Victim of exhausting bug – time to beat it

Author : Kad Um Bree

Lounging in PJ’s, tucked in the bed with steaming coffee beside and favorite music playing in the background, work-from-home is indeed a blessing.

With zero travel time, no pressure to look a certain way and definitely no indication if one has showered or not, it is heavenly. But to some, working from home is excruciatingly challenging with menial chores piling up thanks to the missing maid, the pressure of keeping up with laundry, grocery, oh those flaring tempers that erupt out of nowhere, it is a nightmare that leaves one exhausted. Well, if you identify yourself with the miseries, I am sorry- Exhausting-Bug has infected you, so read through this article for quick fixes. Pronto!

With people working from home, the basic discipline seems to have gone missing. Sure, people are putting in longer hours at work, funny sneak peek in the private life of a colleague when a kid barges in the middle of an important video call asking for cookies or someone’s husband walks in the mood for that cup of tea. Yeah! Barring these embarrassing moments, life is all good as long as somehow the deadlines are met, irrespective of how messed up our home chores are… Right?

NO, wrong! Working from home, sure it is comfortable, but the lack of discipline leads to unnecessary chaos affecting just one person. That person is YOU. Yes! Haven’t you questioned why things are piling up and have you not promised yourself to be able to handle things in a better way? And yet You. Do. Nothing. About. It. Well, your exhaustion is self-inflicted and thankfully there are ways to fix it too. So, let’s get on to it –

• Use the ME TIME – Set boundaries at home too. Thou shalt not be disturbed for 30 minutes at a specific time after work. You will feel fresh after this amazing alone time.
• Introduce Discipline back into your life – Reset your sleep time and ensure you wake up at least an hour earlier to get a head start.
• Set boundary – Yes you need to disengage from your work once you shut down your laptop. So be unavailable to your office post the working hours.
• Start sharing the chores – This process should already be in motion. If not, then encourage your family to chip in. Reward systems works with kids and you will be teaching them life skills so that they can fend for themselves.
• Plan ahead and prep ahead– This works like a charm. A day wise menu timetable has always helped me save time and it only takes 15 minutes for a weekly planner and do not deviate. PERIOD. In the meantime, make those common masalas ahead of time and store it in the fridge to use it on Mad Mondays or on Terrible Thursdays. If you have not yet tried the frozen food, then give it a try. It is super quick and saves a lot of time.
• Most Importantly Spend quality time – with your family. It’s pretty important to have a conversation with them. Appreciate their help and expect more from them. Usually, we are so caught up with problems that we don’t give them our time. So go ahead, and play board games.

I know, sometimes we feel a little change may not go down well, but I’d like you to seriously give it a try. We have been conditioned to be the “martyr” for the family. Don’t get me wrong here, but there is so much pressure to do things one after the other that somewhere we forget that even we need our own down time. Sure, you didn’t see your mom or mother-in-law take a break, so it may feel like you do not deserve it either. But the times have changed, the work pressure at office has changed. Responsibilities have grown larger than the Mt. Kailash and loans have piled up too. You can neither afford to sacrifice your growth nor your well-being. With uncertain times like this, it is time for you to change too and adapt according to the situation from a fresh perspective.

So, go ahead, start with the first step and indulge yourself with a 30-minutes of “Me time” to unwind and help you calm down. Who Knows maybe you’ll be ready to take on the world next ?