Working from Home Burnout: How We Found Balance

This week we sit down with Erica Soares from the creative team to talk honestly about the ups and downs of working from home and hybrid life.

We're chatting about:

• Beating burnout and finding balance
• Setting boundaries when your home is your office
• Staying productive with chronic pain and brain fog
• Why a good workspace matters more than you think

Plus, stay tuned to share a few laughs, swap “What’s in Your Bag” favorites, and peek into “What’s in Your Chat?” to show how they use AI in everyday life.

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Transcript

Having that moment of like, okay, I'm pulling away is so important. So smart. It has helped my health in general because I started associating work with feeling crappy. Oh, because I was starving myself unintentionally. Unintentionally or just sitting too long. Or just sitting too long getting crampy and dehydrated. I That's a really good point.

Okay, red lights on. Phone is now silenced. And we're rolling. We're rolling. We're rolling. We're rolling. Rolling. We're monitoring ourselves today. It's going to be a dicey one. So, I have Erica Sors with me. Is Sor how you say your last name? Yeah. Well, so technically it's Suadis. I'm not saying that. Uh, yeah, we're not we're not really Spanish. We're we're very American and it's technically Portuguese, but my grandfather grew up here. His family was Portuguese and then he grew up not with his family, so he didn't really grow up Portuguese anyway. He grew up Italian. So, it's source. Okay. Erica Sores with me today. And this is very exciting. So, ER Erica's on our creative team um and does graphics. And this is very exciting that she's on the podcast today because it's her oneyear anniversary here today. So, this is like worked out really, really well. So, it did work out really well. It's kind of special that we're doing this today and I want this to be perfect. I'm excited. I I've been wanting to do this for a while. Yeah. No, I'm glad we're doing it. I just love the spotlight. She She Erica helps me on the back end of post-prouction, editing the podcast in a lot of ways. So, she is involved in helping with this podcast a lot with the podcast page and all kinds of things. So, she needed to be a part of it at least once. So, yeah, we had a few things we were going to talk about, but I was very excited. I made her prepare for this. Um, I was explaining to her how popular the um uh what's in your bag thing was with me. So, we're going to do what's in your bag to kick it off. So, do you want to go first? Should I go first? I will go first. Do it. What's in your bag, Erica? Well, here's my beautiful purse, I guess. We can start with the outside with my keychains that came from Italy. This one, uh, it's a little fan of like places in Italy. Did you go to Italy or did someone bring them back from Italy? Um, one of my friends actually who used to work here, Kiara, she went to Italy and brought it back for me. Inside there are four pockets. It looks heavy just from here. Unfortunately is, but I would never take anything out of it. I get it. I get that. I actually get that. I have my handy dandy notebook. What does it say? Write it down. Love it. Thank you. I got it at Target. It was on sale and I was like, "Sure." You always keep a notebook in your bag. Yeah, because I find that I need paper surprisingly often. Creatives. I Yeah, I don't I So, paper. Um. Yes, my Tums.

I have been struggling couple of days. So, the Tums are in my bag. I always keep some in my car and they're missing and I don't know why. This is from my car. This is This is the car tums. The cars. I always keep cars. My car ibuprofen, but currently my car tums are in my purse. My car tums are missing. I don't know what happened. Purse Tums. Love it. Relatable. Um Oh. Oh, this is an interesting one. A very beat up box of film. Okay, that is unique. So, and weird. Um, my beautiful, lovely boyfriend gave me a film camera. And I often find myself running out of film. So, I just keep film in my purse so that I can easily replenish if we're out and, you know, taking pictures. I don't have to be like, "Oh man, I only have three pictures left. I got to Do you find it's worth it for the like like is it like romantic enough to be taking film pictures or does it feel like it's just kind of No, I think it's awesome. Like I have um I haven't had much time to go out and take pictures. So I have film in the camera now that's like two to three weeks old and I have no idea what's on it anymore. And that's like my favorite part is every time I get it developed it's like oh my god I forgot I took a picture of that and it's like can I tell you a very quick story that goes along with that? when I was little and I had got my first disposable camera and I took it on my because this is what you did when you were, you know, back in the 90s and I took it on a camping trip like I was in the Girl Scouts and I took it on camping trip. Well, no one told me with those disposable ones you snap a picture but then you have to roll the dial. No one told me I had to roll the dial. So all week long I was just snapping pictures. Didn't roll the dial. And so at the end of the week, like when I I was like so excited, I sent it to the pharmacy or whatever and I got it back. I had one picture and I was so sad. Was it even Was it a good picture? I don't even know. I doubt it. But it was like that feeling that you'd get of like what are my pictures going to be? I know. There's just so many good pictures. I had one from the whole trip. One. It's so exciting. I used to do that for field trips. Like in school, that was what my parents got me for a field trip was like I had a Lunchable and a disposable camera and so like we went to the zoo or something and I just took all the pictures. So it's it's like bringing me back to those roots and I love it. Front pocket multi-tool. Oh, also from my boyfriend. I love that. So it's got like screwdriver like double-sided. So I like that one. You have Oh, sorry. I hit the mic. Um, oh, that's a good one. Yeah, I I'll get it back in in a second. It's got like a box cutter on it and bottle opener, which has been very handy. Surprisingly handy. Um, and then a screwdriver. Yeah. And it just clips in right here. And then I've got a pen for my notebook, of course. Yeah, that's what's in my bag. Oh, yeah. And my keys that are on a Big Hero 6 lanyard with a Big Hero 6 keychain. Nice. Awesome. I have a lot. Well, I feel like a per, you know, digging out your whole purse is like Yeah. I honestly I I love it. I'm like I was saying to her, I'm like I think the what's in your bag thing does so well cuz I'm like every it's so like everyone carries such different things. Yeah. And you really get to know a person. You do. Finding out what they carry. Exactly. Exactly. And it's like what's hidden in there? I want to know what's hidden in there. The curiosity level like Yeah. Okay. Um, I was saying that because I've done this so many times now, this mic's not feeling right. Um,

