Posted on: 2 April 2020
- Routine: Have one and stick to it, but remember it may be different to the one you had when you travelled to work.
- Clear divisions: Keep a clear division between work and social activities
- Define your workspace: If you’re lucky you can put aside a room, but even identifying a table, or a corner of a room where you can work comfortably, and focus on what you need to do
- Keep Connected: you might be self-isolating, but you’re not a hermit. Keep in touch with your team.
- Keep up to date: Circumstances are changing rapidly, but the Trust is sending out excellent communications – not every article may be personally relevant, but all of them are important.
- Recognise your value: you might not be on the front line, but you are doing your bit towards the effort – you’re not in hospital, and you are making a contribution. Remember all great machines have tiny components, it may only take one to stop the whole thing from working or worse!
- Reward yourself: Take time to say you’ve done a good job. Nobody may ever see what you have done, or how long it took, but you know that its good so recognise.
- Don’t feel guilt: You might not be able to do your day job, you might not be making heroic sacrifices. That’s no reason to feel guilt; all of us are contributing to the collective effort.
- Limit access to the news: The news is dire and depressing, and it is possible to spend all day watching the TV, listening to the radio, and having social media update us. However a lot of it is filler. You don’t need it. Chunk your news around key moments in the day – I find the Government Daily briefing and the half hour reflection afterwards works best for me.
Andrew Machin
Associate Director for Charity Development