2020 - A quick recap

It's the last day of 2020, the year that COULD have been the greatest year of my life. Indeed for all of us, this year brings a unique experience to all of us - and for sure, things will probably never be the same ever again. Managed to find some quiet self-therapy time to reflect on the good, bad and ugly:

The Good (a.k.a. things that actually turned out right)

- D.I.Y. level up : with more than half of 2020 (March onwards) in lock-down mode (xMCO, or Movement Control Order, with various phases of implementation), all of the sudden you start to notice things starting to break down, possibly due to higher usage (since we're stuck at home). Thanks to online shopping services like Shopee and Lazada, replacement parts, tools and material were easily available. If instructions weren't good enough, there was always Youtube - either way, this year I managed to level up my Do-It-Yourself skills (or should it be Do-It-Myself instead?) from Noob level (changing light bulb, faucet diffuser) to more challenging (floor tile repair, spark plug replacement, car seat stitching). As an R&D person, I really like to do new things or do things differently, so this is the time where we have all sorts of new things to explore.

- Mastery of WFH and WIO + SOP : Sorry, more 3 letter acronyms. Quite simple and standard actually, but for those who are not familiar, that's Working From Home, Working In Office and Standard Operating Procedure. Now, WFH-ing is highly dependent on the nature of the job. Fortunately for me, WFH-ing can be done almost as effectively from home or any other location as we're typically dialing in to virtual meetings even from the office anyway. Of course, depending on the quality of the internet connection (which has made it challenging at times, I must admit) and the degree of isolation from disturbances. Working in Office during these times are also different, as we have to adhere to the strict SOP for everybody's sake. Not that I am complaining, but still having to keep your facemask on at all times from 8am+ to 5pm+ takes some getting used to. The biggest complaint for me is the facemask strings cutting into my ears - which was solved by purchasing cheap silicone liners. Also, due to more flexible hours while WFH-ing, since we don't have to commute, and lunch was just a short excursion to the kitchen, wasted less time each day. The next level will be to do this efficiently, and to manage time well to ensure the right amount of time is available for other important things (other than work).

- (Unintentional) weight-loss : A few years ago, I took part in a mandatory executive health program by my ever-so-caring-about-employees company, and to no surprise, my BMI rating was "overweight". Again, another 3 letter acronym, BMI = Body Mass Index, or mathematically, is simply your weight (kg) / [ your height (m) x your height (m) ]. Based on my current weight at that time, I had to shed at least 4-5 kgs in order to fall below the upper spec limit of "healthy". Somehow, in spite of paying more attention to my diet and exercise, could never really achieve this. Until this year, somehow managed to lose 10+ kgs simply by eating at home and doing light exercises. A great contributor here is my wife, who's cooking style is biased towards healthy. Which is a change to the usual outside food that we find at the company cafeteria or nearby eateries. I'm glad to have finally managed to achieve my weight loss target. Of course, getting lighter does not necessarily mean being more healthy, so in the next health check-up I hope this does not come at a great "cost"!

The Bad (or, things that really should not have happened, to stop happening or should never happen again)

- Lack of physical exercise : Almost like a contraction of the point mentioned above, since the MCO, my number of active hours / steps has dropped from roughly 1 hour or ~5000 steps per day to less than 10 minutes / 500 steps per day.  This is because most of the time is spent sitting in front of my laptop, versus a typical day where I would walk from my car park to my office, getting food during lunch / break and face-to-face meetings with colleagues at other floors / other buildings. Really need to find a way to achieve an elevated heartbeat for cardio, other than getting into a heated online argument! :)

- Keeping cars running : Cars are a basic need, given that public transportation does not really work well for me here in Melaka (other than ride hailing apps like Grab). Of course, this is when you have some place to go. During the MCO, the other interesting problem is keeping my cars running - after a couple of days the battery starts to discharge to a point where the car is not able to start. A real life-saver product I got online is the power-bank jump-starter, which enabled me to start my car without the hassle of connecting jumper cables and of course, requiring another car. Though this means I had to start and run my car for 15-20 minutes each week, and this does not go well for fuel economy (fortunately, fuel prices were coincidentally low during these months). Starting the cars and letting them idle wasn't sufficient, as you still should drive around a bit to ensure the moving parts are lubricated. Ended up driving up and down my street each time. Really inefficient activity.

