It’s so crazy to think that this COVID-19 pandemic has brought the whole world to a stop, almost a full stop, and that this stop has been going on for 60+ days. It’s almost as if this shelter-in-place/quarantine lifestyle is becoming the new normal; staying at home is the norm, and if/when you go out, you wear masks. I’ve obviously had tons of time to reflect and have tried to make the most of this slower time in life. As my a boss at work often says, “How are you going to come out better from this time?” Please allow me to share a few thoughts on what this pandemic has taught me about life. 

I actually didn’t need as much going on in my life

Think back to the pre-COVID world. If your schedule looked anything like mine, you would have probably described it as ‘busy’. Most friends, family and colleagues always used that word to describe their lives. Our life definitely felt busy in the YMF household; I normally left the house at 5:20am for a workout session at 5:30am, then headed into work where I showered and was at my desk by 7:30am, worked until 5pm where I then sat in traffic as I meandered over to pick up BabyMoneyFinance while Mrs. Money worked out at 5:30pm, and we would come home and I’d start BMF’s dinner and then we might go for a short walk then bath time and bed by 7:30pm. Mrs. Money and I each would have small group or community group, or a random social event most evenings. Weekends almost felt similar; we had went so hard with work and life during the week that we wanted to enjoy it as much as we could – and enjoyment looked like filling up our time with more events. 

Then COVID came and all of that STOPPED. 

In a surprising turn of events, despite virtually changing everything about my daily routine, life kept going. I’m still able to do home workouts without going to the gym, I’ve been able to still work 40+ hours each week and earn a paycheck (very thankful for that by the way), and we still find enough social time in our lives, mostly through Hangouts, Facetime or Zoom. 

Removing everything that felt so important to me has taught me that I really didn’t need to be that ‘busy’, and that I’m almost happier the less ‘stuff’ and ‘events’ I have in my life. Of course I would like to go back to ‘normal’ but I know that when we do, I don’t plan on having it look exactly the same as it did. I would like to be more picky about how I spend my time, and feel that I’ll be more likely to turn certain things down, and not even add back certain things into my schedule. 

Productivity at work can look different 

Prior to COVID-19, I would work from home about once a week. I work for a software technology company, so we’re very ‘tech forward’ and so working remotely wasn’t an issue. In fact, transitioning to working from home full time was very easy for mean and even better they gave us a little stipend to purchase a thing or two for our home offices. However, what I was not used to was working from home with a toddler and Mrs. Money (whom I affectionately refer to as my ‘co-worker’). Surprisingly, BabyMoneyFinance’s daycare has been open this whole time, but we didn’t feel comfortable sending BMF and the 3 of us all stayed home, and that was quite the adjustment. BMF’s education at home consists of exploring, so that’s nice in the regard that we didn’t have to also be home school teachers (although Mrs. Money is a teacher in her real job but that’s not what she is getting paid to do) but still entertaining and chasing a toddler around is difficult. I’ll admit that I didn’t do a great job at first balancing my time and a lot of the burden fell on Mrs. Money. 

I then started having more blocks of time throughout the day – i.e. blocking off 2-3 before the afternoon nap, and taking a full hour for lunch and being in charge from 8-9 each day. It was tough but I remained productive; really because I had no other choice. Some mornings I’d get up earlier and starting working at 7 or 7:30, some days I’d work a little later or after BMF went to bed. I was still very productive, but it looked a little different from my normal 8-5. Thankfully my company was very understanding and gracious about all of that. We’ve actually recently started taking BMF back to daycare (it’s about the only thing we do outside of the house), but the lessons have still stuck with me. Not many kids are going to daycare right now, and we feel good about all the safety precautions they are taking.

I think moving forward I’ll bring with me lessons learned on being uber productive as well as being flexible in my productivity. Life can be crazy sometimes (as it is now) and I am thankful having learned productivity hacks to help me stay on top of work no matter what. I also think I’ll make a push to work from home 2-3 days per week – not sitting in traffic for 2 hours each day is pretty nice! 

