The Grey NATO - Ep 103 - The Isolation Tapes // Work From Home Like A Pro

Published on Thu, 19 Mar 2020 06:00:20 -0400

Synopsis

James and Jason, two friends who work remotely, discuss tips and strategies for working productively from home during the COVID-19 pandemic isolation period. They share advice on establishing routines, taking breaks, managing distractions, eating well, and finding engaging activities to fill free time. The episode aims to provide a positive perspective and suggestions to help listeners make the most of being homebound.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason from Minneapolis Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 103, and we thank you for listening. Hey James, how's it going up there in snowy Toronto?
James Sunny Toronto, I guess. Sunny, no snow. It's well into the plus side of Celsius. I've been enjoying Fresh air on my porch and of course in other areas where there aren't a lot of people around. Yeah, right, right. So this is this is kind of a fun episode. It's something that you and I are kind of excited about. So anyone who pays attention will wonder why episode 103 is a week early. We did 102 just last week. And the answer for that is, you know, this is kind of a stressful time for a lot of people. And it's also a time where people are going to be at home and kind of disconnected from their normal social circles and maybe even some of their family and that kind of thing. And because Jason and I are also home due to the COVID virus, uh, you know, kind of transmission measures that are in place. We thought it'd be fun to go to weekly episodes just until this crisis is over. I don't think this is something that Jason and I can commit to long-term. I think we might actually run out of stuff to talk about. We'll find out. Um, but we're calling these the isolation tapes and we plan to stick to topics that will help you make the most of this time of social distancing. At least that's the plan for the first few episodes. We don't really know how long this will go, but we want you to know that we understand that this is a time where you might have a few more minutes in your week for podcasts. And certainly there's a lot of great podcasts out there to listen to, but we thought it'd be fun. We're kind of home locked for the time being. Let's put out another episode every week. And this way we can kind of ramp up a little bit more content and also, you know, just kind of stay connected in a time where connection is overall failing. These won't be episodes about COVID-19. And aside from this sort of intro at the top, we intend to mostly ignore the virus and its general stress. This is meant to improve your week or maybe even limit some of your anxiety, even if only by a hair. If you need information regarding COVID-19, Jason and I urge you to refer to the CDC and other official channels within your country. Please take what you hear on the news or definitely on Instagram with a grain of salt. And I would say to stress just the overall concept, consider your role in the development of community transmission, because that's going to be the tipping point for a lot of this and how it affects whole countries in the entire world versus kind of pockets of expansion. And finally, I think Jason would agree with me, understand that while you may get sick and be okay, you may also pass it to someone who won't be okay.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah. And I think, you know, just to add to that, one thing that we're also trying to do with, with these weekly episodes is kind of add to the general air of positivity during these You know admittedly tough times for a lot of people and you know we urge everybody to do the same so certainly there's the the virus transmission element of our responsibilities, but also you know just Project a little positivity put out put out good inspirational stuff to your friends whether that's on Social media or through work or family or whatever so that's that's kind of what we're trying to do here And you know on a bit of a sad and coincidental note here we're recording this on the day that we were supposed to hold our TGN 100 get together in New York City. And so much has changed since we since we planned that. Here we are, you in Toronto and me sitting here in Minneapolis. But, you know, life goes on and we'll just we'll just soldier forward here.
James So we're attempting to support that with these episodes. So let's get on to Isolation Tape Volume 1, Work From Home Like a Pro. So now that we are home and kind of you kind of have to stay roughly close to your homestead. Obviously, it's fine and healthy to be outside, but certainly not in places with a lot of other people. How are you passing some of your time, Jason? How have you been since we last talked?
Jason from Minneapolis Well, you know, I mean, I've I've been a home worker since 2004 and I'm generally an introvert, as are you. So, you know, not to not to be too smug about it. I'm fairly used to this sort of lifestyle. So it isn't as big of an adjustment for me as it is for for a lot of people, but, um, Gashani's home more regularly. So the two of us are, uh, you know, passing each other at the water cooler, so to speak here. Um, and we're, we're, we're kind of bunkered in binging on, uh, some curries that Gashani's been cooking and, uh, also on Nordic Noir mystery series on, on like Netflix and that sort of thing. So that's been, that's been fun. Uh, the weather is improving here. So, you know, as we're, Uh, as it's perfectly fine to get outside, we've been trying to go for daily walks and as soon as it gets a little warmer and get some of the sand off the streets, we'll probably get on our bikes. And, um, you know, I've heard it's supposed to be a good morel mushroom season. So at some point we'll get out in the woods with our boots on and start digging around under the, under the dead elms. I like it. See what we can find. Um, and yeah, I mean, I, one thing, you know, that, uh, I've sort of committed myself to is getting a little more knowledgeable and proficient at, um, automotive electrical work. Uh, you and I have been trading messages about our fog light projects, uh, you on your Jeep and me on the old Land Rover. And so I, I got a set of hella fog lamps and mounted those to the front bumper. And I attempted, I made one attempt to wire them up and, uh, went slightly backwards in that attempt. I've now I'm down to one single headlamp and no fog lights. Um, so it's strictly daytime driving for me these days, but, uh, I, as soon as it, this rain that we're getting passes maybe this weekend. I'll get back out there. I've got a few, some heat shrink and some flex tubing and some connectors on order. There you go. That will allow me to finish the project hopefully this weekend. So it's, you know, it's a great time to jump on, on YouTube and, and learn a little bit more and taking another swing at it. I've gotten some help from our, our double E electrical engineer friend Enrique down in Texas. He's been advising me over WhatsApp. So, uh, Yeah. And your project went considerably better than mine.
