Today is my last article about the coronavirus example when it comes to “cure activities”.

I will make it short. Let´s start.

I captured the Microsoft Wallpaper of today. These members of a Cheetah community look to the horizon in times of COVID19. One of them is covering the rest by watching the past.

The best way to destroy a pandemic is to prevent contagion. I will repeat it every time I can: The only way to combat a virus is by keeping ourselves and our loved ones isolated from others. If the medical researchers have told us that we need to stay on confinement for 28 days minimum (the first 14 days where the virus is asymptomatic, and then an additional 14 days more to heal or for additional safety), please let´s make the effort to don´t go out our homes for a month. Even the poorest of the poor can survive for a month (essential expenses covered by a government fee alimony). But if we continue leaving our place on a constant basis, we will unavoidably be exposed to get infected, and we will become carriers to spread the virus to others.  The more you go out, the more you extend the virus on a timeline frame.  Social distancing and different confinement strategies have saved thousands of lives through different pandemic crisis over history. Please read this article from National GeographicHow some cities ‘flattened the curve’ during the 1918 flu pandemic. In addition, I invite you to endure reading this website: Our World in Data- Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research.

History is one of our best teachers. No new technology can help us to prevent as history. Even the most advanced technologies deployed in Singapore, South Korea, China, and other advanced economies may crash or can provide wrong information. Hackers abound to upset our most beloved internet applications or machines. Robots need humans to be deployed, but if humans get sick, the whole giga-economy is simply a failure. On the contrary, history is here to help us to solve issues the way our ancestors learned it (without a simple calculator). The poorest country on earth can kill the virus by only practicing isolation-confinement-quarantine and by finding the cure in the botanicals. Those of us who have understood why is it so important to stay at home for at least a month (your government authorities must confirm the exact number of days for each country, given the specific conditions of your homeland), please preach to all your friends, acquaintances, relatives, etc. to simply stay at home.

The sacrifice to be in quarantine. Once you are ordered to be at home for at least a month, your lifestyle changes completely. If your government is at least feeding you and covering the essentials. Please calm down. You have a  relief aid. Right now your goal is to survive secluded at your residence. Since this virus attacks the rich, the middle income and the poor, no matter what is your economic status, try to be creative to survive the quarantine. Given the internet availability to many, that tool has abundant resources for us to use during these days. If you have to work from home using the Internet, it is obvious that you have to be connected “Toute la Journée”. If you are studying, try to don´t be connected for more than 5 hours per day.  The rest of the daytime, spend it doing things that do not require to be “on-line”. In consequence, try to segment your activities per day. In general, for those who are not demanded to be “online” try to don´t stay connected more than 4 hours per day to your tablet, smartphone or computer.

How to keep going at your home when it comes to a pandemic.

