Tag: wfh

How to Reduce Stress

Photo by Nathan Cowley on Pexels.com

If we get stressed often and quickly, it means that we are harboring many internal conflicts and are not conscious of them. This makes it impossible to get rid of stress quickly. First, we must learn what causes mental stress. The information we receive from the outside (which we dislike), creates a feeling that evolves into a negative emotion (negative mental energy). For example, the inability to understand or accept other people’s point of view can cause mental stress.

In my late twenties, I struggled consistently with mental stress. I was happy to work in a global corporation and also excited to be responsible for many projects at once. Despite the work load I had, I was a victim of mobbing because of my keen engagement towards my tasks. I was physically and mentally exhausted because of the many complex purchase orders I had to place for the projects assigned to me. On top of that, there were certain people in the organization giving me hard time because of my desire to strive to improve.

There was an immediate disharmony between me and these people that generated a feeling of intolerance and non-acceptance. This grew into feelings of disappointment and frustration, which ended up creating emotion of anger and anxiety over not performing well or losing my job.

Day in, and day out, I was stressed. I understood that the people and the circumstances causing my mental stress wouldn’t change, so I had to understand that, accept it, and find a way to approach my stress and conflicts efficiently. I saw it as a challenge and was grateful for it. I not only reduced my mental stress but found a way to never let it develop again.

A technique is applied successfully when its essence is really understood and absorbed. If a technique is to be applied quickly, there must be extensive knowledge of the situation in which the technique is required.

In the context of mental stress, for example, we get scared and anxious in (sometimes normal) situations because we don’t know what is happening or what is going to happen. The uncertainty of the result causes tension and mental stress. The longer we move in that uncertainty, the greater and heavier our mental stress becomes.

Meditation brings short-term stress relief as well as lasting stress management benefits. There are many different forms of meditation to try–each one is unique and brings its own appeal.2

You might develop a mantra that you repeat in your mind as you take slow deep breaths. Or, you might take a few minutes to practice mindfulness, which involves being in the moment. Simply pay attention to what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.

Yoga combines physical movement, meditation, light exercise, and controlled breathing—all of which provide excellent stress relief.13

And while you’re likely to reap immediate benefits from a single yoga session, you’re likely to receive long-term benefits if you incorporate it into your life in a consistent way. 

eisure activities can be a wonderful way to relieve stress.12 Yet, many people feel as though their lives are too busy for hobbies, games, or extra fun.

But building time for leisure into your schedule could be key to helping you feel your best. And when you feel better, you’ll perform better, which means leisure time may make your work time more efficient.

Lo-Fi is the new Hi-Fi

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” said Plato. The music industry strives to live up to this quote, and many new music creators are coming up with new content every day. Lo-fi is the newest trend and looks like it’s here to stay. Read on to know why.

What is lo-fi?


According to its creator Eric Matthews, lo-fi is short for “low fidelity”, which is a term used to define the music that contains elements that are conventionally regarded as imperfections or flawed. This type of sound recording has technical flaws that make them sound different from the live sound that gets recorded by adding distortion, hums, background noise and low-frequency response. Music producers now make these flaws as calculated aesthetic decisions and we have a plethora of our favorite songs in this new version. And guess what? It is a hit with the youth.


The world today has started to acknowledge the fact that it is OK to be imperfect and individuals are starting to embrace their flaws with self-love and grace. This can be one of the reasons why the youth is vibing to this genre of raw music. Also, Lo-fi being passive in nature does not reach out or try to be more it can be a Calming secondary presence rather than a full-on concert you want to perform when you listen to a Bollywood number.
Some of the good Lo-fi songs today are cut, rearranged and extended to create a vintage or retro vibe. So, the same song hit different and brings a sense of nostalgia to the listener. When listening to lo-fi, what remains in our head is not a memory of the lyrics, but a lasting state of mind. As the pandemic has made us think about the good old times a lot, this genre is the current vibe.

Lo-fi for work /study

The Lo-Fi Girl (Youtube Channel)


One of the major changes that the world has experienced in the new normal is the WFH(Work From Home) culture and, college life now is just you, your laptop and the water bottle against the world. Many students find it difficult to focus on their work when there is a TV running in the next room or the family being loud at times. Sounds relatable, isn’t it? Worry not! Lo-fi is here to put you in a phase of focus when you can concentrate on the work at hand and get a lot of things ticked off on your checklist. While many music critics looked down on the Mellow and monotonous nature of this genre, scientists and audiophiles (like me) insist that blandness is the key point. Lo-fi really does put you in a productive trance. Just search ‘lo-fi beats for chill and study’ and let the YouTube algorithm wind you up in a new cocoon of focus vibe and nostalgia. But if you are one of those who would want absolute silence while working, lo-fi may not be your cup of tea. Well, You can always try new stuff, it would be a win-win anyway!

To sum it all, Lo-Fi music accompany you in the day to day question and get you through your day. It is relatable and casual, putting people at ease and making them put it on loop in return. Go ahead and try a session of lo-fi Beats to study or chill. You won’t be disappointed!

Here are some recommendations to start with. Happy Vibing!

This is a playlist for some Bollywood Lo-fi music:

This is the link for a 1-hour session of Lo-fi beats to Study/Chill

Digitization with a human touch

A couple of days back, I was experiencing a bit of headache due to such long hours of online classes and so I decided to buy a pair of spectacles. During an online session, I just casually mentioned my intention when my friend suggested me to schedule an online appointment in Lenskart. I was a bit surprised that I failed to think about that in the first place, so I said I will check that out. So booked an appointment today and waiting for their response.