James I mean, I put the fogs directly in after I bought the Jeep. I mean, one of the one of the big and I think we even mentioned this on a previous episode, but one of the big kind of not that great points about the Jeep JK, the era of Jeep that I have is it used pretty basic lighting. Yeah. And by basic, I mean like borderline unsafe. So and this is why you see like any Jeep you see on the road, Nine times out of 10, it has some sort of additional lighting. Either they've covered it in light bars, which aren't legal and are kind of problematic in actual use and that sort of thing. Or you do an LED, or in some cases, if you've got the cash, an HID upgrade to the big seven inch headlights. And then in my case, mine's a Sahara, so it has these kind of four, four and a half inch fog lights mounted right set deep in the bumper. They're actually, it's a pretty nice design for stock. Oh yeah. Yeah, that looks good. The great thing about the Jeep isn't just that it's kind of built to a 1960s sort of standard. Yeah. In many ways, there's there's some really nice points about the Jeep, but for the most of it, it's kind of like a loosey goosey, rough and tumble vehicle that's meant to be treated like you look at a Jeep and you kind of know how they intended it to be used. Yeah. And not unlike something like a Land Rover. Right. And it's very modular. And because you take those points and cross it with a genuinely massive um, enthusiast base, you can find anything you want in relatively short order. So if like, I've been watching videos on like how to change pretty large scale parts of the transmission just in your driveway. Yeah. People just make these videos. Like they just, they vlog about their Jeep. It's not, it's, it's fantastic. Um, but the, the headlights went in and about five minutes and the fog lights, I didn't want to take the bumper off entirely. Um, which I've now learned is a fairly common thing to do. Um, and it is actually only a few bolts. Um, but at the time I found a way to weasel to kind of super bright led, uh, fog lights into the bumper. And then what I did just recently, along with a couple other small things around the vehicle, um, was, uh, uh, put a kind of a yellow tint on the fog lights, uh, to give it more of a, more of a nighttime driving application. Um, I haven't been out driving at night as I'm not really driving anywhere these days. Uh, but at some point I will, and I'll report back on whether or not they actually improved the, the light from the fog lights in conjunction with the headlights and being led, you really have to cut them very low. Yeah. Um, because otherwise you're just going to bother everyone. I mean, a Jeep is a high vehicle stock on whatever I have 31 inch wheels. And then you see people on 35s and that sort of thing, and on big lift kits, and it's just your light is so high. It's not so much that it's aimed... It's like eye level, yeah. Yeah, it's not so much that it's aimed incorrectly, it's you're starting from a much higher point, so you have to be super cognizant of that. And luckily, I have a wall I can aim them on correctly, and once you cut everything down, the fog lights actually start to make a huge difference because they fill in all these areas on the side of the road that are good to know about as you're zipping along. Yeah, right. But yeah, so that's... I'm really enjoying the Jeep as just kind of a rabbit hole into YouTube, especially these times where I'm home, you're just kind of hanging out, maybe you've done a... We'll get to this in a moment with our main topic, but maybe you do like a unit of work and then take a little break with a 15 minute YouTube video about how to change this or do this on your Jeep. So I was looking into I mean, kind of endless stuff. I mean, roof racks and the rooftop tents, all sorts of interior modifications. And I don't think I necessarily plan to do most of those with the Jeep while it remains my only vehicle. But if it ever becomes a secondary vehicle where it could become more of just a camping platform, then it's kind of fun just to know about this stuff and learn about the brands and read about what makes one different and even to learn some of the personalities in like the Jeep world. I like a rabbit hole and this is a good one.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, I think we both have vehicles that have huge enthusiast bases and a lot of information. They've been making both of these vehicles since the 1940s and in particular with my old Land Rover, the parts haven't changed for decades and they're fairly easy to get. YouTube's been a huge resource and it's just a lot of fun. Um, you know, to, to quote Ben Clymer again, it's nice to be a civilian about something. Oh, absolutely. You know, get away from watches a little bit, get away from some of the other stuff we're, we're into and just kind of be a novice at something and learn. And it's just been fun and fairly low stress and actually a real stress reliever. So it's, it's been great. Um, yeah, we, you know, before our last episode, which I recorded, uh, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Ghoshani and I headed up north for a ski trip and we got back last Wednesday I guess it was and this was just before you know things really blew up in the news and everybody started isolating themselves and It was it was it was a good last It was a good last getaway. We did two days of skiing up at a place called Lutzen That's way up on the north shore of Lake Superior where they get like three feet of snow you know sunny days and and we stayed in in a rental condo that had ski in and ski out access right onto the trail and we brought all of all of our own food and So it was it was it was a nice kind of uh... getaway before before all the madness uh... especially considering that you know one trip after another was getting canceled new york and our trip to to bonaire next month uh... our dive trip that we look forward to every year was scrapped so you know we'll we'll hold out for for next time but it was it was just a nice getaway and and here we are just as the weather's getting nicer so yeah i i thought uh... you know before we dive into the main topic. It might be nice to introduce a new sort of small item to our usual show agenda. We do, we do shows that aren't always about watches. Certainly today's topic is not about watches at all. Um, but we thought we'd introduce something called, you know, a risk chart risk. We thought we'd introduce something called a risk check, which is something that not uncommon to other watch related podcasts. Um, but you know, we're not going to dwell on it, but I thought it'd be fun to just go back and forth on each episode and figure out what we're wearing. Yeah. So what do you got on this week? So I've got, um, I'm wearing the Seiko SRP 777. Uh, somewhat inspired by Cole Pennington's review, uh, in that three on three video that, that he put up with Jack and John on Hodinkee, uh, earlier this week. It's, um, it's a watch I wore a ton when I first got it a couple of years ago, but just don't, um, I don't wear it a lot and I pulled it out and I put it on and I've got it on a NATO strap and it's like, it's just such a, I'm reminded at what a, just a perfect, perfect watch it is. And, and the, I've, I've also forgotten how incredible the loom is too. I mean, it's just after wearing kind of smaller vintage stuff for, for the past few weeks, it's like, it's just a torch and it's just, it's got some heft to it and it's just, it's just a fun watch. It's just feels kind of, kind of perfect. So that's, that's what I've got on at least for the day. How about you?
