I remember heading into the quarantine thinking about how much my routine was about to be disrupted. No more 15 minute commute to and from work where I typically listened to podcast and used the down time to mentally prepare for the day ahead. No more iced coffee from the break room. I had just converted to the iced coffee world! No more friendly “good mornings” to coworkers. No more shaking up my daily salad kits for lunch as my teammate Bryan swiveled in his chair to give me grief for not diverting from the greens once in awhile. No more racing Anthony out of the office to see who would get stuck turning the lights out. Oh, and no more business attire. Slacks, button down, dress shoes. . They’re building up dust right now as we go on week 6 of this quarantine.

Well, the quarantine routine caught on quickly. If I don’t have a routine, it’s not pretty. I’ll get to the routine, but I think it is imperative for us to carry intentional structure around our day. “Attack the day with intention.” We have to take ourselves to the day and not let the day come to us. If we wait around and just let our lives take what the world gives us, we are in trouble. I think I have always been a structured individual. You read about the “morning routine” folks who have a specific checklist for how they like to get things done in the morning in order to set themselves up for a successful day. . . Yeah, that’s me.

I’m typically a slow starter on Mondays, but for the most part my days go like this:

1. Wake up around 5:45 – 6 a.m. Look at my phone for 2-3 minutes. Acknowledge that it’s not wise to look at your phone first thing in the morning and then walk to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

2. Occasionally, I will hit my foam roller and then I’ll either throw on my shorts and a light quarter zip or sweatshirt and go for a walk, work out on my roof top or ride my bike. Let’s say I go for a walk.

3. The morning walks. Wow, when my clients tell me they walk for exercise, I think to myself, “how can walking be exercise?” Well, it’s therapeutic to the mind. It’s an exercise to remain mentally sharp. Can you imagine how many people don’t simply go out and walk a few thousand steps each day? My favorite parts of walks are listening to the birds sing. I love being one of the few people out in the mornings. The city is still waking up. I often throw in a podcast and mentally prepare for the day. I’ve caught up with my mom a couple times as she tends to be an early riser. The park is nearby and I might hit a few pull ups and push ups. I ask myself, “should I have my Clorox wipes with me?” I pass the same homeless man every morning under the I-77 bridge. He’s been here for a few years. Dreadlocks, air mattress, shopping cart with all of the essentials. He has it figured out (at least in his world). He chased me down one day to ask me if I could Google something for him. He wanted to know how long it would take to train for a 5K. Crazy question for a guy who wears sandals every day of his life. He said he’s run them before and is recovering from a foot injury. 4-8 weeks I told him. “Thank you,” he kindly replied. So, the morning walks go for 30-45 minutes and then it’s about go time.

4. First thing I do when I get back, I throw a sauce pan with a couple cups of water in it over the stove to get ready for my Folgers Instant Coffee. I’ve converted back to hot coffee. It’s a morning ritual. How could you live in quarantine and not have coffee. While the coffee heats up, I jump in the shower.

5. After the shower, I am sure to find a collared shirt to put on. It’s a mental thing for me. I would love to go shirtless for one day at least. That would be classic! Next up, I grab my coffee. Again, Instant Coffee! It’s legit. I grab my book and I spend about 15 minutes on my patio reading before kicking off the work day. I just finished The Impossible First by Colin O’Brady. He is the first human to cross Antarctica with no resupply or human support. He looks like a 3rd grade history teacher. Dude is a monster.

6. I fire up the computer and key in our secret codes to access our VPN and WFH system. This is all new since moving to home. I love spending the first 20-30 mins on recent events and articles. There are always a few client IMH (emails) waiting. I push them off as I was in a “worry” mode for a few weeks when the bottom was falling out of the market and clients were losing 15-25% of their portfolios in a very, very short amount of time just a few weeks ago. Anyways, 9:30, the team gets together for a “huddle” on Microsoft Teams. We talk through hot topics, key trends and hear from our fearless leader, Sally, on what’s going on with the business. Sally is a legend! It’s fun seeing everyone’s WFH environment. Often, kids are joining our video conferences with their parents, as most of my team has young kids who are home schooled and being cared for during the stay at home life.

7. Client meetings kick off and the day zips by. I usually grab a banana and a couple apples for morning breakfast between calls, but it’s back to back to back until lunch. Lunch usually takes place around 1 pm. I retreat a total of 15 yards to my kitchen where I make my salad. No shaking, just a big glass bowl that nicely mixes everything together. Sorry Bryan, I keep it calm at home. I often eat at my desk too much. I need to enjoy my patio a little more, but there is always work to do! Time management could be a little stronger.

8. 5 O’clock comes around quickly. But I usually don’t shut down until 6. Most nights I find a work out, whether that be yoga, head to Max’s for a garage workout, or go on a walk. Structure, structure, structure. It’s a must. If you don’t have structure, you’re toast. I always look forward to tv but usually I am occupied with other obligations.

