The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 20-24, 2020
I'm really bad at working from home.
Let me back up.
Remember last week, when I was complaining about how busy I was and how I felt jealous of people who were home all the time with nothing to do?
Well.
Guess who is home, but still has everything she already had to do plus a little extra? And also two thumbs?
It's really fine. I just got really thrown off, and I, for some stupid reason, had assumed that the rapid changes in my life were on pause.
Perhaps I should back up a bit further.
Most of my week was normal. We were practicing for our Zoominar next week, which meant a lot of time on video chat, learning how to share screens and create breakout rooms and take notes at the same time. (Ask me anything about Zoom. I guarantee I know the answer.) I've been calling myself the cruise director for this event since I volunteered to kind of run things behind the scenes. I must have spent at least 20 hours on Zoom this week. And when I wasn't on it, I was either thinking or dreaming about it. The good news is that we were able to work out a few kinks, and we have a good idea of how the Zoominar can go when everything is working properly.
When I wasn't on Zoom, I was editing VCP lessons and proofing pages of OMS Outreach. Do you think there will be compensation for doing everything on a screen now? Because it's really hard to edit something on a screen. Not impossible. Just much easier on paper. Also, there's still T&M to do.
So, things were running fairly smoothly until Thursday afternoon. 30 minutes before yet another Zoom call, this one a tutorial for our participants in next week's Zoominar, we were informed that someone had been in the building who had been in contact with someone being tested for COVID-19. Thusly, the building would be closed until further notice. Sarah and I were joking about it being a microcosm of what we'd do in a fire - as in, what would you save, what would you leave behind. I would apparently leave just about everything. I was so thrown by what was happening that I really couldn't think about what I might need for the foreseeable future. My computer isn't exactly portable, and while I do have a laptop at home, the only Internet I have access to is from across the street. It's not the most reliable.
So, in about 15 minutes, we went from feeling confident about next week to wondering if it was even doable. We've been relying on my ethernet connection, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB hard drive. Not to mention my second screen, which really makes sharing screens much easier. Plus, Sarah is acting as tech support and backup since we are right down the hall from one another. (She is the original cruise director - she set everything up and made sure the facilitators got their stuff in on time, so I wanted to support her and not make her have to do so much during the event as well.)
Anyway, we did manage to pull off the tutorial from home, and I spent the rest of Thursday and all of Friday trying to figure out how to do as much from home as possible. We have a possible solution for next week, but I'm trying to cover as many other bases as I can.
But my bed is Right. There.
I realize I'm playing catch up to the rest of you. Most people have been working from home for six weeks or more. (Any tips? I was already snacking too much in the office. Now I have a whole refrigerator at my disposal.) Granted, I was planning to take some time off after next week anyway. Now, it will probably be the most productive thing I could do.
Bye!
Let me back up.
Remember last week, when I was complaining about how busy I was and how I felt jealous of people who were home all the time with nothing to do?
Well.
Guess who is home, but still has everything she already had to do plus a little extra? And also two thumbs?
It's really fine. I just got really thrown off, and I, for some stupid reason, had assumed that the rapid changes in my life were on pause.
Perhaps I should back up a bit further.
Most of my week was normal. We were practicing for our Zoominar next week, which meant a lot of time on video chat, learning how to share screens and create breakout rooms and take notes at the same time. (Ask me anything about Zoom. I guarantee I know the answer.) I've been calling myself the cruise director for this event since I volunteered to kind of run things behind the scenes. I must have spent at least 20 hours on Zoom this week. And when I wasn't on it, I was either thinking or dreaming about it. The good news is that we were able to work out a few kinks, and we have a good idea of how the Zoominar can go when everything is working properly.
When I wasn't on Zoom, I was editing VCP lessons and proofing pages of OMS Outreach. Do you think there will be compensation for doing everything on a screen now? Because it's really hard to edit something on a screen. Not impossible. Just much easier on paper. Also, there's still T&M to do.
So, things were running fairly smoothly until Thursday afternoon. 30 minutes before yet another Zoom call, this one a tutorial for our participants in next week's Zoominar, we were informed that someone had been in the building who had been in contact with someone being tested for COVID-19. Thusly, the building would be closed until further notice. Sarah and I were joking about it being a microcosm of what we'd do in a fire - as in, what would you save, what would you leave behind. I would apparently leave just about everything. I was so thrown by what was happening that I really couldn't think about what I might need for the foreseeable future. My computer isn't exactly portable, and while I do have a laptop at home, the only Internet I have access to is from across the street. It's not the most reliable.
So, in about 15 minutes, we went from feeling confident about next week to wondering if it was even doable. We've been relying on my ethernet connection, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB hard drive. Not to mention my second screen, which really makes sharing screens much easier. Plus, Sarah is acting as tech support and backup since we are right down the hall from one another. (She is the original cruise director - she set everything up and made sure the facilitators got their stuff in on time, so I wanted to support her and not make her have to do so much during the event as well.)
Anyway, we did manage to pull off the tutorial from home, and I spent the rest of Thursday and all of Friday trying to figure out how to do as much from home as possible. We have a possible solution for next week, but I'm trying to cover as many other bases as I can.
But my bed is Right. There.
I realize I'm playing catch up to the rest of you. Most people have been working from home for six weeks or more. (Any tips? I was already snacking too much in the office. Now I have a whole refrigerator at my disposal.) Granted, I was planning to take some time off after next week anyway. Now, it will probably be the most productive thing I could do.
Bye!