James Garmin Fenix 6, the 42 millimeter. You know, I'm at home. I'm kind of in and out of working on the Jeep or other projects between, you know, units of work for Hodinkee and otherwise. And it's just it means I don't necessarily like I can leave my phone on the table instead of constantly having it in a pocket on my person. And I like having the indication, the fact that I should get some steps. Normally, it's not a problem. But now that I'm kind of internal, Um, it's nice to know that like, you know, it's, it's, we're recording this at 11 and I'm at less than 400 steps. So I spent most of the morning in bed and I should probably consider, you know, lapping the block or, or finding a field or something and, and, uh, and getting out and doing that later today. But we'll see. Um, but yeah, the, just for raw functionality, this is my, my kind of go-to at home watch. Um, I also like that, uh, you know, if you get sweaty, you just kind of drop it in the sink. It's, uh, it's just a really easy watch with a ton of functionality. It makes it easy to kind of keep on track, you know, obviously with, with all of Hodinkee also working from home, the Slack email scenario has become kind of more influx and kind of magnified. So it's helpful for managing all that kind of stuff as well.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah. Right. You know, somebody wrote me on, on Instagram the other day and kind of, I think I'd posted that picture washing my hands with the Seiko on and somebody said, Oh, what's, what's the go-to watch for these trying times or something? I said, you know, If you're stuck at home with your whole collection, you might as well just wear, you know, rotate through them all. You can wear multiples a day if you want. That's one positive aspect of all of this. And you certainly don't have to choose. I did offer sort of a humorous caveat that a steel bracelet's a little easier to keep clean than straps if you're going to go out in public. But, you know, other than that, just go for it. Have fun. That's, I guess, you know, you can finally use the whole collection in one day if you really wanted to.
James Yeah, I mean, why not? You got them there and you're killing time. Maybe pull out a camera and take a few pictures, put them up on Instagram. Yeah. Getting a discussion or two with a few people.
Unknown Yeah.
James So what do you say we, you know, talking about being home and finding things to do to fill the day and kind of fill the void. How about we talk about some work from home tips?
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, good idea. I mean, I think it's probably a new reality for a lot of people that are typically going into offices or other places of work to be at home. And you and I have had considerable experience working from home.
James For sure. So yeah, good idea. So why don't you start? I mean, you're the pro, certainly between the two of us and a career work from home guy at this point.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah. So, you know, I've been working from home since 2004. And I remember when I first started doing it, especially when my wife was going into the office, there was always the sense of guilt that if I wasn't sitting at my desk from, you know, nine till five, kind of hammering away at a keyboard, it was uh, some, I had some level of guilt, you know, if I was maybe going for a walk or, or, um, taking a break to, to read the paper or something like that. But you know, that's kind of an old fashioned way of thinking. And I, I think when you're working from home, depending on what the expectations are from, from your, your employers demands a bit of a new perspective. So it's not really about the hours that you're sitting at your desk. It's more about what you're producing. If you're given a task or a, you're on a project that has a deadline, that's more about, you know, what, what you do in that day or in that week or, or whatever the time period is. And if that can be done in four hours, you know, you get up at say six in the morning, you have a cup of coffee and you, that's your productive time and you hammer it out. And by 10 o'clock you've done what you need to then go spend the sunny hours of the day doing something more rewarding, like wiring up your Land Rover's fog lamps or something, for sure. Or come back to it in the evening. Certainly that's not going to work for everybody. If you have meetings going on regularly or, or if there's an expectation that you have certain hours, maybe you have to be available. Um, but you know, that, that, that's kind of my first bit of, uh, advice. Um, the other thing is, uh, you know, and this is a bit of a cliche, but you know, stay out of your pajamas, you know, or get out of your pajamas, you know, get dressed, get dressed in the morning. You don't have to certainly put on, I'm, I'm wearing, you know, sweatpants and like a Henley shirt, um, and, and just some like Birkenstocks, but you know, at least I'm, I'm out of my, my boxer shorts and ratty t-shirt that I slept in. I think it just does something psychologically. It's, it's something that's worked for me. It's not always for everybody, but, uh, um, that would be my first tip. And then keep, keep a bit of a routine, you know, kind of going counter to, to what I said earlier about, you know, kind of working when, when it works for you. But I think even if you are working odd hours and taking breaks, it is important to keep a bit of a routine to just stay disciplined. So whether that routine is have coffee, you know, write for three hours, then go for a run, take a nap, uh, make lunch, do some laundry and then write again for three hours and then make dinner, you know, or something like that, that that's still a routine, uh, perhaps unorthodox, but, but I think that's important as well. And you and I differ on my, on my next point, which is to, I prefer to work at a, at a desk. I have, I have a room in the house, that's kind of my office and, um, my face out, out the window and I've got a big screen and I, I just like to kind of sit in a, comfortable chair and kind of work. It just does something for me psychologically to, you know, get away from too much comfort, too much, uh, too much temptation to kind of, you know, roll over and pick up the remote and turn on the TV or something like that. So, um, occasionally I'll, I'll, if I'm, I need a change of scenery, I'll take my laptop out to the living room and sit on the, on the sofa. Um, uh, often I'll transition to that in the evenings when I'm, I'm doing a little bit of writing all build a fire or something this time of year and sit there and work there. But, uh, for the most part, I'm, I'm in an office. It's, uh, it's how I've worked for, for many years. And I just kind of prefer that. Um, and then I'll, you know, I'll hand it back to you, but just one more, uh, and then we can kind of bounce back and forth a little bit, but as you know, as you mentioned earlier, just take breaks. Uh, like you said, do that unit of work and then go do something else. Do a chore, do your laundry, cook something, um, whatever that is. I think that the, the ironic part of working from home is there's this sense that it's too much of a free for all and you're just going to kind of be lazy. And actually what happens a lot of times is you forget to take breaks because either out of a sense of guilt or just, you're just so focused on what you're doing that you forget to get up from your, your bed or your desk or wherever you choose to work and just go get a change of scenery, move your eyes away from a screen, look outside, breathe some fresh air.
