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In Company 3.0 Intermediate case study worksheet 3

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Business Higher Writing Sample paper 1 - Full test

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Business Higher Listening Sample paper 2 - Full test

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AILSA CHANG, HOST:

One hundred years ago this month, a small group of revolutionaries founded the Chinese Communist Party in secret on a boat floating in a river near French-controlled Shanghai. So fireworks are lighting up the skies of Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities this month in celebration of the CCP's centennial. Now, 100 years is a long time. And to mark this moment, we wanted to have a conversation about the party's role in the past century of Chinese history. No small feat to assess this, and we'll do the best we can. And here to help us is Andy B. Liu, a historian of China at Villanova University. Welcome.

ANDY B LIU: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: Thanks for being with us. So I want you to take us back to China a hundred years ago when the Chinese Communist Party was founded. What would you say were the main challenges that China was struggling with back then? And how did the CCP propose it would address those problems?

LIU: Yeah. So I think the first thing to talk about is China at the time was kind of carved up into what is known as the warlord era. A lot of independent provinces were kind of under the rule of independent military leaders. So the question of who could unify the country was a big concern for a lot of people.

The flipside of that would be fears of imperialism. European and then especially Japanese powers were seen as colonizing large territories, but especially large chunks of the economy of China dating back to treaties from the 19th century. But really with the Versailles Treaty and what becomes known as the May Fourth Movement, there's a sense of disillusionment with, let's say, like, Western European liberalism. And that's kind of that opening, that kind of opportunity that sparks interest in communism for a lot of intellectuals in China.

So I think, you know, the Communist Party was dedicated to revolution and class equality and end of exploitation and all those things we would expect. But in the context of China, it was also very much - they were aligned with broader concerns about national reunification and with anti-imperialism.

CHANG: Well, I want to talk about the figure who is seen as the founding father of the People's Republic of China, and that, of course, is Mao Zedong. He led the communists to victory against the Japanese army and the Chinese nationalists. But he also has a mixed legacy, right? Like, he presided over the worst famine in China's modern history. He also presided over the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward. Can you compare the way his mixed legacy is remembered inside China by Chinese state media versus the way he's remembered outside China?

LIU: We can start with outside China. I think for much of the rest of the world, their entry point into understanding the Communist Party is the legacy of the Mao years, roughly from - in terms of being in power from 1949 to 1976 when he passes away. And so, yeah, it's seen as this time of major catastrophe. Lots - there's famine, there's sort of this unjust persecution of intellectuals and so on.

I think for those inside China, there was a strong move starting in the 1980s to really redirect the party away from a lot of the political ideals, especially of the Cultural Revolution. Now, this does not mean that they denounced Mao and his legacy. The legacy of Mao is always kind of kept intact. They always remember him fondly as the person who successfully unified the country, liberated China from imperialism and so on.

There's a recent documentary on Chinese television with a brief kind of history of the party. And they basically skip from 1950 something to, like, 1978 - right? - to the middle of the Mao years, on the eve of the Great Leap forward into the Deng Xiaoping era of the 1980s. And I think that's a pretty good reflection of the state of discourse, which is to say that officially in public discourse, there isn't a lot of discussion about the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution.

Now, I think a lot of people in China are aware of those events. Obviously, there are family members who survive them. There are stories that are passed down. Within China, I think people are less fixated on those events. In China, they think of themselves as very modern, moving on from that in a way that is a little discordant with the rest of the world.

CHANG: Well, you talked about the anti-imperialist roots of the Chinese Communist Party when it was founded. And when historians like yourself look back at the party's founding goals, I'm curious where historians believe the CCP has seen the most success over the past century and where they've seen the least success.

LIU: From the beginning of the establishment of the PRC, the party had this kind of contradiction, right? It was this underground revolutionary Communist Party, but then it had to become a nation state to do all the things that all governments have to do, like fight wars, deal with international relations and build the economy. You could say the country has been successful again in national strengthening, kind of establishing sovereignty over its land - you know, some would say over land that does not belong to China - having a strong military, having a booming economy and so on.

