Read on TwitterA chronically-ill lady& #39;s top tips/tricks/advice on working from home, self-care, planning & organisation, and other miscellaneous bits and bobs. Enjoy! T
This thread is going to take me a while, just fyi. I sat last night and tried to make a list of things I want to include in this but it& #39;s A Lot. It might come in dribs and drabs because I& #39;ve been very fatigued the past few days but I& #39;m working on it!
During this time, I& #39;m happy to answer any questions people might have or give any advice or do anything in my power to help. I& #39;m by no means an & #39;expert& #39; in anything at all but I wanted to share my experience and things I& #39;ve learned over the past years of working from home 
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First, a disclaimer: the flexibility and ability to work from home is a privilege. My Masters degree is 100% research-based, so I can do the majority of it from home (unless I need books/printing or if I& #39;m meeting my supervisors). My undergrad had a lot of flexibility too.
I& #39;ve never had a job with this degree of flexibility - reasonable adjustments have been sorted for me while in my workplace instead. I& #39;ve only ever done uni work from home but this is a full-time commitment for me.
If you are unwell, either with COVID or another illness (physical or mental), you& #39;re not coping, or you have caring responsibilities - productivity comes second! This is a huge change to our routines and if you& #39;re able to relax, do so!
Also don& #39;t get roped into the capitalist nonsense that is & #39;use this time to catch up on lots of work& #39; or other mantras that glorify constant productivity at the expense of everything else/want you to turn your home into a work environment. Of course it is 100% okay to use this...
...time to your advantage or to learn new skills, but also remember that your mental health is more important. We& #39;re in the middle of a global crisis, you& #39;re allowed to feel that stress/anxiety and it& #39;s normal not to function & #39;business as usual.& #39;
Hello again! I& #39;m going to pick this back up again; I& #39;ve been diligently noting down things to include but getting too stressed that I& #39;ll forget something that I don& #39;t even start writing. But, I need to just bite the bullet and stop thinking so much! So here we go https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤘🏻" title="Sign of the horns (light skin tone)" aria-label="Emoji: Sign of the horns (light skin tone)">
A wee bit about me and my experience working from home: I have diagnosed ME/CFS, chronic migraines, GAD, panic disorder, clinical depression & obsessive compulsive personality disorder. These conditions often necessitate either adjustments or fully working from home.
Through learning to co-exist with my poor health over several years, I& #39;ve developed what I consider to be good systems, organisation and self-care when working in my own home. I& #39;m incredibly lucky that I& #39;m able to work from home, it& #39;s a privilege not everyone is afforded.
Each health concern affects my motivation, abilities & mood in different ways so it& #39;s important that I& #39;m attuned to my mind & body, can pinpoint what& #39;s affecting me that day, and then adjust accordingly.
Depression/low mood: manifests as lack of motivation and self-esteem (i.e. what is the point of doing anything, I& #39;m useless anyway, I just want to hide away and be sad)
Anxiety/panic: my mind goes 100 miles an hour and my concentration is inhibited by the thousands of panicked thoughts going through my brain.
Migraine: I medicate every day for my chronic migraines (I& #39;m prescribed amitriptyline, which has worked literal magic) and it& #39;s rare for me to get a migraine now (I still get mild-moderate headaches but they& #39;re different). If I get a migraine, I physically cannot work...
...because my vision is significantly impacted. I already have very bad eyesight and a serious astigmatism so if I try to look at screens I& #39;ll be in tremendous amounts of pain if I already have a migraine. In these rare instances, I have to write off any work and just...
...lie down in a dark room. If I get a headache, I& #39;ll medicate (I used to be prescribed solpadol and naproxen for this purpose but my headaches now go away with over the counter painkillers) and apply Tiger Balm/4head and take things slowly, that normally does the trick.
OCPD: this is my & #39;main& #39; MH issue (my anxiety, panic & depression stem from this). It manifests as clinical perfectionism, strict rules, constantly-increasing standards, punishment, low self-worth, procrastination out of fear of imperfection, and lots of other unpleasantness.
A lot of the effects of OCPD can be experienced by anybody trying to be productive:
CYCLE 1: try to do task - tell self it needs to be perfect - don& #39;t start task out of fear it won& #39;t be perfect - procrastinate - rush task & don& #39;t meet standard - low self-esteem/punishment
CYCLE 1: try to do task - tell self it needs to be perfect - don& #39;t start task out of fear it won& #39;t be perfect - procrastinate - rush task & don& #39;t meet standard - low self-esteem/punishment
CYCLE 2: try to do task - task takes ages because of overchecking behaviour - intense scrutiny means losing sight of bigger picture - standard isn& #39;t met or task isn& #39;t finished - low self-esteem/punishment
CYCLE 3: try to do task - task takes a long time but gets finished at the expense of all other facets of life - task is done to high standard and receives praise - perfectionist behaviour is validated & high standard is revised - brief & #39;high& #39; from good job then back to beginning
These are the typical cycles of perfectionism that I get stuck in when I& #39;m trying to work. I& #39;m much better now at managing my OCPD but I still slip up. Last month I got an extension on a soft deadline because any time I tried to write I panicked that it wouldn& #39;t be perfect.
ME/CFS: this affects my mobility & concentration. Depending on how my body feels, I will work from home but still be somewhat mobile, I& #39;ll work at my desk, or I& #39;ll work from my bed. Brain fog is a side effect of both my mental & physical health problems as well as my medication.
