Locked Down But Not Out

Starting tonight at midnight, Southern California – like many other locations across the country – will be back on lockdown again. Thank you, Coronavirus. Now well into our 9th month of working from home (WFH), this latest restriction comes at the worst possible time – the holiday season. Thanksgiving without friends and family gathered together was bad enough. But now no Chanukah or Christmas parties? What is the point of watching the ball drop in NYC’s Times Square with no one on the streets? And, of course, now there will no doubt be yet another month of Costco being out of toilet paper, paper towels and Kleenex!

However, you don’t have to look at the jar as being half-empty (OK, honestly it is nearly completely empty by this point…); but instead perhaps you can take a fresh look and consider a different perspective as we whimper through the balance of this calendar year. After all, according to the news there are multiple vaccines “just about ready” to start being distributed in early 2021, with the hope of some kind of return to normalcy perhaps as early as next summer.

In the meantime, having myself gone through Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) repeatedly this year, I have found the brighter side of Safer-At-Home restrictions, lockdown, modified lockdown and Stay-At-Home orders, and actually have found some long-dormant creativity and even positivity myself. They say “necessity is the mother of invention,” and this COVID-19 definitely has made us think differently and even reinvent ourselves.

Re-Invention

If you are like me, in Southern California commuting is part of life. Spending two-plus hours in the car getting to and from work in standard. But ever since last March my commute time has been reduced to about 45 seconds walking from our upstairs bedroom to the downstairs makeshift office – each way. That created nearly two extra hours of time, five days a week, that I never had. Initially that resulted in 10 more productive work hours a week; but within a month, burnout set in. 

This is where the “re-invention” came in. Instead of continuing to be a creature of habit and just working longer, I found ways to get more out of those extra hours. I recommend you try to think differently too – especially as these lockdowns continue. After all, we want this virus to go away; we want people to stop getting sick (or worse); and we want our lives back. Another summer without the Hollywood Bowl or seeing a movie on the big screen is just unthinkable! 

So here are a few things to consider, some perspective changes and activities close to home that I have engaged in. Perhaps they will inspire you, help you to get through what we all hope will be the “home stretch” of this pandemic.

Walk the Dog: If you are working full time and have pets at home, you probably only get to spend “quality time” with them on the weekend. Not going in the office means you essentially have 24 hours a day to spend alongside your pets. My dog certainly looks at it that way. He has been my shadow ever since I started to WFH. He lays on a blanket alongside by desk during the day, occasionally reminding me to take a break and take him outside every few hours for some fresh air. We also now go on a morning walk together before “work” as well – sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes an hour. It is our bonding time, not to mention good exercise.

Clean the Closets: With the abundance of extra time, I have methodically gone through several cabinets, closets and drawers throughout the house, purging, cleaning, recycling and even uncovering long-forgotten treasures. 

o  I turned boxes and piles of randomly cut-out recipes and old food magazines into what are now organized binders of labeled reference materials. (See the cooking bullet item below for more on this.) 

o  I delivered two carloads of used clothing, kitchen equipment, board games and linens to Goodwill Industries, so others less fortunate can use them.

o  I purged an entire garbage can worth of pens, pencils, markers and unusable office supplies by emptying out drawers throughout the house.

o  I pulled everything out of the kitchen cabinets, and was able to donate a dozen bags of dry and canned goods, snack bags and other groceries to the local Food Pantry.

o  I even found $2.57 of coins in every nook and cranny.

So take time to purge your house or apartment. Imagine what you might find!

Unleash Your Right Brain: Being a dominant left brain (logical, math-oriented) person, CV19 Lockdown has enabled me to explore the more creative potential within. 

o  Growing up in a Jewish household, we never really decorated gingerbread houses around the December holidays. But this year we not only bought a couple of kits at Target, but I also baked gingerbread dough from scratch and cut out the walls and roof pieces, bought packages of frosting and candies, and then the entire family built a neighborhood of gingerbread houses! Our edible village will not be featured on the Food Network or in Food & Wine magazine, but we sure had a lot of fun and laughs!

o  I also bought a couple of plastic model kits from the crafts store. I have not built a Model T Ford or a Starship Enterprise in decades. Explore your inner child; re-live a fun memory from your childhood. It’s more fun than you probably remember!

