Is your business coping well in Covid-19 environment?

Businesses are struggling to find continuity and at the same time adhere to new regulations from the Ministry of Health.
Covid-19 has thrown most business models and plans into disarray for the year 2020 and beyond.

 When you were making your business plan at the start of this year, I bet you didn’t factor in the COVID-19 pandemic.


This could be a good time to reassess your business model and operating plans especially for business that operates within the confines of bricks and mortar with breathing customers being important in order to operate.
Businesses that require a personal touch and human presence such as restaurants, night clubs, salons and barbershops have been affected the most.
However, with the government now allowing restaurants to open for business, it is important for entrepreneurs to have a strategy in place both for their employees and customers.
Here are some tips that businesses could employ during this pandemic to make life easier.
UTILISE THE POWER OF THE INTERNET
Now more than ever, businesses should embrace the use of internet and technology for their operations. Restaurants should set up online delivery channels for their products if they don't already have this.

Other service-oriented businesses could set up a booking system for their customers.
Several supermarkets have partnered with various delivery mobile applications that allow customers to shop from the comfort of their homes.
This is also the perfect time for businesses to make their online portfolios by marking their presence on the internet, especially on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Not only is this necessary during the pandemic, but it will also continue to yield dividends for your business in future.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
Businesses should take this time to consistently remain in touch with their clients to foster trust as well as offer reassurance of the quality, safety and continuity of their services.
As most people are working home, the internet, including social media, has become a vital source of information for many.
Businesses can set up their profiles on platforms such as Google My Business which allows customers to know if the business is still operational, including if customers can access in-store shopping or delivery services.
Businesses can list their hours of business as well as pass along important information like what safety precautions the business is taking, updates on what products and services are available, and whether customers can expect delays.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the economy in a significant way and as a result, many businesses including suppliers have been adversely affected. With that in mind, it is important that business entities have robust and frequent communication with their suppliers.
This will allow companies to plan stock inflow and outflow depending on customer needs as well as be on the same page with suppliers on how much they can supply and if there will be any financial challenges along the way.
REVIEW OPERATIONAL RISKS
With the pandemic, risk factors for businesses have completely changed and this calls for a change in tack.
Even if a business entity had an existing risk assessment, it may no longer be suitable in the current situation. As a result, it is important that businesses which are currently operational to assess all their operational aspects and create a checklist to ensure that both employees and customers are safe.
Businesses can do this by providing handwashing facilities, enforcing social distancing measures at their premises, conducting temperature checks for employees and customers and limiting the number of people.
In addition, business entities will need to be more flexible and willing to change the way they operate, including being open to offer delivery services as well as change their hours of operation. Businesses also need to re-assess their financial risks and find possible solutions for them.
If need be, speak with your bank or other financial institutions regarding the extension of your loan repayment period. It could also be important to discuss new loan arrangements.
CONCERN FOR EMPLOYEES
The pandemic has affected everyone’s lives, this includes business owners and their employees. As a result, businesses need to show concern for their staff.
Although revenues for most businesses have plunged, it is important that business owners be considerate of the plight of their employees.
If the business has temporarily closed down, employers should consider making decisions that will not completely hurt the employee. For example, business owners, in the meantime, may choose to send their employees on leave or slash their salaries by a percentage instead of completely laying them off.
For entities that are still operational, employers should guarantee their employees' safety at work, including providing handwashing facilities, sanitiser and personal protective equipment such as facemasks and gloves.

Most businesses and your competitors are going to despair and hope for the storm to pass soon. If you just keep moving, even at a slower rate than you’d like, you will far overtake them by the time this crisis is over.

And it will be over at some point.”

Savour the present moment

It's one those days that I can't quite describe.

A daybeyond any lazy day.
It's that time that your mind wanders across the mysteries of the universe and the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis that has forced me to stay at home.
Perhaps one of the reasons that we don't like absolute silence is because we don't like where our minds go.
That's me today. I am sitting on my carpet having a shot of Gilbeys gin listening to music and thinking about death;soon or later, death will come, but Covid-19 is now flavouring this fear with some sense of urgency.
I end up reading a history book on Marcus Aurelius. Marcus was the Roman Emperor in the 2nd century AD during one of Rome's less prosperous times, with a decade of plague going across Europe.
The plague — most likely smallpox — was named the Antonine Plague, after the emperor, and saw the decimation of empires and with a massive death toll of around five million people.
Historians write how carts would leave the city piled with thousands of bodies each day. Marcus wasn't particularly a religious or superstitious man but as the leader of the Empire, he had to perform his religious duties as a way of comforting his people.

