Working From Home, and That Stuff

Session with Claire Stewart

Feelings of stress, low mood or anxiety put you in a zone where you can't really produce work. And repeitive days - its a stifling way to live. We're doing work but it feels like it isn't progressing - but recognise that those small bits of work are still pushing you forward.

This is about easing the pressure on yourself.

Keeping journals or a notebook where you can spill our your thoughts and feelings can help you to manage the need to vent and negative feelings.
Don't downplay your feelings and mental health just because you're comparing yourself to some people who might have it harder. They're all still the same feelings.
Working while on call to other students can help to create what's been lost. Working along side eachother can help to recreate the atmosphere of the studio.
Being able to compartmentalise can help to seperate work from home.
Work space - what can you do to make that look more like a studio space? Make it inspiring! Decorate it with things you like to look at!
Reflecting once a week. How did this week go? What can I do better next week? Can be very essential to feeling in control of staying on track.

• Maintain a creative momentum
• Staying focused and productive
• Looking after yourself

Your space
Compartmentalising. Having one space where you work, and one where you do everything else.
If working at the desk, maybe cover it over with a sheet at the end of the day. Removing it from sight.
You can't work constantly. You need to have a stopping point, a make a routine that you stick to.
Routine can seperate your day - tidying your desk, having a shower every day after work.

"Not something that I do personally, but I've heard that some people who work digitally create alternate accounts on their computers specifically for doing their work on. Like clocking in and out of work, but digitally."

Helping make opportunities for simulated social activities. "Every Friday lunch you and your friends have a virtual coffee meeting." Voice chat will do more for you than group chats, but only if they're working too.

Create a timeline from NOW to the end of the semester. For example:

It can help you manage your time and your stress levels. Create your own timetable.
It doesn't have to be fixed. It can change. Don't feel the pressure too hard, just try to stay on track the best you can. Weekly planners are also worth having. A to do list for every day.

Take it in chuncks. Looking at how much work you have to do can be overwhelming, you don't know where to start or how to get through it. So start small. Break the project down into smaller stages. Each stage has a set of tasks. Start ticking things off, and you start to build a momentum. You can slowly build up how much you work each day. Easing yourself in gently.

Research shows that small bursts are more productive than long sessions of trying to work and not feeling like you actually progressed. Changing habits can help with time spent trying to focus. Try to use a timetable to have a cut off time and a block of time that is a break. Self care is forcing yourself to know when to stop.
Make a list of the things that help you switch off and relax, and build them into your schedule. Invest a bit of time into this planning and it can transform your work and daily routine.

If you're struggling to focus, you can still spend your time productively, e.g.

• Look at other illustrators and designers on social media
• Watch videos of creatives talking about their work/art documentaries
• Organise your folders, archive stuff you don't need anymore, just clean up
• Write a list, or make a plan in the weekly planner. To do lists can be very achieveable small things. Taking down a big task step by step.
• Listen to a podcast (examples: 3 Point Perspective, Illustration Department, Design Matters, Honest Designers)
• Work on your skills, watching tutorials or trying things
• Tidying up your social media accounts or your website
• Looking at jobs/future opportunities/putting a portfolio together

Seperate your to-do list between "brain" and "no brain." And then you can pick up things that you're capable of depending on how you're feeling. But do not use these tasks to do no work at all, ever.

"Morning pages" can serve as a reset. Every morning, writing down everything in your head.

Figure out a sleep pattern. What works naturally for you? If it's sleeping later, and getting up later. Or the reverse. Find what works, and stick to it.

Time Management Tips:

• Find your daily rhythm. What times of the day are you most productive? Early morning riser? Night time worker? Don't fight yourself against that.
• Create a timetable for the coming week and see how you can manage to stick to it. Review it after and tweek it based on what you're capable of. It doesn't have to be super strict, but definitely get it down on paper or use an app such as Class Timetable. Schedule study time, commitments, downtime. It's a guide, not a something to chain yourself to. Don't beat yourself up if you can't make it exactly. Restart every day, adapt the timetable to how you work best, recognise your working patterns.
• "The Pomodoro Technique"
  -Decide to focus on a single task.
  -Set your timer for 25 minutes.
  -Work on the task.
  -5 minute break.
  -Repeat.
  -After 4 rounds of this, you give yourself a 30 minute break.
  You aren't focused on completing that work, but focusing instead on making progress within these time periods. It's a habit you can develop and it's proven to work.
• Set yourself weekly goals instead of deadlines.
• "I've been thinking about how to use gamification in work motivation but haven't come up with much. Like making a reward for yourself after reaching a certain milestone"
  Forrest app. Tree grows when you focus and dies if don't work enough.
  There's another app that is like an RPG and you level up when you focus.
• You can get apps that block your social media for a certain amount of time. And likewise, browser extensions for Chrome.
  Keep notifications turned off.
  Identify your time for social media and stick to it.
• Prioritise
  - Physical to do list with tick boxes
  - Or, if you have Office 365, there is a To-Do app that syncs across your phone and laptop. Task lists.

• Set weekly goals. Maybe use tutorials as a little dealine?
• "Gongbang!" Korean origin. Study with me videos. YouTube, Twitch. Watching someone else quietly working can be motivational and help you stick to the Pomodoro techinque if that's being used. It can also be a replacement for working company or background noise.
• Background noise. Game soundtracks, ambient noise (Noisli app), make a work playlist. Try having something on that you've seen a million times so you don't get visually distracted and it's still a comfortable thing to have on in the background.

Keeping Connected

• Share work in progress with peers and friends. Get feedback.
• Work-along. Work in silence with somebody else for company.

5 Steps to Wellbeing

• Connect with people
• Be physically active (build this into your routine! Tiny bits, doesn't have to be a full blown workout.
• Keep learning
• Give to others (do small things for your friends or family. It will make you feel good, and make them feel good!)
• Pay attention. Remember to just breathe. Stress causes our hearts to go faster and therefore we breathe more. Having a breathing app can help reduce these stress levels.

More on livewellatcumbria blog or the NHS. Extended self-help:

Calm, Headspace, Forrest, 7-Minute workouts (for me, I would use Ring Fit.) The original vent padlet here.