Last week the whole world felt the scale of the havoc caused by COVID-19 and a lot of countries started taking serious measures by closing down offices and shutting non-essential businesses such as shops, bars or restaurants. We were already working from home most of the previous week as a precaution, but as of last Friday, our whole company is working from home. I am happy our company was allowing flexibility already beforehand and was quite quick in recommending home office and altogether enforcing it. We were also allowed to take all necessary equipment home so I took my screen, keyboard and mouse alongside my laptop and I am pleased with my home “real work” setup. For some work from home tips, scroll below to the weekly reads section.
I have also stopped attending my HIIT workouts already since last Sunday and I am working on creating an at-home routine. I haven’t worked out at all this past week, except for an at-home yoga session and I need to figure out a routine for working out at home. I do think it’s a good time to start a daily yoga challenge or a BBG round so I’ll keep you posted on what I end up doing.
The Weekly Reads
COVID-19. This is a very informative article on coronavirus and the magnitude of it that highlights perfectly why is it important to act now. We’ve stopped going out other than supermarkets if needed and cancelled all social outings. While it feels “premature” in Berlin as there is no official shutdown yet, it’s better to stay safe and at home.
Working from home advice. Nothing more relevant right now than some good, working from home advice; this one is from the founder of a fully remote company and comes with a bunch of recommendations on tools that facilitate collaboration for remote teams.
More top tips for remote work. You thought that was it? More tips on working from home, this time from Memorandum. The ones I am keeping at the top of my list are those focused around having a morning routine as well as an end of day one. During home office, I usually struggle with setting boundaries and end up working longer hours with fewer breaks throughout the day.
Five work from home mistakes to avoid. If that was not enough, there are more work from home tips from Abra at Capitol Hill Style coming in the shape of what not to do. Make sure to scroll down to the comments section as well as there is a lot of good advice from other women that have been working from home for a while.
Selectively vulnerable. Or how leaders can open up to their teams without oversharing. Keeping a personal touch is essential in my opinion but “an important part of being a leader is understanding how much weight the people around you can bear” and what is a good pairing of realism with optimism.
What I am buying. I am thinking of spring already and wearing easy, chic outfits to the office (at least I was thinking about it a week ago). Speaking of which, I ordered a beautiful pair of slingbacks and cannot wait to wear them (good that they are new with an impeccable sole, so indoors will do for now!). The two pairs I posted on my Instagram stories are one all black pair from Bugatti shoes and a black version with tortoise heel from mint&berry; both ordered from Zalando and still in stock. I kept the first pair because they fit better and I find them more versatile.
Thank you for reading and I hope everyone stays safe, healthy & kind!