okay, that should be okay for a second. I don't know if this pillow is going to be able to stay. Um, because I've done this so many times now, I'm like, it's not I'm not intentionally putting things in here for this. This is just who I am. Um, so to find new things is not I don't know if I'm going to be able to, but um, what have I not talked about on the pod already? So trying to find interesting new things. So I'm trying to think of things that I haven't already showed the podcast. So anything new that I haven't shown. Tiny little deodorant native. This is the best kind, but this is the sweet peach and nectar kind. Oh, that's the shampoo. Very, very good. Smells amazing. No one wants to be stinky. get yourself a purse um deodorant. So, I also have a lot of um like for Sephora um or like Ulta birthday presents. They give you like travel size, trial size mascaras. Got a bunch of those. I don't know if I showed this in the past, but bag bomb lip balm. Amazing. Bag bomb. You've never heard of bag bomb? Oh, okay. So, it's like it's was made for like I think fact check me, fake news. Um animal like I think cow utters actually like the it comes in a tub. It's disgusting. It smells horrible. But it's like so ointment healing for your skin. So like my dad always worked in a shop and his hands would just be like bleeding from stuff and so he'd always like come in and like put bag balm on all of his cuts. But having it in a lip balm form amazing. It's very very healing. It's I always use Vaseline, so it's kind of similar feeling. It's just more stinky, but it works really, really good. Um I have lots of mints. I have both um super sour ones, which are like mouthwatering. My medicine makes my mouth really dry. And then I also have these kind that are aspartane free and also have um what's that stuff in it that is good for your teeth? Xylitol. Yep. Xylitol. Um, so I'm all minted up. Um, I have a straw. Extra straw. Yes, cuz you never know when you'll need an extra straw. I know when you need an extra straw. And we needed an extra straw yesterday because I forgot to bring Tim straw and I forgot that was in there. So, um, this from Kevin's episode a couple weeks ago um, was when he was talking about skincare and camides. This is my camide king. Um, and I don't share this with anyone. No one's allowed to share it. So, when people want hand cream out of my purse, they're not allowed to use this. I have a different one that I will share. But, this is really good for um like redness and it has zinc. It has magnesium and sodium. It has a gel hydrator, but it's super like it's almost like medication, but it's really good. Really expensive. Um, sounds expensive. Yeah. What else have I not shown anybody in here? This is like my Juicy Couture bonus um thing that I carry. It's not my cards, but it's all of my um the like dummy cards. It's It's all of my um gift cards that I have that I'm like, I need to use those up. So, like I was thinking like loyalty cards. So, a lot of these are like So, the cancer center gave us It's amazing. They give you turns out when you're dying they're like the least we can do is give you some gas cards. So, when you're going to chemo 5 days a week, they're like here have some gas cards. And they also gave me a whole bunch of like a grocery store gift cards. So that was cool. So I've been trying to use those up, but I'm not keeping those in my normal wallet. I don't know why. It just it feels like better having them in this separate little purse. So that's in that. Um I think that's fair. I'm loaded up with um I think I've shown I have tons of like main. It's usually open. It's usually open. Not on that sounds bad. Not on purpose. Um, mace yourself. At a different company I once worked at years ago, a girl had a mace on her keychain and because it was open, it slow leaked and we had to evacuate the whole building just from a slow leak. Oh no. And no. Oh my word. Just a slow leak from it being even down the hall. Everyone was like choking. Oh my god. Do not let your mace or pepper spray leak. It was like I can't imagine getting sprayed in the face with it. That's terrifying. So anyway, I'm living on the edge with with that color. So anyway, oh, and this purse itself is new if you'd like to admire it. And it came with an inner purse. Ah, yes. So this is like my I pull this out if I don't want to take big purse into the store. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, that's all for me. So anyway, what are we talking about today? We were going to talk about um Oh, we're going to talk about work um working from home, working from an office, the challenges of that, especially since we're both kind of like chronic illness girlies. And also like the differences between having a brain that can focus and can't focus and uh the benefits and challenges of working from home. So you're kind of hybrid. Yeah. Um and I'm honestly so thankful for it. It's been amazing. It's been so helpful with how my health is. It's been so nice to be like, "Hey guys, I'm really not feeling good today. I'm just gonna take it easy and work from home today. And it's been such a relief. So, how Wow.

Sorry about that. Um, I'm just going to keep moving because it's kind of one of those days where I can't get my body comfortable. Um, I know what you mean. I'm trying to keep the mic in front of my face. What have you found um when you're working from home has like worked and not worked? Just kind of in summary. um days when you're gonna work from home. Do you mind if I look at my list? Yeah, get your get your list. Um I have notes because once again, my brain cannot focus. I understand. I understand. I was when we were talking about setting up this um conversation, we were talking about how the difference between I don't know. Do you consider yourself like type a type B personality?