James I think, um, I think the big thing to consider is if, is if you're not used to working from home, the, The benefit of working from home is this freedom that you're that we're talking about. Yeah. But the downfall for someone who's not used to the freedom is it feels like a complete lack of structure. Yeah. And it's very difficult to define a pace for your day. Um, because in an office there's, there's not only, of course you have the same list of work to do, whether you're in an office or at home, but you have all these other things happening around you. Um, maybe there's more meetings because they could be done face to face or there's people walking up to your desk or there's phone calls and now all of that context has changed. And so I would say the important thing is you need to start to see your day in phases. This depends on your employer. If you're an hourly employee who, let's say, is now doing tech support from home, then there's going to be a check-in time and a computer that tells you how many calls you've taken and a time, probably an assigned time for lunch. I did that job for years from home and from an office. But if you're in a scenario where you're taking what would be typically a self-motivated job that required you to be in an office nine to five, and now doing it from home, you just have to start to see your day in phases. I would say that the one that's important for me is getting up at roughly the same time. Now, unlike you, I prefer to work from bed, especially for what I would call my morning unit of work. I really love routine, especially for the first, until about noon. Um, so that's when I try and do, I catch up on all my feedly. I catch up on anything that's going on in Slack. I'll do one run of email. Um, this will depend on your job, but in my job, um, email isn't something that needs to be addressed the moment it comes in typically like about. 95 times out of a hundred, like 95 out of a hundred emails, you don't need to reply immediately. That message would come to me somehow otherwise like Slack or text message or WhatsApp. So I try and do email as a chunk. Like now is my time to clear my inbox because I don't want to think creatively. I want to switch to a more logical standpoint of my mind and just kind of input, output, input, output until there's no more emails. And I'll do the same thing where I'll use Feedly as a break from writing or thinking about the structure of a larger story. You know we're writing some longer pieces currently that will come up later in the season but I think for me it's super important to see a lot of things as units and then kind of stack those units so that you're phasing in and out of different types of thinking.
Unknown Yeah.
James Because what that's going to do is that's going to mirror when you're at work at an office sitting at your desk you're phasing in and out of different types of stimulus. And when you work from home, you could very well, depending on your scenario, especially if you're alone at home, no pets, no kids, no SO, uh, you may very well have almost no stimulus depending on the way that your office operates in a work from home scenario. And it, you know, you may not have like, uh, a core group of people that you typically talk to on your phone. Like Jason and I live remotely in many ways, not just work remotely, if that makes any sense. So like, My best friends are people that I talk to on my phone. I almost never see them in person. Right. Yeah. So this is like, it's so easy for Heaton and I to be like, this is awesome. This is fine. I could do this indefinitely because like I've been working from home in some metric, not permanently, but in some metrics since about 2000 and maybe 2010 or 2011. Yeah. And that was because I owned equipment that my job at the time couldn't afford. So I would do that work from home. And and then, Later on, you know, it became something where I no longer had an office. And now when I have an office, it's in New York with Hodinkee and that office is closed and that staff is being supported on a few different pieces of software. The big things, again, to realize is try and put yourself in the perspective of your team. If you're an extrovert, then be communicative. Call people. Try and still get that connection. And if it's times when you're, you can't call an employee and just chit chat for 10 minutes, like you would get up from your desk and walk over to a friend's, a colleague, a co-friend's work space and talk to them for a bit and get that bit of extroversion kind of recharge. Then, you know, listen to podcasts that have personalities that you like. It could be Heaton and I, it could be any number of others. There's so many great podcasts out there and you can definitely find one that you would love and that general conversation. Um, you know, I, I would say on the spectrum for me, I may be like 75% introverted, the other 25% I can get just from podcasts.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah. It's, it's that, that element. I, that's a good point. I think podcasts give, especially if you're alone at home, if you, like you said, if you don't have a significant other spouse or whatever, and you just crave a human voice, I mean, you can certainly have a radio going, but a podcast is a great thing. Just, just a human voice, um, can, can be, can kind of, mitigate that loneliness that can creep in.
