The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic

A bad moon has indeed risen over our fair city, and across the land, and around the world. What initially seemed like a slow build has accelerated over the last two weeks into a surreal and unprecedented new reality: the highly-infectious rapidly-spreading coronavirus is shutting down nearly all activity. As of 5:00 pm on this gorgeous Friday afternoon, the City of Winston-Salem and all of Forsyth County will begin a Stay-at-Home order that restricts all of us to remain in our residences except for a limited set of essential needs, such as going to the grocery or pharmacy. All other activity must cease. No gathering with friends. No dashing about. No groups or meetings.

Stay at home.

The few days of work I still had on my spring calendar were already canceled, because schools in North Carolina were ordered to close and to begin using virtual learning for all their students. Nonetheless, I did still get to have an online session with the current cohort of aspiring administrators at High Point University on Wednesday...which is quite a shift from how I am accustomed to presenting.

I've made my grocery and Costco runs and did suffer some hoarding seduction...

...even though we can still venture out to get groceries and such. But so much has been cleared out of store shelves that one can't help but feel like you might be caught short if you don't overdo the planning ahead. Plus: y'all know I like to bake.

This stay-at-home order is likely to last several weeks, if not more. That's a lot of time, so this morning I got to thinking about whether I can exploit this dire situation into something productive and positive. I've always got long to-do lists and things that I wish I would work on  or try to accomplish, or lots of various recipes I want to try.

So I typed up three different kinds of tasks: (1) really enjoyable/relaxing endeavors (reading, watching a movie, trying out a new recipe); (2) some outside tasks around the yard if the weather is cooperating; (3) and a much longer list of professional and home chores/tasks/obligations that I just keep putting off. With a color-coding scheme to keep them somewhat distinct, I printed them all and cut them up (see the photo above) to put into a task bowl (as shown below).

Some tasks are certainly worth repeating, like making a batch of cookies or reading for pleasure or watching a movie....so those slips are printed larger and in red and will get tossed back into the bowl to possibly be chosen again. I figure I will devote a minimum of an hour a day (or maybe I'll do one in the morning and one in the afternoon?) on any given task I draw out. Some will be easy and quick and I'll have the satisfaction of marking them off the list. Others will be more consuming but I'll try to make myself stick with them for that minimum amount of time. They are all mixed together, but I did want the option to ignore, for instance, a bright green slip if the weather is bad, since those are the outdoor projects.