Funny enough, in some ways, but not in others. I am a very strange being that is a mix of chaos and OCD. So like in some places I thrive in having flexibility and chaos and nonsense. And in other ways I'm like no it needs to be organized. It needs to be set. It needs to be XYZ unless and if it's not forget it. Yeah. I am so like flippy between the two that that's sometimes the challenge with with working in general for me is like a job like this where I'm using my brain more often and there's a lot of different tasks going on all at once. It can be really hard to figure out daily like what I need to change in order to function properly. Um, but thankfully most of the people on this team are at least someone works the same as like one of my moods. Yeah. And so whenever it's a day where it's like, okay, I need more schedule, I reach out to Anna. Whenever it's a day that it's like I'm more flexible and trying to figure out what I'm doing, I reach out to someone else and it's like it's so nice. This company is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's certainly unique um in that not all companies, especially more corporate settings, have the flexibility to uh work on whatever hours work best for you. Yeah. And um work wherever works best for you. And that's not to say that um uh there's complete freedom in that here. there's certain um expectations and boundaries that we keep as a company and as working together as a team. But it's nice that um there is a certain freedom to work within the bounds of your own brain here. Yeah. And as long as you're kind of getting your work done and cooperating with whatever team you're working with, it's kind of like whatever works for you. Yeah. So what have you found works for you? So the biggest thing that I have done recently in working in general is I need to have a space. Okay. I I was doing this thing where I would travel all around my house and do work in different places and it was not I wouldn't say distracting. It was just it didn't feel comfortable. Yeah. And I didn't feel like I was working at my best because I didn't have full attention. I was, you know, focused on this because I'm on this spot and this one because I'm in this spot. You know, like working from bed is like I'm tired because I'm in bed and my brain is like, "Oh, we're in bed. Time for nap." You know, or I'm on the couch and I'm like I'm looking up at the TV like, "Man, I I forgot I need to finish the show." and that's obviously not good for work and productivity and and things like that. So, I had to set up a space for myself in my apartment as like a okay, this section is is where I work. Yeah. And it's kind of morphed a couple of times as I'm trying to find like my perfect sweet spot. But right now, I think I found a pretty good spot is like a small section of my desk that I've kind of turned everything away from to make it like a cubicle. Y and that's like it's the perfect space for computer, notepad, mouse, everything I need. And it gets me into that brain space of focus just sitting there. And it also what is I'm so thankful for separates the rest of my house from work. Yes. Because the other problem I was having was I could never relax. I could never have work off my mind because I was always in a spot where I would usually work. Y and so I was constantly stressed like, "Oh, I have to do this. Oh, this is on my task list. Oh, you know, I have to do this tomorrow like and couldn't separate. No. And obviously that's not good for relaxation. And you need relaxation. You need that separation, you know, work life balance and all that. Yep. So having that set space where it's like I do not sit there unless I'm working. Mh. It really gave me that boundary of like okay the rest of the house is for relaxing and for doing house things and that space is the work space. Y and that changed a lot with my workflow and it was so so helpful. Yeah. Um, that's really smart having like because it's true being in a certain environment creates an energy of well that's what this place is for. You go to this place to do this to do this thing. you know, you're in this spot to for this purpose and it brings this energy to it like you said like it's hard to relax in a place where you're you're have work on your mind and vice versa like so to create those kind of separations for yourself and in your brain that seems like a smarter way to work. Yeah. And my my challenge with that was I live in a very small apartment. Yeah. And so I didn't have like a dedicated office. Yeah. Like you know that's like a room where I can like close the door and be like that's the office. Um so I kind of had to make my own office because I had I had tried the desk before but I hadn't moved anything. And so it's like my attention still kind of wavered. Yeah. But now I've kind of set up, like I said, like a cubicle, so it kind of blocks out everything else and I have like a little room around me. Um I also do the thing where it's like um certain music or certain videos or whatever. I for some reason ASMR has been my thing lately. Um putting on ASMR focuses me into work. Okay. which is strange because it's supposed to be a relaxation thing, but somehow it like it just triggers something in my brain to be like a calming thing. A cal it like gets your brain into a I think so because my brain is always moving at 3 million miles an hour thinking about everything all at once. So it's like I think having something to be like focusing is helpful. Um but that could be for anyone that could be music, that could be a TV show, like their comfort TV show. Like as long as it helps you to get the work done, that's what's important when it comes to having a strange brain. Yeah. You know, like it doesn't matter what other people think to me, you know, like someone comes over and looks at me and they're like, "Why are you watching a video of someone scratching another person's back?" Like like because it's helping me focus, okay? Like I don't know. I I'm getting work done. Okay. and they're like, "Okay, good job." Like, you know, it doesn't matter if they're like, "Oh, that's weird." Because I'm still being a productive part of the company and they can't argue with that, right? You know? Yeah. If you're As long as it's not distracting and it's actually motivating, then whatever. Yeah. Yep. To each their own. Yeah. Exactly. I'm, you know, I'm a weird person. I know. You know what? I'm I totally subscribe to whatever it takes to get your brain in a state of like being able to focus and do your best work because we do have all of us just so many challenges that like things that are on our minds or like you said just like putting us in a state of like our it's just like our brains are running at like a million miles an hour thinking about not just like work but everything else going on in our life. And so to be able to like dedicate time and focus and give good um like energy to a project and make it good is hard sometimes. Especially when you don't feel good. And so whatever it takes to get there, you have to do those things. Yeah. And and that might look different on different days, too. So for like for me um I there's just some days where I'm just like I can't push this project right now or like like not even necessarily today but like on this hour. So like I and I have that's taken a lot of maturing to to learn there. There's a past version of me that would be like I'm going to push through this and do this right now. And there's the mature version of me that's like, "Oh, that's not worth it." Because you waste time trying like killing yourself over like just wasting time just being like, "I can do this and not being able to do it." Instead, I'm going to get up and vacuum this room right now instead like while I'm at my office because I'm like, that's actually a product productive thing to do, too. Reset myself a little bit. Maybe post on social media. Come back to ving editing this video later. I've been staring at it for too long. Yeah. So things like that work well for me when I'm just like not in a headsp space of cuz things like listening to music and