Ata mārie! Today’s wellbeing tip is: Establish or maintain a routine

Decide how you want to spend your time and make a plan. Not a rigid one, but more of a guideline. Make sure your routine will help you do the things that need to get done (reading, emails, meetings, deadlines, writing, housework, cooking etc), has downtime (walk, watch a movie, play a game, sing, dance, bake), time for sleep (the most efficient time for sleep is the same eight-ish hours each night), time to connect with people, and time to be active.

If you have more time available than usual think about projects you might like to take on. Be creative: build the raised vege plot you have always wanted, learn a new app, master current software applications, learn a language, start yoga, learn to knit, learn to make sourdough, tidy your wardrobe or learn the ukulele.

Tihei mauriora! Today’s wellbeing tip is: Be generous

Everyone needs to feel cared for just now. Check in on colleagues, family, friends and relatives. Offer to do something for someone else – shopping for a neighbour, making a favourite meal for someone in your bubble, an online tutorial for a friend, filling in a gap on AskLIVE, or dishes for your bubble. The wonderful thing about generosity is that it comes right back at you.  Have a great day!

Tau mai te ata! Today’s wellbeing tip is: Eat Well

When under stress we can often reach for foods that are “comforting” (like biscuits, donuts, cake, pastries, and chocolate bars), but these calorie-rich – nutrient poor snacks aren’t the best choice for feeding your brain under demanding circumstances.

To cope well with stress your goal should instead be to eat more fruit and veges and other foods that are high in nutrients. Grab a banana instead of a biscuit, a carrot stick dipped in hummus instead of chocolate, and nuts and seeds instead of a bag of chips.

Aim to eat a Mediterranean-style diet rich in whole foods, rather than Western-style processed food. Include good fats, nuts, seeds, fish, a modest amount of meat, vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Limit sugar intake and, although it’s tempting, try not to let your caffeine and alcohol intake creep up.  Have a relaxing Easter!

Ata mārie, today’s wellbeing tip is: Manage your expectations and take charge of your thinking.

During difficult times and times of change it’s important to make sure your expectations of yourself are reasonable. These could be expectations about how productive you should be, how long you should be working at a stretch, and what kind of parent or partner you should be. Consider relaxing overly high standards of yourself and be understanding when you don’t finish something. Equally important is if you are not putting in effort.  Ideally you want a balance for better overall wellbeing.  We don’t need perfection.  We need harmony.

How you think impacts on how you feel so take control of what you say to yourself (self-talk). Try talking to yourself as if you were talking to your favourite person, someone you want to look after and wish the best for.

Today’s wellbeing tip is: Feeling stressed and who can I talk to?

If over the following days and weeks you feel you are not coping, it’s important to seek help and professional support. Your family doctor is a good starting point.

For support with grief, anxiety, distress or mental wellbeing, you can also call or text the ‘Need to talk?’ service on 1737. This service is free, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and gives you the chance to talk it through with a trained counsellor.

The Customer Services team has been adjusting to a new normal like other teams.  Finding a working from home/life balance is a careful balancing act that can change from one day to the next depending on the weather, bubble occupants, general health and wellbeing.  We have some real stars who have been proactive, enterprising, helpful, co-operative and reliable during the lockdown.  May this positive attitude and work ethic spread and continue!

Working from home:  Congratulations to the 70% of our team for reading emails and taking initiative to get things sorted prior to lock down.  This has made quite a difference to personal comfort levels and work effectiveness.  Lesson learned for next time, keep calm, think, and get yourself sorted.  Like others, we have learned the difference it makes between WIFI and Ethernet cable for a stable connection, the power of the mouse, keyboard and a monitor.  Otherwise, most are coping well and even IPAD confidence has soared as team members learn better ways to use these for AskLIVE and other work.

Staying connected:  Weekly Wednesday team zoom meetings are held at 1400.  Our first was 1 April 2020, and we were so happy to see Vivian Ye, who zoomed in from China.  Vivian was able to share a little of her experience being stuck in China amidst travel restrictions.  She is well and looking forward to returning to NZ.  AskLIVE chat, S4B chat, Zoom, S4B video conferencing, emails, Trello, Counterculture, SLACK, and of course the phone have been the main modes of staying connected.  Some team members are taking the opportunity to tee up 1-1 or small groups and this is working well.

Te Rua Makerspace:  Andy is leading our development of Te Rua and is currently working his way through the makerspace documents, big picture goals and framework. He is also building a library of resources to support planning a six week programme to kick things off when students can return to campus.  As part of this, he is also considering online creative tinkering in case there is another level 4 alert. 

AskLIVE: AskLIVE is the information desk in the ‘new’ normal.  This is a priority task as the team covers seven days per week.  It’s been great to have others in the library support extended hours on a flexi basis.  Team members are building their own Kbase of info for AskLIVE.

Social media: Messaging for Easter closure for social underway.  Instagram content creation for how to access information resources online.  Possible mini curious cabinet posts.  Marketing meetings progressing as per usual. Restrictions imposed by UC in the lead up to level 4 have been reduced which enables the team to open up our social media channels.  Key message: Library may be physically closed, but the Library team is working from home and here to help. This is balanced against interesting, relevant content. If you have any suggestions of content to share, please send through to the Library Marketing Inbox.