They, for the most part, I think, have abandoned a lot of the early goals, let's say the Mao years of reducing social inequality. Especially starting in the 1980s and 1990s under Deng Xiaoping, the party kind of put forth this idea that they would become much more of a technocratic party - right? - less invested in politics and much more invested in practical solutions to improving quality of life and growing the economy. Deng Xiaoping famously talks about how some people in China will have to get rich before the rest of the country gets rich. And inequality in China has consistently risen since the 1980s. So I think there's been very much a sort of abandonment of those earlier collectivist ideals of everyone working together in a very egalitarian manner.

CHANG: Well, finally, I want to turn to Hong Kong because while we are talking about the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, people in Hong Kong are marking two other anniversaries - the 24th anniversary of the city's handover to China and the first anniversary of the controversial national security law. How do you think people in Hong Kong are reflecting on those two anniversaries against this broader backdrop of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party?

LIU: Yeah. I think there's typically every year been a sort of demonstration or protest on July 1, similar to - there typically has been one on June 4 to commemorate the Tiananmen Square incident in Hong Kong until the last two years, where, under the cover of COVID safety laws protection, the government has kind of stopped or banned or kind of precluded any sort of public demonstration. I think the average Hong Kong person knows that it's in their best interest not to go against these public orders, that this is kind of a dark time in Hong Kong history. But as with the national security laws, there's a sense of insecurity and fear about what could happen if they publicly criticize the laws.

If anything, the public critics will, you know, sort of self reflexive way call upon the Beijing government to honor its promises. So this isn't to say that we need to import foreign democracy, it is to say when the Beijing government promised the sort of one country, two systems program, you know, starting in the 1980s, they have to continue to honor that. So it's a criticism of the government that is kind of veiled underneath this sort of - staying within the boundaries of what the government has said in the past.

CHANG: Andy B. Liu is a historian of China at Villanova University, valiantly summing up the last 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party. Thank you so much for joining us today.

LIU: Thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF MT. WOLF'S "TUCANA")

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Unpacking The 100-Year History Of The Chinese Communist Party

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AILSA CHANG, HOST: One hundred years ago this month, a small group of revolutionaries founded the Chinese Communist Party in secret on a boat floating in a river near French-controlled Shanghai. So fireworks are lighting up the skies of Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities this month in celebration of the CCP's centennial.

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Marslow's pyramid. Contrast with the needs. 

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Marslow's pyramid. Contrast with the needs. 

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Research and data to make progress against the world's largest problems

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Linguee
https://www.linguee.es/ingles-espanol
Oxford Collocation
http://www.freecollocation.com/
Grammarly
https://www.grammarly.com/m
WordReference
https://www.wordreference.com/
Thesaurus
https://www.thesaurus.com/
DeepL
https://www.deepl.com/translator
Farflex Free Dictionary
https://es.thefreedictionary.com/

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TED
https://www.ted.com/
ELLLO
http://elllo.org/
Lyrics Training
https://es.lyricstraining.com/
BBC news
https://www.bbc.com/
NPR
https://www.npr.org/
National Geographic Cengage
https://ngl.cengage.com/

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Transcript of "Your body language may shape who you are"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: (NOTE: Some of the findings presented in this talk have been referenced in an ongoing debate among social scientists about robustness and reproducibility. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details as well as Amy Cuddy's response.) Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves.

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16 Rude & Interesting Gestures Around the World: explained by Skyscanner

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Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory - Wikipedia

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Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM between 1967 and 1973. It has been refined since. The original theory proposed four dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy) and masculinity-femininity (task orientation versus person-orientation).

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Take a look at it! :)  Punctuation at text messages. Be careful! 

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Take a look at it! :)  Punctuation at text messages. Be careful! 

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subscribe to Short Wave podcast

Katherine Rooks remembers when she first learned that a punctuation mark could wield a lot of power.

