Pramod Mundra, Senior Director at Samsung India has run close to 20 full and half marathons over the years, trained for hours pushing his limits, breaking barriers he didn’t know he could break. One would imagine with more time in the current situation, he would be training harder, setting higher goals for himself to achieve, and advising others to do the same. But he has a completely different take on it.
“During these times, one should focus on health, and not on achieving new levels of fitness goals. This is not the time to indulge in 21-day challenges,” says Pramod, whose team manages Samsung Members, a growing peer-to-peer community of Samsung Galaxy fans from across India and the globe, who collaborate and exchange ideas on technology.
“I miss my morning runs but try to compensate for it by working out at home. Additionally, I stay active during long conference calls, keep walking, and keep stretching.”
His advice: moderate your workout, don’t try exercises that are very difficult to do, especially because most of us don’t have gym equipment at home, hydrate well, focus on a healthy diet, and get enough sleep, to improve immunity.
To track how active he is through the day, Pramod relies on his Galaxy Watch Active2. The smartwatch tracks his heart rate, steps and various home workouts such as squats and planks. The Galaxy Watch now also has a feature that reminds him to wash his hands at regular intervals.
Also read about our wearables: Heartbeats from Himalayas and Steps in Spain – Travel and Stay Fit Millennial Style
“When you don’t feel physically fit, you don’t feel mentally fit either. There is a connection for sure,” he says. “But don’t get into the many fitness challenges that social media is throwing at you today.”
Having a good routine that incorporates all of these aspects has helped him stay at the top of his productivity in the last few weeks, of course aided by strong network infrastructure provided by Samsung – robust connectivity, servers, video conferencing facilities to collaborate with teams.
While work goes on, what he feels is most important today more than ever is keeping the team motivated. So apart from the numerous work calls they get into, every once in a while they do non-work calls just to chit-chat.
One of his team members is now working on a script for a video that the entire team will collaborate to produce shortly. “I am hoping it will be fun for everyone,” says Pramod.
Interestingly, work ethic, he says, has improved tremendously, all over. “People are very sensitive of each other’s time while they work from home. VCs are more agenda-centric and towards finding solutions, making them more efficient,” says the IIM Ahmedabad alumni.
And since working remotely means you can’t read much of body language, he feels written communication is a lot more important today. “Crisp and clear is very important in written communication today,” he says.
Pramod and his team are using all of this learning to keep the Samsung Members community updated about what’s happening at Samsung, and also create engagement.
“There is a service channel within the Samsung Members App, where many of the members seek support. While our Service team help resolve queries, it’s great to see members help each other as well,” says Pramod.
Samsung Members are a tech-savvy lot, who constantly crave content around technology, which this platform provides them. In addition, Pramod’s team is finding interesting ways to create further engagement.
Click Here: Know More About Samsung Members
On Sunday, for instance, the team did a video conference call with 40 top Samsung Members to listen to them and understand how they are doing, what problems they are facing and how Samsung could better engage with them during this time.
“The last few weeks have seen the highest ever engagement on Samsung Members. All time high traffic,” he says.
For Pramod, like many of us, working from home has been an opportunity to get to know his teenage daughter better. “I can understand her better now. See how her thoughts are evolving, understand her perspective to life, what she is thinking about in terms of her career. Now we have mutual appreciation for each other.”
To take his mind off work, he is now catching up on reading, as well as brushing up on his Korean!
Five Mantras to Stay Fit While Working From Home
- Hydrate, drink plenty of water
- Sleep Well
- Eat Healthy
- Walk, stretch on long VCs
- Improve immunity