WFH diary: Cats, cooking and awkward team mukbang

The start of working from home arrangements was a bit of a nightmare for me. My mind wandered, my tabs would suddenly navigate to Netflix or YouTube and I was pretty much distracted by everything—the view from my window, to clutter on my desk. But by embracing certain bouts of “unproductivity” (as you would in a regular office environment) and setting up certain routines as a new norm, work from home isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be.

07:00 On the dot to keep the body clock going. First tasks of the day: wash-up, be a professional cat poop-scooper.

07:46 Inspect plant babies (rescued from the office) to see if any of them require a spritz or a round of unprofessional pruning. Proceed to read mindless news on Facebook.

08:31 1 minute of procrastination, 20 minutes of HIIT, 4 minutes of lying in my own pool of sweat. Shower.

09:36 Quick sneak peek at the inbox for any urgent emails. Get up to date on current affairs and industry news.

10:00 Officially change Slack status to online.

11:30 House vacuum deadzone. Some colleagues think I’m asleep or passed out, because I can’t unmute my microphone.

12:45 Get up to cook for lunch (100% not my talent, but I try). Post efforts, come what may, on IG stories under new “CB” highlight.

13:00 Log on to virtual team lunch, aka awkward team mukbang. It starts with us shaming each other about what we’re eating and ends with munching on mute.

15:13 Eye break. People-watch from the window.

16:45 Cat starts whining for attention. Lift her up, Lion King style, in front of the laptop camera to present the source of noise to whomever is on the other end of the line (see top photo).

18:48 Get live WhatsApp updates from my family that dinner is ready, because they know I only end work at 7pm.

Sarah Wan is the Southeast Asia marketing director of Klook