In the Dark

Today was my first day of “working from home” after the closure of Maynooth University campus yesterday. As I live close to the campus I did venture out from home to perform various duties thereon (see picture).

Before the closure yesterday I was told some grim stories about panic buying in Maynooth but when I went to the local Supervalu around 7pm there was plenty of stuff on the shelves. I treated myself to some nice wine after a very stressful day.

This morning I did indeed work from home, getting on with some writing until lunchtime while still in my dressing gown.

Working from home isn’t that easy. Without the discipline imposed by having to go to work at a specific time it’s tempting just to potter about uselessly. You have to force yourself to focus but also remember to take breaks, which you don’t usually have to do during the course of a working day as, e.g., lunch is part of the regular timetable.

I’ve found that what works for me when working at home, is to divide a say into two-hour blocks, after which I break for 30 minutes to have a cup of tea or a snack.

I did two such blocks this morning, after the second of which I checked my email while having a sandwich. The deluge of messages in my inbox contained a number that I needed stuff from my office to deal with (including the publication of an Open Journal paper).

When I got there campus was quiet, unsurprisingly, but there were a few people around, including some of our research students. It all felt a bit unreal, but I think it might be the reality for some time now.

I have been pretty effective at self-isolation and social distancing for many years now, so I think I’ll be OK with this.

This entry was posted on March 13, 2020 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.