How is the Coronavirus affecting you?

Image Credits: Gerd Altmann | Pixabay

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

How is the Coronavirus affecting you? —This has been quite a week in regards what is happening in the world currently with the Coronavirus. There have been several schools and university closings, recommendations of the amount of people to be around, social distancing and a lot of people having to work from home when they generally do not. As most of my readers know, I also work for a local high school and as of Friday, March 13^th our school system is no longer in session. We thought we were to be closed till April 6^th, but on March 19^th the Indiana Governor stated all K-12 Indiana schools were to be closed till May 1^st. The other thing that happened to us personally is our hot water heater went out on Wednesday, March 11th. It was still under warranty, so we got to go and swap for a new one. It is now fixed as of Tuesday, March 17^th.

I am not writing this to scare anyone — instead; I want to be helpful, provide educational resources on topics that may be impacting you right now, and to be a place where you can come to for comfort while the world is going through all of this.

Below, I am going to separate common questions I’ve heard and a good resource that I recommend reading to go along with it.

What should I be doing with my extra time?

Many of you may be wondering what you should be doing with your time. Here are some ideas:

Stop browsing Facebook all day long. I get on Facebook and other social media venues just to see what people are doing in the world’s situation and to help me to see what to write about. It seems that countless people are surfing Facebook and Instagram all day long. They are looking, engaging, and reading about Coronavirus. I think what would be better is to engage with your friends, read interesting books, and watch streaming of shows and movies. Focus on the activities that you usually do not have time for. Focus on God and Pray!!!

Read about the facts. Facebook is definitely not a good source of factual information. I recommend reading the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC’s information on the topic to stay informed.

Find ways to increase your income. I am a big believer in having more than one stream of income, and the events happening around the world right now prove this to be even more true. The reason to have different forms of income can help you to not be as reliant on any one source, just in case anything was to happen. So, if you have lost your work hours find an online job you can do while you are off.

Improve your skills. Some of you may have a lot more free time on your hands. If that is the case, I recommend using this new free time to improve your skills, learn new things, catch up on activities you are behind on, and much more. Search for anything you could learn online to help you going forward.

What are some tips for working from home?

There are many people around the world that are required to work from home for the next several weeks to even over a month. So, there are tons of new people who are working from home rather it is their current job or a new online job.

You probably have a lot of questions about tips for working from home.

I know people who have tried working from home seem to have trouble getting anything done. I do not work 100% at home usually because I also work in education and also work on this blog(which is working from home). I know there are certain things that may hold you back if you’re not careful.

Here are some valuable tips for working at home:

• Stick to a work schedule. I recommend creating some sort of work schedule. It could be working 7 – 3 pm or maybe you only need to work 2-3 hours per day, whichever the case create a schedule. Even if you have a very flexible schedule, it’s usually wise to have some kind of schedule. This way you can mentally get into the “work zone” each day and have fewer distractions. This may mean setting a starting and ending time, lunch break time, and so on.
  
• Have a dedicated work area. Similar to sticking to a work schedule, finding a place to work can help you work better due to the fact that you will be in a spot in your home that is used just for work. This can help you separate your work from life, be more organized, and get in the zone every day.
  
• Exercise regularly. When you work from home, it can be quite easy to sit in one spot all day long. That is just not healthy for you. When you go to work you may have to walk into work, walk to someone’s desk, and so on, you may find yourself getting a lot less movement in your day when you work from home. By exercising it will help you stay healthy, refresh yourself, and clear your mind.
  
• Cut out distractions. While social media and TV may be great at times, you have to be careful so that it’s not impacting your work in a negative way. I do not watch any TV until around 8 p.m. at night. We do not subscribe to regular television, it is all streaming. So, I can watch whatever I would like. Currently watching Gray’s Anatomy with Netflix. Working from home means that no one is watching over your shoulder, which may lead to you being more distracted. Due to this, it’s always a good idea to cut out things such as social media, TV, and so on while you are working so that you can be more efficient with your time.
  

How can I Help You? Are you working from Home? What topics would you like to see?