He was also a man who sought truth and over time became one of the proponents of stoicism.
FEAR
The plague, which they referred to as the pestilence, had ravaged the cities and trade, decimated the population and there was famine.
Many people turned to religion and others became charlatans or con men. Two con men stood out. One preached on wild fig trees in Campus Martius, talking about how the plague was a sign that the gods would strike the earth with fire and that it was the end of the world.
The famous of the two was Alexander of Abonoteichus, who faked a talking snake which he would use to pass "prophecies" and made a fortune. Everyone was looking for answers.
Death and despair became part of their daily life and over time the emperor's views shifted to taking death as a natural part of life that no one should be afraid of.
That's when the emperor took up stoicism. The philosophy called for people to focus on things within their control and not death, which was out of their sway. To emperor Marcus, fear was harmful.
MENTAL STRENGTH
Back to my thoughts about life. I thought about all the people who are processing life now without the right words.
I feel like I'm more stoic and I deal with death and bad things as part of life and not part of a bigger plan or punishment, or a lesson.
Everyone is processing the pandemic today through different lenses. It's important to figure out how you are processing the bad news to be able to cope.
I'm sure that many men connect with me at this point, especially because right now my income streams all froze in two seconds.
It looks bleak and indefinite and we are all starting to feel the effect and the grief.
You may not hold my school of thought, but you need to process this self-isolation period healthily and get through this alive.
It's okay to feel different things at the same time. If you feel it's beyond what you can handle and its overwhelming you, seek help from friends and family and if that doesn't work, seek professional help.

 SOLACE IN MINDFULNESS

Thich Nhat Hanh enjoins us to eat one apple slowly and in complete awareness, as a practice of mindfulness.

However, I notice that in my practice, I am aware of the impermanence of the apple. I wonder that if the apple is going to rot, it is impermanent, and therefore the moment that the apple is ripe is brief and fleeting, perhaps I should just toss it into the compost pile right away. Why should I enjoy a sweet ripe apple, or watch it ripen? Why should we disfavor the apple before it is ripe, or when it is overripe and dripping with juice or covered with flies? How can we savor the apple, when it is impermanent, and so are we? Is there not a case to be made that it would be better to hasten the apple on its route to becoming compost or an apple tree, rather than to enjoy its present moment of perfect flavor and sweetness? Is taking care of the apple so that it becomes ripe and pleasing not a form of craving and sensual involvement?

This could be an argument for suicide, especially suicide right at a peak moment of life, when life is exquisite and can only get worse. Why not jump off a bridge into a rainbow or sunset, at a moment of health and joy, rather than to wait for the inevitable suffering of old age and death and decay? Why not emulate Virginia Woolf, and walk right into the ocean with a pocket full of stones at sunset or moonset, when the sea is perfect and the stars are bright?

A literary example of this sentiment occurs in Goethe’s Faust. Most people are aware of Marlowe’s Faust (if they think of Faust at all), and the creation of a “Faustian bargain.” In Marlowe’s version, Dr. Faust agrees to sell his soul to the Devil, Mephistopheles, in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures for 24 years. However, in Goethe’s Faust, the doctor agrees to surrender his soul to the Devil exactly at a moment of perfect bliss:

“When, to the Moment then, I say ‘Ah, stay a while! You are so lovely!’

Then you can grasp me: then you may,

Then, to my ruin, I’ll go gladly!"

I have been struggling with this because at times, in the mornings in Ngong hills, I am overcome by the beauty of the present moment. I see the bats rushing home to find roosts before the dawn. I hear the parrots and parrotlets, doves and woodpeckers carrying on, like commuters in a busy city. Life bursts out of the darkness. I am in awe. It is close to perfect bliss. Yet I know that I cannot stay in Ngong  hills forever. I know that it is a hard place to live, and I am getting older each moment. I may leave to live in a shelter for the aged.

Yet, if I were to leave now, because I know that in 15 years this house  and my  beautiful compound will be unmanageable, it would be like throwing a ripe and delicious apple onto the compost heap, just because it is impermanent. This makes no sense at all!

The Buddha instructs us to savor life even as we know it is impermanent and suffering is inevitable. Siddhartha Gautama gave up asceticism — trying not to enjoy food or sleep — after he achieved enlightenment. In Old Path, White Clouds Thich Nhat Hanh tells the story of how Sujata, a village girl, saved Siddhartha’s life:

"As Sujata neared the river, she saw a man lying unconscious on the road. She put down her platter and ran to him. He was barely breathing and his eyes were tightly closed. His cheeks had the sunken look of someone who had not had food for a long time. From his long hair, tangled beard, and ragged garment, Sujata knew he was a mountain ascetic who must have fainted from hunger. Without hesitating, she poured a cup of milk and eased it against the man’s lips, spilling a few drops on them. At first he did not respond, but then his lips quivered and parted slightly. Sujata slowly poured milk into his mouth. He began to drink and before long the cup was empty.

