A recommendation came today at work that we should work from home from now on, to help reduce the spread of covid-19.

A recommendation, not an order, but it’s one I definitely agree with. Especially after reading this article about what a big difference earlier social distancing can make to slow down the virus’s spread.

I don’t enjoy working from home. I feel isolated and shut in.

I’m going to miss the physical act of getting to work. My commute is not the best part of my day but it’s good for me. In the morning it’s a good way to gradually come fully alert and ready to work. In the afternoon it’s a good way to wind down and let go of work tasks.

My desk at home is not set up for long work sessions. It’s more of a storage area for “to do” items – paperwork, magazines to read, books to blog about – than a place for work.

I only have the small 11-inch laptop monitor to work on – nothing like my three-monitor setup at the office. Working on a small monitor makes me less productive but also has a weird kind of effect on my brain – after staring at a small rectangle for eight hours, by the end of the day I feel weird in the head. It’s like I get a kind of mental tunnel vision.

I’m going to have to think about how to make this work, if this is the new reality for the foreseeable future.