Want to get more done while working from home? Try wearing a bra

Working from home and finding it a struggle? Wearing a bra could make all the difference 

Many of us are now facing into our second week of working from home.

Last week was strange. It was unknown territory for those not used to the murky waters of remote working. The idea of it sounds simple, even lovely.

The reality, however, is quite different.

If you have kids, trying to simultaneously control a conference call and contain children is an almost impossible task. If you are used to the structure of office life, being left to your self-control can be calamitous.

And working in the one place you go to for sanctuary can put the feng shui off balance.

However, I think I have found the key to working from home in this new world.

Wear a bra.

Freedom

I have written about bras many times before. Over the years my relationships with various bras have been unfulfilling and quite toxic. Thankfully, the relationship I now find myself in is loving, understanding and, most of all, supportive.

I affectionately call my bra Bertha but it wasn’t until last week that I realised just how important she is.

Before the coronavirus, I worked from home once a week. On that day I would wear nothing but underwear and my pyjamas. My bra was left on the floor and my boobs granted the freedom they had shouted for like Mel Gibson did for Scotland in Braveheart.

From Monday of last week, I followed the same formula. It worked until Tuesday midday when I started to feel my productivity slip and my comfort levels increase.

Instead of needing to write, I wanted to watch Netflix. Binging on a TV series and not wearing a bra couldn’t go without the other. They were partners in crime.

Not wearing Bertha had become synonymous with many activities that had nothing to do with work. For example, eating, sleeping, crying, drinking alcohol, attempting sudoku and staring out my window. Thus, whenever I went sans bra, I desired to do all of those things at once.

The power

By Thursday, I was hoisting my bosom into the safe hands of Bertha. The change in my demeanour was instant. My shoulders were back, my chest puffed like a peacock and off I went to my desk with the confidence of a Wall Street stockbroker.

Productivity levels were at an all-time high and I felt inspired. In these uncertain times, the fact my boobs were defying gravity made me feel together. My brain cells were working more efficiently and I began to wonder if it had something to do with the upward movement of blood from my chest area.

Taking all of this into consideration, does this mean our body has control over our mind and how we feel?

In 2012, Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on power posing garnered 46 million views. The idea of power posing is that our body language can control how we feel and think about ourselves. So if we look powerful, we feel powerful. Cuddy’s idea was criticised by her fellow social psychologists and was labelled pseudoscience. Nevertheless, I see some truth in it, though it may just be a figment of my imagination.

When I put on my bra the shape of my body altered, as did my thinking. I felt like a woman who had some of her sh*t together, even if only for a few hours.

Give it a try

I posted about the subject on my Instagram last week and I was supported in my ideology by many women who agreed with the importance of wearing the undergarment. On the other hand, there was an equal amount of females revelling in the fact society is not forcing them to wear a bra at this current juncture in time.

But just listen to my reasoning before you leave your own Bertha on the floor.

Traditionally, we associate bras with discomfort, which is why at the end of a long day we whip them off. Yet experts recommend implementing a strong routine while working from home, one which isn’t too different from your day to day functioning.

So it has never been more important to wear one. Not wearing a bra is a luxury because that magnificent moment of release when you undo the clasp is priceless. I have never known a feeling quite like it. It’s a flash of strange but wonderful magic, which the coronavirus is not allowed to take from us.

Wearing a bra not only makes me feel useful, it makes me feel normal again. Right now, nothing seems real. It’s like we have collectively fallen asleep and are having a Black Mirror style nightmare. So much of what we have known is changing and in times of uncertainty, clinging onto the familiar is a human instinct.

My instinct is to wear Bertha extra tight and you should too.

I promise your boobs and your work will thank you for it.

Read more: The 10 stages of surviving being stuck home with the kids (and himself)

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