stuff, they don't work for me. Yeah, that's I've always felt that way too. I I get too sucked into the music and I think that's why ASMR has been so helpful lately is because it's like it's not music, but it's sound like background. Background noise. But I hate white noise. I hate the like white noise, brown noise, pink noise, like all of that because it's a steady hum. Yeah, it makes my tonitis go crazy and I just Yeah, it it drives me insane. So, I need like a variation of sound, but something that's not going to be distracting. And I think that's the the hole that ASR has filled lately. That's so interesting. Yeah, I' I've tried like there's different there's different like YouTube videos that are supposed to be like this specific like um like decibel of whatever supposed to be good for focus and like maybe occasionally like that'll hit but like for one thing more often than not I'm editing videos so I'm listening to audio so I can't have a competing audio going right but even the times where I'm not editing an audio and I'm doing something where I can listen to music. It just it kind of is so distracting that it's like an additional thing on my mind that I'm like this is not this is actually just making me feel worse. So and at the same time I'm a person that like I do kind of like background noise and distraction going on but it's like if I'm struggling to focus on something that doesn't help me personally. So it's like finding well then what does right? So yeah and that's different for every person. So, do you think that like your work vibe and focus is different at home versus being in the office? Oh, 100%. So, in the office, I don't need the background noise as much because there's kind of naturally background noise. True. Yeah. Um, I was listening to some stuff the other day when we were having our fire drill project and I needed to like just lock in and just like cut out everything and I need to get this done. Yeah. But um for the most part I find it's it's probably also partially because this is truly the work environment and that will truly ultimately put me in the best work mind of spa space mind space mind space space of mind space of mine I don't know I know what you're saying. He made me doubt it. I I doubted myself. Um, so it's it's easier for me to focus here than at home. Yeah. Um, and that's not to say that I can't work at home because 100% I can. And sometimes I do need to because there are times where I physically can't get to the office. You know, I don't feel like I could drive. It's not safe for me or I'm missing a car. you know, cars in the shop or recently um my mom didn't have a car so she had to take my car to work, you know, like things like that. And that's where that flexibility comes in handy. But having that hybridness where it's like, okay, I'm having a day where I really am not going to get anything done at home. I can go in the office and that will instantly switch me on to like okay I know what I'm doing and I'm here you know and it's an amazing space here too that it's like supportive of that productivity like I have worked in places where even just going to the place is like stifling because the people are stifling And it's it's awful. But thankfully that is not the environment here. And that's another thing that like I feel like a lot of people have to search for especially like in this kind of field in like the creative graphics, web design, marketing, all of that. Like it can be very easy for a company to fall into that stiff corporate. Yeah. Yep. And you have to kind of travel around unfortunately to find the right company that has the right vibe because it's a team effort for sure for for this kind of position. It's a team effort. You know, when I was 16 and doing like a cleaning job, that's you know, that's me. I'm in I'm in my own space, you know. It's just me here. like, you know, but in this kind of situation, it's every person has a a piece and it all needs to come together in order to make the puzzle, right? It's not just on you and it's not just on her. It's not just on him. It's it's everyone has a piece. And so, it's so important to meld as a team and be able to have that comfort and that productivity feeling being in the space. And I think it like what I've noticed is when that's why I like when everyone comes into the office in person because I just feel like there's just a different energy to the conversations that get had um if we need to, you know, like yesterday when we needed to talk about a certain client, me, you and Anna, and if we had had that conversation on Zoom, I feel like it would have I don't know, just not been the same. The dynamic wouldn't have been the same. um talk just talking about it wouldn't have felt the same. The uh resolution to it would have been it just felt would have I think it would have felt more draining to me more difficult to set up that meeting to talk about it. Yes. To make sure did we cover everything cuz now we have to say goodbye and sign off. Whereas if all three of us are here and it's like is now a good time for us to to like jam this out and then if like in 10 minutes I'm like oh yeah and by the way with this thing that I forgot to me you know what I'm saying? And so all of us just kind of being here and having the ability to like be like oh yeah and about that like it's it has an element of comfort to it to me because it's like we're all here in a community of like we're all working on the same client stuff. Yeah. and we can just hop on over to each other's desk or pop upstairs and be like, "What happened with this?" Okay, cool. Run down. Rather than make a whole meeting online about it or even messaging over chat about it, it's just not the same. I don't feel like I get to the same um satisfaction of resolution to stuff as when we're just in like the office talking in person about stuff. And so there's that benefit. I feel like there's times when we are in the office together where it can feel like a distraction because there's so much like you know lunchtime takes up a good amount of time whereas if we were home like there'd be a different level of productivity but that's good for morale too. Yeah. Um there's just occasional shenanigans that are timeconuming or if I am trying to focus and there's people in here like talking that can be distracting to me but it's also not like that every day. Yeah. So, it's like there's the balance of like, okay, so there's some extra distractions that are consuming, some of those are good if it was just like quiet in here all the time and like pedal to the metal focus. So then that's that's like part of like my hot take with this is in in having to be forced to to entirely work from home um because of the whole car situation for a little while. I have figured out at least for me hybrid is so much better than straight work from home. Yeah. Like straight work from home sounds like a dream and it is not all that it seems to be. It is not all that it is cut out to be. It is so much nicer. So like like you say, if it is that kind of environment at work where you know, oh man, I just really can't focus today. You can go home and finish up at home. Y and that's the great part of the hybrid situation. Y whereas if you were in office and you just really couldn't focus today, oh well, you know, like like try again tomorrow, you know, or if you were all work from home and it was the same situation. and it was like, "Oh, well, try again tomorrow." You know, but with the hybrid, you really have that opportunity to like change your environment if it's not working that day. And it's so helpful for at least someone like me who who sometimes needs that change to kick back into gear. Y and yeah, so I I personally think that hybrid is much better than straight work from home. I agree. And I when I used to live much further away, I worked from home a lot more just because it was more challenging to get all especially in the winter. Like it took me like 45 minutes. I am not looking forward to trying to get here. Yeah. So that's kind of you. You live kind of further away. I have the benefit of only being