James And you know, you'd mentioned the radio and I love public radio a lot, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it just like I am with Instagram is it's all about the virus. Right. And whereas the, and don't get me wrong, I don't want to say that you're not going to get good information from public radio or from CNN or even from Instagram, but they all have a different goal than say the CDC or your local government. One is pure, hard, reliable information. The other one is something that will keep you listening for or reading for another five minutes, right? It's just two different things. I'm not, again, I'm not saying that, that the media specific points of the media are bad, but I think in many ways they're letting us down because they, it's, that's a hype. That's an anxiety. I think that's adding stress. And if you go to a podcast, which may or may not have been recorded long before this happened, then you can exist in a time, separate from that anxiety, which is super important for me because I can't, I can't listen. Like I can't tell you the number of accounts I've blocked or unfollowed this week because it's just one toilet paper joke after another. Yeah, right. And like, you know, one of my least favorite days in existence is April Fool's, which we're coming up on rapidly and it's going to be a real banger this year. I'm sure. But my problem with April Fool's is everyone is saying the same joke and it's funny once. Yeah. And the toilet paper thing or the, or the social distancing thing was funny one time, like about a week ago. Yeah. And now it's just like, I, what I want is I want to go onto my Feedly and read about cars and watches and computer tech and, and not really have it within the context of, of anything else that's happening. Right. And I think in, in that way you, you really have to ultimately for work from home, especially if it's not something that you've elected to do, You need to lean into the freedom because now you get to make a bunch of choices about how your day goes But the key to leaning in is leaning in for your personality Yeah, so if you require less social input, then you're you're probably lucking out. This isn't that bad for heat and I this is something that we can lean into but I have literally just in the last 24 hours Spoken to friends and colleagues that are having a legitimately hard time with it Yeah, I believe that they're feeling isolated. They're, they're feeling really not, not positive. And, and, and when you take, when you take somebody out of the things that support them, like an office space that they enjoy in a, in a, in a defined community that they enjoy, and then also confront them with a bunch of unknowns. How long will this happen? How long will it be until the borders are open? How long will it be until I can fly somewhere? How long will it be until I can see my grandparents? whatever the questions are that don't have an answer right now. I think when you combine both of those, it's, it's a bad mental spaces and it's not going to be a productive mental space in the goal of working or in being happy. Yeah. Um, so that's where I would say definitely consider your day in phases and use those phases to get your work done, but also to support your own mental health.
Jason from Minneapolis I think too, you know, social media is the kind of thing that is a, can be an unwanted distraction even if you're in normal circumstances when you're working in an office. So, um, You know, there's legitimate evidence of addiction to social media and we all would do better to lessen that for ourselves. But I think, especially in this time of uncertainty and anxiety, you know, I would just stress to use social media for its good qualities. And if you build that into your workday and maybe that's something that you value and that you'd like, you'd like to go to Instagram or you're on Facebook or whatever it is, you know, use it for its good qualities and unfollow the accounts or mute them or whatever you can do that are spreading misinformation or cynicism and negativity. There's enough of that going around now anyway. Use it to keep in touch with friends. I've gotten great direct messages from people on Instagram still across hobbies and still You know, following a lot of like old Land Rover accounts with kind of cool, you know, great photos that are inspirational and just fun to look at. You know, if you post something, make it something fun, make it something upbeat and positive. Uh, certainly if you're feeling anxious or whatever, you know, you can reach out to people in other ways. Uh, there's WhatsApp, Slack, Viber, iMessage, you know, I use them all with various members of family and friends, but, uh, um, and kind of bring it back around to, to the work from home thing that we're talking about here. you know, don't, don't keep that going continuously through the day. It can just be this constant distraction or notifications and I need to check how many likes or I need to check on the news or whatever. I, one thing that I recommend that I do regularly is I'll, I'll go dark in stretches during the day where if I have something, you know, like you said, you, you, you check email once you do kind of something as a routine in the morning and then come back to it later. I do something similar and I found that the best way for me to do that was, and it's, It's funny because it's something that you can easily reverse on your own. So it's, it's a little strange, but I'll just shut off the wifi on my laptop, um, or on my phone or just put my phone in the other room. And just that small step, which I could easily turn back on. It just kind of puts me in this, uh, self-imposed bit of silence where I can do, you know, if I have a piece of writing, that's going to take me two hours, I'll just switch off wifi and crank on it. And it's amazing how quickly the time goes. I'll suddenly look up and it'll be two and a half hours later. And then I'll log back on and check in. And then it's a bit of a reward. It's kind of fun. You pop up there. Oh, there's an email. Oh, you've got, you know, something's out for delivery today, or, um, you know, here's a new, you know, 20% off, uh, fog lamps or whatever, you know, whatever it is. And, um, you, you, you play with that a little bit and then you, you go dark again when you need to. So, um, that, that's something that, that I like to do as well.