9. Dinner is either salmon, Mahi Mahi, eggs, or salad. I keep it simple. I have been on a crazy almond/trail mix kick. It’s been bad. My self will to stay away from the snacking has been very very bad. Extra reason to work out more!

10. Fold in a fair amount of phone/social media time on top of my newfound hobby – juggling – and that closes out the day pretty well. By 10, I am exhausted. I need to figure out a better bed time routine because it’s bee fairly inconsistent. It’s 11:14 p.m. right now and I need to get up at 5:45 a.m. tomorrow. I think I can do it! 8 hours is the goal. 7 is more realistic.

In closing, routine is healthy for the mind. Our days go by quicker and we react naturally to our tasks which I think allow us to be more efficient. It’s important to shake things up once in awhile, especially now with our solitary confined lives. Just kidding, it’s not that bad. Enjoy the little things and we’ll be just fine.

Until next time.

Where were you on March 1, 2020? I know it was a Sunday, but I couldn’t tell you whether I was out playing basketball, grabbing beers with some friends, planning an upcoming trip, or skipping church (oh wait, definitely skipped church). What took place in March of 2020 will be seared in our brains for the rest of our lives.

The first week of March was “easy.” It wasn’t the first, but the second week that had me walking into work each morning stating to my coworker, “What the eff is going on?” It became quite rhetorical by Thursday morning. This was the week of cancellations in the United States. Writing about this just three weeks later provides a sense of insignificance due to the level of development and evolution of information and change in our lives caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NBA was one of the first major organizations to announce “we are suspending the season indefinitely.” This was just a few days after the Big Ten Basketball tournament stated it would hold basketball games with no fans other than close family and selective personal. That lasted maybe 24 hours, and then they cancelled the tournament. We didn’t even get to one single game with no fans. I was kind of excited to see what that would be like. Let’s give credit to the Ivy League, as they had cancelled their conference tournament several days before. Gosh, that looked so conservative at the time.

Wednesday, March 11, the NBA announced the season would be suspended. If that wasn’t bad enough, five hours later, Tom Hanks announces he has the Coronavirus. Woody? Forrest Gump? Ah shit, not Chuck Nolan? He survived four years on a deserted island, but this Coronavirus got him? That’s when it hit. Once it got someone we felt close with, this thing felt real and drove a tremendous amount of panic and fear into the minds of society.

The stock market sure wasn’t happy about Tom Hanks getting the Coronavirus. Friday, March 12, the stock market dropped by more than 2,000 points, falling 9.99%, almost a correction in a single day. As an investment advisor, let’s just say my daily emails quickly began to spike. However, at the time, I still had more clients expressing their “confidence” and sharing their words of encouragement for me, rather than panicked clients wanting to jump ship. Something was off. They were either not logging into their accounts or delusional about their portfolios getting a big ole chunk bitten out of them. Well, March 16th, just four days later. The stock market dropped 2,997 points, plummeting 12.93%, which was worse than Black Monday of 1929. Yeah, that “confidence” was. . . Fake.

As I said in a previous post, the month of March will go down as the wildest month of my life. The only word for it is, unreal. It’s tough to say whether any of us really had time to stop and let the revolving door of eye shocking news headlines ever sink in. Maybe it never will? So far, everyone I know, both friends and family are safe and healthy. That’s all you can ask for during these times.

Below I have taken stock of a number of life and community changes, closures, and cancellations that have taken place over the past few weeks. I’m sure I will forget a few, but here we go.

On the sports side, March Madness cancelled (the final four would be this upcoming weekend). Wimbledon just announced today it’s cancelling for the first time since World War II. Spring football practice cancelled. NHL, MLB. . You name it. There will be an asterisk next to the 2020 season for a countless number of college sport’s teams and who the 2020 “champion” was.

High school and college seniors won’t have a normal commencement. Gracie, I feel for ya. She won’t be walking in the Horseshoe to close out her college career. 17 and 18 year olds won’t be enjoying high school prom this year. Sorry to those of you who lost your last chance to get lucky before closing out high school.

Intramural leagues and social groups have officially shut down for the immediate future.

Community and apartment gyms began to close. Forcing us to all begin working out virtually from home or finding creative ways to workout outside or at friend’s garages. Thanks Max!

Oh yeah, we had a democratic debate going on. Well those events aren’t happening. Or at least with no in person audiences. Did the rest of you completely forgot that we have a Biden v. Sanders fight for the nomination?

The most populous states have instilled stay at home orders and have limited business operations to only those considered “essential.” The service industry is getting annihilated.

We bump elbows, not fists anymore. Handshakes are from the Stone Age.

If you wash your hands for less than 20 seconds, then you are not cool.

Hiking trails, state parks, national parks and camp sites have all begun closing and encouraging visitors to stay home. My goal at the beginning of the month was to order some REI equipment and head to the outdoors for my isolation. Still working on this.