The Denver-based writer had sent her high school-aged son a text message about logistics - coming home from school.

"I could tell from his response that he was agitated all of a sudden in our thread. And when he came home, he walked in the door and he came over and he said, 'What did you mean by this?' "

Rooks was confused. How could an innocuous text message send confusion?

"And so we looked at the text together and I said, 'Well, I meant, see you later, or something. I don't remember exactly what it said.' And he said, 'But you ended with a period! I thought you were really angry!' "

Rooks wasn't angry, and she explained to her son that, well, periods are how you end a sentence.

But in text messaging - at least for younger adults - periods do more than just end a sentence: they also can set a tone.

Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist and author of the book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, told NPR's All Things Considered last year that when it comes to text messaging, the period has lost its original purpose because rather needing a symbol to indicate the end of a sentence, you can simply hit send on your message.

That doesn't mean the period has lost all purpose in text messaging. Now it can be used to indicate seriousness or a sense of finality.

But caution is needed, said McCulloch, noting that problems can start to arise when you combine a period with a positive sentiment, such as "Sure" or "Sounds good."

"Now you've got positive words and serious punctuation and the clash between them is what creates that sense of passive-aggression," said McCulloch.

Binghamton University psychology professor Celia Klin says a period can inadvertently set a tone, because while text messaging may function like speech, it lacks many of the expressive features of face-to-face verbal communication, like "facial expressions, tone of voice, our ability to elongate words, to say some things louder, to pause."

Our language has evolved, and "what we have done with our incredible linguistic genius is found ways to insert that kind of emotional, interpersonal information into texting using what we have," said Klin. "And what we have is things like periods, emoticons, other kinds of punctuation. So people have repurposed the period to mean something else."

And that something else is passive-aggression.

A 2015 study conducted by Klin confirmed as much. Researchers asked undergraduates to evaluate a text exchange that included an innocent question and the answer "Yup." Some saw "Yup" with a period and some saw the word without.

"And we found consistently through many experiments that 'Yup' with a period resulted in responses that were more negative. So people thought 'Yup' with a period was less friendly, less sincere, and so on."

"I actually really don't like getting text messages that end in periods because it always feels so harsh and passive-aggressive," said Juan Abenante Rincon, 24, a social media manager for Adidas. "Like, are you mad? What's going on? Like, did I do something wrong?"

Emma Gometz, a biology student at Columbia University, said the phenomenon can feel especially harsh when the message is brief, like a lone word followed by a period.

"If it's like 'OK.', that's like, 'I don't want to talk to you anymore,'" said Gometz, 21.

Kalina Newman, 23, a communications coordinator for the AFL-CIO, said, "It's in the same vein of somebody saying, 'We need to talk,' and then not saying what they want to talk about."

In other words, enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.

Not everyone shares that view. Isabelle Kravis, 18, a student at American University, says it depends on the context of the conversation.

"If we're just talking about, like, our favorite movie or something, and someone uses a period at the end of a sentence, I'm not gonna take it, like, aggressively."

While Kravis is relatively zen when it comes to the period, for others, the thought of texting without it can be enraging. Klin said that her texting study sparked outrage among many.

"They thought it was an insult to their first-grade teacher, and their grandmother, and, you know, America as we know it," she said.

Klin said the entire debate demonstrates that language is constantly changing - and that's OK.

"Language evolution's always happened, it's going to continue to happen, and isn't it great that we are so linguistically flexible and creative."

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Are Your Texts Passive-Aggressive? The Answer May Lie In Your Punctuation

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subscribe to Short Wave podcast Katherine Rooks remembers when she first learned that a punctuation mark could wield a lot of power. The Denver-based writer had sent her high school-aged son a text message about logistics - coming home from school. "I could tell from his response that he was agitated all of a sudden in our thread.

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I don´t know how to dowonload the video from Twitter, so i paste the link:
The best part is the comment before the video:

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Budgeting gets a bad reputation.