like 15 minutes away now. But when I lived further away, it was harder to get here in person. I still made the effort to get here at least two days a week because I saw the benefits to it. But I didn't I even back then I didn't enjoy working from home because it just it was way harder to be on meetings. It was way harder to focus. I also and that was when I had a different apartment but it was still a small apartment and like you said it was hard to create a an area that was separate from the rest of my house. So like you said it felt like my whole house. It was like I had to like mentally click off work time and I couldn't do that because my laptop felt like my work and I wanted to use my laptop for other stuff. Like it was just like I couldn't turn it off and so I can turn it off the moment I leave here. Yeah. like mostly if I need to check the chat like I've been able to set way better. I've been here for almost nine years now and I have through time learned how to set better boundaries for myself for my sanity to be like okay unless there's a true emergency which I don't believe in marketing emergencies and I'll die on that hill. Um you know I'm there for my team unless there's a team emergency. How about we say that? Unless it's a team emergency cuz I'll die for this team. How about that? I'll die for this team. Um I will not check my chat after a certain time of the day and I won't check it on the weekends. Yeah. And there's no need to for me. But there are other people on this team who their brains work better to work during those hours and so that for them they work during that time whereas they don't necessarily work during the hours that I do. And that's great. So there's some like weird overlap that happens. Um my point being um when I'm here because I almost entirely work in office now. Um I'm able to leave here and be like works for tomorrow. Yeah. So I I might occasionally check my chat like once at night just to be like is there anything happening tomorrow I need to know about to prep for? Um, but besides that, I can leave work at the office unless I'm like sick, not feeling good, and do truly need to work from home. Um, I prefer to leave it here for me personally. And I've found what works for me. And I think that's what everybody should do is whatever your circumstances are and whatever your ability is, whatever your company allows you to do, figure out, you know, how to make the best of those circumstances in your environment. Like you and I both have small apartments and we can still figure out a situation that works. Yeah. Mhm. And having the separation is just so important. It's I did not realize how important it was until it was a problem for me. And then I was like, "Oh, I really don't feel good. Oh, I wonder why." Um cuz I'm thinking about work all the time and I'm stressed about work the entire day 24/7. Cannot go to sleep without thinking about work. Yeah. It's just it's not worth it. Yep. No job is worth that. Yep. Yeah. For your for being not getting sick over for sure. Yeah. There's being responsible and keeping up with your tasks and and being being productive, being responsible and reliable. And then there's like making yourself sick over it. Yes. Yeah. Or just constantly like losing sleep over things and Yeah. Then it's time to reevaluate, I think. I agree. And I've definitely been at that point before where I'm a high anxiety person by nature. So, I I'm constantly re-evaluating like, am I being a lunatic about this? Probably, but what needs to change cuz I shouldn't be? And I and I think that's why I make that statement about marketing emergencies because I I care a lot about my clients and my work and I'll make everything an emergency. I will make because I care so much and I'm just like at the end of the day I'm just like it's literally marketing and it'll be okay. It'll be okay. All can be fixed. All can be fixed. All can be done in the light of the day and can be addressed and it's not worth me dying over. Right. So, yeah. Well, I'm glad you have figured out what works well for you. Um, have you made adjustments through time? You've been here a year now. Yeah, a lot of adjustments. It's It's been quite the journey to figure out what I need. Um, cuz this job has been so different than the rest of my jobs. I mean, this is the first job I've had that's like a career job, you know, something that I expect to stay in long term and I expect to kind of grow in. You know, all the rest of my jobs were, you know, classic part-time. you know, I worked at an escape room. I worked at I worked a cleaning job. I worked at a gymnastics gym as like a front desk person. You know, they were standard like I'm a teenager. I'm just earning my first bit of money. Um, and to adjust to this like completely different environment was huge for me during my internship during the three months that I first started here. It was so much different than I expected that it was almost shocking, but it didn't scare me away obviously because here I am a year a year in. Um, but it did take time to figure out and honestly I really didn't figure out the whole like home separation thing until like a couple weeks ago. Yeah, like I mean my mom is staring at me like your acid reflux is because of your stress and I'm like great. But um it having that settled agreement of like this is how my brain works and this is finally working for for my work and my brain and my comfort level and also by productivity and efficiency. It's so much nicer now to do work. Yeah, like it's not a I am stressed constantly because I didn't do this right or I still need to do this or you know it's even made mistakes easier because I am more aware I guess of like the strengths and weaknesses that I have and more accepting of them which sounds stupid because how can setting up space in your apartment for work, help you with that. But it really it it changes so much mentally to have that like separation and to be able to like brush things like here's the work corner, here's the relax corner. And it it puts you more into a self-awareness state where I can say like, "Oh, yes. Okay, I did that wrong, but here's how I can make it better. I'm going to work on it right now. I'm gonna fix what I did wrong. And then I can still shut the computer and walk away from it and like take a breather, take a walk outside, do some deep breaths, come back to it with a fresh mind. And and like again, it's that separation that that helps to have that moment of like instead of just pure panic. Yeah. It's okay, things will be okay. I can do this. Yes. And get it done. Yep. And I think that that translates not even just in work. I I am the type of person who my environment affects me mentally so much. Like, and I'm as type A as it gets, but if I'm in a messy space, I can't function. I can't relax. This office, I guess that I guess the redesign was before you started here. What was the ceiling up before you started here? So like this. So this basement has been a long time of like remodeling and redoing and it like I moved down here by myself like the second year after we moved in here and it was just very basementy down here. And I slowly over time was like okay we're putting in a we're putting in the floor. We're going to start painting. We're going to start and over and putting in the studio one piece at a time. And it made such a difference. That's why I put so much of like my chest into the remodel down here because this space, every part of it makes such a difference to me personally and I think definitely other people. People started hanging out down here way more after we remodeled because it has a way like literally even just Bill's choice to redo the lights. They were the strip lights which were way like harsher, uglier. Um, that wasn't a necessary thing to do, but it created like a much more calming like homey vibe. And I think getting my chandelier totally unnecessary, but it's so cute though. It it it all of those pieces tie together to create an environment that's conducive to uh productive work. And my I do my I make my home that way. Like it's neurotically clean because I can't cope. Um, one of the things that we have been talking about is redoing the studio in a way that um, hopefully will make it more um, just efficient and also we're thinking thinking about don't hold me to this um, moving the podcast setup somewhere else so that it's um, the audio and video is more um, just productive for post and uh, visually appealing and all that kind of stuff. But um that might be a few seconds before that happens. But all of those things matter. All of those things matter to vibes and work and mental health. 