- Eroding inter-personal engagement : I'm basically a people manager, so besides being in meetings with other people, I have my team to support as well. To me, the best engagement is in person, though given these times, we all need to stay apart and just contact online. As people are not quite used to video-calls, this means we're doing things via audio-only. Not everything is about work - and to build up strong inter-personal relations I feel we really need to be physically present. Before this, we could have gatherings and events on special occasions which was very helpful in getting the team to gel together. In my function, I used to have frequent business trips to engage partners off-site. With travel restrictions which would likely continue until end of 2021 or even through 2022, have to find a workaround to this. Anyone out there have any similar experience to share?

- Noisy office / home office : Ever since everyone is spending more time online, the office can be quite noisy when everyone is talking at max volume. Unfortunately, there are some colleagues who talk like the person they are talking to are at the other end of a football field. To circumvent this, I got myself a pair of Sony ANC (active noise cancellation) headphones, which helped out quite a lot. Still, I wish everyone would be more considerate in the office - though some wishes would never come true. At home, noise from the surroundings (garbage truck, gardener mowing the field, etc.) had the same effect, but at least here I could shut the windows and doors to block out some of the noise. On my side, definitely put in effort to be conscious about my own "volume" to make sure I don't speak louder than necessary, especially in the office.

- "Office hours" : With the flexibility of working at home, somehow this has been misinterpreted as being available at any time. While most of the colleagues are considerate, sometimes out of necessity, the only time where all parties are "available" is way out of office hours for that given time zone. Working in a multi-national company with locations all across the globe make this an unfortunate reality. Someone might be dialing in at 5.30am while another colleague might be in at 9.30pm. If only the company were really flexible - but alas on top of this, we're still required to be "at work" during standard office hours. From my side, I make sure to invite for meetings during the standard office hours (excluding typical lunch break) or even proposing more reasonable meeting times when receiving invitations.

- "Annual Leave" : Two issues here - first, there is not much to do other than work and second, since there was no where to go, we end up working even while on annual leave anyway. Thus, as one of my friends has bluntly put it - annual leave is one of the most useless commodities of 2020. In the end, it boils down to planning and execution - planning when to take some time off and making sure I'm actually off when that happens.

The Ugly (making the best out of bad situations)

- Grateful to still have a job : In these times, I'm really grateful to be still employed, which keeps food on the table for me and my family. Though we have to adapt our personal and working life, we need to accept this is the price to pay. 

- New look : Avoiding unnecessary external contact - I have decided to defer my regular trips to the barber. Never had it this long before, even during those days before starting work, so this is somewhat of a new experience. For now, my hair is longer than it has every been, but it's important to keep it neat and avoid looking unprofessional. 

- Further studies : I started my post-graduate studies before the MCO. This was at UTeM, so we had to attend classes after work (typically, 6.30pm to 10pm) several days during the week, which was a good experience for me as got to interact with other students from different backgrounds, and was preferred compared to distanced learning. Like I mentioned above, I like face-to-face engagement. Unfortunately, with the MCO in effect, learning now has transformed into a hybrid mode learning, where the classes were done online, even the exams. A new experience to learning for everyone, even those in the kindie and schools, but in the end, need to push through.

- Breaking out of routine : My life during the MCO is monotonously routine. Telco, eat, sleep. Of course, to break the routine, I engaged in some mini-DIY projects or repairs. The challenge really is keeping the work-life balance, as during this time the tendency (expectation) is to spend more time at "work", thus leaving little time to do something other than routine. There are many things to learn and to try - just a matter of setting aside the time and determination to do so.

Well, that's my take on 2020 - the most unique year of my life (you should also be feeling the same too). At the rate that things are going (or not going), I foresee that the situation will not drastically change any time soon - and in the end, it might never revert to pre-Covid-19. As they say, this is now the "New Normal". We need to accept reality and to adapt to the times as best as we can. With these thoughts, I bid a fond farewell to 2020 and look forward to a great new year ahead!