Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Going back to work

As we march towards the finish line of COVID, and normalcy is (finally) in our sights, we start to ponder about what work will be like once we physically go back. Those of us with the immense privilege of being able to work for home - and keeping employment - have enjoyed the positives rather nicely. Going back to the regimented eight-hour work day is going to be quite the shock.

No longer will you be able to do a load of laundry while you work, or run some errands whilst monitoring from the Slack app. It’s so nice to sneak a workout in during the times of the day when things are slower. The freedom of completing projects at your own pace, without the prying attention of your colleagues and senior report, is very nice indeed. Perhaps you want to clock in and out earlier on a particular day; working from home allows you to do that with ease.

All of that will be gone once we physically go back to work. The clock will seem interminable now that we are forced to be there for the full eight hours (plus lunch). Of course, from a macro level we should count our lucky stars that we still have jobs. But problems are still problems, no matter how first-world they may seem.

I think employers would do well to keep some of the flexibility brought on by working from home. For example, I should be allowed to go home if the day’s work is done, no matter what time it is. There’s no reason to wait out until 5:00 PM simply for the sake of it. Or let me go home period, if a particular project can be done entirely remotely. Introduce some asynchrony whenever possible, and I think the transition back to physical work will be much smoother and happier for all parties.

Practically since the pandemic began, I’ve been working on campus for about half the work week. Therefore, there isn’t going to much of a transition for me to make, which is nice. The days I can work from home are indeed more leisurely, I have to say. I’m going to miss them.

Baby, we’re going down.

Was I ever good at multitasking?

Lately I've come to realize that having singular focus is supremely important. Whatever I am doing at the moment needs my complete attention, otherwise the results will be suboptimal. For example, when I write on this blog I can't have music on in the background because I'd have difficultly stringing words and thoughts together. 

Or perhaps my playlists are too good and engrossing for its own good. 

Is this need for singular focus a byproduct of getting old: a deterioration of attention-ability? Back in high school and college I'd multitask the hell out of everything and it turned out fine. Studying while having the baseball game on was a tradition, and I graduated with honors. 

Fast-forward to the present and even a wandering mind can be detrimental. Whenever I listen to podcasts I have to rewind more frequently than I'd like to admit because when my thoughts goes off to a distraction I absolutely cannot pick up any of the podcast's dialogue during.

I thought learning a third language and reading many books would keep my mind tack sharp (mental exercise), but I guess not?

Some people can watch a television show while keeping tabs on social media on the smartphone (or playing Candy Crush) yet they suffer no loss of detail from the particular episode. I am definitely not one of those people. 

Focus on the task in front of me: no distractions, no multitasking. That shall be my process to producing/attaining quality. 

I stuck my iPhone X out of a four-story window to take this, thinking I was going to drop it the entire time. 

I stuck my iPhone X out of a four-story window to take this, thinking I was going to drop it the entire time.