"The first image that comes to most people's mind is dieting or imprisonment," says Jesse Mecham, founder of the budgeting software You Need A Budget. But that, Mecham says, is an inaccurate picture. "Budgeting is not about being handcuffed. It's really about being liberated."

It might just be empowering for you. There's no easy or simple solution to fixing the huge financial impact that COVID-19 has had on many Americans. But during the coronavirus pandemic, keeping tabs on where your money is going is a good first step to cutting back on spending and saving more, if you're able to do so.

These six budgeting tips will help you track your spending and make more informed decisions about your money - and your life.

1. Don't budget just because you think you should.

If you're budgeting because you think that's what responsible grown-ups do, that's not super-concrete or motivational. Instead, set a specific goal that has meaning to you, like paying off credit card debt or student loans or saving for a vacation, says Kristin Wong, author of Get Money: Live the Life You Want, Not Just the Life You Can Afford. "Now you have a reason to say no to that $50 dinner, because you have something to say yes to now," Wong says.

2. Harness your freakout.

Big life changes - a move, a job loss or, say, a global pandemic - can bring big stress. If you're dealing with major life changes because of COVID-19, you're not alone. Leverage that anxiety, channeling it into motivation to adjust your budget. "Those moments, where you have the willpower or you have the energy, you have this motivation," Mecham says. "That motivation is fleeting."

So take advantage of budgeting momentum while it lasts. If you mess up or overspend later on, don't quit. Mecham stresses the importance of being flexible: "You just make adjustments, like a coach [at] a basketball game making halftime adjustments. You just adjust to how the team plays."

3. Follow the 50-30-20 method.

When you get started, try the guidelines that Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped develop as a Harvard University professor. The largest portion, 50%, of take-home income should go toward basic living expenses - housing, groceries, etc. Then 30% for discretionary expenses, like entertainment and clothes; and 20% for savings and paying down debt.

4. Use the power of scarcity.

With credit cards and overdraft protections, "we've gotten really used to the idea that we never really run out of money," Mecham says. But having a sense of scarcity can be helpful when you're trying to save. Remember back when you were a kid and all you had was that $5 from babysitting or mowing lawns? You were probably pretty careful about how you spent that money because once you did, it was gone. Try designating a certain amount of money for each budgeting category every month, and when you run out, it's out.

5. A roommate is worth a thousand coffees.

It's unlikely you'll reach your budget goal just by cutting back on coffees. Housing, food and transportation are usually the biggest expenses. "If you get a roommate or move to a cheaper place, those major decisions are going to save you so much more money," says Wong. "They're harder decisions to make, obviously. But they give you more bang for your buck."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, deciding to move in with a new roommate is more complicated than usual. But opting for a cheaper apartment or a less ideal location might be a good solution for you during this time. Or, if it's someone inside your small bubble of trusted friends and family members whom you are already spending a lot of time in close proximity with, moving in with them might be something to consider.

6. Try different budgeting techniques to see what works for you.

Whether it's a simple spreadsheet or a budgeting app with lots of categories, use the system that works for you. Mecham says the main thing is not to wait until a "normal month" to get started - that will never come. So just start doing it, like right now. It's worth making a budget now, and if it changes in the coming months or year, as life starts looking a little like it did before the pandemic, that's OK.
You Need A Budget has been a sponsor of NPR in the past.
Sylvie Douglis produced the audio portion of this story, which was originally published in 2019. You can listen to the original episode audio here.

We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

For more Life Kit, subscribe to our newsletter.

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How To Spend Less Money, Starting With A Budget

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Budgeting gets a bad reputation. "The first image that comes to most people's mind is dieting or imprisonment," says Jesse Mecham, founder of the budgeting software You Need A Budget. But that, Mecham says, is an inaccurate picture. "Budgeting is not about being handcuffed. It's really about being liberated."

