Five Things to Do Today
By Aron Daniels
We are at home. We all had a to-do list that we expected to make progress on, and life changed. Let’s look at life right now as it is, and come up with our new to-do list. How can we invest ourselves into the circumstances that we are surrounded by right now? Here is a list of some things that you can do that will be valuable during this time. It’s not all a loss, it’s just shifting our perspective for a season.
1.) Create Something
You have always wanted to get back to that passion project or hobby, but things got too busy for it. Guess what?! You have time for it again. Run around your neighborhood, pick up a paintbrush, open a word document and write a poem. Finally, life is gifting you with time to create again. You don’t have to achieve something with your creation. Just enjoy the process and watch as a passion reignites for that creation. I bet when our regular pace returns, you will find yourself making room to include it, and that’s going to do great things for you.
2.) Connect with Someone
Everyone is feeling exactly how you are. We are used to being on auto-pilot with a lot of people. We see them as part of our jobs, or while we are dropping the kids off at school. Right now, people are not connecting by chance. It’s going to feel weird for two seconds, but you are going to feel a lot better after you’ve made that phone call, sent a hand-written note, video-chatted, or stood outside their house with a sign telling them happy birthday. Today, know that you are not forgotten, and let someone else know that they are remembered during this time. You may be the first person they have connected with in two weeks, and that is very special.
3.) Read Something
It is very easy right now to let Covid-19 be all that our brains can think about. We watch the news, scroll past headlines and tragic stories of people who are in the hardest moments of their lives. It is easy to just be consumed by it all. Today, pick up a paperback book from your bedside table and have some time on something that you enjoy that doesn’t have the possibility of leading back to the news. Click on some articles on your computer that are not related to current events. This may be the right time to learn a skill or educate yourself on a topic of interest. This may be the perfect time for a little more fiction in your life. We will definitely hear about the news next time we login to social media. Make sure to include something else in what you are consuming. And… I know you, like me, have watched a little too much Netflix this week. Let’s get away a little into something different.
4.) Clean A Room
I don’t recall the term, but there is a name for the mental process of becoming so used to something that you are blind to it. We have all been mostly stuck in the same location for a couple of weeks now and there are just things in our house, that we can no longer see. If you were to walk in your front door fresh right now, you would notice how crowded the coffee table is and the stack of towels that has been on the couch for a week that you forgot was right next to you this whole time. You don’t have to clean your whole house in a large-scale sweeping event. Pick a room each day and get it looking good. By the time you’ve run through all the rooms, the first one is going to need some attention again. You will thank yourself when your hoarding tendencies don’t flare up.
5.) Gift Something
Be thoughtful towards your friends and family. You don’t have to have much, to give someone a little nugget of a gift that they will see value in. Send an e-book to someone if you know they will enjoy what you just finished. Make a craft shirt with your kids to send to your sister in the mail. If you are running to the grocery store, ask someone if you can add a couple of things to your list and drop it at their door on your way home.
This is hard for us all, and if we can focus on our new to-do list, we are going to find that this hard time, becomes a time where some really good life-moments popped up in the mix.