Sujata then sat along the riverbank to see if the man would regain consciousness. Slowly he sat up and opened his eyes. Seeing Sujata, he smiled. He pulled the end of his garment back up over his shoulder and folded his legs in a lotus position. He began to breathe, first shallowly and then more deeply. His sitting was stable and beautiful. Thinking that he must be a mountain god, Sujata joined her palms and began to prostrate herself before him, but the man motioned for her to stop. Sujata sat up, and the man spoke to her in a soft voice, 'Child, please pour me a little more milk.'
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Happy to hear him speak, Sujata poured another cup and he drank it all. He felt how truly nourishing it was. Less than an hour before, he thought he was about to breathe his last. Now his eyes shone and he smiled gently. Sujata asked him how he had fainted on the road.

“I have been practicing meditation in the mountains. Harsh ascetic discipline has left my body weak, so today I decided to walk down to the village to beg for some food. But I lost all my strength getting here. Thanks to you, my life has been saved.” …Sujata listened carefully as Siddhartha told her, “I have seen that abusing the body cannot help one to find peace or understanding. The body is not just an instrument. It is the temple of the spirit, the raft by which we cross to the other shore. I will no longer practice self-mortification. I will go into the village each morning to beg for food.”

Now, there are many huge differences between the Buddha and me. Enjoying the beauty of the morning near the forest in Ngonghills is hardly like begging for a bit of food or accepting a cup of milk. I am enjoying privilege. Moments of living that are not available to everyone. There is a big difference between accepting the gift of a bowl of milk, to save one’s life, and accepting the rewards of work, investment, and inheritance that result in the privilege of a Nairobi National Park view.



Let us say, for example, that someone gives us a ripe apple, and it tastes very good. That is right livelihood, and being in the present moment. If someone gave me some money long ago, and I used it to buy this house, so that now I can sit and meditate and enjoy the view and the breathing sounds of the sea in a second home — that is different. There are two different arguments to contend with. The first argument is about craving, and the abolition of suffering. We should enjoy the present moment. If at one moment we have a ripe apple, and it is very good, we should savor it, not throw it directly into the compost because it will rot eventually. We should not, therefore, make a Faustian bargain, to give our souls to the Devil for a perfect apple. However, in conflict with this argument is right livelihood. If I can buy a ripe apple and you cannot, how can I savor this apple?


I am pretty clear on the first argument — that being happy in the present moment is not only ok, but also a Good Thing. There is no need to end a blissful moment because it will end naturally. However, I am less clear on the second. Is this liberal guilt? Is it fair to savor a perfect moment, while others suffer? So savoring is ok, but fairness remains ambiguous. For now, I am not ready to be a Monk. So I will enjoy the dawn in all its glory, fully awake, aware, and appreciative,conciously  savouring the present moment.

How To Make Your Business Thrive In The Chaos of Covid-19

1. Fight The Enemy — Not The Terrain

The  most well known idea is the concept of the “OODA” loop. OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This is framework designed to explain the process of collecting information, interpreting it, deciding what to do with it, and then taking action.

Much has been written about the OODA loop (here’s a great in-depth explanation of it) but I want to focus on one particular aspect, the piece that is thought  to be the most important — Orientation.

It’s easy to skip over Orientation or think it’s essentially the same as Observation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Orientation is about your relationship to reality and the observations you’re seeing.

Orientation is about confronting your cognitive biases, your ego, and your own limited perception of the world — peeling back those layers so you can get a clear picture of reality as it truly is, not as you wish it to be.

In tough, confusing and uncertain situations we often get stuck — frozen in what was — not accepting things as they are because we don’t like them or we wish that they were different.

This is one of the most devastatingly sinister cognitive biases and can put you in serious jeopardy.

 Sum this up beautifully with a simple quote:

    “Fight the enemy, not the terrain.” — Col. John Boyd

Don’t get stuck in your conceptions of what “should” be — don’t fight the terrain (in our present case, Covid-19)— fight the enemy as they are, not as you want them to be.

This is a lesson not only uncovered in  deep dive into human conflict and the path to victory, but shared by world champions and financial traders.

World champion martial artist and international chess master Josh Waitzkin sums this idea up powerfully as well:

    “While I learned with open pores — no ego in the way — it seemed that many other students were frozen in place, repeating their errors over and over, unable to improve because of a fear of releasing old habits. When [our teacher] made suggestions, they would explain their thinking in an attempt to justify themselves. They were locked up by the need to be correct…[They] got stuck, like the guys doing [martial arts] who don’t learn from their mistakes and practice with a desperate need to win, to be right, to have everything under control. This ultimately cripples growth.” — Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning

If we fail to properly orient ourselves — to see our own weaknesses, biases, flaws in our thinking and much more, we prevent ourselves from growth and we invite disaster.

