Page 7 - Adnews Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Editor’s Letter
Lockdown hacks with dacks
The best advice I can give for working from home is to follow the same routine as a day at the office. Get up, get dressed in business clothes (turn your back on those tracksuit pants, they are for relaxing) and sit down.
Take your eye off the couch, sit up straight, concentrate. Get on with what you do best.
When the work day ends (and be strict on the timing of that), get changed into non-work clothes. Home life resumes.
It worked well for me as a foreign correspondent oper- ating out of a house with dodgy communications and a dangerous pedestrian streetscape.
But what about life? Homes are for living, not working. Relaxing, for crea- tive pursuits and for socialising.
The invasion of profes-
sional life into the home,
where it already had some-
thing of a beachhead in terms
of late-night calls and time
spent finishing major pro-
jects, makes it hard to differ-
entiate between the two previously deeply marked parts of the day.
Industry players, in UnLtd’s Lockdown Survival Guide for Adland, prepared to help colleagues during the COVID-19 second wave in Melbourne, have ideas:
“Go for a walk every morning to ensure you’re dressed before your first Zoom call.” — Cameron Knight, Seven Affiliate Sales.
“Don’t work in the same room as your husband/ wife even if that means you’re working in a
cupboard! You’ve got to have a chance to miss each other.” — Tiff Damm, UnLtd.
“End of day. Shower. Nothing says I'm done with the day like ripping off your clothes off in a procla- mation of freedom from your desk.” — Sam Simpson-
Rowswell, MediaCom.
“I try to ensure I go to bed
and get up at the same time as I would have pre-WFH. It’s the key to keep a routine.” — Paul Bates, REA.
“Always pack up the double screens and put them out of site for the evening/weekend to ensure you keep work and home separate and keep the balance. Ensure you have one big blowout per lockdown period — keep your pub self alive and kicking through social quiz nights with friends. Where’s Wally puzzles will blow your iso mind!” — Alexandra Braybon, NOVA.
“Don’t let meetings trap you indoors. I try to turn my video calls into walking calls wherever possible. Better yet, go for a walk with a colleague if they live near you: It’s so
good to catch up in person.” — Simon Lawson, PHD. “I make it a rule to make my bed as soon as I get up. A simple, mundane task but within the first five minutes of waking up, I have already accomplished
one task – tick!” — Deb Trela, Val Morgan.
“We’ve been cooking twice as much as we need in the evenings so we don’t have to think about making lunches. This means we have time to leave our workspaces and go for a quick walk at lunchtime
and eat.” — Kerry Field, Mindshare.
EDITOR
CHRIS PASH
www.adnews.com.au | September-October2020 7