Tips for clearing the mental fog of working from home.

One of the beautiful things about working from home is that you don’t have to put any thought into looking “beautiful.” The only people you’ll be seeing will be over video call and let’s face it, nobody looks good on a video call. In fact, I had a dream Zoom session last night with Margot Robbie and Lenny Kravitz and they both looked remarkably average. With no reason to look respectable, you throw on your comfiest sweats, maybe a long neglected hoodie, deeply contemplate showering but don’t, and your hair remains in a permanent state of bed head.

I’ll be honest, that was my routine the first couple weeks of this new WFH reality. Yes, I showered a few times and I rotated the hoodie and sweats, but for the most part the combo was the same. As the days dragged on and began bleeding into what felt like one long simulation, my mood and motivation began to suffer. When a creative goes through a downspell in motivation, it can be an ugly sight -- at my lowest point I think I actually became a couch cushion. Alas, I knew this wasn’t sustainable, and with the state of the world showing no signs of changing, it was time to make a change myself.

Let’s call it Monday of WFH week 3. I got up, had my coffee, SHOWERED (#cleanboi), and then I did something unthinkable...I put on jeans. That’s right, I shunned the sweats and took a dive into that denim for the first time in awhile. Piggy backing off the naughty decision to wear pants, I opted not for a hoodie, but instead for a shirt...with buttons. YUP! Buttons! It was pretty wild. To cap off this wave of bold decision making, I slipped on shoes that weren’t slip-ons. They were boots. With laces.

Now, when I decided to shift my fashion style away from “cliche-rom-com-character-recovering from-breakup” something interesting happened; I felt productive. To be clear, I hadn’t yet produced anything of value that day, but just wearing pants without a drawstring instantly filled me with a sense of accomplishment. Even though I didn’t have to physically go anywhere for work I still felt like I was going to work. And in the days that followed, the dense fog that had been forming in my brain, a side effect of serial sweatpanting, had dissipated. I felt refreshed, focused, and both my work and mood were significantly improved.

Look, I don’t need to tell you how strange a time this is -- you’re living through it the same as I am. And I’m just as guilty as anyone of occasionally succumbing to the mating call of malaise. But if you’re feeling stuck or suffering from a gnarly case of writer’s block, I highly recommend getting dressed. Only unlike the days of yore (two months ago), you’re not trying to impress anybody, you’re not doing it because it’s expected, you’re doing it for yourself. Stay fresh and keep creating, y’all.