Day 11 in the Virtual Office! Just a half day today…
Total Time in VR: 2 hours and 4 minutes (across 6 VR sessions)
Use Cases: Focus Time (48 min), 1:1 Meetings (44 min), Team Meetings (20 min), MiniMindfulness (10 min)
It was a slow start to Week 3. I actually took a half day of PTO last minute, so technically I still managed slightly over 50% of my day in VR. I worked with our People Ops team today, as they are planning to do some exploration of VR for Team Meetings in the future.
Cup Half Empty: When you have lower energy in general, VR is not optimal. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, but I’m stating it anyway for the record. I am working from my normal home office this week, and settling in with the different layout is taking some adjusting, which also isn’t surprising. I also forgot to charge my Face Cover Fan, so several meetings in VR were without the air flowing. Since I’m reviewing that fan this week, I’m planning to use a few different face covers. Based on my experience today, I think I’m going to miss the fan! But time and testing will tell.
Cup Half Full: I started my day trying to get my blood pressure to lower a bit. I used the same tools from Friday (Daily Calm + Walkabout Minigolf) to create a space to rest and breathe slowly. I was able to get things calmed down pretty quickly. This is just shows how VR can be a tool for many things, and today it was a health tool for me!
I also discovered today that I miss my 3 big screens when I’m just working on my 13 inch laptop (featured photo today!). It feels so much more inefficient. Sure you could “Alt-Tab” your way from window to window, but in my experience that breaks flow and slows me down. With my triple monitors (or double for the PC folks), everything I use regularly is just a glance away, not a click, swipe, or screen re-arrangement.
#TLDR
I’m not going to let today’s slow start to the week bother me. I wasn’t feeling great and that happens. My feelings weren’t tied to my VR use, so that’s a good thing. Even in my sub-optimal state, I still was able to help onboard two team members, meet for a regular 1:1 and get some focus time in my Personal Office. I’m excited to see how the upstairs office goes tomorrow when I’m hopefully back to my old virtual self.
Till Tomorrow…
Carrier Pigeon XR 