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Hed: The case for working at home

Byline: Chhavi Sachdev

Words:  600

Subhed: It’s not about being Zen, it’s about discipline.

By pulling the flush on working from home at Yahoo!, last week Marissa Mayer sparked quite the debate online and off. On twitter, most of the people on my timeline were outraged (but, of course!) Everyone was for working from home.

But when a leading Indian daily published an op/ed positing that only a rare breed with ‘a Zen approach’ could possibly hope to accomplish anything at home, I was incensed (erm, clearly, I don’t have this Zen approach). Does it really take a personality type? I think not. What it does take is discipline and a few good habits.

I belong to a tribe of people who bristle at the implication that working from home means you’re goofing off. The truth – my truth – is that I’m much more productive at home without the constant interruptions that constitute ‘work culture’ here – and anywhere in the world.

Allow me to illustrate: When I was editing the international section for a US-based paper, oh-so-many years ago, one of my duties was to put together a 10-page pull out section every three months. I commissioned several smaller pieces but I had to research and write the main 5,000-word article myself. Four days before the deadline, pressure to wrap was mounting and I found myself asking the uber-editor, my boss, permission to work from home.

His response was more or less what Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! has gone on record as saying, except he took it further: He told me that he could picture me sitting around in my pyjamas, eating popcorn in front of the TV while on the payroll.

I was so offended at the idea, I went back to him and proposed a trial. He knew where in the piece I was – and if he didn’t have 5,000 words on his desk when I came back, he could fire me.

Of course, I finished it. I knew I would. Without chai breaks, smoke breaks, and general ‘faffing’, without staff writers and other editors wandering into my office to ask questions, brainstorm, and, without my favorite use of time in an office (read: gazillions of meetings), I was so much more productive.

I believe people only procrastinate so much. Ultimately you are responsible for the work and if you don’t perform, someone will notice. I currently work at an office that allows me the freedom to work from home when I want to, and honestly, if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t be working there. What is an office for? Face time over things that matter, I would imagine. Sure, collegiality helps – it’s nice to see other faces than your maids’ but I think there are plenty of benefits to staying put. You save on transportation costs, transportation time, and you don’t waste as many natural resources.

So, how do we, the forces who manage to deliver from home do it? It’s easy. We treat it like work.

Which means, that we wake up in the morning, make our beds, get our chores and routines done, bathe, get dressed for work, eat breakfast, and then work.

Sure, like anything else, it’s hard at first. But there are things you can do to make it easier. So, set reasonable deadlines for yourself, make lists. Some days (just like at any office), it’s harder to concentrate. What works for me is breaking tasks into chunks. Reward yourself when you finish something. Make delayed gratification a game. And ultimately be afraid of what people will think of you if you don’t under-deliver what you promised. If you have a work ethic, you can work from home.

LINK to “a Zen approach”:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-workfromhome-case-present-maam/1082796/0

published in the Mid-day newspaper back in 2013.

Formerly called AfterShokz Endurance, now Shokz OpenSwim

TL;DR: Cough up the dough and get the Shokz OpenSwim. Don’t waste time on JBL (ugh), Sony or Pyle or anything else

If you want to swim with music, my caveats, explanations, and explorations on waterproof mp3 players for swimming that I’ve tried in the last decade, read on. Click on any image to expand

I’ve been swimming seriously (for joy, not competition) since 2013 and way back in 2014 or so I thought music would only enhance my experience, help me set a pace, and also entertain me and stimulate my brain as I did laps with an unchanging scenery. At my peak form, pre-pandemic, I was doing 2,000m in 1.25 hours (slow, slow) and I’m building back but you can only imagine that going back and forth in an environment, where only obnoxious humans change, can get a little too same!

Back in 2014 I bought my first music player and it was a no-name Chinese mp3 player for some $20. It worked until one day it didn’t. I didn’t seal the usb port cover fully and the electronic components drowned.

The Sony Walkman nw-ws413 + charger

I then tried the Pyle (rated well, cheapish, easily available). Same problem. Water got in. Or maybe they just stopped charging one day. I honestly can’t recall.

By 2016 time I’d found a place in Bandra that sold the Sony NW-WS413SBM waterproof walkman.

Back then it was just over 5k retail with warranty. Initially my mac wouldn’t read it to transfer music, but a couple of resets and it finally became quite good at detecting it was an external drive. Until some time in  2018 it stopped holding a charge. It was just out of warranty, but Sony was amazing about giving me a huge discount on a fresh, updated piece (Sony NWWS413BM). So, all in all, I paid maybe 3k more for the upgrade.

Then came the pandemic. Pools were shut for 2 years in all of Maharashtra state, where I live. From March 24, 2020 until February 4, 2022, I didn’t get in the water. I mean, it wasn’t just me. Swimmers and athletes contemplated relocating to use pools elsewhere. The Maharashtra swim team was pretty much living in Gujarat!

When I got ready to swim again the Sony had given up the ghost. This happens if you don’t turn it on even once in two years.

The JBL Endurance Dive is a scam. This is the replacement set I got.

