Over the years, I’ve come to recognize how much my well-being and productivity is affected by my habits, both good ones and bad ones. The pandemic is wreaking havoc on my habits, and from what I can tell, I’m not alone.
Studies show that habits can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to bake in. Our lives have been so dramatically altered, and will be for some time, that new habits are creeping in, some of which may be taking hold without us making a conscious choice about them. When we get to the new normal, the habits we are forming now are likely to stick with us. And because of that, we have to be really careful.
Before our lives were turned upside down, I benefited every day from some of the habits that I’d baked into my lifestyle. About seven years ago, I made a conscious decision to make my morning routine one that was full of relaxing, thought-provoking, and productive habits, things that got my day off to a great start. I’d wake up, almost always without an alarm, at almost exactly the same time every day. I’d make coffee, tidy up our main living spaces so that everything was where it belonged. I’d bring in the newspaper, pour a cup of coffee, and spend ten minutes getting through the headlines. If I had enough time, I’d take a short walk, ride a stationary bike, or do some yoga. I’d shower, stretch, meditate, dress, eat a healthy breakfast, and head out to do whatever the day had in store for me. I even used an app called “Alarmed” to set a queue of morning timers for each activity to remind me when it was time to move on to the next one to make sure I got out the door on time. My wife would laugh at me when the meditation bell alert “ding” emanated from my phone. Yes, I’m a productivity geek. But it kept me from getting distracted, kept me focused, and I finally wasn’t running late all the time. During the day, I’d keep a bottle full of water in my car to make sure I stayed hydrated, and I’d listen to podcasts to learn and refresh myself while I was driving around Atlanta traffic…in other words, I had a lot of routines and habits that served me well.
And then, well, you know, suddenly things changed. At Jabian, we shifted to work-from-home beginning on March 16. That morning routine, and the alarm queues that I had built, and the habits that formed because of them, were mostly blown up. Instead, I was awake early in the morning reading the latest (mostly bad) virus-related news – from bed, on my phone. I’d get out of bed in time to make my first meeting but getting all of that morning stuff done…no longer a priority. There would be plenty of time to do all of that mixed in throughout the day now that I no longer need to drive to our office, client sites, and breakfast/lunch/dinner meetings. Or was there?
Some of my good habits ended up getting weaved in throughout the day, while others suffered. For me, my meditation and daily journal reflection both suffered, even though they were clear productivity enhancers for me. The pace dramatically sped up at work. No more driving between meetings, or even walking to a different meeting room. I no longer had those naturally built-in breaks throughout the day that allowed for some quiet reflection and deep breaths. Since I wasn’t managing my time differently, the pressing urgency to do everything possible to help our clients, help the community organizations I’m involved with, and help to our own business took over my calendar. The pace is hectic, the number of video calls, e-mails, texts, and chats seemed to rise exponentially. And I’m one of the lucky ones: my kids are grown and out of the house. You moms and dads working at home with young kids and no day care…wow. You amaze me.
New habits have started to form with this extended time working from home. I’ve consciously tried to choose some good habits to begin. I now try to hit 10,000 steps a day. That’s now pretty much a habit – I have this pressing need to get out, even late at night, to get those last steps in. I’m getting other kinds of exercise more frequently, and I’m getting the right amount of sleep that the lack of a commute allows.
On the other hand, some new bad habits have kicked in. I spend too much time with the news, which doesn’t lift my spirits or make me more productive. I sit too much for too long at one desk all day. I am, by necessity, eating differently. I used to tell myself that if I didn’t have to eat out so much for work, I’d lose weight. Yeah, well, that didn’t happen. I’m working more hours, not less. It takes some reflection to realize that all of that is going on, but I have clipped that reflection time out of my busier schedule. Luckily, I decided to write this article, which has been a useful reflection of sorts for me.
So, the big question is, have you stopped to reflect on the habits that you’ve lost as we’ve moved to this new lifestyle? What habits have you picked up? Is the collection of your current habits serving you well? Which of the good things that you’ve started to do while working-from-home and sheltering-in-place will you keep? Which bad habits still forming do you need to nip in the bud now before they become hard to quit and linger into the next normal, whatever that looks like? Let me know in the comments. I’m especially interested in what good habits you’ve formed that you intend to carry through these shelter-in-place times.