Εικόνα στο Header: Ideal Quarantine της Miss Holly

Στο Γαλλικό Twitter έγινε μόδα το #coronamaison. Το ξεκίνησε η γνωστή από τα κόμικ Pénélope Bagieu και η πρόκληση είναι να φτιάξεις το ιδανικό σπίτι των ονείρων σου για να επιβιώσεις την καραντίνα. Παραδείγματα σε αυτό το άρθρο.

Άρθρο της Marine Franiak.

Set your own hours, but watch them.

Those of us who naturally keep odd hours might find working from home to be a godsend. And scheduling when you’re only being paid for the finished product is less about setting rigid hours for when you’re on and when you’re off, than making sure you have enough time to get both your work and your personal stuff done, without:

Letting your work go.
Letting your personal life go.
Suffering burnout or RSI’s from 12-hour stretches at the tablet.

Within those constraints, feel free to make your work times as buckwild as you want.

Try to avoid cramming, though. I’ve talked multiple times in past articles about the risk of repetitive strain injuries from uninterrupted computer time. “Make sure to include stretches/small exercises and emphasize taking a short break every couple of hours,” says illustrator Julia Lichty. “A lot of people who were only doing this recreationally or occasionally will overextend and hurt themselves in numerous ways.

Eyestrain is no joke either. Turn your screen brightness down to the minimum you need to see it at any given time, and if at any point you feel your eyes burning, take a break from laptop and smartphone use that second. Even reading a book will be better.

By Luppi. Tweet.

“Light is making your body later.”

Speaking of your eyes, I highly recommend f.lux, a simple and lightweight background program that tunes your color settings for the time of day. There are plenty of alternatives, but I’ve found this one has everything, and for free.

Color temperature and changing times are fully customizable, and most important functions can be done from the taskbar: If you’re using a flat tablet, you’ll want to turn it off when painting to avoid losing color fidelity, but if you’re on the Wacom One or a Cintiq, you can permanently disable it for that monitor. But I recommend you use it for your primary display whenever you’re not arting—or if you’re drawing something black and white, even—and set your color temperature warmer. It’s the blue light that really gets you.

8 hours sleep a night; lay off the coffee.

Or however many you’d normally get. (Some people say they only need 5 or 6. Studies show they might be wrong, but it’s their life.) One of the biggest upsides to working from home is that you can sleep in odd patterns, or even keep a reverse schedule. A lot of articles advise against this, but especially now, no one’s judging you. Just make sure it adds up to the number you’d usually get and that you’re not feeling tired while you work. Burnout can become a problem if there’s no one to tell you when your shift is over.

It’s tempting to make a pot of coffee and consume it constantly throughout the day, but if you’re not the kind of person who does this normally, a time of high tension is absolutely not when you should start. Keep coffee consumption to what you need to stay awake and motivated. And now seriously isn’t the time to develop an energy drink habit either. Just don’t.

Make sure to get several non-caffeinated drinks to keep on hand as a backup, especially teas, juices, and water. You might not be as active as normal, so ease up on the soda.

By Aurélien Jeanney. Tweet.

Get outside for some exercise.

But just because you can’t go to the bar doesn’t mean you have to become a hikikomori. For the time being, at least, it’s possible to go outside while still maintaining social distancing.

If you’re not under lockdown (unlike the French), not sick, not immunocompromised or in close contact with those who are, and need exercise you can’t get at home, it’s fine to go for a walk around your neighborhood or to an uncrowded park. Just make sure you maintain the recommended distance of six feet from people, don’t go into stores unless you absolutely have to, and I know it’s hard, but try not to lick any sidewalks.

If you’re able to, get out in nature instead of hanging out in urban or suburban common areas. If you have access to woods or trails, you can still go hiking, just do it either alone or with a single trusted partner.

Or if you can’t, there’s this. By Gaelle Hersent. Tweet.

Don’t neglect your hygiene, either.

Once you learn to enter flow while you work, time can lose all meaning. Under the misguided notion that you’re being super-productive, it can be easy to stop showering until you smell yourself and forget about brushing your teeth until sweets feel like they’re made of knives.

Work on your thing as well.

There’s literally no better time than now to start a personal project. Not only do you have all the free time in the world, your potential audience has more time to find and consume new forms of entertainment, especially on the internet.