Longtime readers may recall last year's breakdown of my daily reminders, a list of phrases I read each morning to keep myself focused on the priorities of the moment (1). I thought today I would share what those priorities have been during The Corona Lockdown (in italics), organize them into broad categories (in bold and italics), and explain my thinking behind each priority's inclusion on my list (no emphasis).
It's a crisis, folks
A major challenge during March was simply wrapping my head around the idea of a pandemic. Things were changing... but what did that mean for me?
ASAP
The most important adjustment was shifting my mentality from a peacetime to a wartime approach (2). The time for deliberating - what's the best deal, what's most efficient, what fits my principles, etc - was long past. Instead, anytime a decision came up, I rapidly gathered as much information as I could before making a firm, decisive choice.
So, get internet access at home? Yes, first by a cheaper hotspot purchase, then a full upgrade to a cable connection. Have my modem delivered, free shipping, within two days? No, I biked to a Best Buy to pick it up same day. Should I make trips to potentially crowded locations, like Haymarket? Yes, but essentially at the crack of dawn, arriving before half the vendors had started setting up.
Rororo, calm calm calm
The ongoing challenge in a pandemic is to stay ro - 'calm' in Icelandic - because although it's vital to constantly collect new information, it's important to keep a certain perspective, particularly in the face of ever-mounting bad news.
One way I stay calm is to make sure that if I don't absolutely need to do act, I should stop and think until I can make a decision without influence from external pressure. Scarcity is a real factor today but not one for civilians to worry about most of the time. For example, as I noted a couple of weeks ago, I think people who are able to get by without being picky should go to the grocery store at close, not just because it's an indirect way to help a neighbor, but because at no other point in my life would I go to LOL Foods early the next morning just because they were out of butter the prior evening.
Creating a daily routine
TOA diehards (you sorry lot, hang in there) will know the value I place on routine, mostly as a way to establish the foundation needed for quality work. The challenge of the past month has been two-fold. First, how do I recapture the power of my previous routine, now disrupted? Second, what new measures can I take to harness my otherwise scattering energy?
Nothing good happens after 10pm
When I planned out my ideal routine for this stay at home period, I determined that waking up sometime between 530-630AM was ideal. This would give me the chance to get into the day, unhurried, with time for some kind of activity before starting work. The only way I can get up at that hour, though, is to set myself up for success the prior night. When 10PM hits, the only acceptable activities are stretching, amateur dentistry, and a little reading.
No computer use within 2 HRs of bedtime
This is in tandem with the above - if I shut down the computer early, I can get into the bedtime ritual a little easier. There are a host of reasons for this, including but not limited to the effect of digital lighting on sleep hygiene.
Of all the items on this list, I've found this one the most challenging. Soccer highlight videos, simply, lead from one to the next, and I have some catching up to do after a few years without home internet. I cut myself some slack in the early days and that has helped me get over the hump.
Work 45 to 75, rest 10 to 30
I've more or less locked this habit in place but I want to stay on top of it in these pandemic days. In addition to a 'work from home' transition, I'm also now writing exclusively at home, and need to remain mindful of the most productive time distribution I've identified in my work.
Working from home
As noted in the last item above, the shift to a 100% remote schedule created immediate challenges. I generally adjust quickly and the WFH situation was no exception, but the following two additional reminders helped in the transition.
The biggest challenge of shifting to a remote team is maintaining certain processes in the midst of a transition toward a new communication style. I'm not speaking strictly about mediums here, I mean a shift from the continuous, immediate results of an in-person method toward the stop-and-go nature of remote communication. In a remote environment, you often wait for answers, and in this jerky flow of information lies a potential bottleneck. It's vital to be on the same page about goals and desired outcomes in these moments while retaining flexibility about specific details so that time spent waiting for information doesn't also become time spent waiting to start working.
No one cares - coach your team
The list of excuses for poor work is almost infinite at the moment - I can't focus when working from home, I want to go to a restaurant, I want to see so-and-so, I hate pandemics. Go on, have a moan, these are understandable complaints and most people are understanding. But at some point, the whistle blows, and everyone looks at the scoreboard. If you end up on the losing side, no one is going to care about those excuses.
A coach is a good analogy for the situation. There are things anyone on a team can do, but only so much that each person should be doing. All a coach can do is coach, so in that situation a coach focuses on coaching and leaves the rest to the team. Right now, all we can do is focus on doing the entirety of every little thing within our roles, and we should do so with a minimum of excuses. It won't guarantee anything, but it improves the chances that humanity ends up on the winning side.
Must I elaborate? It's like what Conan says about Carrot Top and his props - we've all relied on these tools to stay sane just within the general terror of life, and now in the face of this PANDEMIC, they've taken away all our tools (plus he and Norm say a bunch of other stuff, which you can watch in the rest of the clip).
Anyway... here are my two shoddy replacements for those tools:
Do the next right thing
Uncertainty means no plan, no outline, no path to show the way forward. In a sense, it's like we lost our autopilot, and are now feeling the constant pressure of flying an airplane the old fashioned way. What can we do when each moment feels like another chance to crash and burn?
It's hard, but a singular focus on each moment as it arrives can be a huge help. This mentality is the tenet of mental toughness, allowing us to let go from the mistakes and what-ifs of the past while also freeing us from the disappointment of losing things we were looking forward to in the future.
Be bigger than you feel
It's easy to give for the sake of the whole when the whole is something you interact with freely and routinely in the regular course of life. But it's much tougher in today's call to action by inaction, when the purest demonstration of community is voluntary withdrawal from the community. Our bodies, minds, and hearts file constant appeals against our self-sentencing, but we must respect the original verdict and trust in the larger idea.
This thought doesn't mean overcome, ignore, or bury the negative feelings of the moment. It means accepting them, allowing them in, and learning to keep moving despite the heavy chains these feelings throw around us. To be bigger than you feel, you must first know how you feel.
Vision 2020
Life's changed but that's no reason to abandon every goal I set prior to the pandemic.
What three things?
Social interactions have changed a great deal and almost without exception communication has decreased with every single person in my life. Still, I think the original spirit of this idea lives on - what are the three things I can learn from the upcoming interaction? These days, perhaps it's as simple as checking in on health, wealth, and happiness, but having the 'three things' framework ensures I don't get distracted by idle chatter and speculation about forces beyond our control.
The underlying theme
You can only change so much. Ultimately, there is a core to each of us, and it comes along for any ride.
Am I really trying my best?
There seems to be less and less of each day than ever before, but what hasn't changed and what never will is that we can still try to get the most of each day.
Footnotes
1. Process refresher, and update
The full list is around fifty to sixty items but I don't bother reading them all. Instead, at the start of each week (usually Saturday) I pick eight to twelve items for the week, then read those for the next few days. Given that in exchange for about ten total minutes per week I get better control of my thoughts, emotions, and decisions, I would argue it is my single highest value activity.
During the past few weeks, I haven't made any edits to the weekly list. This wasn't by design - I seemed to have gotten it right the first time, and conditions are changing so slowly that I haven't been forced into adjustments.
2. A big thank you, from TOA to the real warriors
Now, don't get me wrong on this analogy, I'm not out there doing the real work here, and I'm not pretending that anything I've done lately should be compared to a true war effort. It's simply a way to highlight the change in how I've made decisions.