Trader Jim Paul describes the same danger of getting stuck in your ego — and losing sight of the best course of action — in his book “What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars”:

    “Taking either success or failure personally means, by definition, that your ego has become involved and you are in jeopardy of incurring losses due to psychological factors. Having tied your self-worth to the vicissitudes of factors beyond your control, you will be primarily concerned with protecting your ego rather than trying to determine the appropriate course of action.”- Jim Paul

You must be aware of your Orientation and consciously work to sweep away ego distortions and cognitive biases so that you can get a crystal clear picture of reality.

A tool like Charlie Munger’s Psychology of Misjudgment (a list of mental models that cause people to make bad decisions) is an excellent starting place for this. Once you’ve done that it’s often easy to Decide what to do and Act on it.


2.Agility;Rapid Tempo

Management Consultants constantly preach the importance of “Agility.” It’s critical to understand that Agility does not mean speed, but rather speed of decision-making.

The ability to rapidly move through “decision cycles”  is what distinguished victory from defeat.

Here’s how  one consultant put it:

    “In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries — or, better yet, get inside [the] adversary’s Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop … Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries — since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing, as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns, they are competing against.”

This quote also underscores the power and importance of building clear and accurate mental models, which reinforces our need to Orient properly.

If you’re working to grow and improve yourself — the faster you can run through decision cycles (OODA Loops) and break away from the biases and errors that will keep you frozen in place, the faster you will grow. This rapid iteration and execution of OODA loops is how you see some people quickly advance while others seem to be stuck in place.

In life and business — this principle applies to both competitive threats and opportunities. The more rapidly you can Orient yourself to what’s really true, accurately collect information about the problem, the market, your product, etc — the faster you can make the correct decision.

Over time this slightly incremental speed advantage generates massive results. Without a rapid decision-making and analysis tempo, you’re leaving yourself at risk for external forces (competitors, markets, etc) to move away from where you think they are — and your understanding of those dynamics will be flawed and incomplete, leading to a poor Orientation.

3.Schwerpunkt

Pronounced “Shh-where-punked” — the notion of Schwerpunkt is the single most important organizational principle to come out of  work in Patterns. Schwerpunkt is a vital tool for working with others and thriving under chaos and uncertainty.

Schwerpunk is one of those words that doesn’t fully translate from German to English. The meaning is rich with an idea that a single definition cannot express. The definition of Schwerpunkt is something like center of gravity, crucial focal point, point of the main effort, key goal, or commander’s intent.

This guiding principle explains another one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history — the Blitzkrieg of WW2. German forces operated under a largely decentralized decision-making structure that was imbued with mutual trust and the ability for unit commanders in the field to make the key decisions — in alignment with the overall Schwerpunkt of the campaign.

This focus on decentralized organizational structures — where the core goal, key focus, and commander’s intent (aka Schwerpunkt) is communicated and understood by everyone — is a cornerstone of the most successful military campaigns in history.

When you let decisions happen on the “front lines” — you’re empowering people to make decisions not only much more rapidly but with much more accurate and real time information.

More importantly for you and me — it’s also a highly effect management tactic and organizational structure for modern day organizations.

Books like The Outsiders have studied companies that massively outperform over a long period of time and the concept of a highly decentralized organization that pushes decision-making to the lowest level possible is one of the cornerstones of those businesses. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is a classic example of a highly decentralized company.
You Can Become Someone Who Thrives In Chaos and Uncertainty

The powerful toolkit of Orientation, Agility, and Schwerpunkt will allow you to thrive in any chaotic or uncertain environments. These ideas are literally battle tested in the most unforgiving crucible imaginable — war.

Management Consultants explains how all these concepts fit together neatly and why they are so powerful for thriving under adversity and under stressful and chaotic situations.

    “War is ever changing, and men are ever fallible” -Col. John Boyd

I like to adjust that slightly to:

    “Life & Business are ever changing, and people are ever fallible.”

Cognitive biases and the inherent biological limits of the human brain constantly cause people to make mistakes. If you are properly orienting yourself, not getting frozen in your past conceptions of reality, and rapidly iterating through your decision-cycles — you will be running circles around your competition and aligned with market demand and expectations — setting yourself up for success.

John Boyd ,an ace pilot during World War II was the ultimate bad ass. He lived an incredible life, fought in three wars and transformed the way our military fights and wins.

The lessons Boyd uncovered in Patterns have the power to transform you into someone who thrives under chaotic, uncertain and adverse conditions.

That’s all well and good and believe me I love a good military history as much as anyone (after all I did read Boyd’s massive biography) — but what I really care about is applying these principles to my life and business.

After all, business and war are very different. While in warfighting the idea is to destroy the enemy, in business that is not always possible and you also have to proactively build your own business and grow your sales.

There is a major shared thread between these two domains however. A thread that, once pulled, can lead us some major insights into how we can use the lessons of Genghis John to thrive in chaos and uncertainty.


