Your Wellbeing in These Challenging Times

Nothing will work unless you do. (Maya Angelou)

We are living through a scary and uncertain time as we try to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. At times like this, it is easy to see catastrophes around every corner, so be mindful of the stories you tell yourself and check the behind them.

The coronavirus spreading and its effects will impact us forever. We will always remember the way we found new solutions to working from home, taking care of children while working remotely; helping neighbors in quarantine or isolation; keeping our teams motivated and engaged; working through technology interruptions; and performing our role as part of business continuity teams, being reliable partners to our executives throughout crisis.

We have learned a lot, and many of us will still have to learn how to manage the challenging times following the crisis. Only now, the first people in Asia, almost eight weeks after the start of the virus’ proliferation, are beginning to return to the office. They were the unknowing catalysts for the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.

The reality is that before the coronavirus vaccine is a reality, we all will need to learn to be proficient and excel at working remotely. Wherever you are on the planet, if you are not in yet, the chances are that you, too, will be executing a mandatory telecommute sometime soon. The Covid-19 cases mount in the U.S. and Europe, with Spain and France joining Italy on lockdown.

Still, we have good experiences and advice to share that will help Executive Assistants not used to work remotely daily to handle the experience with a positive mindset.

I want this article to be a kind of symphony, a song sang by many voices just as the spontaneous concert played by the Italian trumpet player Raffaele Kohler, a Milanese musician, from his home in Milan for two weeks ago: Fuerza Milano!

I asked some of the Executive Assistants in my network to share how they are coping through this challenging time, managing their wellbeing, and being productive working from home. The quotes you find in this article are from seven Executive Assistants and Office Managers from different countries around the world. Their contributions are anonymous to maintain work confidentiality.

Here are our best tips; what we are doing to make our day-to-day go smoothly, play our role with a positive mindset, share our experiences, encourage peers and colleagues, stay healthy and show solidarity.

Creating a safe environment

Many of us do not know yet how long we are going to have the work from home measure activated. It can last more weeks than expected. So, find a good workspace for you in your flat or house. Change space if necessary. This situation is going to be new for many of us. Test and experiment until you find the right solution.

• Try to stick to some semblance of your original routine from before you started working from home. If you used to arrive at the office at 8 a.m., do not wake up at 7:59. But do it earlier in order to have time to prepare breakfast, eat, get dressed and arrive to your “home-office-desk.”
• Create an office environment and make it as ergonomic as possible. For example, utilizing a chair with good back support and as much natural light as possible.
• Shape your space. Your working environment has a significant impact on your mindset and creativity levels. Even if this situation will not last forever, ensure that you are in the part of the house you like most and gives you energy.
• Discuss with your partner and children about how the space distribution will be during the working from home period.
• Think it over! After the first week, stop and evaluate your working from home environment. Check with your colleagues how they are adapting to the new situation. Improve the work conditions if possible.

My new office desk is now my table in the kitchen. I am fully equipped with a laptop, an external mousse, two monitors, a docking station, and my hard copy of the Business Recovery Plan ready for consultation. It means that we now have our meals in the leaving room. We have to be flexible in these extraordinary times.

Staying healthy

• Have your coffee breaks without feeling guilty. You will probably be drinking better coffee than at work.
• Have a light and healthy lunch. It is an opportunity to prepare your vegan meal, eat your preferred salads or simply enjoy a homemade lunch. Make sure you are well away from your phone or computer when having your lunchtime. This is one of the precious moments you have during your day to recharge your brain.
• Avoid long workdays. Stick to an 8:00 to 4:00 or 9:00 to 5:00 workdays. Also, because, normally when you work from home, you tend to have more focus on your tasks and work more effectively. Set boundaries! When you live in your office, it can be easy to overwork.

I share my flat only with my lovely cat Hera; therefore, I cannot interact with any other human being. I have prepared a daily routine to keep myself mentally and physically healthy.

• Go for walks. If you usually have a one-hour lunchtime, you can go for a walk (if you are not in quarantine or obliged to stay inside.) A few minutes of fresh air will do wonders for your energy levels and sense of calm.
• Walk your dog often! It can be an excellent excuse to connect with nature and engage in regular exercise. It is good for both your health and your dog's health and can be great fun.
• Exercise! Use the time in the mornings or afternoons, that you are not spending in commute, to exercise. If you use to walk or cycle to work, go for walks before or after work-home-office hours.
• Take the benefit of being in nature. If you can keep the social distance that is necessary to avoid spreading of the virus.
• Practice Taichi, yoga, and meditation, if you like that. It can also be a good opportunity to try mindfulness activities.
• Read books, write articles, watch movies and listen to music. What about start listening to more classic music again?
• Enjoy your weekends as much as possible. Working from home is demanding, especially for those taking care of children at the same time. Your weekend break is your mini-holiday time. Enjoy it!
• Do your gym sessions at home. Many training studios are offering online classes.