Distance services: Responding to email enquiries. Prior to the lockdown we were posting items to those who weren’t distance students but who were in Isolation.

High demand: Progressing workflows and liaising with subject librarians around issue stats reports for identifying high use items.  Imports into horizon will take some time, and once these are done, the record can be linked and made discoverable by course, lecturer via LEARN textbook lists etc.

Borrowers: Responding to email enquiries and advising academics of online SharePoint form ‘Service Request for Visitors’.

Learning and development: Trello visual management board, getting to grips with all functions on zoom, practice APA 7^th, LEARN sessions, Echo 360 and Zoom, e-learning student support Q&A, watch VALA sessions. Lego mindstorm, Arduino, and Rasberry Pi.

Essential services:  Laurie is part of the UC essential services workforce and one of the few people required on campus. We are very supportive of Laurie and his contribution to the wider UC effort.

Nau mai e te timatatanga o te wiki tuatoru.  Welcome to week 3 of lock down.  This week follows the Sunday when daylight saving ends, so clocks go back by 1 hour.  Today’s wellbeing tip is about: Exploring different ways to relax

Many of us haven’t stretched our ‘relaxation muscles’ in a long time, so it might take a bit of trial and error to find what works for you. Perhaps it’s lighting a scented candle, weeding the garden (maybe not), switching off with a good book, playing a board game, having a silent disco, talking to a friend, power naps, watching ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos online, exercise, pure barre, getting creative and making some art.  You might like to learn language, or try journaling, watching foreign tv series or mindful colouring. We all need to find things that help us switch off and reenergise our minds and bodies during alert level 4.  How might you make that extra hour count?

Tākiri mai te ata!  Today’s wellbeing tip is about: The Effect of Head and Neck Position on Head Rotation, Cervical Muscle Tension, and Symptoms

Kia manahau, enjoy the read!

Ata mārie, morning all!  Today’s wellbeing tip is: Work from Home Items Everyone Needs

To enjoy the benefits of working from home and overcome the drawbacks. The following are some work from home essentials that we’ve learned over the first week in lock down.  Do add a comment if there is something not on the list that you have found to be useful too:

1. Desk
Whether you’re working in a dedicated office or a corner of another room, a useful piece of equipment is a desk. Bonus if you have an adjustable desk that can transition from a sitting to a standing desk, too.

2. Office Chair
In addition to a desk, an ergonomic office chair is vital. Even if you plan on standing at your desk, you still ought to have a good, adjustable chair at the ready. You never know when you’re going to need to sit down and take a rest during the day.

3. Laptop Stand or that new triangle pillow advertised on the telly… now what is that called?
If you’re working from a laptop, which is common for a lot of work-from-home professionals like you these days, you ought to look for a stand for that laptop. That way, you can treat it like a desktop computer and won’t have to worry about hunching over it while sitting at your desk. You still get to enjoy the portability benefits.

4. Wireless Keyboard
When you’re using a laptop stand, you don’t have easy access to the attached keyboard. To make up for this, a wireless keyboard that will allow you to continue sitting or standing in a comfortable position while you work is a good idea.  A regular keyboard will do as well.

5. Wireless Mouse
A wireless mouse is a must as well. Even if you’re using a regular desktop computer instead of a laptop, a wireless mouse can still be easy to use.  If not wireless, a regular mouse will do the job, but you may run out of USB ports.

6. Floor or Desk Lamp
Your home work space needs to have plenty of light to help you stay alert and focused throughout the day. If your work space is short on natural light, try to make up for it by setting up a floor lamp or desk lamp (or both). This will give you more light exposure and help to prevent eye strain and headaches.

7. Docking station, Monitor, Camera and cables
Working from a laptop or surface means you have less ports to attach accessories such as a camera, mouse, keyboard, duo-monitors.  A docking station is a good tool to have.  You will need to have all manner of cables so check you’ve got the right ones.  These may include: VGA (D-sub), DVI, HDMI, PS/2, Ethernet, USB, Power cord (kettle plug), USB-C, Display Port, Adapters.  We’ve also found a monitor and having a camera that can be adjusted for those multiple zoom meetings makes working from home more comfortable.

8. Network Router
If you’re going to work from home full-time, you need to have reliable internet access.  If there’s more than one computer in your home, or if you have other devices that require internet access like smart TVs, you’ll need to make sure you have a good network router in place. A Wireless Range Extender might be a good idea to boost your signal.

9. Surge Protector
A surge protector is a good investment as well. This little tool will give you access to all the outlets you need. It’ll also help to protect your computer and other pieces of office equipment from potentially damaging voltage spikes.

10. Printer-Scanner Combo
Think of how much time you’ll save if you have a reliable printer and scanner readily available at your house.

Happy April Fools!  Today’s wellbeing tip for working from home is: Don’t stay in your PJs all day! Shower and dress comfortably

Although it might be too appealing to try to stay in your PJs all day long for maximum comfort, it’s advisable to shower and then dress comfortably, otherwise it might be more difficult to switch your mind to “work mode” and then of course, you want to feel fresh and look good when having video calls with your team, students or other UC staff.  Much like smiling on a phone call, changing out of your PJs has the same effect when working from home.