Corona virus spreading - What I’m going to do in lock down

As you might guess I'm not touring now, we have the threat of the Corona Virus or COVID-19 hanging over us. I am at home in Spain with my family.

I am in lock down as the Spanish government has ordered, just like the rest of the country. Lock down was originally supposed to be for 14 days, but everyone knows they will add at least another 14 days to it, even 30 days. So until something changes, I am here, at home with my family. Touring is off for some months.

I didn’t intend to make a virus or a pandemic related blog or video, there are enough Internet Experts on this pandemic as is but once you have your life interrupted and your mind occupied by something this big – it’s hard not to. What I have to share about this situation is experience.

I have an experience in working from home and being isolated, sometimes alone and sometimes with a few people for short and long periods of time. Even sometimes away from my family and I can tell you it's never easy, but I’m going to tell you how I deal with it because it might actually help someone.

ANGER

First of all, being angry is the worst thing I can do. My main income is through Photo Tours and as I’ve already said they are off for now. Other income strings have suffered because of my busy schedule of traveling, so now would be the typical time to tear myself apart with thoughts like: I should have diversified more, I should have done this or that.

When actually thinking like this does not help, it only steals away my energy and ability to focus on the task at hand. This, I am allowed to think about once all this is done, I can use it to learn from my mistakes, to grow in the future. But now focus on the things I can change at this moment.

So I don’t let myself think those things. I don’t let myself become angry because of things I should have done or things I cant change, like this corona virus and pandemic that I have no control over.

SET THE FOCUS ACCORDINGLY

There was a lot scheduled for April. I was going to do so many things during this month, because April is normally pretty quiet month for me. I don´t have many tours as it´s the end of winter / start of spring in Iceland and not a popular touring season.

I always use this month with my family, I make plans for the next 12 months and even scout new tours. This actually makes things a little bit easier for me – I was already prepared to stay home for a few weeks, although it didn’t include staying AT HOME for the whole time.

This year the plan was to scout here in Spain and even in Portugal. I wanted to make travel videos from particular parts of Spain, but now I need to adjust my plans, I´m certainly not going to scout during a complete lock down. But this doesn´t mean all is ruined, I just need to set a new focus, a new strategy to work with. I tour on average about 20 days a month so I am away from my family a lot, I have limited time to edit photos, make videos, write blogs... so there is an opportunity here because all of these can be done from my home office.

So my modified plan is: spend more time with my family, edit photos I took during the winter season and the ones that I´ve had on hold since last year, make more videos and tutorials, freshen up and make new marketing material. Although I can´t go out to scout I can still do a lot of the planning needed regarding my new tours, draft the itinerary, calculate prices etc. If I do that I only need to try the tour and gather the photos needed as soon as lockdown is lifted. Then I will be ready when all this is over... because this will end... and when it does how I used this time will be critical for the future. It will make all the difference if my little business survives or not.

It's completely up to me... I am never a victim of circumstances. My fate and my business is up to me.

DAILY ROUTINE

I have been running my business from home for a long time, and for it to work I need to approach it like it was any other job: I show up for work in the morning and I have a set workday, a set plan of projects, this is extremely important! If I don't have that, I am not likely to be very productive.

I make a list what needs to be done, I prioritize. Today I will put what earns me money right now in first place and what is more long term comes after. Obviously, I need to divide my time between both because If I don't attend to my long-term projects, they die which would be a shame. I know what I want to accomplish today and tomorrow, and I do my best to fulfill that. So how is my time divide?

A portion of the day I network, chat with people, upload on social media, make stories, send emails, contact my newsletter subscribers, of course main goal being: looking for more business, and remember, no job is too small: "breadcrumbs are also food" now is no time to be selective!

Uploading material on Social Media in sometimes chaotic circumstances, little energy left

To be able to stay motivated I need my personal routine to work: I need to wake up in the morning, shower, get dressed and start working.

I have 2 young kids in the house and they need to be happy and have something to do. If they don't have that I sure ain´t getting work done :-) Fortunately my wife takes mostly care of this, but she also has responsibilities and work to do in our business, so it's a team effort.

Kids need: love, regular meals, exercise, be challenged or learn something each day, regular sleep... this is the foundation. If they lack something of this I'm failing them as a parent and I am not getting any work done! And here´s a big secret this is also my foundation – I need all this too to function.

RULE OF 8

So the balance I´m talking about is gained by the rule of 8. I try to be as close to it as possible: Work for 8 hours, play for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours.