Being mindful

Being mindful of the thoughts that are going through your head will help you shift your mind away from negativity and into positivity. This is the best way to help our brain to not spiral out of control with the hundreds of thousands of thoughts going through our head each day.

Being mindful is about making the right choices to eliminate any negative activities you might be engaging in, rather than focusing on positive energy. Surprisingly. we are attracted to watching the news, which is 99% negative in its reporting. The Assistants in my network recommend incorporating positivity and self-development into our days, now more than ever.

Many of us will find it difficult to find the right balance between working from home, taking care of kids, caring about family and friends, volunteering for solidarity movements, and staying ourselves informed of breaking news. This balance will be challenging to attain because we are doing all this from the same space. It is important to remember that jumping back and forth between tasks can have a negative impact on our energy.

• Manage your exposure to media coverage as this can promote feelings of fear and anxiety. Be mindful of the quality and accuracy of your information sources.
• Listen to motivational podcasts and music. Do things that give you energy.
• Visit your home library! If you have purchased books and haven’t had time to read them, consider dedicating time to re-discovering this lost literature.
• Avoid multitasking. Choose a task and stick with it. This will help you conserve mental energy. Cooking dinner while writing a report is a bad combination.
• Benefit from your energy levels. For example, if you need to do a complicated analysis or solve a complex problem, the best moment is to do these tasks is when your energy levels are higher. If possible, even in these special times, keep control of your choices.
• Enjoy your meals. Create a separate space to have your meals. Avoid having them all day in front of your laptop. Create physical boundaries to help you mentally open and close your home office. Take your coffee breaks in your home cafeteria.
• Maintain a good sleep routine. Turn off all screens 60 minutes before sleep. Avoid listening to the news before going to bed. You cannot have control over everything happening now. Many of us will experience difficulty falling asleep, struggling to disconnect from a never-ending stream of news.
• Wake up peacefully. As you wake, be determined not to start thinking. Just be. Notice your body. Notice your mind. Focus on your breath and let go of any thoughts.

I have decided to listen to the news about the coronavirus situation once a day. I do it after dinner when I usually would turn on the TV to watch the news. Even if I have to report the updated information regarding the development of the disease in my country to the company’s Pandemic Committee, I limit myself to check the facts published on the website of the Public Health Authorities during my work hours.

Avoiding isolation

More than ever, we are utilizing the benefits of technology and social media to stay connected with each other. No one can isolate us from the world, friends, colleagues, family members. We are all using different communication channels and tools to keep business, friendship, and camaraderie going as usual.

Social distancing is a very hard restrictive measure. Something against human nature. However, at the moment is the most powerful weapon we have (and maybe the only one) to block the virus transmission.

• Think of creative ways to stay connected with others. Instead of emailing your colleagues, call them. It will help you feel part of a team and less isolated.

To keep in contact with people, I use technology: smartphone, tablet, and laptop: Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, social media. We do not live in a flat complex: the negative aspect is that I cannot go out on my balcony and talk or sing together with my next-door neighbors. The very positive aspect is that we have a garden so we can go out sometime and breath some fresh air under the trees. We also “adopted” a stray cat, who visits us very often looking for food and strokes.

• Be generous and kind. Create routine of calling family and friends every day after working hours. Call them to check on their welfare, send emails, leave a note under a neighbor’s door. And never underestimate the power you have to offer hope to another person.

Before our “new normal,” I preferred to socialize with family and friends in person, lunches, dinners, and outings. With the push to socially isolate, I have ramped up my phone and social media time. I am keeping up with my circle via emails, private messages, posts, and phone calls. Like many, I am beginning to feel the affects of distancing and staying homebound.

• Share positive thoughts on social media with the aim to help others, especially people living on their own. There are many communities online, including groups that meet to share tips and support each other during challenging times.

I don’t keep myself socially isolated! IRL yes, I try to avoid unnecessary encounters, but I am very social in social media. Social media was created to make people socialize online.

• Join the Assistants’ communities online. Why not create your online group?

My WhatsApp chats are on fire.

• Stay connected. Use the time you are not working from home to meet people, have social contact online, via phone or in person, if you are not in quarantine or isolation. Just keep the 1-2 meters distance. We need people!

At work, we use Office Teams for digital meetings, which works well. We have also created an Office team group called WFH (working from home) where we share pictures of our home offices, connect, and create engagement. With friends and family, I use social media, Messenger, WhatsApp, and FaceTime to stay in touch. We try to share funny things to keep the energy up and laugh a bit.

• Beat your isolation loneliness. It is going to be a hard and lonely time for many people. However, we now have more in common with each other than ever. It creates a sense of understanding and more sharing of compassion. Research shows that we can maintain meaningful links to our loved ones, friends and colleagues even if we can’t be in the same room with them.

In those times, we have to self-impose quarantine, but we do not live in the Middle Age anymore, we have all those tech products that allow us to speak to each other and see each other. Since last week, I’m chatting with my parents and friends via Skype or WhatsApp.

