Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Stay Negative, in the world full of positives!

My life has changed upside down thanks to a virus strain that has caused so much stress and at the same time reduced the stress on the entire world! Let’s face it we are in the middle of a global crisis where working from home has become a social norm and we can do nothing about it but to accept the moment and move along. because, if we stop then there is no starting back!

To be honest, the organisation I work for has always kept us prepared for such type of events to be able to work without any issues and have no impact to productivity whatsoever! Thanks to our regular BCP drills, this has become a culture and helped us to work from anywhere for that matter! But, this pandemic has hit us so hard that we have never expected to stay away from work and operate remotely, maintain social distancing and following things and doing stuff that we have not even dreamt of doing so religiously!

Let me tell you my story, how I have been tackling the situation.

Ever since the news of the outbreak was hitting the headlines, at least I have been prepared and equipped myself with sanitisers and facemasks. Who would have thought that the important piece of equipment that you need for survival during the time is your office laptop! God bless my organisation for providing us with a laptop and necessary tools to work, else things would have been very different!

I realised one thing during this lock down, a lot much can be achieved in the same amount of time when you stay focus.At office we had the liberty of going for breaks and walks every now and then, now that is no longer an option! If we try and choose to get out of homes every now and then there are other type of individuals who are doing their duties with utmost focus on the roads to control the spread of this virus, you know what I mean?!

Looks like I have got off track a little bit here, alright where were we? Yeah about my story a day in my life?!

Chapter 1: Rise and Shine

Getting up early was a force habit for me because I stay very far away from my office and I used Office transport, so you get the gist! Commute used to be very important part of my life and I was gifted with time! Which I used to spend on reading and thinking about ideas. Oh my God! I have got off track again!! So ironic that we are talking about staying focused and I am finding it very hard to do that! 😬

So where were we? Yes, rise and shine!

Get up at 5 AM, put on my tracks and start with Surya Namaskaras (Something new I started during the lock down) and offer my thanks to the one that shining! I have never cared for the chipping of the birds so much earlier but now they symphonies other first thing I listen and there a similar quality sounds are the best way to start your day! I’m not exaggerating myself here but I have started appreciating little things in my life! I complete my workout by 6:30 AM and other calls of nature finish my breakfast and read news nothing particular it’s Corona everywhere! This concludes the first chapter of my day!

Chapter 2: Plug and Play

Spoiler alert!! This is the longest of the four chapters and it’s sort of boring for you and BAU for me! Just like the same Old coffee in a new outfit. You know where I am going with this? you all might be aware of the Dalgona coffee challenge that has been infesting the social media just like Corona! Anyways, I start my work day at 10 AM, go through my mails for an hour! believe me, it takes that much time! On the other side my mother thinks that’s all I do at work and I’m getting paid for it!! Oh mother, I don’t blame you because watching a monkey who is just staring at a laptop screen for one hour you have every right to think that way!!You might be even wondering that one hour of me you could have put it to good use by making me do the dishes! You think,  don’t you?

Then starts the daily routines and checkpoint meetings. What did you do the other day? what will you do today? what will you do tomorrow? Any impediments? Oh I forgot to tell you we are Agile! We adapt to change so fast that the Darwinian monkeys and the surviving because we are the fittest! Go Team Darwin! The only impediment in this chapter is my nephew who unplugs my laptop and plays with it all the time! 😧

Chapter 3: Ceremonies

Nothing much here the regulars Scrums and finger-pointing games with all the preparation for the next day! We all remember the sprint diagram, don’t we? Continuous loop back and this loop never ends.

Chapter 4: The Juggler

In these times of chaos, crisis and confusion juggling work life and personal life sometimes gets tough. I have welcomed a little one in the family, lost a loved one and has been taking care of one of my parents health and also ensuring that the house is running, Maintaining social distancing from the people and also from negative traits, most importantly trying hard to ‘stay negative in the world full of positives!!‘

Life has been a rollercoaster ride amidst this pandemic, still we are thriving and surviving! And this too shall pass!

Well that’s my pandemic story…