100%. I believe in that 100% they do. And my whole chest. Mhm. So, Yep. And I think a lot of type A people don't realize that, which is what's interesting. Type A or type B? Type A. Really? Yeah. I feel like they just think like it's this is just the way that it needs to be and they don't realize that like it's it's affecting them the purpose behind it. Yeah. Yeah. And and I I guess I don't really know how to articulate this properly. My mom is very type A and in a lot of ways she like cannot cope when something is not going her way. But she lives with me. And that is a struggle of like, you know, I have a different organization style than she does. Yeah. And I cope with her much better than she copes with me, I think. Are you like a more messy type and she's a cleaner type? Um, yes. Um, and she's more of like an a toz organizer, whereas I'm more of a purposeful organizer. like I use this in this spot, so it's going to live somewhere near this spot. And even if that seems like it's messy, it's more convenient and it's more likely that I'm going to put it back in that spot organization because Yeah. Um but she's like, "No, I have this drawer and it's labeled this, this, and this, and that's where it needs to go because that's where it's labeled." And I'm like, "But if I'm using it in my bedroom, I'm not going to want to walk it all the way back out to the living room every time I use it." Yeah, I can see that difference clashing. Yeah. So, um I find that a lot of that kind of organization type is less flexible. Oh, yeah. And um I don't know. I feel like I feel like you do good with that of being flexible and kind of working with other people. Thank you. In spaces that I am obligated to share, I try to be open-minded in the sense that like I this can't all be about me. Yeah. In spaces that I am not obligated to share, I'm a psychopath. So, uh yeah, my personal spaces for to be fair, I think that is your right as having your personal space to be neurotic about a big reason I choose not to have children. Fair. And never will. So, uh, yeah, I children are very messy. Well, it's just I don't want to. There's certain things I'm not going to share and part of that is my space. So, yeah, to each their own. I respect you mothers. Okay. So, circling back to to to working from home, I do have another thought is I noticed for me with my brain and the level of focus that I achieve blocks out important senses. Say that again. Say it all again so I can Okay. So, the level of focus that I often achieve blocks out basically like anything but what I'm doing. So any body like like sensory things, any like sounds around me like it I often get too stuck. So give me an example cuz I'm not following you. I don't eat or drink when you're working. Yeah. When I'm working at home and I'm like really focused in. Okay. And that reduces my productivity because eventually you know you start getting hungry and whether you like it or not whether you feel hungry or not your brain starts functioning at a lower level and you start getting shaky and same with dehydration. And I was finding I was like stopping five six hours in and being like why do I feel disgusting? Oh I haven't eaten a meal in like 6 hours. So, are you are you saying it's better for you to not eat or to eat? No. So, I'm saying you need I need to set something to allow me to eat. Like I have to set an alarm for myself or like even just someone to text me and be like, "It's lunchtime." Like something that pulls me away for a moment so that I have that recognition of, "Oh, I'm hungry. I need to drink some water. have a water. If you have a water bottle, you won't drink it on your desk. Why? No. Because my brain blocks it out. It's like an object permanence thing where it's like, I'm staring at my computer screen, so the only thing that matters is my computer screen. It's crazy. And it is very beneficial in certain situations, but not good to starve yourself. I can definitely relate to like forgetting to eat. I am definitely a forget to eat person, but drinking I cannot relate to at all. I'm I'm like I have to take a sip of something every 5 minutes. I literally like don't even register that like my mouth is dry or my throat is dry or I'm thirsty. Like I don't register it. I don't register the feeling of my stomach like grumbling. I don't register any of it. It's crazy. And like I sometimes I don't even register like if my blood sugar gets too low and I get shaky. I don't even rec register that I'm shaky until I stop and then I'm like, "Oh god, I need to have like a piece of candy right now." So, you're saying it is a good tip to check in with your physical body while you're working so that you're working too. set an alarm whether that's pomodoro method every you know 30 minutes an hour to just like sit back for a second five minutes kind of check in with your body kind of figure out what time it is because I also lose track of time super easily um you know check how just in general how you're feeling because also like I find myself hunching I'm very hunchy like you were taking pictures of me the other day and you're like you're curled up in a ball and I'm Oh, I didn't even realize that. And so, I have to also take that moment to be like, my back's going to hurt later today if I don't do some stretches or like some some exercise, like something to move my body around. Um, and that has changed a lot for me is having that like, okay, it's been two hours of work, um, or an hour of work. Let's figure out like, okay, it's noon. I should probably start thinking about lunch. What should I do for lunch? you know, um I haven't I don't think I've drank any water, so let me take a good three sips right now and then throughout like my break I'll drink more water. You know, it's having that moment of like, okay, I'm pulling away. Smart is so important. So smart. It has helped my health in general because I started associating work with feeling crappy. Oh. because I was starving myself unintentionally. unintentionally or just sitting too long or just sitting too long getting crampy and dehydrated. I That's a really good point. Yeah. And so and another thing is I don't think that I'm thirsty if I'm not talking much. Like my mouth doesn't get dry if I'm not talking. Yeah. It's it's a I don't know. I get it. We're starting to run out of time, but I wanted to see what was in your chat. that really quick. Okay, let's take a look. So, this is my personal on my on my phone. Um I do sometimes use it on my computer, but uh I have like a work one specifically. So, this is often just like my personal. Um so, you separate your personal and your work one. Yeah. Yeah, I do too. Um first thing, how to activate CarPlay because I didn't know. We just got a new car and it has Apple CarPlay and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it started. Did you figure it out? I did figure it out. Turns out Yeah, it is a plugin one. So, that was the problem. Got it. But I was like I felt so dumb. I was like, isn't this supposed to be a Bluetooth thing? Yeah. No, some of the Some of them are and some of them you have to plug in. Yeah. Yeah. Um soup recipe ideas with what I have in my pantry. So, I gave it like the ingredients that I have available. Good idea. And it put out like some things that I could make immediately. So, I didn't have to go to the store because this was also during the time that I didn't have a car available. Oh. So, I was like, I have pantry staples. I just don't know how to put them together. Help me put them together, you know. Awesome. Um, superhero name ideas.