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The Great Realisation | Tomfoolery | A bed time story of how it started, and why hindsight’s 2020 🛌

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Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

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Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers ...

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As America experiences a coin shortage, Planet Money takes a look at the value of the penny.

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Police shootings in African American communities have prompted public outcry in recent years, triggering a national conversation on the need for reform. A year ago, Tetrina Blalock's cousin was killed by police after being shot more than a dozen times following a narcotics pursuit.

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One of the most seen Ted Talks ever! +22M views! 

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One of the most seen Ted Talks ever! +22M views! 

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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In these difficult times, we've made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR's content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.

If you're finding that you're more exhausted at the end of your workday than you used to be, you're not alone. Over the past few weeks, mentions of "Zoom fatigue" have popped up more and more on social media, and Google searches for the same phrase have steadily increased since early March.

Why do we find video calls so draining? There are a few reasons.

In part, it's because they force us to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information. Think of it this way: when you're sitting in a conference room, you can rely on whispered side exchanges to catch you up if you get distracted or answer quick, clarifying questions. During a video call, however, it's impossible to do this unless you use the private chat feature or awkwardly try to find a moment to unmute and ask a colleague to repeat themselves.

The problem isn't helped by the fact that video calls make it easier than ever to lose focus. We've all done it: decided that, why yes, we absolutely can listen intently, check our email, text a friend, and post a smiley face on Slack within the same thirty seconds. Except, of course, we don't end up doing much listening at all when we're distracted. Adding fuel to the fire is many of our work-from-home situations. We're no longer just dialing into one or two virtual meetings. We're also continuously finding polite new ways to ask our loved ones not to disturb us, or tuning them out as they army crawl across the floor to grab their headphones off the dining table. For those who don't have a private space to work, it is especially challenging.

Finally, "Zoom fatigue" stems from how we process information over video. On a video call the only way to show we're paying attention is to look at the camera. But, in real life, how often do you stand within three feet of a colleague and stare at their face? Probably never. This is because having to engage in a "constant gaze" makes us uncomfortable - and tired. In person, we are able to use our peripheral vision to glance out the window or look at others in the room. On a video call, because we are all sitting in different homes, if we turn to look out the window, we worry it might seem like we're not paying attention. Not to mention, most of us are also staring at a small window of ourselves, making us hyper-aware of every wrinkle, expression, and how it might be interpreted. Without the visual breaks we need to refocus, our brains grow fatigued.

If this all sounds like bad news, don't despair. We have five research-based tips that can help make video calls less exhausting.

Avoid multitasking.

It's easy to think that you can use the opportunity to do more in less time, but research shows that trying to do multiple things at once cuts into performance. Because you have to turn certain parts of your brain off and on for different types of work, switching between tasks can cost you as much as 40 percent of your productive time. Researchers at Stanford found that people who multitask can't remember things as well as their more singularly focused peers. The next time you're on a video chat, close any tabs or programs that might distract you (e.g. your inbox or Slack), put your phone away, and stay present. We know it's tempting, but try to remind yourself that the Slack message you just got can wait 15 minutes, and that you'll be able to craft a better response when you're not also on a video chat.

Build in breaks.

Take mini breaks from video during longer calls by minimizing the window, moving it to behind your open applications, or just looking away from your computer completely for a few seconds now and then. We're all more used to being on video now (and to the stressors that come with nonstop facetime). Your colleagues probably understand more than you think - it is possible to listen without staring at the screen for a full thirty minutes. This is not an invitation to start doing something else, but to let your eyes rest for a moment. For days when you can't avoid back-to-back calls, consider making meetings 25 or 50 minutes (instead of the standard half-hour and hour) to give yourself enough time in between to get up and move around for a bit. If you are on an hour-long video call, make it okay for people to turn off their cameras for parts of the call.

Reduce onscreen stimuli.

