The emergency state in Osaka, Japan is lifted, and I have a mixed feeling about it.

Since the emergency state was declared, I started working remotely. It wasn’t easy bringing the office vibe to my dining table at first; there are so many distractions at home! But I somehow manage to do it, and I find that working from home has given me so much time and freedom, and less stressful than working in the office.

I used to spend 75 minutes going from my door to my office’s lobby, and another 75 minutes going back home. By working from home, I need less than 1 minute to go from my bed to work, which means I have more time to have a life. I still managed to do my stuff without being micromanaged, I can avoid unnecessary meetings and unnecessary phone calls just to confirm I get the emails (seriously!). I don’t feel pressured to have to stay longer in the office because everyone seems to love staying late. Working from home is probably the best thing out of this COVID-19 situation, at least for me.

Yesterday morning I got the news from my manager that we’re expected to come back to the office as soon as next Monday. I’m happy that things are getting better for everyone, but I’m not sure about going back to the office.

What I know right now is that I’m not ready to go back to my small cubicle in the middle of the office’s mess. I don’t know if I’ll ever enjoy the 150 minutes train ride to the office and back ever again after knowing that I can do the same job, the same quality, by working on my dining table, 1 minute away from my bed. I’m not sure I want to spend most of my days in a building with not much fresh air, eating food microwave food for lunch, not fresh from my kitchen.

I looked up some tips earlier, on how to adjust to your life back to the office but I couldn’t find any satisfaction with the answers, so I think I’m going to make my own self-help advice on how to transition from remote to the office, and I hope it helps you too.

1. Make your office (or at least just your cubicle) feels like home

My office is dull. The carpet color I think used to be a nice blue shade, but now it’s just grayish dusty blue. Ew. The table is yellowish-white, with no decorations, and the only view is cables, everywhere. It’s super not aesthetically pleasing.

So, how about taking your nice coffee mug, a small green decoration, and your comfy slippers to the office?

2. Take a few books and keep it on your desk

When I feel fed up working at home, sometimes I take 5 to 10 minutes to rest my eyes and my mind from the computer, and I always turn to my bookshelf. Some recent books I would recommend to take your mind off :

3. Take your home made snacks to the office

I snack a lot before, during, and definitely after coronavirus; it’s not going to change. I used to snack anything like chips, popcorn, things I can find in the minimarket next to my office. However, since I can’t go out that much and I need to save money just in case this situation is getting worse and I’m out of job, I started making my own snacks, from things that are almost expired at home, or leftover anything. My number 1 favorite is caramel croutons because it’s super easy to make using minimal ingredients (butter, milk, bread, sugar, water). My second option would be snowball cookies. Snowball cookies are amazingly delicious, and make your house smells good.

I’m really grateful that I have a job I can do from home and a company that lets me work from home in this situation. But it is hard going back to the old habit when the new habit is so much better. Let me know what you think about going back to the office after the situation is getting better! And I’d love some more tips on how to make work more enjoyable in the office after all the good times at home.

xoxo_anastasia