James The thing I would really want to stress is you need to see this as freedom. which means you get to choose how your day kind of relates to you. In an office, you're part of an ecosystem and now you're not. And you get to make decisions as to how you support yourself. The big thing to learn is when and how to take a break. Um, so that, you know, the, the list we have here is, you know, if you need a break, take one, call a friend, uh, exercise, uh, you can exercise for literally do four or five sets of a comfortable number of pushups. Yeah. That's going to literally change the chemistry that's moving around your system. It's going to change your mood. It'll allow you to get out a little bit of physical energy if you've been sitting in a chair with a laptop on your lap and headphones on. And if that doesn't work, then go for a run. And that could be around the block. It's something I'm getting back into running now that it's getting warm in Toronto. And I'm reminded that when I first started running, the first day where I was like, you know what, I'm going to become a runner. I ran for about two and a half minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And I said, well, if I ran for five minutes, then I can make it roughly around this, like one city block in Vancouver. And then I did that until I could not, I could do it without stopping. And then I would do two laps. And then I added in another block. It's something like, like you don't have to run 5k. You don't have to run 10 K. You don't have to be at a certain speed. The goal here with a break isn't for it to be successful. It's that you took the break. Right. So if you, if your goal was to do 50 pushups and you do five, who cares? Literally that's five. That's so much more than zero. Yeah. And if your goal was to talk to a friend and they were busy, at least you called them. You said, Hey, I was thinking about you. That's so much more than zero. Um, if the goal is to make some good food and you burn it, if you're like me, you burn it and you ruin it and it's inedible. You know what? You still did something. You engaged a different part of your brain and, and, and that's what's healthy. And if the goal, is to simply have a change of pace. I really like to go to my front porch, especially this time of year and then through the next six months. And if it's midday and you go, you know what, I'm working from home and I'm going to have a beer, have a beer. Yeah. You're in charge. Right, right. You know, record if you're not sure and you want to put something out into the world, record a question for our upcoming Q&A episode. We're going to do a Q&A episode for one of these. Yeah, please do. Isolation tapes. We've got a bunch of stuff planned that's going to be both internal and external sort of stimulus. Watch a YouTube video about a skill or hobby that you're interested. Learn to do a hand skill, learn to sew, learn to whittle, learn to... Just something that you can literally pick up and put down in an instant. You don't have to finish. I used to tailor all of my own button ups, my shirts. Yeah. You don't have to finish that. You can do one side of the shirt and then go back to your email or answer a phone call or whatever has to be done.
Jason from Minneapolis Cooking is a good one because it's something you need. It's something productive and it's a good break from work. I do that often. I'm a terrible cook. Yeah, I'm not a great cook. I have a repertoire of about five things that I can do. I can do a decent pasta red sauce and You made pretty good scrambled eggs for me once. Scrambled eggs. Yeah. Oh yeah.
James I enjoyed those. Yeah.
Jason from Minneapolis I've got a few things I can do. And so like there are things that maybe take 45 minutes to get started and then maybe it's bubbling away on the stove and I just come back to my desk and work a little bit more. So this actually brings up a good point because I think we both wanted to talk a little bit about food. When you work from home, certainly when you work in an office, some offices there's always snacks out. People tend to eat badly at offices, but at home, You're also next to your kitchen and you have this weird lack of structure, so to speak, or freedom, I guess.
James You might start bored of eating.
Jason from Minneapolis You might start bored of eating or just eating too regularly. So eat healthy, you know, eat, keep a schedule, you know, eat when you need to, but just be wary of that proximity to the kitchen. You're, you're close to, you know, the bag of pretzels, which, you know, you can mindlessly sit and eat the whole bag or an extra cookie or, you know, whatever. But, uh, You know, that's the other thing is just kind of incorporate that in your routine like you would anything else.
James The one food thing I had mentioned, which was on a previous episode, if you are like me and you do not really enjoy cooking, but it's because you're not good at it, I can give you a practical thing that anyone can make, which would be a broth, like a chicken broth or a bone broth of some sort, literally. And if you have a big pot, you can obviously, it can be difficult to go grocery shopping. But if you have some weird bone in meat in your freezer that you're not sure what to do with, or you got a rotisserie chicken or something like that for the fam, and now you're left with some pickings and bones, hit on YouTube and learn how to make a bone broth. It's very little work. None of it's expensive. It can be done with these random pieces of meat that you see at the grocery store, and you're like, what do I do with that? What do I do with a chicken back? Yeah, yeah. They cost almost nothing. It's delicious. It's super healthy. And it's also, if you're hungry and you're having a very busy day, you can pour yourself a mug of this and go directly back to work. It's a nice flexible outcome. But the other side is if you're listening to that and you're saying like, James, I want to make things, but I don't want to make some soup, go on YouTube. It's literally endless. One of my brothers and one of my sisters is obsessed with all of the cooking content on YouTube. And they're basically like every couple of days trying to make some very difficult thing. And it becomes more of like a science experiment. It becomes like building Lego. Right. Right. It's about the act of kind of dialing into this one thing. So, yeah, I mean, I know it's a broken record at this point, but I genuinely think that you need to embrace the freedom of working from home and then tune your day to your personality. So if you need external input, you just have to be proactive and those systems will start to balance themselves out. And then if you're feeling kind of lost, or like you can't find a rhythm, my suggestion is fresh air, exercise, and decent food.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, and I think, you know, you just reminded me of something I wanted to mention too, and that is, there's this concept of micro-adventures, which is a term that was coined by... A fantastic idea, especially for our weekends. Yeah, by a British adventurer named Alastair Humphreys, who kind of coined this phrase to relate to, you know, small adventures that you can do locally. You can do overnight at home or not even overnight, but like for instance, depending on where you live, maybe you have a small yard that you can set up a tent in the backyard. You can camp in your backyard. Um, and, and practice your camping skills, you know, put down, you know, set up the tent, put down a camping mat, you know, make, make some freeze dried soup on your camp stove outside, you know, practice those skills for later in the year when the weather's warmer and you can get out and, and go to the state parks or national parks or whatever it may be. Um, but also even over a lunch hour, do a micro adventure. There's a 50 foot waterfall that's within a mile of my house here that I used to go trail running on the trails around it. But you know, to incorporate it with social media, take a little camera or just take your phone, go for a photo hike, um, for an hour during the day, come back and use Instagram for all that it's good for and post kind of a photo series.
