Yesterday my 17-year-old, over-achieving daughter shared her Spring break, social-distancing To-Do list. She put the list together on her own (no parental mandate) because her Spring break plans were canceled and social media just was getting old (there is hope for the world.). With her permission, here are a few items on her list:
- Bake a cake with no help
- Run for 5/7 days
- Follow Chloe Ting’s AB workout
- Make a smoothie
- Use my camera and document Coronavirus
- Write down my experiences from being a cashier
- Bike Ride
- Create a new makeup look
- Learn how to do different styles with my hair
- Make outfits out of basics/figure out what I need to buy for this season
- Try a new skin care routine/buy new skincare products
- CLEAN my room
- Study for SAT for two hours a day
- Journal for 30 minutes everyday
- Teach myself the math unit I missed
- Do nails/figure out how to use nail stickers
- Learn how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the piano
- Learn sewing basics
- Write a short story and submit it to a magazine
- Drink 3 liters of water each day
- Wake up early and watch the sunrise
- Learn a new dance
- Make a Youtube video and EDIT it
- Virtual tour of prospect colleges
- Create a GREAT playlist
- Finish Millionaire Mind
- Finish 7 Habits
- Read a new mystery novel
It warms my heart to see the areas and breadth of items she is ambitiously pursuing. Her example inspired me to share my own lists, both Work and Personal, with my prudent readers. Perhaps you will share what’s on your list (or start a list) to inspire others and use this time to your benefit, as well.
Here are my Work and Personal lists:
Work
- Manage business-related issues created by the crisis. Reschedule, renegotiate, cancel those things impacted.
- Call clients and colleagues to check on them and their families.
- Continue client work-Clients come first and the extra time allows us to go deeper and add more value.
- Accelerate Rattle and Pedal podcast production to bank as many episodes as possible-With busy schedules and family demands, Jason and I can find it difficult some weeks to keep to our recording schedule. Now we can take advantage of the time.
- Keep up prospecting virtually-Because so many of our clients come through personal, face-to-face relationships, the social distancing has made prospecting more difficult. None-the-less, relationship-building must go on.
- Optimize inbound conversion rates on marketing channels-While CRO is a never-ending exercise, this hiatus allows time to experiment more with updated content, the mix, and its messaging.
- Write 2 new white papers-I have five white papers swirling around in my mind. I hope to complete The Practice Leader’s Guide to Growth and The Prudent Firm’s Guide to Transforming Professional Service Marketing.
- Release 2 new strategic tools-I’m working on two important rubrics to support integrating acquisitions and launching new solutions.
- Update Prudent Pedal Homepage and Solution pages to reflect evolving service mix.
- Get back to blogging consistently-Writing is a daily discipline. I have let too many things steal my time and it needs to be corrected.
- Read more: I started Leading Firms by David Kuhlman and Fifty Inventions that Reshaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford. I recommend both.
- Go deeper on some important marketing areas:
- SEO: Moz made all their training available at no charge. Check it out and perhaps add it to your list.
- Google Tag Manager: I stumbled across Loves Data on YouTube. More good stuff.
- Update the Prudent Marketing Manifesto-I continue to learn and shape my worldview. My manifesto should reflect the wisdom so many clients and readers have shared with me.
- Clean up email-It’s unbelievable how much OLD email that can accumulate. I feel like the subject of an episode of Hoarders!
Personal
- Convert analog family pictures and videos to digital-I ordered an Elgato Video Capture adapter and have converted boxes of VHS and 8mm tapes and photos of our time adopting our kids from Guatemala, grade school concerts, plays, holidays and more! What a joyful rabbit hole to venture down!
- Have a family in-house campout: This was a laugh riot. We pitched a tent in the living room, ate hotdogs, baked beans and smores, watched Candy and Akroyd in the Great Outdoors, sat around a YouTube campfire, slept in mummy sleeping bags, and had one of the dogs throw up in the tent. CLASSIC!
- More bike rides-Enjoyment of rides in this order: First, family rides, second solo outdoor rides, third, indoor rides on the trainer watching episodes of the Blacklist on Netflix.
- Catch up with friends-No better time to connect because you have a captive audience.
- Work on the McKay family tree-This another rabbit hole—both fun and scary—always enlightening thanks to Ancestry.com. I learned that my great grandfather died from the Spanish Flu less than two years after arriving in America with his wife and 3 children. I’ve scheduled a call with long-lost relatives in Scotland to get the real scoop not told in census documents.
- Tune-up all the family bikes-The bikes need a winter tune-up. The kids need to learn this important life skill. And, I LOVE the satisfaction of a tuned-up bike!
- Walks with my wife-No need to say more.
- Spend more time in prayer-A friend invited me to participate in a program called Exodus 90. The program requires a minimum of 60 minutes of prayer per day plus a lot more that is perfectly timed.
- Restart my gratitude journal-This is a daily discipline like my blogging that has fallen off. It is a simple listing every morning of the many blessings I have received. I can’t think of a better time to start one.
- Completing my Winter Projects” list-Creating a LONG Social-Distancing list was really unnecessary given the fact that my Winter list was still incomplete.
Takeaway
Five days in, my daughter has knocked out half of her list and is still going strong!
I’ve joined her on a bike ride, eaten her delicious chocolate cake, watched her leave and return on sunrise runs, made sure she is hydrating, parentally encouraged the bedroom room cleaning, and have been debriefed on virtual college tours (She loves my alma mater Saint Louis University!). She is still trying to decide if she will study to become a businesswoman or a nurse. In the meantime, I look forward to her becoming an intern at Prudent Pedal because she is incredibly talented and I sure could use some help on my list. 😉
I hope you and your family stay safe and you are able to see this bizarre time as a gift.
Be prudent.