If I don´t use the rule of 8 and just sleep until noon, hang around for a while, kids have been watching TV for three-four hours, I'm getting very little work done because I become lazy, I sit in front of the computer, pretend that I'm working, and watch Netflix until very late in the evening, this would only mess up even more the following day. If that is my day... I am loosing!!!

I´m loosing valuable time, energy and I´m going to beat myself down for it.

So what I need to do is exercise and I don't eat rubbish! Just think about it, if I am in lockdown I am getting less exercise than normally, I can't go out, I don´t do the smallest tasks like walking to the store, I need an outlet for the energy I consume. So I do homeworkouts, using my own bodyweight and the material I have in house to train with. The kids I motivate by sending them out to the garage to run, play games and bicycle.

To stay healthy and to sleep better, normal good, clean food keeps my brain and body healthy. While eating junk and processed foods, well it basically destroys me, my body and soul. Gives me a crappy feeling of fake energy.

Add to the equation alcohol and well it will only do me more harm than good, especially in difficult situation like this. Alcohol has never fixed problems related to boredom or depression. So trying to ride it out with alcohol is something I can never recommend.

So this is basically how I plan to get through this, of course I need to modify and adjust my plan when needed, and even If I screw up one day it doesn't mean I have failed, I just move on, do better the next day. I don´t consider one day of being lazy or unproductive a ruined day, it was maybe just a much needed rest for the system. The next day I get up and continue with my plan where I left off.

CLOSE PROJECTS

I always try to finish what I started, finish the video, close the deal, publish that blog, send that quote. So instead of starting a lot of projects and juggle them around all day, I just focus on one at a time because I need the feeling of accomplishment with "CLOSING", and with a lot of half done, half finished projects I don't get that. It´s an actual energy boost to cross off a project on the list.

Closing is important, it motivates me, gives my power... while I'm closing I am winning!!! BALANCE So that's work-life, but if my personal life, the day to day life is not balanced all this work stuff don't mean shit.

FIGHT IT WITH HUMOR

I watch the news, I follow what is happening with this pandemic, both in my vicinity and in the world. It is very interesting to be a part of this, to experience and witness something like this. We are writing history as we go along and being a history geek like I am. I have always been fascinated with the world´s history and how it has shaped future generations. Even if it's horrible.

We are learning as we go along and future generations will benefit for our deeds, whether they are right or wrong. Some people say I take this too lightly because I post stupid things on Facebook. Believe me nothing could be further from the truth, I take this very seriously! My whole livelihood is at stake, my future income and my family’s future.

I live in Spain which is rapidly becoming the center of this storm after Italy, I'm fully aware of the gravity of the situation. I am locked in my house with my family of 4 and if I leave the house I will be heavily fined. This is a decision politicians did not make lightly. My friends abroad are in the same position except they are not going to receive any benefits from their governments which I might be able to get, they are actually trying to ride the storm and not knowing how they will put food on the table tomorrow. This pandemic is not only taking people´s lives but devastating the worlds economy.

FEAR

I choose not to allow fear to control me - because it is a choice we can actually make - not to let fear control us. I do my part, I do everything expected of me, I respect the lockdown and I keep myself and my family safe. Everything else is beyond my control, so I don't worry too much about it.

Yes, I post weird things and jokes on Social media like Facebook, to make me laugh and hopefully it makes other people laugh too, because that's what we need! People who are constantly posting numbers of deaths and photos of overcrowded hospitals, sometimes with inaccurate information are not helping. It just breeds fear and we can´t let fear control us. There are so many news outlets where people can get this info so I´m not posting this stuff and I believe we don't need all those self-acknowledged Internet Experts because they do more harm than good.

I sincerely hope you can take something from this blog, now once I´ve got this off my chest my next post can be business as usual: photography and travel related videos and of course other stuff I find interesting.

You might have noticed I've been posting quite irregularly for the past month or so, with the uncertainty I saw ahead I needed to focus on paid work, I needed to channel my energy on the tours I was leading. Sometimes this is necessary in times of troubles to re-organize and focus on one thing only or one project at a time. I also knew as I´ve already told you that April would be a slow month so I´d be able to make it up to you. And that´s what I´m going to do now, I now have time to attend to my channel better which I look forward to doing.

I wish you all to stay safe, be responsible, obey the recommendations made by WHO and together we will get through this.

Here´s this blog post in video format. If you are bored or need motivation with getting your photography to the next level I have a lot of tutorials on my YouTube Channel. It´s free stuff and I would be very happy if with it I am able to motivate people to become better photographers.