I live in Singapore, where the hybrid work model has already been going strong for months - and I hope I can work this way forever

• I live in Singapore, and for the past four months I've been living a hybrid work model.
• I go into the office two days per week and work from home the other three.
• I feel less stressed, I have a better work-life balance, and I hope I can work this way forever.

When I moved from New York City to Singapore last fall, it felt like a leap forward in time - and not only because my flight departed NYC on November 30 and landed in Singapore two days later on December 2.

As of November, I had been working from home for eight months. In the US, coronavirus cases were rising again, no vaccine had yet been approved, and a long uncertain winter loomed ahead. I barely left my apartment and the days blurred together.

But at the end of that month, it was finally time for my move to Singapore for work. After an 18-hour flight and a 14-day hotel quarantine, I found myself in a tropical island oasis that had nearly eradicated the virus. I was free to go to a movie, take an indoor yoga class, and eat inside a restaurant - and because of the lack of COVID-19 cases in the community, I felt safe doing all of those things.

Those freedoms were only possible because of Singapore's rigorous response to the pandemic. The city-state closed its borders in March 2020 and required returning residents to undergo a 14-day quarantine. Today, residents must download a contact tracing app and use it to check in to any restaurant, shop, or building. To date, the city-state has reported a total of 30 coronavirus deaths among a population of 5.7 million.

The US, on other hand, reported 277 deaths on Easter Sunday alone and has reported an average of more than 64,000 new cases per day in the past week. Still, the US is outpacing most other countries in terms of vaccinations, and a return to some semblance of normal life seems to be on the horizon.

As Americans contemplate what a return to the office might look like, I've been living the hybrid work model - working part-time at home and part-time in a physical office - in Singapore for the last four months.

Work life in the Before Times

In my pre-pandemic life in Brooklyn, I would wake up around 7 a.m. so I had enough time to get dressed, put on makeup, walk to the subway station, and ride the train for 35 minutes to make it to Insider's office in Manhattan by 9 a.m.

I typically got home from the office around 7 p.m., at which point I could choose between working out or relaxing for a bit before cooking dinner. (Working out almost never won.) By the time my boyfriend and I had cooked and eaten dinner, done the dishes, and showered, there wasn't much evening left to enjoy.

Even though I liked my job - and many people have longer commutes and more strenuous work days - I often felt sleep-deprived and stressed. Exercising, eating well, and relaxing often took a backseat to work and social activities.

Remote work in the pandemic

In the first week of working from home in the pandemic, I worked at our bar-height kitchen table, perched on a wooden backless stool. My neck and butt constantly ached. Eventually, I gave in and bought a cheap desk.

Whenever I had to make a call, I would go into the bedroom so my boyfriend wouldn't overhear my calls, sometimes sitting on the bed hunched over my laptop for hours at a time doing interviews. I still felt tired all the time, but now it was because of long-term stress and a suddenly sedentary lifestyle. Like the rest of the world, I was anxious about the pandemic, scared for my family, and grieving my normal life.

Don't get me wrong: I felt incredibly lucky to have a job that I could do from home and not be among the millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the pandemic. There were also aspects of the forced remote work that I enjoyed, like getting more sleep and having more time to exercise and cook healthy meals. My boyfriend and I even joined the pet-fostering club and took in a couple of cats for a few months.

But by the time I was finally able to move to Singapore, a move planned months before the pandemic, I was excited by the prospect of a return to semi-normal life. A huge part of that was a return to the office.

A new work life in Singapore

For the past few months, I've been going into our Singapore office two days a week and working from my apartment the other three days.

In September, Singapore started allowing office workers to spend up to 50% of their weekly working hours in the office, with half of a company's workforce allowed in the office at one time. For my three coworkers and I, that meant we could come into the office twice a week, two at a time. This week, Singapore eased its office restrictions further and started allowing up to 75% of a company's workforce - in our case, three people - in the office at one time, with no limit to the number of working hours in the office per week.

The office experience is definitely different from before. I check into the office building with Singapore's contact tracing app. In the WeWork coworking space where we have a private office, seats are blocked off and signs remind people to maintain a distance of one meter from others and keep masks on except when eating and drinking.

But now, going into the office now feels like a privilege rather than an obligation. I have a renewed appreciation for endless free coffee and being able to casually chat with a coworker in person.

On the days I work from home, I wake up at 8 a.m. and have time to make coffee and do a few minutes of chill yoga before logging on to Slack. But the best part about working from home in Singapore is I now have a separate work space.

Partially thanks to a cost of living adjustment in my pay, my boyfriend and I were able to afford a two-bedroom apartment, so the spare bedroom is my office. It's a quiet room with plenty of natural sunlight and a relatively ergonomic desk setup. Having this designated work space has made a world of difference in my mental health and productivity, and I count myself extremely lucky to have it.

With no evening commute, I fit in an after-work workout class a couple of times a week and still have plenty of time to cook dinner and enjoy my evening.

Why I hope I can work this way forever

Four months into the hybrid work model, I feel less stressed and I have more time to take care of myself. I appreciate both the benefits of working from home and the benefits of working in an office rather than feeling burnt out on both models.

It's hard to imagine spending 100% of my working hours in an office again, but I also don't like the idea of never getting to see my coworkers in person or losing out on the stimulation of working in a collaborative environment.

Of course, the hybrid model won't work for everyone and it's easy to sing its praises when I have a home office, minimal distractions at home, and a short commute to my real office. Many people can't afford an extra room to be used as a home office, particularly in expensive cities like New York and Singapore. Just a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to, and I'd be writing a very different essay.

The hybrid work model won't be right for everyone. Maybe some people can't wait to get back to the office full-time, while others would love to work from home forever. In an ideal world, everybody would have the option to do what works best for them.

But for this reporter, currently wrapping up a work-from-home Monday, I can say this: I hope that I can work with this new hybrid model forever.