A few weeks into Italy's first coronavirus lockdown in March last year, Andrea Pestarino started setting a 5:30pm alarm as a reminder it was time to turn off his laptop and go play football with his kids in the garden.
The 42-year-old innovation manager said the trick helped him strike a better work-life balance after his engineering firm's sudden move to remote work pushed him to spend longer hours glued to the computer screen.
"At the beginning switching off was difficult, as I felt guilty for being away from the office and this prompted me to do more," Pestarino said by phone. "I used to bring forward things that I could have easily done the next day."