Now one might think that this is so weird because this method of digital appointment and 3D trying existed for such a long time and that’s true, no doubt. But what’s surprising is that, may people, including me, who looked for things in offline mode, they are now resorting to try out even the rarest of things in the online mode. We are constantly being surrounded by technology and all kinds of buzzwords “WFH”, “webinar”, ‘zoom’, ‘virtual coffee break’ and so are constantly bugging our life. We are progressing towards ‘humanized technology’ where technology, especially Artificial Intelligence, is completely integrated with a normal human life.

That being said, technology also needs to adapt to human life, meaning that the technology should also be human-friendly. Just engineering a technology to do human-like work will not help, rather it should also be capable enough to assist the humans in every possible way. Multiple reasons exist as to why such integration or amalgamation between technology and human is necessary. Firstly, for convenience. Human being are such generations who need specific information in the fastest and efficient way possible. So technology should be streamlined in a way to alleviate the situation. Presently, Microsoft and Google are looking out for such avenues. Second, is the simplification. We always look up to technology when we face any complex situation because we have always known technology to reduce the complexities of our lives. Since we are dealing with apps and software all the time, organizations should pay heed to the situation so that we, human being can find it easy to search and asses the information. Thirdly, emotional quotient factor. Technology is in fact great when it comes to assess human beings, especially during performance appraisal process, to provide the ratings. Now since we have converted our homes to cubicles, it is imperative that surveys which previously used to work, will fail. Technology should be leveraged to use emoticons and mood sensors to understand the non-verbal cues as well as which emoticons they use to respond to certain events. Fourth, and last but not the least, which is the most important is inclusion. Not all of us are tech-savvy. Many are trying to learn and grasp the technical way outs. It is very important that technology creates an inclusion environment so as to make them relevant in the workforce.

To summarize, we might be progressing rapidly towards the digitization phase, but we should not forget the human aspect to bring about this change. Both has to exist concurrently.

Without the other, one cannot exist.

Source: Self

Are Parents able to do Work From Home?

Consider a 35 year old woman staying with her husband, 37 and her two children – aged 3 and 6 in Bangalore. She works as Project Manager in a top multinational corporation. Her husband is also working as a Project Manager, though of another firm. One of their child, aged 3, is starting with his kindergarten and demands for the utmost attention of his parents. And the other, aged 6, is starting her primary school. She has seen her parents working for most of the times and hence she is bit aware of managing herself.

Things were just going on as expected, until on 24th March, our Prime Minister called for a nation-wide lockdown. And then things just changed.

Should Work-from-Home Parents Hire Help with Child Care? | FlexJobs

Let me now give you a tour of how this woman spends her day. She wakes up to her alarm at 5:30 in the morning. Starting her day with 15 minutes meditation and yoga, she completely immerse herself in doing the household chores. Since the lockdown she has cancelled the maid, cook and nanny services. After her domestic work, she gets ready for the morning meeting with her team members and thus kick starts her 9 to 5 or rather whole day of work. But then wait, she has two children who also needs to get ready for their school. After attending a couple of meetings, she gets up, prepares her children, set up the desktops and login to their school webinar sessions. This continues till the work-chain is intervened by the lunch time. During the lunch hours, she needs to feed her younger one and at the same time, caters to the needs of her elder one. After that, they both go off to sleep and she resumes her work. Some days this workflow gets interrupted by unprecedented events such as poor internet connection, household emergencies and so on and so forth. Apparently as she described, the best time for her to work is about 2 hours in the afternoon and about 2-3 hours at night, when her children go to their beds.

Now this is just one instance. Apparently, this is what most parents are facing while they are working from home. Since the lockdown, they are not just a mom and an employee. Being a maid, a nanny, a mom, a cook, an advisor, a nurse, a repair-woman and a mediator, her life is not just only about being an employee. She is trying to manage everything, trying to subdue all the resistance and challenging all the obstacles on her path. While for others, Work From Home might be a boon or a blessing in disguise but for the parents, especially for a mother, it is a challenge, an everyday obstacle or rather, a bane. Managing her husband, her children, the household as well as her work has never been easy. For her, especially now, there is no distinct boundary between home and work. But the hardest fact of all is that, she was not prepared for this life-changing instrument.

Working from home and juggling family? Tips for WFH parents, from ...

It is of utmost importance that the employers should take this scenario into consideration and by partnering up with Human Resource Team, they should implement policies which can elevate the motivation level of mothers. A few suggestions from my end would be to give them few extra hours each day, especially during the afternoon to attend to her children. To allow them to complete their work by 6 in the evening, so that they can spend the night-time with their children. Parents should be allowed to attend the business meetings with their children and they should not be embarrassed if something comes up in between work which needs their utmost attention. Parents are having a very hard time, juggling in between work and home and employers should be empathetic while dealing with their situations.

Employers should be all big ears while listening to the issues of the parents. They should have high emotional intelligence and should be empathetic enough to not judge them, but to provide them with empathetic solutions. If a parent says that today she will not be able to work for the entire team because her child is facing some issues, the employer should give her the benefit of doubt, trust her and cooperate with her. It is very important for the employer to keep an open mind and be receptive to the problems. They should understand it takes a lot of courage, especially for the female employees to express their problem, fearing that she will be seen as weak and might be displaced. At this moment, the employer should not despise her, but to communicate with her and provide her with the necessary arrangements.

One things is very important which should always be kept in mind – Parents, especially mothers, can sacrifice for their children and hence the employers must give the required amount of importance to them. Especially the importance that the hard-working parents deserve.

Source: https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-for-working-from-home-parents