This common thread, between the military and business, is that in both cases groups of people are working together under immense pressure and stress to try and create results.

As Boyd would say, what are you waiting for, Tiger?

In relationships,Covid-19 lock down is not a honeymoon

We have all been given very clear instructions from experts, health professionals and the Government on the best way for both individuals and the country to make it through the coronavirus pandemic, but what’s less clear is how our relationships are meant to survive this unprecedented time of stress and quarantine.

Already there have been reports of a spike in divorce applications in the Chinese city of Xi’an after couples were forced to quarantine together in close quarters, and divorce lawyers in the US and UK are forecasting a similar phenomenon later this year.

Domestic abuse experts in Australia have warned that isolation will trigger an increase in violent incidents, while Women’s Aid in Ireland has reported that its helpline is receiving calls from women who have had to sneak out to their cars to call and get support during this crisis.

    This is not a honeymoon. It is normal to feel anxious, stressed and fatigued, which are, incidentally, some of the most common reasons for a  decrease in libido

But even healthy relationships are feeling the impact of coronavirus. As people are struggling to cope with the pandemic’s impact on their health, jobs, finances and social connections, couples who live together are also finding themselves in an entirely new dynamic where they suddenly have to spend 24 hours a day together, and relationships everywhere are feeling the strain.

Here are some tips on how to manage co-habiting, and tackling this time of stress and uncertainty, together.
Accept this will be challenging

Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media is still full of celebrities posting photographs from their beautiful homes; influencers doing face masks and making social isolation look like a luxurious spa retreat; and those impossibly perfect parents whose Von Trapp children are putting on adorable Tony Award-worthy plays, just waiting to go viral online.

Meanwhile, your children won’t stop screaming, your personal hygiene has taken a nosedive, and you are struggling to find non-coronavirus topics to talk about with your partner. As for sex, forget about it. You begin to wonder if there’s something wrong with your relationship, if you can’t survive simply being in your home together. After all, isn’t this the type of quality time couples dream of?
It is completely normal to feel anxious, stressed and fatigued right now, which are, incidentally, some of the most common reasons for a sudden decrease in libido. Photograph: iStock
It is completely normal to feel anxious, stressed and fatigued right now, which are, incidentally, some of the most common reasons for a sudden decrease in libido. Photograph: iStock

No, it’s not. This is not a honeymoon. It is completely normal to feel anxious, stressed and fatigued right now, which are, incidentally, some of the most common reasons for a sudden decrease in libido. If you’re confused as to why you and your partner aren’t taking this time together as an opportunity to have sex on every surface in your home, don’t assume there’s anything wrong with your relationship. It’s simple biology at play. Prolonged periods of stress and anxiety can take their toll on our health and mental wellbeing, producing adrenaline and prolactin as our bodies stay in “fight or flight” mode. Prolactin is known as “the celibacy hormone” as it dampens sex drive.

It is also completely normal not to be completely enamoured with your live-in romantic partner right now. Many people need privacy and solitude to function properly. Many people’s mental health and happiness is dependent on their routine that has been upended; interests and hobbies they’re no longer able to pursue; the social lives that have now been hugely curtailed. You are not a failure or a bad partner if you do not enjoy being confined in a small space with one person. You’re just human.
Talk about how you’re feeling

It’s important to check in with your partner about how each other is feeling, and how you both want to manage any anxiety and stress. This time may reveal that you and your partner have different coping mechanisms, and not acknowledging and accounting for this may result in conflict.

For example, some people may react to their anxiety by wanting to consume endless amounts of media about coronavirus, whereas their partner may find this alarmist and anxiety-inducing, preferring to keep some distance from all of the headlines. These different coping styles may leave people feeling distant from or unsupported by their partner.

When it comes to media consumption, many psychologists and experts recommend being very mindful about your media sources in order to protect your mental health.

Baruch Fischhoff, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert on public perception of risk and human judgment and decision-making, told the American Psychological Association that constantly monitoring social media and unchecked sources can needlessly amplify anxiety and should be avoided.

    It’s important to acknowledge if one partner wants increased attention during this stressful time, or space to themselves

“I think the most useful thing that people can do at this stage is to find some trusted sources of information like the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or the World Health Organization, or some of our major media, and just stick to them for information,” says Dr Fischhoff. “They’re professionals. They do the best job they can of gathering and communicating the information. That will also protect you from the irresponsible, the rumour mongers, the people who are using this as an opportunity to sell things or to inflame racial hatred or ethnic hatred.”

Check in with each other about how you’re feeling, and how you can respect each other’s responses to stress. This may involve having a partner call a friend to discuss news instead of doing so with their partner, or assigning 15 minutes for a headline swap but no longer.
How is your relationship surviving Covid-19?

But Fischhoff also recommends extending empathy and patience to partners or family members who may have pre-existing anxieties, mental health issues or external concerns that may be understandably exacerbated by these extraordinary circumstances.