Research shows that when you're on video, you tend to spend the most time gazing at your own face. This can be easily avoided by hiding yourself from view. Still, onscreen distractions go far beyond yourself. You may be surprised to learn that on video, we not only focus on other's faces, but on their backgrounds as well. If you're on a call with five people, you may feel like you're in five different rooms at once. You can see their furniture, plants, and wallpaper. You might even strain to see what books they have on their shelves. The brain has to process all of these visual environmental cues at the same time. To combat mental fatigue, encourage people to use plain backgrounds (e.g. a poster of a peaceful beach scene), or agree as a group to have everyone who is not talking turn off their video.

Make virtual social events opt-in.

After a long day of back-to-back video calls, it's normal to feel drained, particularly if you're an introvert. That's why virtual social sessions should be kept opt-in, meaning whoever owns the event makes it explicit that people are welcome, but not obligated, to join. You might also consider appointing a facilitator if you're expecting a large group. This person can open by asking a question, and then make it clear in what order people should speak, so everyone gets to hear from one another and the group doesn't start talking all at once. It's easy to get overwhelmed if we don't know what's expected of us, or if we're constantly trying to figure out when we should or should not chime in.

Switch to phone calls or email.

Check your calendar for the next few days to see if there are any conversations you could have over Slack or email instead. If 4PM rolls around and you're Zoomed-out but have an upcoming one-on-one, ask the person to switch to a phone call or suggest picking up the conversation later so you can both recharge. Try something like, "I'd love a break from video calls. Do you mind if we do this over the phone?" Most likely the other person will be relieved by the switch, too.

For external calls, avoid defaulting to video, especially if you don't know each other well.

Many people now feel a tendency to treat video as the default for all communication. In situations where you're communicating with people outside of your organization (clients, vendors, networking, etc.) - conversations for which you used to rely on phone calls - you may feel obligated to send out a Zoom link instead. But a video call is fairly intimate and can even feel invasive in some situations. For example, if you're asked to do a career advice call and you don't know the person you're talking to, sticking to phone is often a safer choice. If your client FaceTimes you with no warning, it's okay to decline and suggest a call instead.

Some of these tips might be hard to follow at first (especially that one about resisting the urge to tab-surf during your next Zoom call). But taking these steps can help you prevent feeling so exhausted at the thought of another video chat. It's tiring enough trying to adapt to this new normal. Make video calls a little easier for yourself.

If our content helps you to contend with coronavirus and other challenges, please consider subscribing to HBR. A subscription purchase is the best way to support the creation of these resources.

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In these difficult times, we've made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR's content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. If you're finding that you're more exhausted at the end of your workday than you used to be, you're not alone.

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martinez.aldanaflorencia@gmail.com

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Quarantine2020 2021  COLABORATIVA  (Música sólo en INGLES please)

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Quarantine2020 2021  COLABORATIVA  (Música sólo en INGLES please)

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Some people love working from home, and they can't imagine anything better than a day with their laptop clad in pajama pants. Others miss the structure and the casual chats with coworkers that happen at their offices. Whether you love it or hate it, working remote - for those who can do it; not every job lends itself to this kind flexibility - is common for many of us due to the pandemic.

For those of you new to working from home, there's lots of advice out there about how to deal with the pitfalls and stay productive and sane ("Take a shower!" "Don't spend too much time on social media!").

But from my own experience, working from home can be a real delight if you let it. So I'd like to share a few ideas for creating a workspace and routines that will make working from home a joyful, sustaining experience. And who knows? You might not even want to go back to the office!

1. Take care of your body

In her book Proposals for the Feminine Economy, Jenn Armbrust offers a series of principles, the first one being: "You have a body." Sounds simple, but working from home can make it easy to forget about your body's basic needs. At your office, you probably had an ergonomic desk chair or an adjustable workstation. However, unless you work from home regularly, your workspace may consist of a kitchen table and basic chair.

