It's hard not to get caught up in the panic we see happening around the world with COVID-19. I told myself I wouldn't panic. That as long as I and the rest of my family were taking the proper precautions all would work out fine.

I've pretty much stayed off social media, specifically Facebook, for over a year now. But recently I've been looking around and found myself getting sucked into the panic. In one group I'm in, there was a rumor about Ireland going into Lockdown and everyone was panicking. I did a quick Google search and found that no such thing was happening.

Then I went grocery shopping. For the first time, I couldn't find a place to park. Certain foods were gone completely--toilet paper being one of them. But I managed to get enough food for a week. But I also found myself getting sucked into the panic. I was looking for rice and it was all gone. So I stockpiled some pasta. I don't need 4 packages of pasta! There are only 3 of us in my house! But there I was staring down the worst case scenario.

This disease has crept into all of our lives and is having an impact. My daughter's college is closed for the next two weeks. A few of my freelancer gigs have been postponed. There's a travel ban now between Ireland and the U.S. so if someone in my family is seriously ill, I can't get there. Everything in Ireland is essentially cancelled or closed.

But I'm not going to think about any of that. I've decided to "make hay while the sun shines" as they say here. It took me years to figure out what that meant! But I've now got some extra time on my hands and I plan to use it wisely.

Redirecting My Attention

I'm redirecting my focus to work on changing the theme on one of my sites. This is a big job that will require copy/pasting every single page and post into the new theme. I have been working on it bit by bit. The site is running on Divi and it's incredibly slow. But now I will have time to whip it into shape over the next two weeks.

I'm also going to do content research and write articles. There's tons of stuff for me to do around my online business and I'm actually really looking forward to it.

So if possible try not to hit the panic button.Take the necessary precautions as directed by your government and local officials. If you have to stay home, use your extra time wisely and try not to think about the range of possibillities that could happen. It's very distracting and it's not useful.

Stay healthy out there !

Alanna