3 Ways to Thrive at Work During Challenging Times

Truth Moment Alert!

My self-esteem, in part, has been tied to my productivity. It’s how I am wired. If you’re a high achiever, you know what I mean! COVID-19 has disrupted my work and how I work. As a consequence, I’ve had to find new ways to tend to my mental wellbeing. 

I wanted to share a few of the new skills I’ve added to my list, in case it helps you or someone you know. 

Set a Timer

I work better with deadlines. When I work with a timer, I find that even tedious tasks don’t seem to take as long. I make it a game. 

Check out Rescuetime, a great app that can actually track and show you what exactly you're doing on your computer, such as how much time you really spend on social media.

I was shocked to find myself checking email and social media often when my brain took a pause. This makes me very inefficient. It felt good to run my schedule efficiently instead of feeling like my schedule was running me. 

Bonus Tip: there is a methodology called the Pomodoro Technique that discusses this in greater detail. 

I find that working 20-30 minutes and then taking a break works for me. When the timer goes off,  I get up, stretch, maybe check an email or two, and see if I’m up for another round!

I also found if I am watching YouTube Tutorials that I have to close that tab too — it was far too easy to just pop over and watch 10 minutes … which might stretch on for an hour! The timer gave me boundaries and I knew when it was over I could let some distractions in as a brief reward.

Schedule Recess Breaks

We all need time to do things that enrich and reward us. I wrote about this recently as I began doing watercolors. I found that if I gave myself rewards like creating art, stepping outside, taking pictures of my blooming flowers, I could reset and reenergize. As it turns out, our brains can work optimally for 90 minutes, then need 20 minutes of downtime to “recharge.” So consider that a science-backed reason to schedule recess breaks!

These are things help me feel refreshed, reconnected, and energized. What will you do with your recess breaks?

Set Small, Achievable Goals

When I have big goals like IdentityRVA or multi-day projects, I get discouraged when a day has gone by and I don’t feel like I made a dent in the overall bulk of work. I find I have to break it down into baby steps. Did you ever see the movie What About Bob with Bill Murray? It is absolutely hilarious and has great advice. Break big tasks and projects into tiny steps to make it achievable. 

BONUS: If you have a hard time with goals, a visual todo list that focuses on the Kanban methodology may be helpful. Trello is a great little app and so is Clickup for setting these goals.

Human beings are resilient and we’ve proven that time and time again. There is also beauty in this messiness. 

Please share your favorite tips and we can support each other in getting through this together.