3.22 Recap ... Living in Iso

Week one of practicing proper social distancing, getting used to working from home and video happy hours.

What a week, ayy? For most of us it’s our first week of living in total isolation. For others it’s the first time not watching March Madness. For some, it’s business as usual. The world keeps moving and so should you. Let’s take a look at what’s happening in this week’s weekly recap.

Working from home is the new normal. Here’s my current set up …. what’s yours? When I’m not traveling, I’m posted up behind these two screens thinking about the 2018 Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl run, the 2008 Phillies World Series Championship, Vancouver, Canada, the University of Louisville (my wife’s alma mater) and Brooklyn, NY where we reside. For the past 2.5 years it’s been an amazing experience and I’ve found five useful tips that anyone working from home can use. See below:

1. Put first things first. When starting your day, after turning off your phone’s alarm, it’s natural to look at all of the notifications that come in over night. Focus on you first. Make your breakfast, be there for your kids, dog, family, turn on the news (read the news), listen to some music, mediate, etc. Focus on a habit that will get you ready to be productive for the day. Most of us are now losing our precious commute (alone) time. Try and take some of that back by focus on something other than work before you log on.

2. Plan your day the night before. As your day is winding down, in your notebook, notes on your phone or however else you jot down your “to dos” write out the things you need to tackle for the next day. That way once you’re done the things I listed above you can open your notebook and see exactly what you need to focus on for the day. This a big time WFH hack that will kickstart your day once you’re ready.

3. Block time on your calendar. For most workforces, everyone is at home staring in front of their screens just as you are. Folks are more reachable. This is a blessing and a curse. Block time on your calendar for YOU time. This can mean blocking off your lunch hour or the last hour of the day do knock out those really annoying things you’ve been putting off or browse your favorite news site to see what’s happening in the world.

4. Fitness. For some of us, our oasis or home away from home is our gyms or fitness studios. Those are now closed or shut down for the foreseeable future. So home workouts, jogs, or sidewalk workouts become the new norm. Carve out a minimum 20 minutes in your day to do some basic stretching and move your body. For those that are sitting most of the day your body can start to develop some poor habits that compound over time. For instance, if you have a USB computer mouse or blue tooth mouse you use it in your right hand. This can cause your body to favor leaning in either direction depending on how your computer is positioned on your desk. Over time this can cause unbalanced hips, tight quadratus lumborum muscles and overall back pain. Most of us don’t have a standing desk so moving your body for a minimum 20 mins should become your new normal. Another example… if your computer is not set up at an even eye level and you’re looking down, this can cause your upper back to hunch. All types of shrugging occurs in your shoulders and your neck scrunches up. Over time this can compound in all types of neck, upper back and shoulder issues. In the links below, I’ve included some great ways to negate the affects from sitting all day every day:

   1. Yoga for the QL. There are a TON of free videos on youtube ranging from 10 minutes to over an hour for any type (Yoga, Pilates, Stretching, HIIT, strength) of work out.

   2. Betterback for proper chair sitting

   3. Proper desk set up for sitting

5. Laugh. Working from home can get lonely and you can fall into a wormhole on ONLY thinking about work. Our minds need a release every once in a while. If you’re on an internal video call with co-workers put on a funny hat that no one knew you had. If you focusing on building a deck or some tedious task, put on some stand up comedy in the background for some laughs. If you can break up your day to laugh and live a little it’ll go a LONG way during your work from home journey.

Now onto the good stuff …. what’s up in the world of Media, Tech, News, Music and Sports (links included below):

1. Jimmy Fallon brings us the Tonight Show from his home. Conan also posted that he was planning on doing this. Curious to see how this could potential impact the live in-studio shows like the Tonight Show moving forward. Will the audience prefer watching hosts from their homes like this?

2. Placer.ai produced a COVID-19 Retail Impact Tracker. Some incredible stats of this virus has impacted foot traffic for businesses like AMC Theatres, Best Buy, KFC and Sam’s Club. Take a look here

3. When times are good you should advertise and when times are bad you must advertise. This wasn’t published this week but it’s more timely than ever (thanks Forbes!). With the uncertainty of the current economy and market, brands that have money to spend and the stomach to ride this wave will win over time. The article goes into a number of brands that benefited by maintaining their ad budgets during economic downturns.

4. Nascar is replacing canceled races with esports featuring pro drivers. WOAH! What if the NBA did this right now and live streamed top athletes playing NBA 2K against each other? This could open up some interesting opportunities for gambling, new ad space and players to grow their personal brands and further engage their fans.

5. Livestream some of your favorite concerts starting on March 22. While you social distance you can still enjoy some great “concerts” from the comforts of your cough. Ultra Music Festival will be streaming certain sets on SiriusXM from select artists and play sets from previous years. Probably the coolest option is joining Erykah Badu’s “interactive experiment from badubotron” which is a live concert series from her bedroom. Fans can pay $1 to watch and will get to vote on songs she’ll perform.

6. How to change your company to work remotely. These next few weeks are going to be interesting for all of us. The read goes in depth on the basic tech necessities, over-communication, running great virtual meetings and developing a new remote “culture”. A key read for anyone in a management position

That’s it folks! Week one of socially distancing in the books. Let’s make week two a great one.