“Be supportive of people who are under greater stress,” he urges. “Those will be people who have anxiety that’s been triggered by this or people who feel like they’ve been discriminated or are worried about loved ones.”

    Giving your day a structure will massively help your stress levels and mental health. This is particularly important if you have children

It’s also important to acknowledge if one partner wants increased attention during this stressful time, or space to themselves. Even though this is simply about how individuals emotionally and mentally recharge, if unaddressed this can feel like a personal rejection, so talk about how each other is feeling and your needs for space.

During these conversations, stick to “I” statements, instead of “you” statements. “You’re constantly attached to me like a leech, sucking the life out of me,” is far less helpful than “I love you, and I need some time to myself to emotionally and mentally recharge.”
Set a routine and expectations

It can be extremely difficult to stick to a routine when you’re existing within one small space, but giving your day a structure will massively help your stress levels and mental health. This is particularly important if you have children, as they thrive on routine and knowing what is going to happen each day.

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) has issued guidelines for parents on how best to alleviate stress and anxiety in their children in these uncertain times, saying: “Children and teens react, in part, to what they see from the adults around them. When parents and caregivers deal with Covid-19 calmly and confidently, they can provide the best support for their children. Parents can be more reassuring to others around them, especially children, if they are better prepared.”

Their recommendations include explaining the facts of the coronavirus outbreak in an age-appropriate way, but limiting their access to news and social media coverage so they don’t misunderstand anything or become overwhelmed or frightened.

The CDC also recommends setting regular routines for the family, and being a role model for your children by taking care of yourself. “Take breaks, get plenty of sleep, exercise, and eat well. Connect with your friends and family members.”

    It can be very easy for one partner to always end up doing more housework, and now is the time to start afresh under these new circumstances

To set an effective schedule and routine, sit down as a family and decide what needs to be tackled, when, and how you can all manage it together. By listing everything that absolutely needs to get done every day, you can then approach these tasks as a team, instead of feeling like you are separate individuals fighting to have your needs met, with the other people in the household acting as obstacles.

Lee Miller, a marriage and family therapist, says it’s wise to create new routines to accommodate for this intense period of isolation, particularly for couples who are both suddenly working from home. Specifically, Miller says to assign roles for each day: who cooks, who cleans, who looks after the children at what point during the day, and so on.

“This is not even close to a typical situation, which means there are a number of different roles both partners are going to have to play while they’re working through the current reality,” she told CNN. “It’s critically important to schedule time to sit down and talk about what your expectations are of each other during this time.”

Talk about your and your partner’s individual needs, starting with work schedules. If both partners are working from home, can you take shifts watching the kids while the other works, or organise activities so that the children are occupied for a few hours so you both can focus?

Set very clear expectations around housework and home admin, too. It can be very easy for one partner to always end up doing more housework, and now is the time to start afresh under these new circumstances. What chores need to be done, and when? If your children are old enough, give them chores to complete every day – cleaning their rooms, setting the table, or washing the dishes after dinner.

Set manageable expectations around your children’s activities, and release yourself from the burden of becoming the world’s best home-school teacher. If you can get through some educational and creative activities with your kids each day, you are working miracles.

And if you and your partner find that housework or small jobs are falling through the cracks, try to let the small things go.

Writer and editor Molly Tolsky had a novel suggestion for how partners suddenly forced to work from home together could manage conflicts: create an imaginary co-worker on which to blame disagreements. “Pro-tip for couples suddenly working from home together,” Tolsky tweeted. “Get yourselves an imaginary co-worker to blame things on. In our apartment, Cheryl keeps leaving her dirty water cups all over the place and we really don’t know what to do about her.”
Do you feel as if the walls are closing in on you? Photogrpah: Getty
Do you feel as if the walls are closing in on you? Photogrpah: Getty
Designate different spaces

Even if you live in a small space, it can be of huge psychological benefit to designate different areas of the house as work zones, relaxation zones, or to carve out a separate space from your partner.

If possible, designate different rooms for work, or even separate corners of one room. Artificial boundaries can still be effective, and things like headphones and earplugs will help create the idea of an individual space. If you need to retreat to the bathroom or sit in the car to write or take phone calls, do it. If you have a garden, take advantage of any good weather and do some work outside.

Children will also benefit from having designated activity spaces that will stop them from feeling too static or confined. Having a quiet reading nook, an activities table or a play corner will help them process shifts in activity, and will emphasise the day’s structure.

“We need boundaries around this ambiguous, endless stretch of time that’s all around us,” says Dr Orna Guralnik, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, “so anything that can create differentiation, boundaries, or difference is really good for us right now.”

    Carve out some non-working time to spend separately, even if that just means spending an hour in different corners of a room

While managing work routines may require dividing up your time and space during the day, also make sure you’re scheduling daily time together as a family, such as always having dinner together. Pick family activities or projects, such as playing a favourite game, trying the latest silly viral dance routine, going for a walk together, or watching a movie.