I want to go into these a little more re. things that I find help them but I want to note that some days my health just has to take priority. I know my body and mind well and I know when they need rest - if I can, I will rest them and put work to the side until I feel better.
Rest, self-care, and sustenance are NOT things that need to be earned nor are you weak for needing/wanting them. We& #39;re all only human and we cannot operate 24/7 at optimum efficiency like robots. We need rest, creative stimulation, entertainment, food, water, comfort.
We& #39;re living through an unprecedented pandemic right now too - if you& #39;re not as efficient or can& #39;t concentrate as much as you normally would, THAT IS OKAY! Please, please be kind to yourself. You can& #39;t work under those forced conditions.
Plus, from a productivity perspective, you can& #39;t be efficient if you& #39;re not well-rested and well-fueled. You need a balance of work and rest, high-energy and low-energy, stimulating and non-stimulating. Time spent not working isn& #39;t time wasted - it is necessary & healthy.
The other day I shared a big list of useful resources - for general mental health aid, crisis contacts, and some nice Instagram pages I like for when the internet feels really loud. You can find it here: https://twitter.com/HollyLMckenna/status/1241384965461377024?s=19">https://twitter.com/HollyLMck...
Hello - I& #39;m finally coming back to this thread & it& #39;s probably gonna be a long one. I haven& #39;t felt quite myself for a few days and a lot of my bad OCPD behaviours have taken over, so it& #39;s been difficult to manage. My dad is still going to work every day and I worry about him too.
So, a bit of context. I don& #39;t want any of the advice I give in this thread to come across wrongly so I feel like I should explain myself a bit. If you& #39;re not familiar with OCPD, it& #39;s a personality disorder (sometimes called Anankastic Personality Disorder) which manifests as...
...various compulsive behaviours which tend to be clinically perfectionistic in nature. People with OCPD/APD tend to have a very rigid view of how they do things, very high standards for themselves & very little flexibility. When I& #39;m especially stressed or under pressure, these..
...behaviours often worsen, as is the case with lots of MH disorders. When things feel out of my control (i.e. a pandemic), I will try to exercise excessive levels of control over other things - my routine, my body, my standards for myself.
The way that I work, plan and organise my degree research is not how other people "have" to do it. The level of organisation and attention to detail that I strive to meet comes from my personality disorder (which took me a LONG time to come to terms with).
When I was studying for my final year undergraduate exams, I was also meeting with a psychiatrist. I made the decision to change how I worked during this period to test how I would work under less self-induced pressure and if my grades would slip as a result.
I didn& #39;t have to do this - I could& #39;ve stuck to my extreme levels of cramming constantly, which tbh I wanted to do because it was familiar to me and I knew it worked. The way I plan and work now might still be considered extreme by other people but it is a HUGE improvement...
...from how I used to push myself to breaking point and punish myself for cracking. The point I& #39;m trying to make is that you don& #39;t need to plan or organise to the extent that I do. The standards that I impose are completely internal and personal to me.
ANYWAY, now that I& #39;ve explained myself a bit, I& #39;ve been obsessing over how best to go about this thread. Initially I was going to do a & #39;day in the life& #39; kind of thing where I went through my routine but it didn& #39;t work for me; so, instead I& #39;m going to do different topics!
I think I& #39;ll touch on:
- planning & organisation
- flexibility & boundaries
- routines (morning & night)
- environment (noise, music, desk area)
- hobbies/side projects
- self-care
- bad days
If there& #39;s anything else you& #39;d like me to talk about, let me know!
- planning & organisation
- flexibility & boundaries
- routines (morning & night)
- environment (noise, music, desk area)
- hobbies/side projects
- self-care
- bad days
If there& #39;s anything else you& #39;d like me to talk about, let me know!
Planning is one of my favourite things to do and I try my best to keep a good routine with it, as OCPD can sometimes manifest as over-planning as procrastination from actually starting The Thing for fear you& #39;re not ready or it won& #39;t be perfect.
I dedicate each Sunday to rest, recuperation and planning ahead my week. I try not to do substantive work at the weekend where I can help it but I save Saturday as an & #39;overspill& #39; day so if I don& #39;t get everything done I want to get done, I can finish on Saturday.
So, essentially, my week goes:
MON: work & normal routine
TUE: "
WED: "
THU: "
FRI: "
SAT: overspill day - finish any unfinished tasks from Mon-Fri
SUN: rest and planning day
MON: work & normal routine
TUE: "
WED: "
THU: "
FRI: "
SAT: overspill day - finish any unfinished tasks from Mon-Fri
SUN: rest and planning day
Keeping Saturday as overspill also gives me some much-needed flexibility. I used to plan work for every single day of the week and would give myself huge amounts to do, so when I inevitably didn& #39;t finish it all I& #39;d have no buffer zone, would fall behind & berate/punish myself.
Sunday being dedicated to planning & rest is also part of this flexibility. It means I have a day to set myself up for the week ahead, catch up on sleep if I need to, and means that I have some time off from working to plan what I want to work on next.
My planning consists of:
- a general weekly plan
- a reading list
- a self-care plan
- daily general plan (done in the AM of each day)
- daily journal
- lots of colour-coding
- some other misc. bits and bobs that I& #39;ll share below
- a general weekly plan
- a reading list
- a self-care plan
- daily general plan (done in the AM of each day)
- daily journal
- lots of colour-coding
- some other misc. bits and bobs that I& #39;ll share below
