Daily life and technology in the year of #Covid19. Check back here for regular updates.

Saturday & Sunday, March 28 & 29

Life:

Well, Zoom, Facebook Live and WhatsApp got a workout this weekend. Virtual cocktail hours, virtual concerts (like the one pictured here with @lewisgoodwinmusic), video calls with family 5 miles down the road and 3000 miles across the Atlantic.

Work: 

Work-life balance has never been blurrier. The #CIOchat Weekend question asked CIOs how they are handling today’s pressure and stress.

• “The key is to turn it off and recognize you will not be able to complete everything today. It is a long game.” David Chou, @dchou1107
• “Shutting down your brain when trying to sleep is really important to be your best self during waking crisis management. Gotta focus on sleep hygiene.” Jonathan Feldman, @_jfeldman
• Writing…”A stress reliever though sometimes a source.” Isaac Sacolick, @nyike
• “What have I discovered during last 2 weeks of crisis: people are generally who they seem – good or bad, your traits are enhanced.” Mark Thiele, @mthiele

Thursday & Friday, March 26 & 27

Work: 

• Spoke to a colleague about their experience ramping up to 100% work from home. They were prepared for a certain %, but not 100. As I listened to the story of hastily provisioned laptops, rapid expansion of VPN and helping employees who had no WiFi at home, I discerned the differentiator – culture. A culture of empathy, can-do, and decisive leadership. In the midst of this, leadership was also actively looking for ways to support the communities in which they live and work. 

Life: 

• New Hampshire issues stay at home order effective Friday. While we have been staying home except for necessary trips like the grocery store, this is sobering.
• Two sunny days in a row. On my run, took a swing along the Oyster River, where it was high tide. Fortunate to live where I can get out in the fresh air.
• Virtual cocktail party with 3 NH friends on Friday night. Main point of discussion: wait for beauty salons to re-open or try to style our hair ourselves?

Wednesday, March 25

Work: Inspired by “the new innovation” where leadership shifts focus to resilience and caring for employees, customers and community. 

• A New Hampshire company, Bauer Hockey will begin mass-producing face shields at its New York and Quebec locations.
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is calling on all CEOs to take a 90-day “no layoff” pledge , including hourly employees, as part of an 8-point plan to combat the #Covid19 crisis.
•  A maker of footwear components, Superfeet, is offering immediate access to 3D printers and production facilities to help with medical supply production.
•  My eldest daughter is a duala; she supports moms and their partners pre-, during and post-partum. She and her colleagues are creating a virtual birth class, as moms-to-be prepare to deliver without in-person classes and without their partners, friends or families allowed to be with them in the hospital or visit afterwards. Even homebirths will have new protocols.

Life: Spring in the #603 is mainly the leftovers of winter, as any walk in the woods will demonstrate (swampy much?). The good part: no black flies yet and great views of birds as leaves still TBD….

Tuesday, March 24

Work: #Techfail impacted productivity today.

• Internet outage around 9 a.m. – went to mobile hotspot like probably everyone else in the area and the cell network choked like Boston’s central artery at 5 p.m. on a Friday. Gave up and worked on a business case for which all information already local.
• Internet back just before 1 p.m., then Zoom proceeded to sputter and impede a group of colleagues and I.

Life:

• About five inches of snow on Monday night. My inner child led me outside to build a snowman, which I decorated with forsythia branches. In this pose she’s either doing jumping jacks or preparing to make a snow angel.

Monday, March 23

Work: 

My co-worker is miffed that I left her out of Week 1. Introducing India-Pig, or I-Pig for short. She once was a canny barn cat, feared by mice and moles. She’s now the undisputed empress of the house, lolling on soft surfaces. Her job is to be a furry oasis of calm; she’s currently exceeding expectations.

Life: 

Watched “Troop Zero” on Amazon Prime, with Viola Davis, Jim Gaffigan and Allison Janney. Set in 1977 rural Georgia, about a group of misfit kids who form a troop in an attempt to win a dance contest – for which the prize is putting your voice on “The Golden Record,” the gold disk that went up on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. Uplifting and on-target without being saccharine or preachy. I also learned a new word: “funna,” a combination of “fixing to” and “going to.” Used in a sentence “I’m funna stay home and social distance to help flatten this damn curve.”