You don't need to invest in a whole home-office setup, but rather pay attention to how your body feels as you work from home. One advantage to working from home - as opposed to being in an office - is that you can change positions frequently. Try out lots of postures, whether that's sitting in a chair, standing at your kitchen counter, relaxing on the sofa, or sitting on a yoga block on the floor with your coffee table as a desk. It took me a long time (and some serious shoulder pain) to realize that the best position for long writing stretches for me is sitting on a backless bench at my dining table. Testing different positions can help you find physical ease faster.

Another thing to pay attention to is movement. You likely do some walking in the course of an office workday - to the office from the train or bus or parking lot, between meetings, to the café for more coffee - and these movement breaks disappear when everything you need is within a couple of rooms in your home. When I first started working from home, I was surprised to find that I sometimes got in fewer than 1,000 steps in a day!

The flexibility of home work means, though, that you can largely move when you want to. Try setting a timer for a yoga or workout to break up a long email session. While writing my book Joyful, I took impromptu dance breaks whenever I was stuck on a section, which cleared my head but would've been hard to do in the office. I also started to take a long walk in the park at the end of every day. In the summer, I'd print out the latest draft and take it with me and sit in the shade while marking it up. In the winter, I'd do this at the kitchen island after coming home.

2. Use your commute

How long was your pre-pandemic daily commute? For many people, it can range between 30 minutes to 2 hours (or more), round trip every day. It also really adds up. Even at the short end, that 30 minutes per day adds up to two and a half hours that you've now gained per week!

The key is being intentional about how you use that time. Schedule it in your calendar - it doesn't have to be at the same time as your commute - just as you would a meeting.

You can also block that time out for free, unstructured time, something most adults don't get enough of. But then make sure to put tools down when the calendar alert goes off and give yourself space to enjoy it.

3. Create a sensory landscape

With their dull color palettes, synthetic carpets and humming HVAC systems, most workplaces have a joyless sensory landscape. Add in the noise from open-plan seating, and the fact that many spaces are often too cold or hot, and the typical office can be deeply unpleasant to spend time in, much less get focused work done.

While many of us often see the problem as overstimulation, in fact offices are just as likely to be understimulating. Workspaces have traditionally been designed based on the belief that to maximize productivity you need to minimize distraction, leading to bland, featureless spaces. But research shows that when people in these "lean" workspaces are compared to people working in "enriched" spaces that have art, plants, and more sensorial stimulation, the workers in the enriched spaces are 15 percent more productive. And if the workers have control over the placement of things in their workspace? They're 32 percent more productive.

When you work from home, you can be like those workers in the study who controlled their own workspace - and create a sensory landscape that works for you. Part of this may mean eliminating unpleasant sensations, by getting noise-cancelling headphones to tune out distracting noises or adjusting the temperature so that it's comfortable for you.

Also, look for ways to add pleasant sensations into your workspace. Hang up an image that gives your gaze something to rest on while you glance away from your screen. Play nature sounds. Choose a brightly colored mug for your morning coffee.

The senses of touch and smell are particularly understimulated during the hours we're tapping away at a keyboard, so look for ways to appeal to them. For example, I cover the bench I sit on when writing with a sheepskin, which has a decidedly unofficelike soft texture. I keep a bottle of essential oils on my desk, and sometimes use a diffuser to scent the air.

4. Get some sunshine

One poorly designed aspect of many traditional offices is how little daylight exposure is available in workspaces. For most workers, the only light during the day comes from the dull fluorescents overhead. Yet research shows that workers who get more exposure to daylight sleep better (up to 46 minutes more per night), are less stressed, and are more active during the day. Light regulates key hormones and neurotransmitters, influencing everything from our alertness to stress levels, our immune system to our moods.

In your home, you have more control over where you choose to work, so if possible, choose a space near a window. And if you don't have much natural light in your space, use lamps to boost the brightness. Just as too much blue light from our screens can keep us up at night, a healthy dose of bright artificial light during the day can also help keep our 24-hour internal clock in sync.

