My home is tiny

About my life within four walls during the Corona crisis #westayathome

[myhomeistiny]

[myhomeistiny]

https://youtu.be/lr_tEdQvFcc

Something for the Queen lovers

[myhomeistiny]

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[myhomeistiny]

Day 15 (continued)

30 minutes of exercise a day can significantly reduce your stress.

After a tiring week, I decided to go for a quick walk. Unbelievable how 30 minutes of fresh air can trigger such a strong feeling of freedom these days. And to my great delight, I no longer saw big groups gathering in the park, but mostly only 1-2 people walking / enjoying the sunset. Maybe we will overcome this virus some day.

Back at home I also worked out a bit and I have to say that after that I felt a lot better already. Exercise is really the best medicine to escape from your thoughts.

Try it yourself:

[myhomeistiny]

Day 15

We have been sitting at home for two weeks now already.

I have to admit that all days start to look the same and I feel like I have been trapped in an endless routine. Knowing that we are still at the very beginning of this journey which doesn't even have a foreseeable end yet, I have no milestones, such as a holiday or event, anymore to look forward to... I am not even excited about weekends anymore...

There is no difference between the weekdays anymore - there is so much work to do that I no longer have time for lunch breaks, and in the evening there is no energy left to do anything. My evening walks are often missed due to long hours at work and my home is slowly starting to feel like a prison with comforts. Probably since sitting at home all the time doesn’t burn much energy, I have been sleeping poorly in the last few nights, which of course makes everything even more emotionally exhausting.

Since there are no other news than those reporting on corona, and frankly I cannot hear/read those anymore, I am slowly completely isolating myself from the rest of the world.

As no big plans for the weekend can be made any longer, I hope at least spend more time in the open air in the next days, try to stay away from technology, playing the piano, reading books and doing workouts.

[myhomeistiny]

Ibis hotel sends its love to all of you (L)

[myhomeistiny]

Day 14

I always try to start the virtual meetings at work with Energizers connected to the topics of the day. Today we took some time to reflect on who are the heroes of our time to whom we must be grateful.

[myhomeistiny]

Day 12

Tuesday is training day.

In order to maintain a clear mind in this difficult situation, it is crucial to stay on top of your routines. Now that the chances of becoming ill are greater than before, we must not become couch potatoes, but take care for our bodies and our immune system. Although I can no longer go to the fitness studio, I still stick to my training plan - exercising 2-3 times a week. Luckilz, the offer of free online trainings has increased significantly in recent weeks and I believe that everyone will find something to enjoy - be it yoga, HIIT, dance training or something else.

Here are some of my favourite workouts:

Yoga with Adriene - My absolute favorite for yoga

MadFit - Lots of short clips for different muscle groups but also for full body training, with or without equipment

FitBit coach - With the FitBit tracker, the premium program can now be tested for 90 days for free. In addition to different workouts, you get a better overview for example of your sleep patterns and you can start different nudge programs to increase activity or sleep quality.

Les Mills - They have uploaded some workouts too, but unfortunately the offering is quite small.

Also, check out the website of your fitness studio - many of them are now also providing video trainings. For example, I plan to do a Zumba class through Zoom in the next days.

For your inspiration - here is my training today:

[myhomeistiny]

Today was a happy day. After 2 weeks of hunting, Jens finally found some toilet paper.

[myhomeistiny]

Day 11

As I have already written earlier, working from home is not new to me. However, in case this is still an unknown land to you, I recommend this video from the World Economic Forum to find your working routine:

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/2771243113106884/

So, here is a short overview of my new usual working day at home office:

I normally get up about half an hour before my first call, get ready (no pajamas!) and start the morning with a little sun salutation. If you don't know what it is, here's how my yoga teacher does it:

Afterwards I make coffee which accompanies my first calls.

I now work only at the desk in my office or in the kitchen (depending on whether or not Jens has calls at the same time) to differenciate work and private life at least a bit. Here is a picture of my office :)

Often children are new participants in our telephone conferences, in my case I have to play with my cat during the first few hours of work, otherwise she will empty the contents of the trash bin on the floor or knock everything off the desk.

For several weeks now, my days have consisted solely of telephone conferences to collectively discuss and develop topics/projects. I feel already like my computer and headphones are slowly becoming my new body parts. Of course, also our technology systems are overloaded and Skype often strikes. So it always takes about 5 minutes to log in calls and I often have to guess wether the talk track should match the screen I see or I have a 5 minute lag in screensharing. Today evening, finally all systems gave up, which from the positive perspective made it impossible for me to work overtime.

We have 1-2 stand-ups with the team every day, where we also take some time for chit-chat. It is very important that no one feels alone at times when many of us are living alone.