At this point, I finally got the JBL dive. No link because, trust me, you don’t want it. WHAT A COLOSSAL WASTE OF MONEY this product has been.

Whoever designed it, approved it, and then released it to the public has never, ever even TRIED to swim with it. It’s the epitome of false marketing to call it a “dive” model and just glomming on a random name for a feature that actually doesn’t work. Perhaps because it is rated IPX7? That doesn’t mean you can swim with it. Seriously, use it as a bluetooth headset, connect it with your phone if you want and go run in the rain, but don’t bother swimming.

First: getting it into swim mode is next to impossible. My first time, I spent 30 minutes of my 45 minute swim time trying to get it to do the three taps to stay at “mp3” locked mode.

Really useless instructions for the JBL Endurance Dive

I watched video tutorials and practiced after that. Of three more swims, I managed once for a few minutes to get it in the right mode. That triple tap was impossible. After the second tap, the device has had enough and done what it needs to do (bluetooth pairing mode) with or without your third tap. I went bonkers spacing them and trying all kinds of rhythms and speed.

IF you get it into locked mp3 mode and it starts playing, you can change nothing. NOTHING. You cannot control volume, you cannot skip a track, go back, pause. Nothing. The playlist is locked. IF you can get it to actually go into swim mode.

It never worked again.  I called JBL, trekked to their service centre and even the technicians could not make it work. They replaced the set, no questions asked, but would not let me open it in the centre and would not speak to whether this one would work. No surprises, dear reader: it didn’t. It’s a terrible design flaw and only after much research can you find reviews basically saying people have just thrown it away.

More useless instructions for the JBL Endurance Dive

I haven’t even been able to give mine away; the quality of the ear hooks is so bad, they look like my cat chewed them (and she hasn’t, she has better taste). Getting the touch button to respond to anything is terrible. There are no controls for volume or shuffle or answer and the touch sensitivity is … well, it’s too good for itself which makes it too bad for a user.

So, finally, I bit the bullet and after researching the hell out of swim blogs, reviews, youtube unboxings and more, I decided the Shokz (formerly Aftershokz) were going to get my money. $150 in the US plus some ridiculous $9 for shipping and holy cow, this has only underscored that it’s better to go with premium the first time than to shaft yourself by going with second and third best numerous times.

The Shokz OpenSwim with charger and silicone earplugs

The Shokz are FLAWLESS. They’re designed to stay put.

Bone conduction means you can get consistent sound when you go under the surface AND when you come up for air. I can hear bass. I can even listen to podcasts without missing alternate words when I surface — a major flaw with in-ear swimming mp3 players — because water still enters your canals when you dip and out. With earplugs in the ears, ambient noise and pressure stays the same. It’s wonderful.

Just like with the Sony, there is a dedicated button for start/stop/program. Long press the volume up or down for skipping forward and back a track.  It’s got shuffle and repeat mode. You can press the middle button to check battery health as well.

The charger also doubles as the USB interface and no computer so far has had trouble reading it to load music.

Okay, now if you don’t already now this: BLUETOOTH DOES NOT WORK UNDERWATER. If you’ve been told (or sold something that says) it does, it’s an outright lie.

To load up ANY swimming music player, you’re going to have to physically load music files on to it like it’s an external drive. So, here are my tips on how to do that in an age of streaming services for music.

Buttons! Ergonomic, and intuitive.

1. Pay for and download the music and then transfer it from your computer or USB connected device to the headset.
2. Get an audio capture extension for your browser and record the track while playing the music you want on youtube or some or web based app.
3. Get two female stereo jacks and play music off your phone while recording it into a digital handheld recorder (I use a Tascam for work so I have one of them and I have a Zoom H1n both of which take a 3.5″ input) which I then transfer to the Shokz after normalizing the gain on Hindenburg because I’m an audio nerd and I can.

Ratings:
Pyle: 3 out of 5
Sony NW-WS410 swimming Mp3 Walkman series: 3.5 stars out of 5
JBL Endurance Dive: 0 bloody stars out of 5
Shokz OpenSwim: 6 out of 5

Disclaimers: I’m not being paid for this blog post but if Shokz wants to give me any gear, I’ll happily accept. JBL has never replied to my emails or reviews. Sony is a stalwart and their customer service is just tops. I’m an amazon affiliate and if you buy anything through one of my links, I get like 0.01% commission on it. 

Copyright chhavi sachdev

#throwback to this day 2018, at the covered Central market in Riga, a UNESCO world heritage site and also Europe’s largest bazaar. The market is made of 5 repurposed zeppelin hangars — there are only four more in the world — and was finished in 1930 at the same riverside site where an open produce market has existed since the mid 16th century. We loved it. We browsed through clothes, purses, a meat section, household stuff, flowers, a very meaty food court, cheeses, and much produce. We finally bought cherries and plums, but not much else, eventually finding a bistro in the style of a Polish “bar mleczny” with the most amazing rye bread and kotlety close by after working up quite an appetite.