1. Make a schedule per day, and per week. Segment your hours per activity that you are able to do at home. Write it on a piece of paper and stick it next to your bed. Experiment with it and change it dynamically for next week. The sensation of change and variety (even if you do the same thing at different hours) may help you to break the monotony.
2. Stick to your budget. If we are lucky to receive government aid, you must know that it is for us to survive (only food and shelter are basically covered). Stick to your budget. Don´t buy in overload manner. Replenish your groceries in a wise way. Don´t go out to buy things constantly because you will be exposed to the virus.
3. Clean yourself appropriately: Take a bath daily, wash your hands constantly, wash your teeth after eating. It is a temptation to stay in pajamas, which is not the best routine after some days.
4. Sleep and rest accordingly: Sleep at least 9 hours per day. You don´t have to be at work early, try to replenish your energies by sleeping one hour more now that you can. If you can´t sleep at night, force yourself to take short naps at your convenient schedule.
5. Cultivate yourself by practicing reading: Learn something new. You can find books, youtube videos, and websites to learn something new. If you have unread books, try to read as much as you can using paper books or magazines. If you are a reader bug, divide your time in two: read articles on the Internet,  and read paper sources. That will help your eyes a lot.
6. Retake your past hobbies and/or learn a new one. We all can retake the past hobbies that we left behind. For example, if you were practicing music with a flute or the piano, or the guitar, and you lost the taste for those hobbies because of the internet activities or your job tasks, don´t hesitate to start to practice again daily. The same applies to any type of visual art (drawing, painting, crafting).
7. Listen to the radio:  Try to connect with your favorite radio station, and take some time to listen the radio music or programs that you have forgotten.
8. Watch TV news. Stay informed beyond social media. There is plenty of fake news nowadays. I am convinced that traditional TV news are much better than what you find online.
9. Study again:  For those who have already finished its studying phase, wake up to a new reality. We have to refresh our concepts, our knowledge and there is overflowing sources of content. Reconnect with your books. Find beautiful content blogs (as mine). For those who are students, keep your homework sharply and on time.
10. Execute your duty cleaning chores: Help your family to keep your home tidy. Your room must be at the “tip-top” state.
11. Play with your home-stockade siblings, spouse, and relatives: share more with your family. In addition, try to keep a balance for your private space too. Dust off your board games and play with them. Monopoly, Scrabble, UNO, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Trivial pursuit, etc. Even if you have the whole time to connect to videogames or to play with the internet applications. Just think for a second, that the Internet is gone. Turn off your WiFi, and try to play as before the internet. It will be a beautiful revelation to help your kids to treasure the things that made us happy when the internet did not exist.
12. Cook or learn to prepare a new dish. If you love to bake, make simple recipes that you have not prepared for a while.  If you don´t know how to cook, learn how to do it by observing thousands of Youtube videos who can teach you a new thing. IF you don´t have the internet, visit the food-network or gourmet TV channel and learn to cook the “old way”.
13. Exercise for at least half-hour a day:  You can do it in your living room or any spot in which you can train your abs, or jump the rope, or whatever you like to exercise in the yard.
14. Plant a home vegetable garden:  Plant tomatoes, onions, peppers, radishes, carrots, lettuce, whatever you like to seed and make it grow. Teach your kids to love planting. If you don´t have a yard, plant using any type of containers like flower pots, or recycled vessels, used plastic bottles cut in half, and hang them on the balcony.
15. Foster a Do it yourself (DIY) mind: Many of us have destroyed the culture of DIY. We have adopted the culture of buying cheap discount stuff, instead of doing it using the recycling philosophy. Find the art of DIY again.
16. Prepare your family with a positive attitude. This is just a rite of passage, that we hope it will be over soon. Train your kids the model of restrain in order to reach success. If the only way to kill the virus is by confinement, then kids need to know that this effort will pay off.  Otherwise, we are endangering others and what it worst killing the elders and those who are sick.
17. Be solidary.  Protect those who protect us. There are many entities and communities that are protecting us and need our help. These professionals are at the front line. As the Pope stated it at Urbi et Orbi: “Doctors, municipality sanitary personnel, nurses, military and police employees, government officials,  supermarket and groceries employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transportation, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, religious men and women and so very many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves.
18. Imagine that the Internet is just a tool for your job and to get information on time. In consequence, try to clean your addiction to it. Excessive internet time is not beneficial to anyone.  The new generations have to understand this as a stamp in their soul. The internet may slump in emergency times, it may fell down in times of pandemic, and our survival can´t rely on it. The internet is a tool that facilitates our daily activities, but in times of extreme emergencies beyond the current pandemic, our beloved Internet may be barren. And we must be ready to learn how to live without it. Even the amazon.com model delivery can get sick, and it will be impossible to buy online.
19. Pray constantly to God. This is the most important of all circumstances that we must treasure during the quarantine. In the face of so much suffering, we have to take the time to pray. If you are parents, teach your kids how to pray. The only way to get out of this one is by praying together to Jesus for a miracle to heal our societies of so many vices that we practice as “normal”. It is not normal to be proud, to be envious, to be cruel, to be lazy, to be stingy, to be selfish and glutton, to be luscious and to rebel against the law of God and JesusChrist. We must ask for forgiveness for building economic systems that have put the shareholder value first. We must ask for forgiveness for trying to push the world to disruptive technologies which are screwing our capacity to think properly. We must beg pardon to God for not caring for the poorest, for creating inequalities, for destroying the environment and for irrationally persecute those who are trying to make this world a better place. An economic system without God is like inevitably seed to hurt the next generations to come.

I have prepared for you a list of Coronavirus websites that I would like to invite you to read. There are not so many information sites that are reliable or accountable as mine. Meanwhile, there are other millions which are not. During this quarantine try to practice strategic reflections as I have taught you.  By being well, you are spreading the wellness around.

In my next publication, I will share the bibliography sites with you. Next week we will continue with the disrupting technologies that belong to the “socialize-interact-communicate” activities. Muchas bendiciones.

THANK YOU.

Next week we will start the socialize-interact-communicate activities when it comes to disruptive technologies.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy