Working From Home: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I am sure so many of us have experienced the ups and downs of working from home over the last 2 years. I remember when COVID-19 lockdowns first happened in Melbourne, I was actually kind of excited to work from home.

I am a music teacher and I thought it would be great for my narcolepsy and make my symptoms so much easier to manage. While some things were great, overall, I definitely struggled with working from home.

Working from home: the good

I will start with the positives because there were definitely some pros to working from home. First of all, I got to take my lunchtime nap in my bed instead of on the floor of a music room or in my car. I mean, I can nap anywhere, sure, but if I can have the comfort of my own bed, I would choose that any day.

Along with this was increased flexibility with my work hours. I am pretty lucky that my work hours are always pretty flexible, and I get to make my own timetable. However, the freedom of being able to set and change lessons as needed was so incredible. If I was having a bad narcolepsy day, then I could email my students and change their lesson time without causing any inconvenience.

Working from home: the bad

I am going to contradict 1 of the statements I just made about the pros of working from home now. The appeal of being able to nap in my own bed is a double-edged sword. Working so close to the ever so elusive nap heaven that is my bed made my motivation plummet very quickly!

If I had a short break between classes, I would kid myself into thinking I could just lie down for a second on my phone. WRONG! I would fall asleep instantly and either end up late to my next class or feeling groggy from being awoken from an unplanned chaotic nap by the ever-familiar Zoom call sound.

The sleep schedule that I had worked so hard to stick to and adjust to my needs just got thrown out the window. The illustrious call of my bed was just too tempting for me not to give in. If I were at school, I wouldn't have had this issue because, you know, sleeping in a car really isn't as satisfying!!

Working from home: the ugly

I mean, I think this part is kind of funny and probably not related to narcolepsy because all of my housemates did it too! But the fashion choices we made while working from home were outright atrocious. "Business up top, party down the bottom," we would say. I think for a solid 6 months, I wore pajama pants!

In all seriousness, working from home had its up and downs, but I am so grateful that I could continue working during the pandemic. It just took a lot of adjustments to my lifestyle and narcolepsy schedule in order for me to continue being productive!

Do you work from home? What are the benefits? What are the challenges? Tell us in the comments below!