Introduction
My name is Mark Anthony, named after the Roman general, not the singer. Looking back on the past 2 months of working from home I’ve learned a lot. Working from home has become the new normal for many of us here at Puget Systems. For the past year, my normal schedule consisted of only working from home 1 day a week. Adjusting to not only working from home but the idea of life in quarantine was something I thought would be easy. Over time I’ve come to realize that this new normal really tests your ability to adapt to extreme changes to your normal lifestyle.
Work Setup
Here at Puget I’m a Technology Consultant which means I’m one of the people who you call if you need a system! A regular workday for me is responding to inquiries either through email or phone. Since I work off my own personal computer that’s in my room, I wanted to make sure my setup allows me to fully focus without being distracted, by my bed mainly. Over the past 6 month I have changed my room layout maybe 6 or 7 times, mainly around maximizing and aesthetic appeal. But this time I wanted to also prioritize a productive space along with an open concept for when I want to work out.
Normally you would see a lot of coffee cups on the desk but for the sake of the photo, I cleaned up so you can see what I drink on a conservative day. 2 monitors are a necessity for how I work, and I plan to add 1 more monitor to make it complete. It’s true what people say about going to a multi-monitor setup. You can never go back to 1 monitor.
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Staying Active
Managing how I stay active and healthy has been the hardest transition for me. After work my regular routine, when I felt motivated enough, was going straight to the gym and getting a protein smoothie afterwards. Granted, I’m now saving a ton of money by not paying a gym membership and buying an $8 smoothie after every workout, it still took me a while to proactively exercise and eat healthy.
Luckily, my family is a lot healthier than I am, so they influenced/guilt-tripped me into taking better care of myself. After around a month and half of only binge-watching Netflix, Crunchyroll, and gaming, I started to make changes in my daily routine to become healthier.
In place of Jamba Juice, we broke out the Ninja blender that was collecting dust in our pantry. In place of overly sugary smoothies, homemade smoothies made from frozen fruits, vitamins, protein supplements, and other healthy add ons I don't know how to pronounce or understand, have become my go to after a workout. Heavy bars, dumbbells, and loud grunts have been replaced with stretchy bands and follow-along YouTube workouts.
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Free Time
Outside of work and exercising, there are two words that can describe how I spend my free time: gaming, and binge-watching. The past 2 months there have been TV shows, anime, games released that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Also discovering games that I never gave a chance which I have now become addicted to. And no, Animal Crossing isn’t one of those games.
The long-awaited remake for Final Fantasy VII released in the beginning of this month. I never played the original but knowing some of the characters, story, and music from Kingdom Hearts, I can say that it’s an amazing RPG with great gameplay and story. Me and a couple of friends also picked up Monster Hunter World from one of the many Steam sales that have occurred recently. A frustratingly fun game to play with friends with character customization you will spend hours trying to grind for.
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Conclusion
You find out a lot about yourself and the people around you in quarantine. It’s also a constant test of how you choose to use your time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to develop good habits and carry them over to when things start returning to normal.