7 Oddly Productive Things To Do When The Coronavirus Keeps You Stuck At Home

COVID-19 is a real threat! But if you don’t have it, prep yourself for a triumphant return to work with these quick tips.

Published in

The Leadership Journal

7 min readMar 14, 2020

I f you are quarantined at home because of the Coronavirus outbreak, there are a million things to do. Before you get excited about Marie Kondo-fying your place, hang on a minute. Don’t rush to tidy up and fold your shirts up in some impractical way.

Your downtime is still limited.

Yes, most of us still have to work (I’ll get to that in item #3). At best, you’ll recoup a couple hours of commute time that you get all to yourself. Milk it!

First thing’s first: sleep an extra hour. No one will know, and we could all use a little more sleep.

After that, take this time to do a few new or different tasks to make the most of this unfortunate Coronavirus dilemma. If we can come out of this with something good, all the better.

Here are 11 productive things to consider:

01. Wake Up Grateful And Thankful

After a decent night of sleep, here’s the first thing you should do. Start training your mind to only think positive thoughts as soon as you are conscious. I get how many people already do this. However, if you don’t, strongly consider it as it sets precedence for the rest of your day.

Just say “thank you” in your head as you slowly wake up. As you walk to the bathroom or kitchen, with each step say thank you. I’m fourteen steps to my bathroom so by the time I’ve reached for a glass of water I’ve already packed in fifteen thank you’s.

Honestly, I found this to be odd until I tried it.

It snowballs, so I do more of it. When I sit down to write in the next room, I might write down ten things I’m thankful for. I just write “I’m grateful for . . . ” over and over. I usually write down the most random thing like clean water or fresh air, but it’s true. And random or seemingly insignificant things are important.

Think about this for a moment:

Many people are homeless and living on the streets. Currently in my town, it’s freezing cold because it’s snowing. Add to that, now the Coronavirus outbreak picking up. I hope the homeless people here are getting the attention they need. That puts things in perspective. Things could be a lot worse for me, so I’m very grateful.

If you don’t feel like doing that, just write out 10 Coronavirus-related two-liner emails for close friends and family members. Do this on a notepad and I’ll send them out later. The other day I was thinking of a business colleague and wished his family well. It took twenty seconds.

Maybe you keep doing this after the virus has gone away. This quirky first action in the morning is quite powerful.

02. Meditate

If you’re like me, you’re still trying to master stillness and focus in your life. As a fidgety and restless person, I’ve found meditation to be difficult, but incredibly rewarding. I recently wrote about my 95-day experiment with meditation and how it made me wildly productive. We all know it’s good for you, and now you have the time. Set aside 10–20 minutes and simply meditate.

Set your phone to airplane mode and use one of those meditation apps. And if you’re a seasoned meditator, don’t be compelled to stick to guided meditation. As Pema Chödrön writes:

“You’re the only one who knows how much spaciousness you feel, how much peacefulness you feel, how much settledness you feel — in that sense, you are wise enough to be your own meditation guide in this practice of meditation.”

03. Meticulously Track Your Daily Work

Often at work, we waste time: even when looming deadlines keep us busy. If you’re working from home and usually don’t, now is the time to really fine-tune how you get things done.

There’s this whole movement behind how people plan their day. There are the task batchers, the themed days tribe, the multi-taskers, and the single-taskers. All of them get quality work done, but which one are you? Which tasks should do differently?

My favorite way to do things is something I learned from Y-Combinator’s Paul Graham. In the AM I’m on the Maker’s Schedule, and in the PM I’m on the Manager’s Schedule. Big projects require me to have alone time, so that’s all I do in the morning before the calls come in and the day gets hectic.

Starting today, document what you do at work for the next 30 days. There is a great Harvard Business Review article on the how and why of logging your time. Create a simple time log spreadsheet and you’ll begin to see the patterns. In the end, you’ll be looking for two things: efficiency and effectiveness.

04. Polish One Skill

We all need to improve our skills. For some of us, it’s moving beyond mastery. For others, it’s learning something completely new. (Maybe it’s time to learn a career-boosting skill like Design Sprints.) But don’t overwhelm yourself. It sounds weird, but just pick one skill.

Pick something you can easily integrate into a project you’re already doing. Believe me, I have a graveyard of expensive eCourses I’ve barely touched. Find a relevant course and make sure to apply what you learned.

05. Coronavirus-proof Your Home

Of course, while the COVID-19 is out you should make your home germ-free sanctuary. Take this old adage literally: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So after you’ve gone to the store and stocked up on enough La Croix to last a lifetime, spray a few ounces of Clorox Disinfectant Spray all over the place and get cleaning.

According to Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, common household cleaners prevent germs and sickness in the home. Break out the bleach wipes, alcohol, and soap. Wipe down keys, doorknobs, counters, and appliances. Throughout the day, wash your hands frequently. All of this can be done in less than an hour depending on the size of your home.

Don’t forget to sanitize your phone. Oddly, I asked for a UV light phone sanitizer box for Christmas [Phone Soap]. People thought I was being a germophobe, but guess who’s using it a lot now?

06. Streamline Your Social Media

The one task I try to avoid is clearing up my social media profiles and getting back to people. Really, I only pay attention to two accounts: Facebook and LinkedIn. I have a love/hate relationship with LinkedIn. I see the massive value in it because I’ve actually gotten clients with it thanks to a remarkable lead generation coach named Natasha Vilaseca. However, since her coaching I’ve kind of slacked.

I got advice to make all my profiles roughly the same, so people can instantly identify me no matter what platform I was on. This makes sense. I have to admit, my so-called brand colors and photos are random on all my profiles and I really do think this matters for continuity.

And don’t get me started on the unanswered LinkedIn emails. I remember a trick the last time this happened. I set a timer for 40 minutes and knocked out most of the ones that sounded important. Who knows, maybe by getting my profiles in order I’ll even drum up a little business. Win-win.

07. Update Quarterly And Yearly Life Plan

I’m a huge fan of Chris Guillebeau’s and James Clear’s annual reviews. The problem is, I don’t always do them. It’s odd to do this after late December, but now’s a better time than ever. 2019 is still a strong memory, so why not catch up? What I love about these reviews is that it feels good to do them. You learn what went right and what didn’t. It doesn’t have to always be about work. I like to lay out how I thought my personal relationships and my journey to self-mastery went.

From there, you can find the patterns and gaps. You can plan out little habits you might try or course corrections that need to be made. It’s quite fun, really.

There is an expiration date for COVID-19, so hang in there. Let’s hope it doesn’t keep us all homebound too long. In the meantime, there are lots of things to do to keep us busy.

We should do the obvious things like more exercising, reading, and sleeping. And if you take my advice, we can add on a few odd things that will help us stay productive.