• Push yourself to broaden your perspective. Try to see this moment in time as a new and unusual period that may even have some benefits.

Adapting to working from home

The new reality is many of us now work from home, meaning we are engaging with work like never before. Our office is now literally our home. It means that the line between “work” and “home” is blurred.

We know that work-life balance is a state of mind, and what constitutes balance for one person is not the same for everyone else. Therefore, it is important that you analyze your new situation and create a strategy to help you manage the work-life imbalance you may be experiencing now.

• Set priorities. Not everything will be urgent, even if we are living in a crisis situation.
• Set boundaries.
• Plan time for yourself.
• Accept the reality that this situation will not last forever. It is temporary and it is up to you to focus on what you can control.

All of our co-workers work from home right now, but in the management team, we meet every day. If you feel healthy, you can participate at the office or connect online as you prefer.

I have been working mostly at our office, which is quite empty now. This situation will not last forever, so we just have to make the best of it. This too, shall pass.

• Be resilient with your work-life imbalance. Many of us will have to be available 24-7 to play our role as a member of the emergency crisis team.

I am part of the emergency team, so I have always my smartphone with me. Every day at 3 o’clock (Saturday and Sunday included) a conference call is scheduled: all general managers of our legal entities in Italy, HR Manager, Legal Department, Health and Safety Manager, Facility Manager, IT Manager, Security Manager and Internal and External communication manager are involved and it is a very important moment to share any information or update regarding Business Continuity and above all any critical issue regarding affected colleagues (unfortunately we have some cases) and measure adopted.

• Share your concerns with others and listen to how they are managing imbalance.

I have organized daily calls with my team. Just a few minutes to see if everyone is safe, and if they need help on the various tasks they are working on. I think it is important to keep that momentum and ensure we are present and do care for each other.

• Align any working from home expectations with your manager. Ask for clear rules and guidelines.

My boss and I have reviewed tasks together in order to focus on those that can be done at home and postpone those for which I am needed at the office. We decided to both focus on business development, instead of activities based on daily routines, most of which have been stopped (no meetings, no travels, no reports to be done, no mails to be processed, no administrative tasks because all deadlines have been postponed here). It's time to think and plan ahead for the future.

• Allow yourself time for breaks. If you have a balcony, you can spend 10-15 minutes of your workday outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Under normal circumstances, you would spend time with teammates at the cafeteria. Now you can spend that time with your partner or children if they are also working and studying from home.
• Create internal platforms within your company to allow sharing of best practices, tips, work from home pictures, and exchange of motivational stories. We will certainly find different ways to cope with working in our new working environment during this challenging time. Sharing a positive mindset and creative solutions are key for successful crisis management.

In our intranet, our training school uploads twice a week free training and inspiring video and a lot of suggestions (e-book, music, etc.) in order to help all employees to cope with this situation.

• Join an online solidarity group. It is impressive to see how people are showing solidarity to others. We are not only supporting people in quarantine by shopping food, medicine and any other things they should need, but also helping our peers to get used to the new ways of working. There are many professional associations, networks, and groups offering online support. Find one of them and be active in showing solidarity.

I used to work from home once a week, I’m trying to stay focused and organized. Now, with this pandemic, and the fact that we have to quarantine ourselves for more than 2 weeks, the situation is slightly different. To cope with it, I have downloaded quite a few eBooks and podcasts on the topic, so that I can hear what other EAs/PAs do and adapt myself when I hear something that is working well for them.

• Keep up the spirit of solidarity! One of the ways for you to create the boundary between home office and private life is by dedicating part of your day to help people in need. We are all fighting against the spreading of the coronavirus. It should be our number ONE job now. And solidarity is an important word in these times.

I do my part, staying apart. I work from home. I go out just once a week, wearing mask & gloves and keeping the distance, to buy some food for me and my boyfriend and my 78-years-old mum who lives alone near me.

• Also remember to regularly assess your social media activity. Tune in with yourself and ask if there needs for adjustments. Are there particular accounts or people that are increasing your worry or anxiety? Consider muting or unfollowing accounts or hashtags that cause you to feel anxious. Remind yourself about the necessity to disconnect and keep yourself mentally healthy.

Let’s keep on supporting each other. The reality is that at times of stress, we work better in company and with support. We can control our choices and keep on choosing to manage our wellbeing while waiting for the end of the storm.

Stay safe!

This article was first published on the community site Organizational Health and Wellbeing for Assistants.

About Julia Schmidt: She is an award-winning Executive Assistant with over 20 years of experience working in different industries. She is known for being a passionate advocate for people development and in helping others succeed and embrace their leadership skills. Julia is an active networker and mentor and a proud graduate of the University of Norway with a Masters' Degree in Portuguese Language and Literature and has also studied Business Administration. Follow Julia on LinkedIn. Julia is the author of The Executive Secretary Guide to Building a Successful Career Strategy, available now on Amazon.