WORK SLIPPERS
2025-03-14
Last month my pest of a dog destroyed my slippers, and it was more-disruptive
to my life than I would have anticipated.
IMG A French Bulldog looks-on guiltily at a hand holding the remains of a pair of slippers that have been thoroughly shredded.
Sure, they were just a pair of slippers (They were actually quite a nice pair
of slippers. JTA got them for me as a gift a few years back, and they lived
either on my feet or under my desk ever since.), but they'd become part of my
routine, and their absence had an impact.
Routines are important, and that's especially true when you work from home.
After I first moved to Oxford and started doing entirely remote work for the
first time, I found the transition challenging (I was working remotely for a
company where everybody else was working in-person. That kind of hybrid setup
is a lot harder to do "right", as many companies in this post-Covid-lockdowns
age have discovered, and it's understandable that I found it somewhat
isolating. I'm glad to say that the experience of working for my current
employer - who are entirely distributed - is much more-supportive.). To feel
more "normal", I introduced an artificial "commute" into my day: going out of
my front door and walking around the block in the morning, and then doing the
same thing in reverse in the evening.
IMG A mixture of flatscreen and CRT monitors, plus a laptop and a webcam, on a desk. The laptop screen shots a view of an office at the "other end" of a webcam connection.
It turns out that in the 2020s my slippers had come to serve a similar purpose
- "bookending" my day - as my artificial commute had over a decade earlier.
I'd slip them on when I was at my desk and working, and slide them off when my
workday was done. With my "work" desk being literally the same space as my
"not work" desk, the slippers were a psychological reminder of which "mode" I
was in. People talk about putting on "hats" as a metaphor for different roles
and personas they hold, but for me... the distinction was literal footwear.
And so after a furry little monster (who for various reasons hadn't had her
customary walk yet that day and was probably feeling a little frustrated)
destroyed my slippers... it actually tripped me up (Figuratively, not
literally. Although I would probably have literally tripped over had I tried
to wear the tattered remains of my shredded slippers!). I'd be doing something
work-related and my feet would go wandering, of their own accord, to try to
find their comfortable slip-ons, and when they failed, my brain would be
briefly tricked into glancing down to look for them, momentarily breaking my
flow. Or I'd be distracted by something non-work-related and fail to get back
into the zone without the warm, toe-hugging reminder of what I should be doing.
It wasn't a huge impact. But it wasn't nothing either.
IMG A pair of brown slippers, being worn, in front of a French bulldog asleep in her basket, her tongue sticking out.
So I got myself a new pair of slippers. They're a different design, and I'm
not so keen on the lack of an enclosed heel, but they solved the productivity
and focus problem I was facing. It's strange how such a little thing can have
such a big impact.
Oh! And d'ya know what? This is my hundredth blog post of the year so far!
Coming on only the 73rd day of the year, this is my fastest run at
#100DaysToOffload yet (my previous best was last year, when I managed the same
on 22 April). 73 is exactly a fifth of 365, so... I guess I'm on track for a
mammoth 500 posts this year? Which would be my second-busiest blogging year
ever, after 2018. Let's see how I get on... (Back when I did the Blog
Questions Challenge I looked at my trajectory and estimated I wouldn't hit a
hundred this year until a week later than now, so maybe I'm... accelerating?)
LINKS
HTML My pest of a dog
HTML JTA
HTML I first moved to Oxford
HTML Started doing entirely remote work
HTML My current employer
HTML This is my hundredth blog post of the year so far
HTML #100DaysToOffload
HTML I did the Blog Questions Challenge
HTML Estimated I wouldn't hit a hundred this year until a week later