Time is what you make of it

It’s funny; despite being cooped up at home 24/7 with relatively little to do, Mrs. Money and I still felt ‘busy’. Perhaps it’s due to the fact we chase a toddler around and were moving (yes we sold and bought a new house during all of this), but I realized that time is a bit of what you make it. This has definitely been a stressful time in many ways and I’ve learned that having the right attitude is really important. Being quarantined at home isn’t a vacation, and I still have to keep a schedule, one that includes: work, exercise, social time, and relaxation time. I’ve been getting up early most days to work out or work on this blog so that I can have more family time in the evening. 

Much like money, I think that it’s important to learn to control how you spend your time; otherwise it’ll find a way to control you! I’m trying to focus more on making the most of my daily routines and being more thoughtful with how I spend my time!

Family is so precious 

One of the silver linings of this shelter in place time period is all the family time we get together. BMF as of a few weeks ago has really started walking and that’s been so cool to witness. Before this COVID pandemic, time in the evenings felt so rushed; feeding, bathing, reading, nursing, and then bedtime. Although we still have all of those things to do each night, having less on our busy schedules in terms of coming and going and doing has made our time together even sweeter. I would play with BMF in between my works calls, we would go on family walks during lunch, take longer evening walks, and just play more after bath time. It’s really been a sweet time for us. 

Even outside of our immediate family, I’ve been keeping more in contact with my extended family. Both of Mrs. Money and I’s parents live in another state so seeing them right now isn’t feasible. We’ve done a lot more Facetiming, have done a family Zoom hangout and talk on the phone a lot more often. I even have been calling my grandmother (who lives at home by herself) most nights via Facetime while BMF eats dinner. It’s so nice for both of us to connect! 

Whether it’s close family or close friends, this time has really reminded me of the importance of spending time, however that may look together. 

Shopping local goes a long way 

It’s been very tough watching a number of friends get laid off, especially those that work in small businesses. I’ve also got a number of friends that are small business owners themselves, and it’s been so crazy to watch them go through this. Seeing their businesses suddenly run out of demand is tough. I’ve done another blog post on this but I do believe it’s important, as you’re able to do so, to shop and support local businesses in the area. Pre-COVID, Mrs. Money and I would go out to eat once or twice a week, and we still try to do that each week, whether through delivery or going and picking up ourselves. We’ve got a coffee shop in walking distance in our neighborhood that we go to once a week, and occasionally get coffee for the house from them. Same goes with our local breweries, we’re close friends with some of them and want to do our part to help out however we can. I also joke that buying Coca-Cola (based in Atlanta) brand sparkling water is shopping local too when I’m at the grocery store! 

There are more things than Netflix 

There’s kind of not a lot to do right now it seems, and thank goodness for Netflix and other streaming services. No more sports, and new TV shows are running out (Brooklyn 99 and Superstore for us). Mrs. Money and I are big fans of watching TV in the evening; it’s a nice relaxing escape for us. However, in a weird way we sort of got tired of just watching a few new or old episodes each night on TV. In lieu of that, we’ve been getting creative and attempting to be more social, even from our houses. We’ve played online games with friends (JackBox), have watched movies over Zoom, and have had just social hangs virtually. We’ve done a ton of walking, exploring our neighborhood (we finally found the path to the river) and have also really enjoyed hanging out on the porch. We’ve had picnics in the yard and sat in the porch swing in the evening. It’s been really cool to enjoy our house and neighborhood a lot more, and while we still watch Netflix a fair amount, it’s not as much as it could be! 

Summary

I’ve been reminded of a quote that said “never let a good crisis go to waste” and I’ve definitely continued to learn a lot about myself, what’s important and how I spend my time during this global shelter-in-place. Although I definitely miss certain aspects of the ‘old way’, I’ve found silver linings that I’ve really come to enjoy. If and when we ever get back to ‘normal’ post-COVID, I’m not convinced that life will look 100% the same as it did before all of this, and I almost think life may be a little different for the better!