I had been working at a digital agency for about a week when Covid changed the shape of the job. I was still getting to know the team and how things worked. Then we were working from home, trying to get on with projects while everything around us was changing.
It’s June now. The stay-at-home announcement in March is still recent, although working from home has already become a routine. I’ve adapted to the working side of it quite smoothly. The sudden change in the social side has taken more getting used to.
A calmer start to the day
At home it’s the two of us and our cat, Sissy. I have a small study to work from, and I’ve enjoyed being here. I put some key routines in place early on, which helped the change feel manageable.
After ten years of working in an office, the change is still extremely strange. I’m used to seeing people throughout the day and having conversations without needing to arrange them. Losing that so suddenly is a noticeable part of lockdown, particularly when I’m still getting to know a new team.
The mornings, though, are much calmer. I’m not getting caught in traffic or rushing around trying to make every minute count before I get to work. There’s much less of that adrenaline at the start of the day, and I can settle into what I need to do.
Putting routines in place early
Being stricter with my schedule has helped. I know what I’m trying to get done, when I need uninterrupted time and which conversations need to happen before I can move a task forward. Putting that structure in place early made it easier to adapt.
Zoom and Teams meetings have become an important part of the week. I’ve been making sure those conversations actually happen. If a piece of work needs discussing, it needs a place in the diary. A question can sit in a message for a long time if nobody makes room to work through it.
For a design or a technical problem, it helps to look at the same thing together, explain what we mean and agree on the next step. I’m trying to give those meetings a clear purpose and leave enough time between them to get into the work.
Getting further into the work
Funnily enough, working from home has left me feeling more connected to work. I can reach a deeper level of focus much more consistently, and having more time has helped me get further into tasks. In development, being able to stay with a problem long enough to understand it makes a real difference.
I’m also getting used to an ACF-led WordPress workflow at the agency. There’s a lot to learn about turning a supplied design into content structures and templates that someone else can update. Having time to work through those decisions has been useful, especially while I’m learning how the agency approaches a build.
I feel more connected to my family and to the place we live, too. I’m pleased with how smoothly the working routine has settled down, and with what I’m able to achieve. Being at home has changed more than where I open my laptop.
Keeping some of the social side
The isolation is still there. Getting to know colleagues through messages and calls takes a different kind of effort, and I miss the ordinary office conversations. It’s easy for every call to become about a request, a problem or what still needs finishing.
We’ve been making more of our end-of-week online socials. One of the games involves drawing something while everyone else tries to guess what it is. It’s simple, occasionally ridiculous, and gives us something to talk about that has nothing to do with a deadline.
That has been a good way to get to know people I’ve only just started working with. The work calls matter, but so does having time together where nobody needs an answer to a project question.
The plans we can’t make yet
There are smaller things I miss as well. We’ve mostly stopped ordering takeaways, getting food from the local Co-op and using Tesco’s online shopping deliveries instead. I miss having a takeaway, and I miss being able to think ahead and plan a holiday.
Our wedding is the bigger uncertainty. We’re supposed to be getting married this year, but we’ve had to cancel our venue and haven’t arranged another one. I’ve been very anxious about the planning. It’s difficult to make decisions when we don’t know what we’ll be able to go ahead with.
That sits alongside a working routine which, in many ways, suits me well. I enjoy the calmer mornings, the focus and feeling closer to home. I also miss the social connections and being able to make plans with some confidence. Both have been part of these first months.
For now, I want to keep the routines that are helping: a clear schedule, proper conversations about the work and something sociable at the end of the week. I’m still getting to know the team, and there’s plenty I want to learn in this job. Having the time and focus to do that has been one of the parts I’ve enjoyed.