics. I appreciate how lucky I am that I can do what I do (and love) pretty much in a pure digital/remote fashion, but boy do I miss seeing people in person! Whilst I can, I rarely work from home, maybe once every 3 or 6 months, so this is somewhat new too.

Here are some of my thoughts across home and work as we never expected to know it. Would love to hear your stories too! So many good ideas from folks here and on twitter. Keep sharing!

Life at Home:

• Home schooling has been a hot topic for all parents. Emma (my wife) has taken charge of this and it's definitely challenging/tiring. The kids have been really good though, routine has be key to this with 3 lessons in the AM and 2 in the afternoon. (On a plus side, I get to see the primary school teacher each day and steal a cheeky kiss!). We were waiting for a full timetable from the school which starts on Monday. It's pretty full on.
• I'm not used to seeing the kids (10 and 7) on FaceTime, they were just not allowed. Emma's response, wait till its a boyfriend of girlfriend! I'm so not ready for that!. But now they speak to their friends daily. It really is amazing.
• Seeing the kids join a Zoom chat for each of their classes was great. They are missing their friends and teachers. The year 2 group with my daughter was my perfect example of hell, Zoom opened up and all kids just spoke at once! quite funny. The Year 6 with my son was much more civilised!
• PE class with Joe Wicks has be a real win, approximately 800,000 people logging on daily for this, although its knocked out most parents too! All proceeds from this has now been donated to the NHS. Well done Joe! We mixed it up with walks, yoga and HIIT classes. This is my contribution so far to home schooling.
• Exercise and sleep has been brilliant. With no daily commute, the time is being well spent on both of these. I will meet one of my original goals, with the whole family joining in for exercise part too. A real win! Although I've dropped podcasts from my commute, so need to find time for these too again.
• Music lessons have continued via Zoom and worked surprisingly well as have other lessons organised by other parents; drama, coding and more.
• On the routine side, I have scheduled breakfast, lunch and dinner with the family. One of Emma's pet hates is me being home, but not being present. So this has worked out well and trying hard to avoid meetings during this time (I have not always succeeded but it should get better this week). We have also scheduled 'me' time where everyone basically goes and does whatever they want (off a screen) to unwind.
• We are all pulling our weight, kids included whether it's cooking, cleaning and the rest of the daily grind.
• Video calls with family is equally fun. Seeing the inside of mums ear for 3 mins was less fun - while she said hello, repeatedly - I know I'm not alone here. But we got there! Hearing my son be tech support for my mother-in-law and guide her through using the iPad. Love this boy. Chip off the old block! ??
• I apologise if we have some potty mouth kids when they come out of this in a few weeks. Sorry Emma and Teachers! I know, only Week 2!
• Virtual Drinks is a think (FaceWine - thanks Helene for that phrase!) and good fun, not the same, but making the best out of the situation.
• Thank heavens for great weather this past week in London, its definitely lifted spirits, even if we cant enjoy it fully. I don't even want to imagine if this was dark dank, cold, wet heading into the thick of winter.
• The sense of community has been brilliant, both home and beyond. I've lived on this street for 5 years and know my neighbours either side and opposite, but not many others. When this all started, we got together with a few others and did a leaflet drop offering help to all 70 or so houses. We now have 100+ people on a WhatsApp group with 24 hours all engaging for the first time ever. Helping others with food, picking up and dropping off prescriptions for folks isolating or at risk, co-ordinating stuff for others and generally being a community.
• I attended my first Zoom Bar mitzvah. What's not to love, we got to drink coffee and eat biscuits during the service. Sorry Josh, well you didn't know - but well done. Actual face to face party to follow when it's safe to do so. I've seen the same for folks who were planning to get married. I can only imagine how heart-breaking this must be and the hassle in reorganising.
• I am much more conscious of food waste, period. I don't think we were bad before, but I'm really wary now as well as making sure the kids are too!.
• There were moments where I felt lonely during the week - moments when I like many just thought OMG! As the week went on, I also listened to less and less news. The message is clear, stay home, stay safe.
• My personal view - the UK Government have done a great job in this time of crisis. From Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Matt Hancock, Professor Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick Vallance, Dr Jenny Harries, Alok Sharma and the entire team, visible and invisible. It feels measured, panic free, a controlled message, economic measures rolled out day after day and much more.
• In a weird sort of way, I feel more connected than ever to friends further afield, whether across the UK, the US, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Ireland and more - I've spoken to loads of folks this week that I haven't spoken to often enough recently.

Life at Work (well home still!)

• I generally love video calls, way more than I thought I would. Yes I've used it plenty of times before but they have bene quite specific. This now feels a new norm! As an aside, my camera is broken - I thought I had way more hair than this! The regular team calls that existed as calls before and are now videos, just brilliant. (yes, like everyone else, we have our own Brady Bunch photo)

• It feels fully acceptable to video call / FaceTime people - I normally would have left this to family and friends - its generally really nice good, feels like everyone is more attentive too. This is the closest we get to walking past someone in the office, or stopping by over a coffee. Although in some cases, it may feel we are intruding on people privacy too.
• It's way more acceptable for kids, husbands, wife's and partners to join in. In fact it's even better, it's keeping us all human. All of a sudden we are all Robert Kelly from that most famous BBC interview.

• And we cant forget all the PETS, they are practically holding us all together! The more the merrier!

• It's nice to see where everyone is working from, I've seen some great ones this week - spare rooms and home offices, sofas to sitting on bed's. I'm also very aware that not everyone has a spare room or space to easily work. A friend of mine in Tokyo was saying, that while they are not yet on lockdown, they will be required to sign an oath to say they have space to work / a desk at home. My award this week goes to those using an Ironing Board as a desk! Total genius, sitting and standing desk all in one, not ideal, but super smart! and then there is one of my guys in quarantine in the garage! I think he's ok, It's where the loo roll, food and beer is!
• My diary, like many others has gone mad. It's crammed in from morning to night, so I've been trying to create more space - the times I would usually commute and unwind with a podcast or two, or walking between meetings. Feels like many of us are tired from this so need to get smarter. As we enter week 3, I think many will be focussed on this. Meeting times have dropped from a usual hour to 30 or 45 mins in many cases. Equally doing a 4 hour workshop via Zoom is possible, harder but possible.
• Random fact, Zoom is now worth more than all the USA Airlines put together.

• Like many companies, we immediately jumped into more regular check-in's, team meetings and more. In some cases we have over done this, so I suspect we will wind these back a bit - but each team is different and how people have dealt with situation is very different.
• It feels like we are putting in some seriously long shifts, from early morning through to late at night. I just need to look at my screen time report to know how bad it was. I'm hoping that as we move into Week 3, this becomes more under control.

In all of these situation's, and as we have always shared with the kids over the years as they have seen events across the world unfold, from school shootings, to floods and more - always look for the people running towards you - help runs forward and this week was no different, plenty of people leaning forward, no matter how big or small.

How was your week and how are you planning for week 3?

Nigel Walsh | @nigelwalsh