For children and adults alike, try to keep your bed screen-free to help sleep patterns and the anxiety that comes with reading headlines.
Carve out time for intimacy – and time apart

Having different spaces in your home will also help you to carve out some time apart from your partner, which can be hugely beneficial for your relationship. Most couples do not spend 24 hours a day together, and the sudden lack of physical and mental space can be draining.

Carve out some non-working time to spend separately, even if that just means spending an hour in different corners of a room. Watch an episode of that show you love but they hate, listen to a podcast, read a book, or go for a walk by yourself. Not only will this give you some time to recharge, but doing different activities and consuming different media also means you will have something new to share with each other, as you would normally talk about your individual days together.

But also create time for intimacy. This doesn’t just mean sex though, by all means, if you’re both in the mood, enjoy yourselves. Now would be a great time to swap some fantasies, try something new, or order some sex toys online. Irish company Sex Siopa is still taking online orders if you want to support local business while also supporting your sex life. But emotional intimacy is also important. Establish a routine where you have half an hour together in the morning or before you go to sleep where you veto any talk of coronavirus, and focus on each other.

The New York Times has a list of 36 Questions That Lead To Love online, that range from “What do you value most in a friendship?” to “If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?” to “Tell your partner what you like about them.”

Answering these questions in bed at night is not only a way to forget about the stresses of the day before you sleep, but it’s also a gorgeous way to connect with your partner and learn something new about them – two things that will help stave off any sense of the emotional stasis or overfamiliarity that can affect attraction, affection and sex drive.

Perhaps, most importantly, try to be patient, considerate and kind to each other during this time. It’s easy to take out our stress and frustrations on the people closest to us, and easier still when you’re cramped together in close quarters for long periods of time. By taking the time and steps to invest in your emotional health and wellbeing, both as individuals and a couple, you can weather this storm together.
DO

    Maintain a regular routine every day: Get dressed, eat breakfast, schedule work hours, time to yourself and family time together, and keep on a regular sleep schedule.
    Designate different areas of your living space into work and relaxation areas to create some sense of boundaries and movement.
    Communicate openly about your and your partner’s individual emotional needs, coping mechanisms, and how to support each other.
    Send your children’s teachers a thank you card when school is back in session, now that you know what they put up with every day.
    Be patient and considerate with each other – we’re all trying our best.

DON’T

    Check the news and social media constantly for updates. Limit yourself to one or two daily updates from reputable sources.
    Feel guilty for needing time to yourself.
    Worry about the small stuff. If it won’t matter in a week, let it go.
    Forget to make time to be romantic and emotionally intimate, even if your sex drives aren’t high right now.
    Try to learn the violin right now. Just don’t.

How is your relationship surviving the Covid-19 crisis? Whether you are dating only a few weeks or months, or have been married 50 years, we would like to hear from readers about the stresses, strains and unexpected joys of life under lockdown with or without your partner.

The Paradox Of Transitioning To Utopia Of Clean Energy

The conversation about climate change has been blazing ahead recently. Propelled by the school climate strikes and social movements like Extinction Rebellion, a number of governments have declared a climate emergency, and progressive political parties are making plans—at last—for a rapid transition to clean energy under the banner of the Green New Deal.

This is a welcome shift, and we need more of it. But a new problem is beginning to emerge that warrants our attention. Some proponents of the Green New Deal seem to believe that it will pave the way to a utopia of “green growth.” Once we trade dirty fossil fuels for clean energy, there’s no reason we can’t keep expanding the economy forever.

This narrative may seem reasonable enough at first glance, but there are good reasons to think twice about it. One of them has to do with clean energy itself.

The phrase “clean energy” normally conjures up happy, innocent images of warm sunshine and fresh wind. But while sunshine and wind is obviously clean, the infrastructure we need to capture it is not. Far from it. The transition to renewables is going to require a dramatic increase in the extraction of metals and rare-earth minerals, with real ecological and social costs.

We need a rapid transition to renewables, yes—but scientists warn that we can’t keep growing energy use at existing rates. No energy is innocent. The only truly clean energy is less energy.

In 2017, the World Bank released a little-noticed report that offered the first comprehensive look at this question. It models the increase in material extraction that would be required to build enough solar and wind utilities to produce an annual output of about 7 terawatts of electricity by 2050. That’s enough to power roughly half of the global economy. By doubling the World Bank figures, we can estimate what it will take to get all the way to zero emissions—and the results are staggering: 34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million tons of aluminum, and no less than 4.8 billion tons of iron.

In some cases, the transition to renewables will require a massive increase over existing levels of extraction. For neodymium—an essential element in wind turbines—extraction will need to rise by nearly 35 percent over current levels. Higher-end estimates reported by the World Bank suggest it could double.

