I finally freed myself from draining relationships and decided to aim for a way of working that's my own. But I never imagined that getting remote work off the ground — in an environment with few time constraints and zero pressure or coercion from anyone else — would come with so many enemies and obstacles!

Today, of all the enemies I've faced over these past six months, I've analyzed my countermeasures for two of them thoroughly — "heat" and "drowsiness" — and thought hard about what actually works for me.

Enemy #1: Heat — a midsummer baby who can't stand summer

First, about the heat.

Every single day, the TV is full of alarming news: "Record-high temperatures!" "The thermometer can't even measure it!" "○○ people rushed to hospital for heatstroke!" We're seeing temperatures across the country at body-temperature levels — even beyond the temperature of a fever — where old-fashioned tricks like sprinkling water on the ground are utterly useless. Days when a screen door and a fan are enough to stay comfortable have become truly rare.

Some people say they'd take heat over cold any day, but even though I was born in midsummer, I've hated summer for as long as I can remember. I recently found an old diary of mine, and it seems I'd been suffering from hot flashes and dizziness since my thirties.

My face sweats terribly, and even when it isn't that hot, humidity makes me overheat and grow lightheaded, and my head goes foggy. Once that happens, my brain simply won't work. For a remote worker, that's a matter of life and death.

When I looked it up online, there were all sorts of heat countermeasures. Here they are.

Looking through them all, they were things I already do as a matter of course. In our home, the air conditioner stays on all day at 28°C, alongside a fan. Bamboo blinds hang outside the windows year-round. On strong-sun days, I air the house out first thing in the morning, then close the storm shutters.

I get plenty of salt from food, and hydration matters for preventing blood sugar spikes too, so I've long had that covered. As for clothing, tight things have always made me feel unwell, so I regulate with a sleeveless dress plus a cardigan. The last two (baths and outing times) don't really solve my particular problem.

The only genuinely new thing I could do to solve my problem was making use of cooling goods. I used to work at a 100-yen shop, which carried cooling towels and the like, so I tried all sorts. But cooling towels, handy and effective as they are, need frequent re-wetting, and worn around the neck they dampen my clothes — a little uncomfortable.

So the three things I actually rely on are these.

① Rechargeable handheld fan

The fan is rechargeable, so it's useless once the battery dies — which is why I'm planning to buy a second one soon. A model with a cooling plate you can press to your face and neck sounds lovely. Results may vary by product, but the one I use has three adjustable speeds and plenty of power, so I'm happy with it. I chose one that comes with a stand so it can stand on its own.

② Cool ring

The cool ring's drawback is that it loses its chill quickly, but since they're affordable, having several on hand and swapping them out keeps the coolness going constantly — very handy. With luck you can find them at a 100-yen shop, but they're cheap online too, and I find them useful even for cooking over an open flame in the kitchen.

③ Ice pack (hyōnō)

An ice pack does mean keeping ice made up in advance, and it's an old-fashioned tool, but it's the real MVP of my anti-drowsiness and anti-heat lineup. There are stainless-bottle types now, but since I also rest it on my head while I work, I use the traditional soft type.

Enemy #2: Drowsiness — my most troublesome opponent

Now, the common methods for my most troublesome enemy, drowsiness, are as follows.

Let me go through them one by one. First, caffeine — I think there's a problem here. A healthy adult's daily caffeine guideline is often cited as around 400 mg (roughly 3–4 cups of coffee), but combined with your constitution, condition, and other sources (tea, energy drinks, chocolate), individual variation is huge.

Too much caffeine can also cause insomnia, poorer sleep quality, palpitations, a raised heart rate, higher blood pressure, digestive strain, dehydration, and headaches, and it can affect you mentally too — more anxiety and irritability, plus a strong dependency risk. So it has its limits.

A short nap is an easy option for a remote worker, I thought. Even so, with no sense of pressure I'd probably oversleep, so I want to keep it as my last resort.

Light exercise or stretching is another well-known method. I'm bad at exercise, but I stretch often. Still, it often isn't enough to blow the drowsiness away, so I figured it doesn't necessarily have to be exercise. As I learned when researching drowsiness from blood sugar spikes for another article, exercise becomes a hurdle for people who dislike it — so when sleepiness hits, I stop working and instead do a household task I need to do anyway. Two birds with one stone.

Airing the room and getting sunlight are easy to do at once, but on their own they feel too weak to shake my fierce drowsiness.

And chewing gum. I'd love to, honestly, but my dental fillings often come loose, so I can't (cue the tears). For those who can, chewing gum while walking is said to activate the brain, so it seems like a good method.

In conclusion, my anti-drowsiness plan comes down to these two things.

Number 2 also works against my third enemy, "not enough time," so it's a two-birds method. To that end, I've decided to make a habit of routinely listing "things I can do in 5 minutes" and "things I can do in 30 minutes." Here are some I came up with.

I plan to dial the amount of movement up or down according to how sleepy I am. If there's something decided to do the moment I stand up, the hurdle is lower — and I get the bonus of clearing "things that have to be done" while shaking off the drowsiness.

And when I've tried all of the above and nothing works, I've decided to just rest as much as I want. Sleep as much as I want.

I also feel I need to work on improving my nighttime sleep quality. I keep looking at my phone right up until bed, but I sense that's something I should rein in. When my body is tired, I even thought maybe thinking hard about things I want to try someday — researching them, or bouncing ideas off an AI — might wake me up, so I'll give that a try.

Drowsiness is a truly troublesome problem for me. I'll keep researching better countermeasures. If you know a good method, please do tell me!