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Abstract

t networker, but one of the things I did enjoy about networking with previous colleagues or friends far away was that the relationships gave me a great deal of energy in my life.</p><ul><li>With more people working in remote or hybrid work environments, people seem more receptive to having virtual coffees. Use this as an opportunity to connect with someone you haven’t connected with in a while (and that is in a different city).</li><li>Here’s an invitation that works for me: “Hey X, haven’t chatted in a while. I saw <..something notable happen on social media, LinkedIn, etc.> and wanted to congratulate you. I was wondering if you had some time to catch up over a virtual coffee? If you’re interested and available, send me a few time slots that work for you next week and I’ll find some time in our calendars to connect.”</li></ul><h2 id="a779">Online meetings</h2><p id="7734">Online meetings are an entirely different experience than in-person meetings. Trying to stay focused without multi-tasking was always something I had challenges with because when I was working as a management consultant over a decade ago, we were already doing lots of online meetings (though we rarely if at all, turned on the cameras). Sometimes I even forget my camera is on or that I’m screen sharing and I’ll inadvertently do something I’m not supposed to do.</p><p id="39cf">A few things I learned here:</p><ul><li>When sharing your screen, don’t share your whole screen, only share a particular app or window. That way, if you get a DM or an email, it won’t show up because you’re not sharing your screen.</li><li>Take notes — it will help you pay attention to what is being said and as a bonus, will help you remember after the meeting what happened.</li><li>Some meeting services will provide real-time transcription — I like to turn these on because it’s another thing that can help me pay attention even if I’m not looking at people’s faces.</li><li>Before you go into a meeting, close out anything you don’t want coworkers to see. Microsoft Teams for example will put you on do not disturb when you’re in a meeting, but it is always a good idea to make sure you have no distractions during the meeting.</li><li>Pay attention to what is behind you in video calls. As per one of my previous points, people like to snoop around to see what they can see so you might as well be strategic about what you want to show in your background. This is also if you haven’t already, an opportunity to upgrade your home so that you can put your best foot (background) forward in online meetings.</li></ul><h2 id="7acb">Spending commute time on other enjoyable activities</h2><p id="b864">If you worked from home, one of the things you realized was how much time you saved from not having to commute to the office. All the time spent showering, getting dressed in work clothes, packing a lunch, making sure your work stuff is packed, getting into the car or transit, fighting through traffic, paying for

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parking, walking into the office, and then reversing everything as you come home from work is time you can spend doing other things.</p><p id="5c82">For me, that became exercise, reading, spending time with the family and meditation.</p><ul><li>Are there things you do but don’t have to do? Eliminate them as an experiment to see if it matters (or if people notice). If not, use the time for other things.</li><li>Not being in the office means you don’t have random chats or ‘collisions’ with colleagues about the work you’re doing. If you’re in a pure remote working environment, make time during meetings to have these random chats. The idea is not to re-create an artificial water cooler but to make sure you engage in random small talk because that’s how you connect with others.</li><li>Just because you don’t have to commute doesn’t mean you should spend all of that ‘saved’ time working. It’s important to take time for yourself. As Charlie Munger says, “sell yourself the best hour every day”.</li></ul><h2 id="8298">Being active and eating healthy</h2><p id="80dd">I have been re-reading Scott Adams’ How to fail at almost everything and still win big because I wanted to re-learn his idea of systems vs. goals. Goals, as he says, are for losers. Systems are for winners. Why? A goal puts you in a perpetual state of non-winningness until you achieve it. You win if you apply a system every day. Losing 10 pounds by the end of the year? A goal. Being active for 20 minutes every day? A system.</p><p id="fcc0">Perhaps you’ll find some takeaways from what I learned about myself during the pandemic:</p><ul><li>Eating healthy is, for me, a matter of being prepared. When I don’t have time to pack a healthy lunch, I eat out and it’s not always the healthiest food. If I prepare and pack a lunch beforehand (which also means having the right ingredients on hand to make the lunch), then I eat healthily. Being home during the pandemic compounded this for me — I couldn’t eat at home, but there were times when I wasn’t prepared so had to eat more ready-made food (instant noodles, pizza, packaged lasagna etc.)</li><li>I thought I needed to go to the gym or go to a fitness class to be active. What worked for me was expanding my definition of what counted as ‘active’. I counted everything from active recovery, stretching, weight lifting, cardio (running), walking, and yoga as being active. And I tried to fit being active into small gaps in between meetings or at the end of the day. I also didn’t stress out if I didn’t get 20–30 minutes of activity three times a week — if I could even do it once a week, I congratulated myself and vowed to do better the following week.</li><li>I also found, as a side benefit of eating at home, that I saved money and found eating out to be special. It’s not like I ate out all the time, but it was often enough that when I went for a year without eating out, it felt like it was a special occasion when I did eat out.</li></ul></article></body>

Six Skills and Habits I Have Improved From the Pandemic

Finding the positives in a dark period in history

I’m generally a positive person, and when I hear about people complaining or otherwise being negative about the pandemic, I like to reflect on my life and consider the positives of the pandemic (or really, any negative situation). What mistakes did I make? What did I learn? How can I apply it to this ‘new’ normal?

Relationships (personal)

Due to the pandemic and being locked down, I spent more time with my closest family as everybody worked from home. I quickly learned (from my experience and witnessing others) that this could be a wonderful thing or the impetus that leads to tension and conflict. Spending A LOT of time with someone means you get to know everything about that person.

On the other hand, I also learned that even if we (my partner and I) are stuck together doesn’t mean we can’t find times when we do our own thing — going out for a run, going into a separate room to meditate, etc.

