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Coronavirus Guide

Living and working in Isolation and social distancing (USA focused)

March 16, 2020

Here are some observations made while staying at home to avoid exposing my wife to the current virus in circulation.
There are a number of things you begin to notice as your normal activities are being curbed. For example not being able to go to the gym, mall, or any other popular places. I have listed a number of observations and tips on what it means to live in isolation. I have also added some sites to help you figure out what the coronavirus is and how to protect yourself from it. I will update this blog as often as I can.

But first:

 

Remote team

Anywhere

Your anywhere habits must change.

  • Develop a clean policy - e.g. do not touch your phone unless you disinfect/hand wash
    hand sanitizer - you do not need much of it - a 8 Fl oz will last a while. Focus on soap if you can.
  • If you go out to perform necessary tasks, keep your distance. Use parks instead of crowded commercial places. Change our walk schedule in accordance with traffic - if it is busier try to come back at a different time. Mornings or later in the evening may be better - the best way to is check how busy these places may be - reconsider your walk if places are too crowded.

Home

As you spend more time at home you make your home into a different activity center. This means, your home will be your work place, your gym and, of course, your home. Make sure you give yourself enough space and do not overcrowd your schedule to get things done.

  • When at home I believe toilet paper usage should remain constant. Stocking up is not recommended.
  • Drink more water (if you do not, you are making a mistake). This is also recommended during flu season.
  • San Diego is a good place to walk around (mostly parks [non-commercial]) after 5 PM; however, since you are at home, take advantage of the quiet mornings. Malls remain busy until a later hour while parks and public non-commercial places tend to vacate earlier in the day. I assume this pattern applies in many US cities.
  • Home food delivery is good if you are not in a hurry. Amazon does a good job; have not tried the others. They and all other food deliveries are jam-packed. Order ahead of time - do not wait until the last moment to order food.

Work

When working from home expect work pattern changes. The first thing you will notice is that the schedule you are about to embark in will be slightly different. To begin with, you will not have to drive or go to work. Beyond that there are other influencers which will affect your schedule and how you conduct your day to day work activities. Here are a few points I have noticed while working at home:

  • You tend to work more while working from home. This is often explained by the fact that less interruptions occur at home.
  • One thing you will have to adjust to is the work synchronization. This is something you should watch out for. The idea is to avoid forcing yourself to synchronize work the same way you would when going to the office. For example when at the office your schedule is usually 9 to 5 while at home your schedule will most certainly be fragmented. Get used to your fragmented schedule as it is productive. If you can synchronize with the rest of the office and that works for you, do it. Just know that you do not have to follow the same work model you would while at the office. Get things done in the best possible way you consider productive.
  • Working from home requires you to set time for work and block it in your company's calendar. This is necessary to avoid unexpected interruptions.

 

Health

Your health at this point in time is the most important part. Try to keep yourself in a good shape by getting the rest you need (7 or 8 hours).

  • Stay hydrated - drink at least 8 glasses of water
  • Eat right - avoid processed sugars
  • Sleep for 7 or hours. If you cannot sleep due to worry, try mindfulness or breathing exercises before bed time. Exercise improves the quality of sleep. Do exercise as much as you can.
  • Exercise as much as you can. 30 minutes in a given day should be a good minimum.
  • Look into various medicines and their interaction with this particular disease

Diet

This changes drastically as availability of certain foods may be reduced - this gives you a chance to experiment. Make sure you eat quality foods as your body requires better nutrition. Try to eliminate unnecessary foods.

  • Eliminate undesirable foods such as chocolates, sweets and similar. If you did not observe this trend, try it. Isolation is a good opportunity for experimentation.
  • As you experiment with food, you may realize you are wheat insensitive as buying bread is perhaps inadvisable due to potential viral exposure. Run experiments like this on your eating habits; since your food options may be limited take that as a challenge.
  • If you have to drink milk (and I do), do it in the morning hours - that is before 12pm - the idea is to have it earlier in the day or closer to your workouts which usually happen earlier in the day. Try to drink it warm and not cold.