#throwback #europe #summer #summerholiday #2018 #historical #blog #wp #nostalgia #sunnydays #worldtravelpics #worlderlust #wander #worldheritagesite #thisdaythatyear via Instagram https://ift.tt/2k3l0Kt

Binoy Kumar Sur makes papier maché masks for dance theatre troupes and religious parades mostly. There was a time when business was better, now it’s dwindling. He inherited this shop in Shankhari Bazaar, old Dhaka, from his father. It’s more than 80 years old. It takes him about 5 days to make 10 leopard masks, but the Kali goddesses take at least double that much time. He was most gracious to us, perhaps happy to have an interested audience. Across his store there is one selling the accoutrements of Hindu prayers – incense, bells, pictures of gods and goddesses and even rangoli. Just a few hundred metres up we ran into a very loud aarti being conducted by an enthusiastic if tone-deaf priest with a harmonium in a sealed off temple with goddesses barred to the throng seated outside.

Yes, He’s in a #mesh vest

#minorities#crafts #dyingarts #strugglingartists#handicrafts #Dhakadiaries #color#papierMache #masks #blog #wpyes, he’s in a #meshshirt#minorities#crafts #dyingarts #strugglingartists#handicrafts #Dhakadiaries #color#papierMache #masks #blog #wp

The 860ish year-old Dhakeshwari Temple whose goddess lends her name to the capital city of Bangladesh on the delta of some 700 estuaries. The temple architecture is, of course, not that old — it’s been torn down, rebuilt, repaired many hundred times but it’s famous for two things.

One, it’s one of the Shakti Peeths, it’s where Sati’s crown jewel fell after Shiva roamed the earth in his grief with Sati’s corpse (almost all are India but there are five spots in Bangladesh, some in Sri Lanka, a couple in Nepal and one in Pakistan).

And two: it’s the country’s National Temple! It’s state owned and run. There’s a national mosque, too, but Dhaka traffic was discouraging, and besides, I wouldn’t have been allowed in so here’s a Creative Commons image.

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#nationalTemple #historical #blog #Travellife #travelgram #Dhaka #dhakadiaries #dhakacity #Temple #Passportready

As part of a solutions story for the BBC World Service, I visited a factory where an incredible scheme has been rolled out to give workers the benefits of health insurance as an add-on to their monthly grocery shopping. Over the course of two days we talked to workers in the ready-made garment export industry and saw for ourselves that the conditions were really good. In 2013 a garment factory collapse killed more than 1,000 people and since then, there are laws to make their workplaces safer, brighter, cleaner, and better ventilated. There is also a doctor and nurse on the premises to attend to emergencies or acute illnesses. A lot of the processes are automated and some are downright hypnotic. See my video of a button machine here.

But the export garment business is only part of the story. For domestic cloth production, there are small and medium “factories” everywhere, in commercial buildings, apartments, sheds, even just occupying a room on small shopping centres where shirts are sold a floor below.

Most garment factory workers are women, although this shop had only men in it sitting shirtless in a totally sealed off room with ceiling fans rattling but all windows shut.

My piece about insuring the blue collar workers will be on the #peoplefixingtheworld Podcast in the fall and it’s a really great story about how finding an amazing solution on paper can hit roadblocks because people are so unpredictable. One of the reasons for low adoption of the insurance scheme is patriarchy! Although 68% of the workers are cheerful women who earn a wage and contribute to their households, many are not allowed to spend it. Their husbands make the decisions for them. One man told me, “My wife cannot be expected to go to the shops alone!” Another woman, so visibly, alarmingly anemic, told me, “I need this insurance cover, but my husband won’t agree. I’ve tried everything but I can’t convince him.”
There are other, logistical and cost reasons, too, of course, but those can be addressed. This one is … tough!
#rmg #culture #soJo #solutionsjournalism #Machine #buttons #shirts #learnsomethingnew #smashthepatriarchy #amazing

The Udaipur City Palace lights at night, reflecting in an unusually still Lake Pichola. The photo was taken by me from the terrace of Hotel Sarovar.

BTW, I also wrote an article for TimeOut UK about the 12 best things to do in Udaipur. Most of these are still there and still very much worth doing.
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#nofilter #gorgeous #nightsky#citylights #cityoflakes#mightyudaipur #blog #udaipurlove
#udaipurcity #Rajasthan#incredibleindia #worldtravelpics#worlderlust #wandering
#pretty#nighttime #nighttimephotography 

#udaipur #History #incredibleIndia #Rajasthan #wecouldberoyals

The Ahar cenotaphs. I learned the word “cenotaph” when I was 14. It means a “monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere” — a place holder for veneration, if you will.
I don’t think the folks who put together that dictionary ever dreamed of the way they’re done in Rajasthan, over acres and acres of land. The yellow stone Bada Bagh outside Jaisalmer might be the most famous, but near the old Pratap Nagar railway station in Udaipur is a huge tract of Chhatris in white.

Sadly, the grounds are unkempt and some structures are in disrepair (plus the caretaker is more than happy to take a bribe to break the posted rules.) Still, it’s serene and rather imposing in the early morning and I’m glad to have visited.

#blog #wp #udaipur #History #incredibleIndia #Rajasthan #wecouldberoyals