Spending a lot of time with someone can be a great accelerator for your relationship, either good or bad.
Just because you are forced to spend a lot of time with someone doesn’t mean you can’t find time for yourself.

Relationships (work)

I read an article that said we are all closer to our coworkers. The reason? Because when we do video calls with our coworkers, we can typically get a glimpse into their personal lives — if they have pets or children, if they read certain books, if they have art pieces or posters on their walls, where they are working from, are they working in a home or apartment, etc.

If my coworker has their background off, I, like most people I imagine, snoop a bit to see what I can see. But the other thing I do is try to weave it into the conversation.

“Hey, I see you have many books beside you — reading anything interesting?”
“Is that a dog? What kind of dog is it?”
“Oh, your daughter is so cute. How old is she?”

Networking

With everybody working from home, this meant networking was a lot easier (though that doesn’t mean you could get access to anybody at any time either). I found it to be a great way to connect with people I haven’t connected to in a long time, and because many of those in my network lived far away from me, I didn’t have to be in the same town to reach out to them for a virtual coffee.

I wouldn’t even say I’m a great networker, but one of the things I did enjoy about networking with previous colleagues or friends far away was that the relationships gave me a great deal of energy in my life.

With more people working in remote or hybrid work environments, people seem more receptive to having virtual coffees. Use this as an opportunity to connect with someone you haven’t connected with in a while (and that is in a different city).
Here’s an invitation that works for me: “Hey X, haven’t chatted in a while. I saw <..something notable happen on social media, LinkedIn, etc.> and wanted to congratulate you. I was wondering if you had some time to catch up over a virtual coffee? If you’re interested and available, send me a few time slots that work for you next week and I’ll find some time in our calendars to connect.”

Online meetings

Online meetings are an entirely different experience than in-person meetings. Trying to stay focused without multi-tasking was always something I had challenges with because when I was working as a management consultant over a decade ago, we were already doing lots of online meetings (though we rarely if at all, turned on the cameras). Sometimes I even forget my camera is on or that I’m screen sharing and I’ll inadvertently do something I’m not supposed to do.

A few things I learned here:

When sharing your screen, don’t share your whole screen, only share a particular app or window. That way, if you get a DM or an email, it won’t show up because you’re not sharing your screen.
Take notes — it will help you pay attention to what is being said and as a bonus, will help you remember after the meeting what happened.
Some meeting services will provide real-time transcription — I like to turn these on because it’s another thing that can help me pay attention even if I’m not looking at people’s faces.
Before you go into a meeting, close out anything you don’t want coworkers to see. Microsoft Teams for example will put you on do not disturb when you’re in a meeting, but it is always a good idea to make sure you have no distractions during the meeting.
Pay attention to what is behind you in video calls. As per one of my previous points, people like to snoop around to see what they can see so you might as well be strategic about what you want to show in your background. This is also if you haven’t already, an opportunity to upgrade your home so that you can put your best foot (background) forward in online meetings.

Spending commute time on other enjoyable activities

If you worked from home, one of the things you realized was how much time you saved from not having to commute to the office. All the time spent showering, getting dressed in work clothes, packing a lunch, making sure your work stuff is packed, getting into the car or transit, fighting through traffic, paying for parking, walking into the office, and then reversing everything as you come home from work is time you can spend doing other things.

For me, that became exercise, reading, spending time with the family and meditation.

Are there things you do but don’t have to do? Eliminate them as an experiment to see if it matters (or if people notice). If not, use the time for other things.
Not being in the office means you don’t have random chats or ‘collisions’ with colleagues about the work you’re doing. If you’re in a pure remote working environment, make time during meetings to have these random chats. The idea is not to re-create an artificial water cooler but to make sure you engage in random small talk because that’s how you connect with others.
Just because you don’t have to commute doesn’t mean you should spend all of that ‘saved’ time working. It’s important to take time for yourself. As Charlie Munger says, “sell yourself the best hour every day”.

Being active and eating healthy

I have been re-reading Scott Adams’ How to fail at almost everything and still win big because I wanted to re-learn his idea of systems vs. goals. Goals, as he says, are for losers. Systems are for winners. Why? A goal puts you in a perpetual state of non-winningness until you achieve it. You win if you apply a system every day. Losing 10 pounds by the end of the year? A goal. Being active for 20 minutes every day? A system.

Perhaps you’ll find some takeaways from what I learned about myself during the pandemic:

Eating healthy is, for me, a matter of being prepared. When I don’t have time to pack a healthy lunch, I eat out and it’s not always the healthiest food. If I prepare and pack a lunch beforehand (which also means having the right ingredients on hand to make the lunch), then I eat healthily. Being home during the pandemic compounded this for me — I couldn’t eat at home, but there were times when I wasn’t prepared so had to eat more ready-made food (instant noodles, pizza, packaged lasagna etc.)
I thought I needed to go to the gym or go to a fitness class to be active. What worked for me was expanding my definition of what counted as ‘active’. I counted everything from active recovery, stretching, weight lifting, cardio (running), walking, and yoga as being active. And I tried to fit being active into small gaps in between meetings or at the end of the day. I also didn’t stress out if I didn’t get 20–30 minutes of activity three times a week — if I could even do it once a week, I congratulated myself and vowed to do better the following week.
I also found, as a side benefit of eating at home, that I saved money and found eating out to be special. It’s not like I ate out all the time, but it was often enough that when I went for a year without eating out, it felt like it was a special occasion when I did eat out.