Also, when you used to commute to work, you likely got at least a little sunlight on the way, which you lose if now you jump straight into work first thing. Light has the greatest impact on our circadian rhythms in the morning, so try to go outside for a brief walk before you sit down.

5. Green your workspace

One simple thing to do to make your workspace more joyful is to add greenery. Plants that might struggle in the dim light of an office can thrive in your home, and you gain the extra benefit of getting to enjoy them when you're not working as well. You don't have to have as many plants as Summer Rayne Oakes does in her home workspace, but even just adding a few has been shown to reduce stress and restore your ability to concentrate.

6. Make a "get to work" playlist

One challenge I've found in working from home is transitions. It can be hard to stop doing all those home things (emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, etc.) and get down to work, especially if there's work you're avoiding. In fact, many writers joke that their home is never tidier than when they're working on a book.

One thing that helps is having some sort of ritual that marks a transition into a work session. I have a couple of "Get to Work" playlists that help with this: one for writing, one for email. The playlists always start with the same song, so it becomes like a sonic trigger that primes me to focus.

Other transition ideas might be pouring a fresh cup of tea or coffee, doing a quick stretch, or setting a focus timer (I use the Tide app on my phone).

7. Make snack time special

A lot of work-from-home guides advise you to take a real lunch, but I confess that when I'm in flow, I much prefer to eat at my desk. This doesn't mean that I don't believe in taking breaks, though. As I mentioned above, the most important features of breaks for me are to get outside and to incorporate movement into my day.

I also love a good snack break. We often think of snacks as fuel, but for me, they're more of a treat. And, as writer Gretchen Rubin has pointed out, treats can help make us feel cared for, energized and motivated. Having access to your own kitchen means that you don't have to rely on the processed foods that constitute a snack in most offices, nor do you have to eat it out of a bag.

I'm a big fan of cutting up fruit and arranging it in a wheel around my plate, or making little sampler plates from the fridge of pickles, olives and other nibbles. I also make energy balls or banana bread and freeze some so I can have it for a mid-week treat. You're your own office manager now, so think about what would make you feel cared for and create space for it in your daily routine.

8. Be playful

Offices have been designed with work in mind, and the prevailing view is that work is somehow the opposite of play. But, as play researcher Brian Sutton-Smith says, "The opposite of play is not work. It's depression." Bringing your work home gives you a chance to invite more play into your workflow. And this can start with your workspace.

A playful workspace creates more opportunities for play in your day. These can be small, like the miniature spinning tops I keep on my desk to spin when I get stuck on an idea, or they can be larger, like having a trampoline to bounce on or a hula hoop to play with. Changing out a desk chair for an exercise ball can also bring a sense of play. A giant bowl of Legos or a big puzzle can keep hands busy while your mind is working through ideas.

You can also experiment with adding playful forms of decor, like children's drawings on the wall, or cute objects for your desk. I put googly eyes on my stapler, for instance. Cute things may even benefit our productivity, according to research out of Japan, by enhancing our ability to focus.

Imagine: If you'd never been to an office before, what would you want it to look like? When you work from home, there's no reason not to create a space that lets your imagination run free.

9. Pack it up and put it away

Perhaps the worst thing about working from home is that it's hard to know when the workday ends. Writer Kevin Roose has found, for example, that remote workers take shorter breaks and fewer sick days, suggesting that boundaries can be an issue. This is even more challenging if you don't have a dedicated home office space. When your laptop sits on the dining table or your coffee table is covered in stacks of folders, it's hard to fully feel like you've turned off.

This is one reason why I insisted on building in two tiny home offices in our current renovation. I still will probably spend time working at the dining table, but I wanted a place to put everything at night so that I can close the door on it and not be distracted by the things I didn't get done.

You don't need a spare room to do this, though. Simply having a basket or closet to tuck your laptop and papers into at night will do the trick. Creating a physical boundary will help you reset your mind and reclaim your home as your home.
This post was originally published on The Aesthetics of Joy site. Watch her TED Talk now:

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