I was writing a short story and I needed just some ideas that I use chat GBT so often for that kind of thing for for just like creative sparks. Um, and especially if it's like like a short story. I I wasn't expecting to like give it to anyone to read and it was mostly just because I was like I have this muse and I would like to practice with it. So, I started writing something and those are the times when I'm like even more apt to like use chat GBT for inspiration for things. Um, but when it comes to things that I expect like one day I might publish this, I don't usually use it as often. Um, sometimes I use it to help me search for certain specific things, especially because having something in a Google history that's like, how long does it take to bleed out? Yeah. You're like, startling. I don't want any kind of crime information. Go into Chat GPT and I'm like, hey, I'm writing a story. Here's what happens in By the way, this is not for crime reasons. It's for novel reasons. Exactly. In case the police ever find this, I'm writing a book. Um, ground beef stroganov. How to make I was really craving stroganov. Okay. Uh, here's uh, and this will be the last one. Um, I asked it to pull up a list of affordable castles for a potential wedding. Oh, yeah. Um, because I would like castles for my wedding. A castle. Yep. Love it. Um, so I asked it to pull some from around here, some from like a couple European countries, and it was really helpful. Like I was like, "This is exactly what I need." Catch is just an advanced search engine. Yep. For the most part. Yep. That's what I say. Yeah. Yep. I've been careful about mentioning it on the podcast recently because people have been getting angry, but just continuing to keep the what's in my chat like as an as a thing at the end. So, you can click off at this part if you don't like it. Um, mine has been a lot of estimating um like nutrition facts for things that I've h I have had to eat. Um, I've been I even though this is my personal one, I do sometimes use it for work things simply because my personal one I pay for the premium. Oh. Uh, whereas my work one I don't, which feels totally backwards. Um, I just have I have not yet asked Bill to pay for my work one. Um, but anyway, I as I've been asking it for some social media advice and ideas. Um, I ask it every week to help me plan my like supplement and medications for the week depending on like what's going on in my life, like stress or certain pain that I'm dealing with or like just whatever is going on. Like it it's mostly the same, but I'm like my skin's extra dry this week. Like should I increase or decrease this one? Like whatever. Yeah. Like that. It's a lot of health stuff that's like really boring. It's a lot of like what do these words mean? Um, as I was talking with Kevin on our podcast about going through like lyric meanings. I've been doing more of that. Um, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Breaking lyrics, songs. Yeah. Like breaking down like what is this artist talking about in this album? Like is this about their dead like ex-husband or whatever? Just I'm just like really curious about like what what is this? Is this about what I think it is? Like anyway, um I don't really have anything super exciting except for like how do I get better rest and like Yeah, I think I asked Shy out too. My life's really boring right now. So anyway, um let us conclude with get to know the team member. I pulled out one for you. So I'm afraid I'm going to do really bad at this. It's okay. Okay. And per Kevin Burns like super intense new rule, you only get three guesses. Oh god. Okay. He's like, I'm super sick of watching these episodes and letting people guess. That's fine. I guess that's fine. I'm just like I'm trying to give people multiple opportunities to get it right. But you only get three guesses and then you're done. Okay. Thanks, Kevin. Happy Kevin and everybody else on the team or viewers who hate me. Okay. So, this person Mhm. I was neighbors with a threetime US Olympic ski team member. Whoa. Okay.