As I am part of teams focusing on future of work and collaborative workshops, we are constantly testing exciting new ways to leverage technology to make our virtual meetings interesting and more productive.

I'm now really trying to keep a closer eye on not working for more than 8 hours.

[myhomeistiny]

Week 1

I'd say I've been quite successful in staying at home for the first week. Of course, it has been very important for me to take a walk outside every day to get some fresh air. Fortunately, the weather here has been great. Spring is in full swing and on some days the temperature reaches as high as 17 degrees. I often combine my walks with grocery shopping -win-win. We have deliberately replaced our once-a-week-big-purchases with everyday-mini-purchases, so there's always a reason to go out.

We will probably very soon always need good reasons to be able to leave home. I've often seen our park playgrounds full of children and groups hanging around and enjoying the nice weather. A totally irresponsible and unacceptable act that really makes me angry. I remain at home to stop the possible unintended spreading of the virus, and other negligent citizens are giving the government more and more reasons to implement and extend increasingly stricter measures for everyone. But when people steal disinfectants and masks from hospitals, nothing surprises me any more.

This crisis is a tough test for Germany, but also for Europe, challenging the democratic order and our hard-won freedoms. Restrictions on free movement have, so far, been regarded as the most critical measure which would be only introduced in case of extreme emergency. On Wednesday, our Chancellor had a public spreech asking everyone for solidarity. Ater all, It is in the interest of all of us and especially of those at risk. They too are somebody's mothers / fathers, grandmothers / grandfathers - people we can jointly protect. As expected, the speech did not bring much change - time and time again I heard from my colleagues about people gatherings and the so-called corona parties across Germany. Today, the Chancellor finally announced that in the whole country now only two people are allowed to meet at once, and people are allowed to leave house only if there is a reason to do so. It was no longer a recommendation she said but a rule everyone must live by. I initially hoped that we would not reach such restrictions, howevet, now I believe that this is the only way we can ever get out of this situation. And the sooner the better. 

Unfortunately, in the evening, the news came that the Chancellor herself had to be quarantined because her doctor was tested corona positive. No one is protected from the virus today…

This week, with so many people being worried about their jobs, I have been so grateful that I have a job and can do it remotely. I even have enough work to do several overhours. Something I have to clearly limit over the next few weeks to not have so much overtime by the end of the corona crisis that I could spend the rest of the year on holidays... It seems that I should start to plan my next travel though.

[myhomeistiny]

How it all started...

I often work remotely - on average once a week I would say. Unless my boss is in the office or I have important meetings to attend, I am happy to avoid wasting time commuting through the city (I live 40 minutes away from the office and Stuttgart is known as STAUgard - the city with most traffic jams in Germany) and enjoy the benefits of working remotely. However, when I decided to work from home last Friday, I didn't think it was going to last this way for so long.

Of course, the virus was alarming people already much earlier in Germany. Panic-buying was in full swing and nothing else besides corona was newsworthy for weeks. My employer also took the issue very seriously from the beginning - we received emails from our global CEO almost every other day, strict travel restrictions were imposed, hand washing instructions appeared in the toilets, ladies in the canteen handed out the cutlery directly to you, disinfectants were introduced in the corridors, and so on. All kinds of events and meetings / workshops with clients, which would mean more than 25 people gathering in one room, were canceled. Since I have not been sick at all in recent years, and even Jens' multi-week cough had not infected me, I was not too anxious about this Corona issue. However, on March 13, the situation escalated in a way that has changed the lives of all of us.

For me, it all started with an email telling everyone at our company to prepare for working from Monday to prevent the virus from spreading. One of the important motives was probably the unconfirmed news that also schools and kindergartens would be closed by then. Compared to Estonians, the Germans were a few days behind with their measures, so it was expected to happen. Especially since Baden-Württemberg citizens had been back from their holidays from Italy for a week until then and many children went to school as nothing had happened. My boss said we would stay at home until Easter at least.

Talking about Easter... We actually planned to spend our holidays in Sri Lanka after Easter. We, of course, unfortunately had to bury that plan. Since there is no point in taking a vacation to stay home, we have to postpone our travel ideas for an unknown period.

Anyway, that Friday, March 13th was a normal working day for me. Until the news came that all cinemas, theaters, bars, museums, swimming pools, etc., would be closed in addition to schools and kindergartens. Well, it was getting more an more serious. Luckily, fitness studios were not on this list yet and I went for a workout right away (I have been focusing on getting more physically active this year and sticking to my training plans is very important to me). As I soon found out - it was the last fitness-studio visit for a long time. Unfortunately, already on Saturday also the sports clubs were closed. From that moment I started to realize - we're trapped here within these four walls ... And no one knows for how long ...