Scheduling time away from work helped this founding partner stay productive, maintain work-life balance

After the initial few months of being uncomfortable with WFH, Arjun Rao, Founding Partner of Speciale Invest, now has a routine that is working out fairly well.

"I think productivity is back to being at pre-Covid levels and in some cases is also improved, as I don't have to deal with the Bangalore traffic anymore. The online calendar, Zoom or Google Meet have become absolute necessities and I use them heavily on a daily basis to manage my time slots and do meetings. Actually I've started using the online calendar to mark personal work and appointments also, which was not the case earlier," he says.

Work zone
"I do have one room at home with a workspace or desk that I use on a regular basis, but given the flexibility sometimes also work from different parts of the home - the balcony being my favourite alternative to the work desk. I do not dress up for work regularly. Shorts and t-shirts have become normal attire when I'm at my work space. I do dress up in formals on occasions like meetings with investors or conferences that I'm speaking at," he adds.


Challenge
"In the first few months, the challenge was not having a set schedule of WFH, which led to taking meetings at odd hours or scheduling too many meetings without any breaks in the middle, easy to do with online meetings. Also there were no boundaries between personal life for a while, having lunch or dinner while on a call, not keeping time aside for hobbies or other interests, had become normal for sometime," he shares.

"Making time for one self and family outside of work and scheduling it on the calendar was the biggest change I made that helped improve my work-life balance. Productivity improved and allowed for a healthier approach to WFH. It took some time to get used to, but has been very helpful. Another challenge was to maintain relationships with the professional network, very important in venture capital, given f2f meetings were not happening. I needed to slowly adapt to doing purely online meetings and formal and semi-formal conversations to keep networking smooth. Setting up recurring calendar meetings with colleagues and friends helped me do this better," he says.

Routine
"I start my day late, around 9 am, with breakfast and catching up with the news and updates, in general and about my industry. I avoid having calls before lunch time and use the time to go through email and to do items at work. I usually have multiple meetings set up in the second half that can go up to 6-7pm. There's a short snack and chat break once before that. Post 7 pm is family time and dinner time till 10 pm. Post that I spend three to four hours catching up on work related reading, podcasts, international calls, and email, before bed time," he says.

Fitness
"Two simple things to stay active - walking with my wife daily for 45 minutes to an hour in our apartment complex. Badminton three to four times a week for an hour in the evenings. Playing badminton is something I've picked up only recently, thanks to my neighbour who pushed me to join him. I'm enjoying that it helps me forget about work for an hour, sweat it out and gets my competitive juices going in a sporting sense," says the 41-year-old.