Exercise Without a Gym Membership:  I used to go to 24 Hour Fitness on average four mornings a week before work. When the gyms closed down last Spring, I discovered that Amazon has literally hundreds of workout routines, videos and tutorials to stream – many of which are free with the Prime membership. So I bought a floor mat, a medicine ball and a couple of fitness dumbbells, downloaded a few dozen videos (cardio/aerobic, weight/resistance training, High Intensity Interval Training, flexibility, even Pilates), and created my own personal gym in my makeshift home office. Now I start each morning (before walking the dog) with 40 to 60 minutes of exercise. Lots of people say they have put on the “Covid 15,” but not me.

Explore Your Inner Julia Child, Gordan Ramsey or Bobby Flay: You can cook. Turns out, it is not that hard to do, and ultimately MUCH cheaper than running up endless bills from Grubhub, UberEats, Hello Fresh, DoorDash or Blue Apron. If you don’t have piles (or binders!) of recipes like I do, you can download them from thousands of sites or you can go to YouTube and watch how-to videos and follow along. Explore jars in your spice cabinet that have long been dormant and discover tastes you haven’t tried, or haven’t tried in a long time. You will find that you can broil, slice, roast, steam, barbeque, bake, fry and stir up an infinite number of delicious creations with ease in your own kitchen. And you don’t even need to master your knife cut skills – no one is judging you. As long as it is edible, you’re "money." 

As an added bonus, if you live with others in your household, tell them that you will cook, but they have to do the dishes afterward. Then you can just sit back and relax after the meal!

Binge-Worthy Shows: By now everyone has probably spent more time in front of a screen in 2020 than the past two or three years combined. Streaming is the default go-to Lockdown activity, right?  Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, YouTube, Video On Demand, not to mention Showtime, ESPN -- even the MVPD/cable providers have original content to watch. The list gets larger each day. Ask a friend, colleague or family member what they have watched this year that they really enjoyed, and chances are there is at least something that you have not watched yet. My wife and I have discovered lots of series, specials and movies that we otherwise might never have watched in “normal” times.

Additionally, you can pull out old DVD’s you might have on the shelf or movies you downloaded to your hard drive. Personally, I have been watching a marathon of all 25 James Bond movies in order, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. That has been a lot of fun!

 Reading, Writing & Studying:

o  In a normal year I maybe read two or three books during the summer. This year I have read nearly two dozen novels. OK, so mostly they were Stephen King or John Grisham books, but still – it counts! Take a break from binging video, and read a book. It has the added benefit of potentially helping you when you next play Scrabble.

o  You might take a stab at expressing yourself in prose. Write your thoughts down of how COVID has impacted you, hand-write a letter to a friend (a unique alternative to sending yet another email), or compose an article for a trade magazine or online site. If you are really creative, consider writing your own stories, poems or song lyrics.

o  Being at home with the computer always on gives you ample opportunity to brush up on your continuing education requirements (if you are professionally certified like me), take a course to expand your knowledge, or just to explore a skill or interest. Whether you self-study or join a Zoom-like session, the opportunities are bountiful with a simple Google search.

Update Before You Have To: So many times we neglect to update our resumes until we find ourselves forced to do it out of necessity. In reality, you should update your resume every year. After all, if you go through 12 months and do not have any accomplishments to cite, what were you doing in that role all year? Regardless, this is the perfect time to refresh your resume: revise the design, add your remote work skills, make sure you have engaging action words, remove outdated phrasing, add measurable results. Keep your resume fresh and up-to-date because you never know when you will need it – especially in these difficult pandemic-influenced economic times.

A Closing Thought

And finally, take time out to appreciate your loved ones – friends, family, children, neighbors, even colleagues. If you are like me, you may tend to take those around you for granted sometimes. But everybody has been living through this difficult time. You will find that a little gratitude goes a long way. Be thankful for what you have and show a little care and kindness to those around you. We WILL all get through this. With a little creativity, patience and immunization, these lockdowns will end in 2021 and the Pandemic will be a thing of the past.