Strange and Surreal Times

These are strange, surreal times. I hope everyone’s staying as healthy and safe as they can be out there. It’s really difficult to process the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak, especially since the situation keeps changing by the day (or even the hour). As I write this, it’s still early days and if I’m honest the trajectory of the curve terrifies me. All I can hope is that the orders to stay put flatten the curve sooner rather than later.

As for me? Like everyone else, I feel strange, off, and inert right now. While I’m distracted, I’m also hoping to pass the time in productive ways. Here’s what I’m hoping to get up to in self quarantine:

I’m donating 100% of my book‘s sales to help keep people fed during these trying times. Buy Atomic Design = help feed people.
For lunch, we’ve been ordering take out from all the restaurants in our neighborhood. It’s a small act of support, but has been really helpful to connect with our local businesses. There’s a real “we’re all in this together” attitude, which is fantastic.
I just wrapped up a few client projects and waiting for another couple to land. That means for the first time in a long time I’m not head down blitzing through client work. And because many of the conferences I was slated to speak at have been cancelled or postponed, I actually have free time. That is…weird and unprecedented for me.
So therefore, I’m going to be working on a few side projects that have been on the back burner for a while.
I’m going to hopefully going to be blogging regularly, working through the 140+ drafts I have in my backlog. I have no idea how many of those will see the light of day, but I’m looking forward to doing some writing. Expect a potpourri of articles from me in the coming weeks.
I’m going to be deep cleaning my house and finishing up the konmari process that we started a while ago.
I’m going to be playing some music and hopefully even record some stuff.
I’ve long considered writing a second edition of Atomic Design, but my schedule always got in the way. Now that my schedule has temporarily cleared out, I’m thinking about making it happen. I need to give it some more thought though to see how realistic it is
An upcoming project will be build using web components, so I’m excited to dive in and learn more. I asked Twitter what resources they’d recommend for learning about web components, and I’m looking forward to exploring those recommendations.
And of course, I’m looking forward to just spending time with my family and playing with my daughter. She’s two so isn’t fully aware of things, but she’s been getting annoyed when we listen to or watch the news. But ultimately her innocence is a fantastic grounding force in our household, and we’re reminded of all the things we have to be thankful for.

I hope everyone stays safe and healthy. Wash your hands, practice social distancing, and play it safe. Take care.