Friday, April 3, 2020 / 12:00PM / Damilola Peter
for Proshare Finance / Header Image Credit: People Daily
What seem to be a matter
of less significance is fast becoming a huge trouble and worry for us as a
community. For the past few weeks, the fear, worries, and the unsettledness
that we've all experienced in our diverse premises as a nation and as
individuals have not been encouraging.
As the Covid-19 Pandemic continues
to linger, the best we can do is to keep on, comply with the guidelines and
advisories of the World Health Organisation and the Nigeria Centre for Disease
Control (NCDC), while we support the necessary bodies involved in developing a
lasting solution to this outbreak and hope the war ends soon.
In addition to our isolation
and maintenance of social distance, we stay positive and productive.
Maintaining a positive
mind during this period may be a difficult task. Staying productive may become
more difficult since distractions are everywhere, there's so much freedom to do
whatever we want anytime as a result of the lockdown, and the necessary
utilities (power, data, water, food, etc) needed to keep hope alive may not be
as stable as required.
Whether we will come out
strong and celebrating when the Coronavirus war is over is left to us. Whatever
we choose to do with this time will determine the reward we get after the war
is over. To ensure we maximize this
period, keeping a positive mind and staying productive as much as possible is
non-negotiable.
So, how do you remain
positive, die off to the surrounding distractions and the unnecessary
activities crying for your attention. How does one ensure to maximize this
period and come out productive especially when everyone else is complaining
about the harms and hurts the Covid-19 outbreak has done to them?
1.
Create and
Maintain Relationships
Although, it might be a
little bit difficult creating new relationships as we experience total lockdown
in our respective premises. But, try to create new ones or maintain the
existing ones by reaching out to them more than ever before. Use this period as
an opportunity to connect and develop more intimacy with your family and
friends.
In cases where you do not
have access to close contacts, maybe you are self-isolating or you are away
from your family. Creating social connections via social networks would help
you stay positive, unburden your mind, relief you of emotional stress and
prepare you to work efficiently without any psychological obstructions.
This isn't the time to
remain alone by yourself all the time, it isn't the time to lock yourself out
of the world or isolate yourself from the rest of the world. It's social
isolation and distancing not social abstinence.
Technology has made this
easy, engaging with your friends over a video chat can provide a better human
feeling than audio calling one another or messaging one another via email, or
social messaging apps. Regardless, you should do whichever delights you more.
2.
Develop a
Schedule
The easiest thing to do
when you have no one watching you or when you are not under a direct
supervision of a superior, is to become non-committed, less accountable and
less loyal to what is expected of you. It
is very easy to lose focus and concentrate less when you are left to
yourself.
With the present
situation, remote work could breed unproductivity for persons who are unable to
work with minimal supervision. Thus, the reason why it is important for
Employers to have a Remote Work Policy and a Performance Measurement Guide to
track what is done by each employee. However, with great discipline, individuals
can maintain an optimal level of productivity
As you work from home, it
will become easier to yield to the calls of several distractions that can take
your time such that you end up not achieving significant milestones. From the
calls of your little kids, pets, hubby, message notification tones, sound of
the TV, neighbors, maintaining a strict work time to ensure you accomplish your
necessary deliverables may be a difficult task.
However, with proper plans
and goals in place, you can stay productive while you work at home. To ensure
you don't lose out your precious time to those stubborn and annoying
distractions, here are a few tips you could try out.
a. Define your Goals: For everything you wish to accomplish as you stay at home this period ensure you set a clear and achievable goals. Develop a plan, a blueprint showing what you want to achieve, how you plan to achieve it and what you need to achieve it. Clearly write out what your deliverables are so, you know what to expect as you round up for the day and finally when the Coronavirus storm is over.
b. Create a Temporary Home Work Office: To maximize your stay at home in the presence of your kids, Netflix and other distractions. The best thing you can ever do is to set up a workplace for yourself at home.
Take your bath every morning, dress up like you are heading for your real workplace and head to your homework office.
What this does is, it helps you prepare your mind for the day and helps you limit the distraction you may encounter while working in the midst of your family or in the presence of any distraction. It cuts distraction away and forces you to concentrate fully on your tasks.
c. Block Distracting Websites: Although, it is advisable to connect with the socials as a replacement for social distancing and isolation. However, setting some restrictions and limiting your access to some websites will help you get the best out of your time.
You can easily get drawn by the flood of content flowing around on the internet and this may end up making you spend more time surfing the net for content that are irrelevant for your primary or work tasks and reducing the time you could have probably spent on achieving a something significant.
Another, benefit that comes with blocking distracting websites is that it helps you avoid falling into the temptation of going on the internet every now and then. Surfing the net can be very addictive so you must ensure to restrict yourself from the frequent unnecessary visits.
d. Take short breaks at intervals: Working for so long without break reduces efficiency and productivity. It stimulates the release of cortisol - a stress hormone which attacks the body and makes you feel weaken.
As you work from home, set a work time table, and within the work time table ensure to set in short breaks at few intervals. Doing this will help you break your tasks to a more digestible chunk. Help you avoid unnecessary burn outs.
With these short breaks, you are guaranteed of keeping a highly energized and focused mind which would finally help you become more productive, and happy while you also retain a positive mind.
3.
Develop a
Meditation Habit
Take out time to meditate
on things you've always seek answers to or something that delights you. It
could be pondering on a simple point, questioning and answering the mysteries
that govern certain events, or mesmerizing on old time events.
Meditation helps the mind
feel better and the way we feel as humans influences the way we think and act.
Feeling good will help you concentrate more and remain efficient. Actively
meditating causes the brain to release Serotonin - "the feel-good hormone",
into the body. With meditation, you have low chances of becoming stressed and
depressed.
In addition, your mind
becomes busier and occupied as you meditate which in turn enhances your brain
to become more analytical and thoughtful in making decisions and passing
reasonable judgements.
4.
Exercise
& Watch your Eating Habit
Getting your body in shape
should be one of your primary concern at this period. Since you would hardly be
engaged in physical activities like walking or expending your physical
strength. Participating in an electronic therapy class will be a great help to
keep your body and health in good shape.
The chances that you will
go hungry at short intervals and consume more food is high this period. While
you may be tempted to yield to your cravings, ensure to practice some
self-denial sacrifice to ensure that you do not add weight that you would end
up hating yourself for after the lockdown.
5.
Develop an
Evaluation and Monitoring System
Create a system to help
monitor, and evaluate your daily milestones. Keeping records of your daily
performance is a good measure to track your progress and general operations.
Create an excel file or
word document to keep records of your processes, results, challenges, failures
and success as you work from home. The report you develop at this period may
become useful in guiding you to make better decision in the future.
Finally, to ensure that we
all remain productive, we must first see that our minds stay positive. So,
keeping a positive mind comes above every other thing. The easiest way you
could ever make your mind stay positive and happy is to know that someone
somewhere is smiling because of you.
Knowing that you are the
reason someone smiles brings joy to not only you but others. So, as we continue
to fight this reckless viral global outbreak, ensure to show kindness to others
who may be less privilege.
Together we will win over
Covid-19. #TakeResponsibility and #StaySafe
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