Working in the travel industry during this time has been insane, but I feel lucky that my company was cautious and updated us early on so we could make safe, informed decisions. In addition to work, having a best friend who’s a Doctor, a husband who’s very up-to-date and safe, and a network of progressive friends/co-workers has brought an overwhelming amount of COVID-19 information into my life, all of which I appreciate.
I know some of you are probably sick and tired of hearing about Coronavirus, while others are reading about it everyday. Which one do you fall into? I’ve fallen into the latter of being updated on Coronavirus everyday.
Instead of repeating everything you already like washing your hands for 20-seconds, I decided to share how I plan to deal with quarantine and how COVID has impacted my life thus far. Don’t worry, I’m safe and germ-free (for now…..)
How COVID-19 has affected my work:
I’ve always preferred going into the office since I love socializing, have great coworkers, and get free food at work. I was used to WFH though since I already did it 1x/week so this wasn’t a huge adjustment for me. My actual workload though has been something else…
For those that don’t know what I do outside of blogging, I work at Airbnb and manage global merchandising. My team builds localized campaigns for various countries to launch across our digital product surfaces like the homepage, email, etc. With the rising concern of COVID-19, there was an urgency to update our product surfaces to be more sensitive in-tone along with hyper-local content. I’ve been working for the past 11-days straight, and for the past 5-days would roll out of bed, start working, and work all day until midnight until I’m in bed ready to sleep. I’d even dream about work… This was not sustainable but I did it because news around COVID-19 was changing rapidly and it was the only way to keep up.
Although my small team and I worked relentlessly, it was worth it. On Friday we got approval from the CEO to redo the entire homepage to better address COVID-19. Yesterday, we launched an updated homepage with relevant content addressing COVID-19 for every single country. It has by far been my biggest milestone at Airbnb yet. Check it out yourself, go on Airbnb.com, log in, and browse the homepage. 🙂
So what’s next? I plan to make my WFH situation more comfortable and build a better home workspace. I also plan to utilize this quiet time to get more strategic with my 2020 plans, build a better operational process with my cross-functional teams, and to continue being engaged in all my online meetings.
How COVID-19 has affected my personal life & blogging:
I am an extrovert, so the idea of quarantine is not appealing to me. I actually considered myself lucky for being SO busy at work since I haven’t had time to be bored yet. The hardest part about being in quarantine was cancelling my plans which I started doing even before the SF lockdown. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for those with major life events this year such as pregnancies, weddings, and etc. I can’t imagine how stressful it must be. Just know that you are not alone and people are waiting to celebrate your milestone when the time is right.
Not being able to take photos outside for my blog was definitely one thing I was bummed about. I was thinking I could technically still go outside to shoot since that’s something you can do alone or with the person you live with, but since it’s not an essential need I feel guilty for being outside for it. So in the meantime I plan to shoot some indoor content and re-surface some archived post that I haven’t shared yet.
I also made a list of things I plan to do while I’m home. This helped me look forward to being in quarantine haha. I suggest you to also come up with a list since it’s the perfect time to get things done that you’ve always wanted to do.
10 things I plan to do while in quarantine:
- Practice the piano, I’ve always wanted to master Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2.
- Clean, organize and purge
- Treat myself to an indoor spa-day
- Finally create my wedding album on Artifact Uprising (long overdue since 2018)
- Continue my fitness: go running outside, cycle on my Peloton, and take virtual classes via Classpass
- Train and play with Gracie (my dog) more
- Read. Some books on my reading list are Shoe Dog, Educated, and Economics for the Common Good
- Plan video call social parties with my friends
- Tidy up our place and home decor
- Create more TikTok’s (these are actually quite time-consuming)
Let me know how Coronavirus has impacted you and what you plan to do while social distancing. Stay safe and thanks for reading!
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