Exercise

As you will inevitably move less, you need to keep your body in shape to at least exercise your immune system. As always, stay away from strenuous exercises. Take it slowly and do not hurry. Focus on the benefits of each exercise - the list below is just a suggestion. Just know that you do not necessarily require a gym to workout.

  • When exercising, if you perform cardio exercises, you will touch your face. Remember that when you go to the gym. Avoid the gym!
  • Workout more (perhaps not as diverse as being at the gym) - Some good routines are:
  • Most of the exercises listed here are bodyweight exercises. Focus on working out as it is good move the white blood cells (WBC) though the body (google this).
  • Also, focus on stretches. Yes, they count as workout. Focus on physical therapy stretches. I will not list any here since they are usually specific. Investigate good physical therapy exercises and make sure you double check the advice against trusted sources. Focus on the back and legs while ensuring proper form.

Shopping

Out of all things, shopping will be the most affected due mostly to emotional purchases. As such you must plan ahead. Make sure you focus on staples such as bread, milk, breakfast cereals, eggs and so on. As you focus on those staples know that they may not be available. Bet creative buy things such as polenta, pasta, rice and other long lasting foods. Avoid foods high in processed sugars.

  • If you have to shop, you do it early (07:00) - if it is busy for whatever reason, try again next time. 
  • Attempt food delivery - but be mindful that delays are very likely; order ahead.

Mind

The mind is the most sensitive and perhaps the most susceptible to events such as this one. Try to stay away from news binging as this will increase your stress level. Focus on work or something that can take your mind to a better place. Seeking professional help may not be possible; buying countless books on the topic of mindfulness may not help either. If you must, use sources such as Youtube for mindfulness resources. However, try to keep it simple. Focus on breathing and light therapy.

  • As you will develop an isolation fatigue and there are no easy ways to get out of it. However, there are techniques such as staying active, around the house, drinking plenty of water, coffee and in the end taking it easy through various approaches such as meditation or just turning off devices and looking outside the window.
  • To meditate do not google or worry about how to meditate - meditation can be a confusing topic. Do what relaxes you and focus on reducing stress and in particular the release of the stress hormone. If you already know about meditation and the benefits, make sure you practice it.
  • If you cannot meditate, try to perform floor stretch exercises- these exercises help get your mind in a meditative state
  • dance if you can - this is a good exercise and it is also a good way to enter a meditative state.
  • Here is a simple meditation technique. The simplest meditation I can imagine is the Window Meditation.

    • From any window, just look outside.
      Watch nature (even cars are a part of our nature),
      Gently touch your stomach,
      Breathe...
      Forget the nature and breathe,
      Forget the breath and watch nature.

    • While living in isolation this is one of the simplest way to meditate. Walk to the window, look outside, breathe.

A note on meditation and why it may help.

One of the issues which leads to anxiety is related to emotions. In this context perhaps very important is the fact that you are either in direct control of your emotions or you may not be in direct control of your emotions. You tend to be in control when your emotions are related to immediate reactions (i.e. in traffic, at work, etc.); you are not in control when your emotions may be caused by family members or perhaps by a disease which causes you to think of the consequences on your family members. Knowing the difference allows you to keep a clear mind. When you are in control, you can easily deal with emotions. When you are not in control, you became more anxious.
Meditation is an incremental process, begin your practice when you are in control. Be mindful as your emotions change due to traffic, bad day at work. Find a way to mindfully remove all those thoughts from your inner chatter/monologue. As you begin to spend more time meditating in a time of high anxiety, you can handle your emotions easier.
As you meditate practice breathing. Just breathe. At all times, breathe. Nothing can be good if you stop breathing. In some minified way, this is what meditation is and it is also the way it can help you, now and always.

How to work from home

Guide obtained from: How to work from home.. from Madesimplegroup.com

Info on SARS-COV-2/COVID19/2019-nCov/coronavirus

  • I find that reddit is one of the best best places for more info on this virus. Pay particular attention to Italy vs South Korea if you are so inclined. The good thing about Reddit is the speed with which each subreddit is updated. I will list them in the order of expediency at the time or writing this guide:

General info:

San Diego:

Stats

Guides 

Articles:

Quick Guides

Official Sites:

 

How to google (How Google is helping)

Architect

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