The same is true of silver, which is critical to solar panels. Silver extraction will go up 38 percent and perhaps as much as 105 percent. Demand for indium, also essential to solar technology, will more than triple and could end up skyrocketing by 920 percent.

And then there are all the batteries we’re going to need for power storage. To keep energy flowing when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing will require enormous batteries at the grid level. This means 40 million tons of lithium—an eye-watering 2,700 percent increase over current levels of extraction.

That’s just for electricity. We also need to think about vehicles. This year, a group of leading British scientists submitted a letter to the U.K. Committee on Climate Change outlining their concerns about the ecological impact of electric cars. They agree, of course, that we need to end the sale and use of combustion engines. But they pointed out that unless consumption habits change, replacing the world’s projected fleet of 2 billion vehicles is going to require an explosive increase in mining: Global annual extraction of neodymium and dysprosium will go up by another 70 percent, annual extraction of copper will need to more than double, and cobalt will need to increase by a factor of almost four—all for the entire period from now to 2050.

The problem here is not that we’re going to run out of key minerals—although that may indeed become a concern. The real issue is that this will exacerbate an already existing crisis of overextraction. Mining has become one of the biggest single drivers of deforestation, ecosystem collapse, and biodiversity loss around the world. Ecologists estimate that even at present rates of global material use, we are overshooting sustainable levels by 82 percent.

Take silver, for instance. Mexico is home to the Peñasquito mine, one of the biggest silver mines in the world. Covering nearly 40 square miles, the operation is staggering in its scale: a sprawling open-pit complex ripped into the mountains, flanked by two waste dumps each a mile long, and a tailings dam full of toxic sludge held back by a wall that’s 7 miles around and as high as a 50-story skyscraper. This mine will produce 11,000 tons of silver in 10 years before its reserves, the biggest in the world, are gone.

To transition the global economy to renewables, we need to commission up to 130 more mines on the scale of Peñasquito. Just for silver.

Lithium is another ecological disaster. It takes 500,000 gallons of water to produce a single ton of lithium. Even at present levels of extraction this is causing problems. In the Andes, where most of the world’s lithium is located, mining companies are burning through the water tables and leaving farmers with nothing to irrigate their crops. Many have had no choice but to abandon their land altogether. Meanwhile, chemical leaks from lithium mines have poisoned rivers from Chile to Argentina, Nevada to Tibet, killing off whole freshwater ecosystems. The lithium boom has barely even started, and it’s already a crisis.

And all of this is just to power the existing global economy. Things become even more extreme when we start accounting for growth. As energy demand continues to rise, material extraction for renewables will become all the more aggressive—and the higher the growth rate, the worse it will get.

It’s important to keep in mind that most of the key materials for the energy transition are located in the global south. Parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia will likely become the target of a new scramble for resources, and some countries may become victims of new forms of colonization. It happened in the 17th and 18th centuries with the hunt for gold and silver from South America. In the 19th century, it was land for cotton and sugar plantations in the Caribbean. In the 20th century, it was diamonds from South Africa, cobalt from Congo, and oil from the Middle East. It’s not difficult to imagine that the scramble for renewables might become similarly violent.

If we don’t take precautions, clean energy firms could become as destructive as fossil fuel companies—buying off politicians, trashing ecosystems, lobbying against environmental regulations, even assassinating community leaders who stand in their way.

Some hope that nuclear power will help us get around these problems—and surely it needs to be part of the mix. But nuclear comes with its own constraints. For one, it takes so long to get new power plants up and running that they can play only a small role in getting us to zero emissions by midcentury. And even in the longer term, nuclear can’t be scaled beyond about 1 terawatt. Absent a miraculous technological breakthrough, the vast majority of our energy will have to come from solar and wind.

None of this is to say that we shouldn’t pursue a rapid transition to renewable energy. We absolutely must and urgently. But if we’re after a greener, more sustainable economy, we need to disabuse ourselves of the fantasy that we can carry on growing energy demand at existing rates.

Of course, we know that poorer countries still need to increase their energy use in order to meet basic needs. But richer countries, fortunately, do not. In high-income nations, the transition to green energy needs to be accompanied by a planned reduction of aggregate energy use.

How might this be accomplished? Given that the majority of our energy is used to power the extraction and production of material goods, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that high-income nations reduce their material throughput—legislating longer product life spans and rights to repair, banning planned obsolescence and throwaway fashion, shifting from private cars to public transportation, while scaling down socially unnecessary industries and wasteful luxury consumption like the arms trade, SUVs, and McMansions.

Reducing energy demand not only enables a faster transition to renewables, but also ensures that the transition doesn’t trigger new waves of destruction. Any Green New Deal that hopes to be socially just and ecologically coherent needs to have these principles at its heart.