James Hey, I went for a little bit of forest bathing.
Jason from Minneapolis I went for, yeah, I went for a lunchtime hike today and here's five photos of some cool stuff I saw. Here's a rare bird that I saw. And here's a guy painting a picture. And here's an old car that I passed on the way home, you know. You know, I'd love to see that kind of thing. Me too. Absolutely. Yeah.
James Yeah. Get out. Move around. Follow your gut. If you if you feel like things aren't going that well or you're not having a great day and try and identify what you need and then make make it part of your routine. Yeah. There's not a lot of rules when it comes to working from home. The one thing that I would say is for people who are on the other side of this math, and it's not so much that you're maybe working from home, but you have a lot of employees, I can feel that that can cause some tension for staff units that aren't used to working from home. So whether you're the boss or the employee, just be super communicative. It doesn't mean that the communication has to take a long time, but just make yourself very much available. This is gonna make your boss feel better about the fact that they can't walk around the office and say hi to you and catch up In the morning and make sure, you know, see you at meetings and all this kind of stuff. And it's going to make, uh, you know, the employee on the, on the employee side will make the employee side, you know, feel like they, they're, they're maintaining the same connection they had in the office. So communication is definitely key as is understanding what your brain needs in this transition. Um, because, you know, it's hard to say how long we'll be working from home and what the prudent decision will be at this point. But it's going to be a little while. And for people who don't work from home or don't like it, it can be hard. And I think that's something that we can all be kind of cognizant of.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, good. I think that covers most of the topics, I would say.
James I would say so. Certainly, if you have any feedback at all, thegraynadoatgmail.com, if there's something that you want to ask Jason and I, send it to us. If it's something that you'd like included in an audio-based Q&A episode, please record your question into your voice memo app on your phone and then email it to thegraynadoatgmail.com. Um, I think with that we can move on to final notes, which is a concept we're tweaking ever so slightly for these isolation tapes. And we're going to call final notes homework. So this is stuff that you can do at home and it's going to follow the same format, but we're going to attempt each week to suggest something that will take much more time. Normally we suggest something that you might buy or pick up or appreciate or read that might take a few minutes on your coffee break at work, et cetera. Given we're spending a little bit more time inside and at home and we might want more expanded types of mental entertainment, we figured we would transition final notes to include homework or things that we recommend, kind of requisite things we think you should take in while you have some additional time.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, good one. I can start, I can kick this off. Mine would take a considerable amount of time, probably a couple of weeks, maybe even a month, depending on how fast you read. But that is to pick up a set of all of Ian Fleming's James Bond books. And I'm well known on record for being a James Bond fan, we've talked about it several times, and I've probably even talked about the books in past episodes. But to read them kind of in chronological order, to go through the 14 books that he wrote, is a really instructive and interesting background to this character that everybody's kind of known or gotten to know really well through the movies mainly. And Fleming was really a great writer. He was really a descriptive writer, really knowledgeable about so many aspects of the world and was a person who traveled a lot, especially for someone in his day at the very dawn of the jet age. He was all over the world and I think his books at the time were fascinating for people that were largely, you know, homebound or staying in their own countries and not traveling much. And they're all just great. They're great reads. I mean, certainly they're of their time and they're elements that are controversial now and not entirely, you know, sensitive to, you know, racial and gender issues. But, you know, take, take it all in and, and kind of learn from it. And, um, you know, if you're, if you're a James Bond fan, and certainly we've had to deal with a postponement of the release of the new movie until the fall. So this might get you by the books are pretty much all available on Amazon or, or through online booksellers, uh, which is kind of the choice these days, or if you maybe have a set that's been sitting on a shelf, uh, collecting dust. Now's a good time to kind of pick those up and go through them.
James Great suggestion. Definitely. A book series is a killer way to start. My suggestion for homework is based on a book, if that's helpful, but it's a 10-part miniseries from HBO called Band of Brothers. Most of you listening will have seen this. It was a TV miniseries, you know, after the end of Saving Private Ryan, you had the production company and Tom Hanks and such wanted another outlet for some of the props and everything that they had surrounding this World War II story they had told with Saving Private Ryan. And what they ended up making was this TV miniseries, it's 10 episodes, it's about 10 hours, called Band of Brothers. And it is the story of Easy Company, which is the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. And it's a really incredible story of a group of guys that kind of weaved their way through a lot of really crucial points in World War II. And it's a beautiful story of, like the name says, these guys becoming a unit in some very terrible scenarios. I think it's one of the finest, probably my favorite World War II drama in existence, as far as encapsulating the whole kind of scope of war. I think they did a really beautiful job with it. And if you, by chance, missed this back in 2001, now's a great time to rewatch it. It's definitely, you know, available in HD. It's certainly violent. It's maybe not something you would show to a young kid or that sort of thing. I think we can all kind of understand what these, you know, it's in the same vein as the Saving Private Ryan. But the story itself is beautiful. You're going to find some actors in there that have since become, you know, Oscar winners and really big actors. And this is back in 2001. They basically were just hiring anyone they could find in Britain. while they were filming this. And so that's Band of Brothers, the TV series from 2001. I highly recommend it. That'll take you 10 hours. And unless you really can't handle the kind of tone and violence of a World War II drama, I'd have trouble believing that someone wouldn't find this to be an absolutely fantastic piece of World War II fiction in retelling a story that actually happened.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, it's a great series. It's been many years since I watched that. I actually have the set of DVDs that came in, that came at the time in like an ammo can, you know, like a tin.