Who would be interested in that? Like who would who would be like proud of that fact?

Who would know that, right? Yeah. Who would talk to their neighbor enough to be like, "Ah, yeah, that's what the neighbor did." You know, like I don't I don't know any of my neighbor. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. Tim. No. Okay. Good guess.

I'm like, again, I I feel like all of the names that I know are just going out the window. I forget who it was that had that same issue where it's like now I have to look through my chat to like who who do who's who's even working here? Who who do we have? I can help you with that. Um

um Bill, Adrien, Anna, Anna, Lynn, Christina, Courtney, Dan, Deb, Kevin, Christy, Maddie, Shalami, Tim, Vanessa, Vicky, Yuri.

Is it Kevin? Yep. Okay. Kevin has the weirdest life. What the heck, Kevin? How do all of these crazy things happen to you? I don't understand. He lives a novel. He does. He lives a novel. You told me the other day something that I was like, what? Yeah. How did that even He gave me some really good random. How did that even what? He also was like, I don't remember ever telling you that. You did. I have the chat message saved. You were there making stuff up. So, can I can I go through my line of thinking? Yeah. So, my thought first was it had to either be a very friendly female, which we do have some people who are very outgoing. Not not I mean, we all we everyone's friendly, but like really outgoing, really social butterfly, like would talk to anyone. We have a couple people like that, but most of us most of us giries are kind of introverted here. Yeah. Um or I feel like it h would have to be again an social butterfly man. Yes. But someone who would really remark on that like and I feel like Kevin and Tim and maybe Dan are the ones who would immediately or Bill Bill would brag about something like that. Yeah, that's true. But I I All men why I gave a vibe that like Bill Bill it wasn't Bill. I don't know. I don't know. I would have guessed all the men here. Where was Kevin living? Do you know? I don't know. Okay. He didn't he didn't say that part. Kevin, where were you living? Yeah. What? Cuz cuz he lives in like Chile. Chile now. Yeah. I don't know if it was when he was living in California or not. Yeah. Okay. So, he has lived in the States. Yeah. Okay. He's born in the States. That's so crazy. I I I'd believe California. I feel like I don't Skiers come from California, which is strange, but it doesn't It was a US Olympian, right? But the US Olympian could have moved to Chile, but true. I don't know. Honestly, I don't care enough. This is a random fact that I don't care about. Oh, I am interested. I like the You can tell, Erica. There are things I care about in these people's lives. This one I don't care about. Not that much. I usually end up watching the Winter Olympics cuz I watch the figure skating events. So, I'm like, I'd be interested to find out who the skier was. Like, that's cool. Yeah. Kind of a It's kind of like an F level celebrity, right? I've I've known some celebrities. Celebrity. I don't know. I'm not meaning to insult your fact, Kevin. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone any higher. Okay. Well, this was really fun. Yeah. Thank you for being here. Thank you for for having me. Come on back again sometime. You're here and we'd love to have you. So, and just know I am behind the camera. She's the one behind the camera. Behind the episodes, behind the post production. So, drop her some love in the comments. Drop D drop on in the comments. Mhm. We'd love to see you. Okay. Down below. Till next time. Love you. Bye.