This year I found myself at home for the last 8 weeks. It was not by choice and as a matter of fact it was not for any personal health reasons. And no I was not fired either. The reason I am at home is because of the Covid-19 Pandemic that has spread across the world. The state I live in created unconstitutional laws that forced me to not go to work. My job was labeled not vital enough to go to work for. So I have been at home and it has actually been rough.
Physically my body was really struggling due to not having my work gear at home. So I have had to improvise to create a work environment that is capable of going to each day.
At home I do not have my own desk. I started out working from my couch and with a laptop computer. This was workable for several days until my back began to hurt. It started at a slow pain that was manageable and I started working out more thinking I just needed to keep moving. Instead it began to get worse and my back pain turned into my sciatica nerve shooting pain all over my body. It turns out this was due to the couch not providing enough support. So I spent a week on medication to lessen the swelling around my nerves.
From there I went on a journey to find a better way to work. I brought in kitchen chairs into my living room and created a makeshift desk and sitting chair. I found that my wrists started to hurt after days of typing because the keyboard was not at the proper height. I then decided to grab some games which are made from cardboard boxes to prop up my laptop and mouse.
This eliminated my wrist issues and my back slowly started to become more comfortable as well. From there I actually used side tables to put my cardboard boxes and computer on. This allowed me to pull my chair up under it and make it a very small and mobile desk.
The mobility allowed me to then put it all back after work was done. This gave me the psychological break I needed between work and home that I was also struggling with. Work cannot go on all the time and need not be thought about at all times of the day especially from home. So be adaptive and safe as you are trapped at home too.