James Really cool. Yeah. So those are our two homeworks that that's going to set you up for a long time of a free time, free evenings, whatever, whatever the scenario is when you're home. And, uh, and then on top of that, we'll do our normal kind of run of final notes. So Jason, what did you have for something maybe a little bit easier to dip into?
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, this is a, this is a long read, but certainly not reading all the Bond novels long. Um, it's called, it's an article called Survivors Guilt in the Mountains. It was published back on the 2nd of March, uh, in the New Yorker and on their website, which is where I read it. And it really is focused on, you know, the unique nature of the mountaineering community and how, you know, as we all know from the nineties and the, and the Everest movie, um, and, and into thin air and, and those sorts of tales. Mountaineers are a unique breed and that so many of their friends and colleagues, uh, have died. And, um, one guy in particular, Conrad Anker, we've talked about him before, just a, an amazing, amazing mountaineer and amazing athlete. Um, you know, he he's one of the better known survivors of this phenomenon in that, you know, his, his best friend and climbing partner, Alex Lowe died in a, in an avalanche back in, in the nineties. Anker was the only survivor of that expedition. And, you know, he was just racked with guilt from this. And he went back home to Montana and, you know, in a strange twist ended up marrying the widow of his, of Alex Lowe and adopting his children. And, um, so it kind of uses his story as a vehicle for exploring this notion of survivor's guilt among Mountaineers and also kind of the types of ways that these, these athletes are dealing with that guilt through, you know, therapy and sort of just talking it out among themselves and It goes into a little bit of detail about the North face, which is obviously a big sponsor of a lot of mountaineers and has been for many years and, and how they're dealing with it because it's, it's a very unique sort of employee, if you want to call it or workplace type of trauma that, you know, very few people really have to deal with. Um, so it was a really, a great in-depth story, uh, on the New Yorker and, uh, and we'll throw a link in the show notes.
James Really cool. A great read also. And it's nice to have a, some longer read. That's what I picked was, uh, something on the longer side. So mine's another one from Outside Online, and it's about the show Naked and Afraid, which I watched a few seasons of back in the day. It's this show where they take two people who don't know each other, they don't have any clothes, they have a couple tools, and they kind of have to spend... I think it's 21 days in an unforgiving environment. And so they might have... They have a knife, they have a pan, they have a little bag that they can carry stuff in, and they have a fire starter. But that's it. The rest of it is up to them. And the fun thing about Naked and Afraid, if you've never heard of it or watched it, is there's no prize. So at any point you can say, I don't want to do this anymore. They come get you. You probably end up having to go to the hospital. It's hard. It's hard to live with nothing. And sometimes they put you in really tough scenarios as well. And although the people are naked and so they're kind of pixelated because it's a cable television show, It's an oddly human thing, and it takes you about two or three minutes to totally move beyond the naked aspect of it. Yeah. And you watch these people either completely unravel or face some of their own demons or just thrive. And a lot of it comes down to the area in which they're in. But this is a story about Blair Braverman, a woman who was on Naked and Afraid, and it's called Everything on Naked Afraid is Real and I Lived It. And I saw that they were doing outside online was doing a podcast about this. And I'd kind of saved it to listen to it. And then I saw the story and I was like, Oh, I'll read the first couple of paragraphs and kind of see the tone. And I couldn't stop. It's actually a pretty long story. And I got really wrapped up in it. You know, if you've ever watched the show, it's, it's it's a, it's a weirdly engrossing sort of thing to watch someone deal with. And I highly recommend it. It's a really fascinating look. She had a really tough time. not so much mentally. She seems really strong mentally, but physically there was a lot of, a lot of issues and some health problems and just kind of stuff that like you can't predict, you know, she ended up in a part of the world that I think was probably pretty surprising. Yeah. Um, it's a, it's a great read. I highly recommend it. And if, yeah, if you get a couple units of your work done and you want to take a moment, uh, maybe with a bowl of soup you made or whatever, and, and kind of scroll through this, I think, I think you'd enjoy it. And certainly the show's worth checking out if that concept sounds interesting to you and you somehow missed it.
Jason from Minneapolis Yeah, I'm gonna have to check out a couple episodes. I, I obviously was aware of the show, but I figured it was, uh, you know, like a lot of other shows, a bit, a bit more hype than substance. But, um, after reading this article, I thought, oh, that's, that's pretty legit. It's gnarly.
James Yeah, for sure. Great. So as always, thanks so much for sharing. Hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can of course, follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton, at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions, concerns, feedback of any time, If you have any questions, concerns, feedback of any type, it's thegraynado at gmail.com. And please keep sending us those voice memos. We love it. And we're going to use them in a Q&A episode for a future isolation tape in the next few weeks. Finally, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast. The Music Throat is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. And we're going to add one more thing. We're all in this together and this will pass.
Jason from Minneapolis And we leave you with this quote from the solo round the world sailor Bernard Moitessier, who knew something about being alone for long periods of time, who said, there are two terrible things for a man, not to have fulfilled his dream and to have fulfilled it.