Anna Gelfand on Life at Home During a Pandemic

What does your typical day look like?

When it comes to weekdays, I’m usually busy working from about 10am to 7pm, I take some small breaks for lunch and exercise. I try to separate work time from the rest of the day and plan tasks to avoid being a couchpotato. 

In my free time, I also call my family and friends, and self-isolation pushes me to turn to the internet for other fun things to do: watch a movie or a series (my personal favorites are What We Do in the Shadows, High Fidelity, Unorthodox, and the recently released Mrs. America about one of the stages of the development of the feminist movement in the United States). I also enjoy watching interviews, especially eschenepozner (for me, the best interviewer and guests on any YouTube channel). If you’re looking for entertainment that’s a good place. 

When it comes to self-development, I like to take part in an online marathon or watch a lecture. A useful bit of information for all is that the Personal Development Center conducts a lot of useful activities. The last thing I participated in was a time management marathon. 

Once every three or four days I go for a walk near my house right before going to bed. I like it because there aren’t many people on the street and it is not too difficult to keep distance from each other. 

Another activity that I like to spend some time on is reading. I recently finished "«Петровы в гриппе и вокруг него» (The Petroves in Flu and Around It) by Alexey Salnikov. I liked it a lot. When everything goes back to normal, I want to see a theater play based on this book at the Gogol Center. 

On the weekends, I mostly spend my time doing household chores, and of course, do the mandatory trip to the grocery store. On Sundays, I update myself on the latest news using “Редакция” (Redaktsia). The team there offers the news of the past week in a short and humorous way. I also find online concerts and festivals a great way to spend the weekend.

What part of your house has become the office?

Since I was a student, I already had a place for my “office” and I still have it. It’s quite comfortable. I didn't use it very often in normal times. Now this place has acquired the perfect vibe for getting to work. it is convenient to take part in video conferences there. But in general, having a separate workspace is not so important to me.

What kind of platforms are you using for online classes or meetings?

Like most of my colleagues, since the beginning of self-isolation, I started using the Zoom platform.

Zoom - how do you feel about it? Do you do informal Zoom meetings too?

The first time I used Zoom I was there as a conference participant and also as a speaker. The platform interface was convenient and clear for me, so I can say it is quite good. With family and friends, I still use FaceTime and WhatsApp for video calls.

Are you finding any fun TV shows to watch?

I used to like to watch late-night talk show hosts like Graham Norton, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and others from time to time. But now due to the current circumstances, the hosts are forced to shoot their shows from home, and this is especially touching – they involve their family and pets in the process, arrange support events for charities, get in touch with doctors. Celebrities do at-home performances.. It seems that this situation has united and made everyone equal. Saturday Night Live, as usual, creates Parodies based on the current situation in the world. I particularly remember Brad Pitt as one of the leading epidemiologists of the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the first online Zoom conference with colleagues. 

What is something you’re doing now that you haven’t done before?

I can't say that my current routine includes completely new activities. I guess that exercising at home has become a new part of my life, since objectively I’m not getting enough physical activity. If anything, I began to call my family and friends more often.

Have you discovered any new cooking recipes?

It seems that everything you cook in the oven turns out delicious and at the same time quite healthy, so I try to bake fish or meat with vegetables in different combinations. I plan to cook mushroom or pumpkin soup-puree. In general, I must say that  I get completely absorbed in the cooking process and in the first weeks of this sharply changing reality, cooking has become a perfect distraction from worrying thoughts.

What have you learned about yourself?

I wouldn’t say I necessarily “learned” something about myself but rather remembered that I graduated from art school some time ago and that creative person has now come back! I was happy to return to drawing and also started to watch lectures on art from our most famous museums: The State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Tretyakov gallery and others. In general, I feel good.  My work keeps me in good going, and my family and friends stay in touch, even remotely, and self-development has always been a natural part of my life.

Have you learned anything about your work process? If you could design work from scratch when this is over, what would that be like?

My work is related to data and communication, so most of my activities are already online. In general, I think the business processes in our center are quite well-established (collecting data from divisions, providing information to ranking agencies, analytics on the results of ranking releases, and other related matters). Of course, there is always room for improvement. Perhaps when I return to normal life, these conclusions will become more obvious to me. From what has changed, several ranking presentation events have been moved online. This has some advantages, like having all the event information recorded.

What are some positives about self-isolation?

So a couple of thoughts.  Any crisis is a great reason to find new, previously unused resources, including personal ones, and having more free time is an opportunity to know yourself. And also, it is only when we lose something that we can truly begin to appreciate it. Therefore, the end of self-isolation will be a great reason to meet with someone who I have been planning to meet for a long time and go to a place where I couldn’t have gone before.

What is one thing you will do when this is over?

It’s not the only thing but the most important is that I want to meet and hug all those I haven't seen for so long. 

Written by Ethan Avila