My buddy TJ’s bachelor party was supposed to be last weekend in Indianapolis. Well, that was cancelled and his wedding was supposed to be on May 9 in Clearwater Beach. They’ve postponed to September of this year. “Love is forever and nothing can thwart destiny.”

Most, if not all elective surgeries have been postponed to free up resources in hospitals. I can imagine that there are some very disgruntled individuals who have been gearing up for hip replacements for quite some time.

Funerals aren’t taking place or are limited to extremely small crowds. Very sad given the circumstances.

Church has been online for a few weeks now.

Golf courses have remained open, yet most stopped providing golf carts and are walk only. My guess is most will be closed soon.

Florida beaches took awhile to close down. They took a fair amount of heat earlier this week (as they should). Shake my head.

I probably keep comments on the stock market and economy light because I spend all day reading and discussing it, but we just ended the worst quarter in the stock market since 2008. We had a 17.5% positive week last week, but we are still down close to 25% on the year. With things looking to get worse before they get better.

You’ve practically won the lottery if you show up to Costco and are able to snag any Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, or chicken. Grocery stores open for only senior citizens during the first hour and are only allowing families of two or less to enter.

For Peet’s Sake, I just learned they are tearing down volleyball and tennis court nets at local parks. And even zip tying basketball nets! Ok, I can’t do it. That ripped my heart out. No basketball? What if it’s just me?

Ok, I think I am done for now. You get the point. Until next time.

When humans are forced to adapt and evolve under stressful times, we find a way to “make it happen,” more often than not. We don’t always have a roadmap or the experience to show us exactly how the next steps should be executed, but we adjust to ensure we continue meeting our primary responsibilities.

The transition from the office to work from home is a prime example. You may have caught my previous post on the swift action that was taken to move us home and how remarkable it was to see our teams come together to ensure that we were well prepared to do so. Being there for our clients is vital during market turmoil. We never thought working from home would be possible. Just two months ago, I was sharing a thought with a coworker that I had hoped that one day it would be cool if we could work part time at home, especially to help navigate family dynamics and strategically map out our commutes with the ever worsening traffic here in Charlotte. Well, working from home is here and not by choice. “Be careful what you wish for.” Anyways, here are a few thoughts on what working from home has been like during the first week.

I thrive off of social interaction. I also enjoy alone time and solitude. As I was packing up my boxes on Friday, March 20, I was the last advisor to leave the Charlotte office, as I was currently transitioning apartment units at my complex and needed access to the technology and internet long enough for AT&T to set up at my new pad. So, I knew working from home was going to be a challenge without my 9 teammates and office friends. Typically, the toughest part of my day is trying not to get caught up in long winded chit chats with coworkers. You know, shooting the breeze. Football season is usually the hardest because talking about Ohio State football with Brad could suck up an hour a day if we were less disciplined. After one week, the lack of social interaction hasn’t hit as much as I thought it would. We are finding ways to stay connected through Microsoft Teams. Our team even held a Friday “WFH week one toast” on Zoom. It was fun to see into the lives of my peers as they shared their screens with their family, living rooms and backyards. As a bachelor, they enjoyed seeing my Grand Canyon picture hanging on the wall.

Overall, work wise, I would say it was a productive week one. Monday was a little crazy as I had kept just my work station in my old apartment, since AT&T wasn’t coming until Tuesday morning to set up in my new unit. Duke Energy cut the power on me at noon that day, while I still had three meetings and a few outcalls to make. So, I scrambled over to a buddy’s living room to finish up the day. The stock market was also down 35% year to date and investor panic seemed to be at high so far this year. So yeah, Monday was nuts. Once things settled down Tuesday after getting set up with AT&T, we were rocking and rolling. The days flew by as work has felt like shoveling sand into a never ending sand pit. The next three days in the market were bonkers (good bonkers). We had the up days in a row that rounded out 15%+. The market had it’s best week since 1933, so that seemed to help us out a little bit with calming down the phone lines.

Routine, routine, routine. My goal is to maintain routine as much as possible. It’s a new routine and I am still adapting, but once that nails down, I think time will speed up a notch.

A few random thoughts on working from home:

Maybe this is good for all of the other advisors who usually sit around me, as I tend to be a loud talker. Maybe everyone is more productive now that they can hear themselves think without Scott’s loud voice getting in the way.

I wonder what percent of advisors are managing work in conjunction with helping their children with school throughout the day? Just that alone gives me anxiety. All power to the families juggling those responsibilities.

How well are apartment complexes and home internets holding up with X number of people working and schooling from home now? We had some technology issues, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with an upgrade.

My walk to the bathroom is 30 seconds shorter. I drink a lot of water throughout the day, so I make a handful of trips while at the office. If I take five trips to the bathroom a day, then I save 5 minutes of time per day, 25 minutes per week. Not bad! More podcast or reading time.

When the end of the day comes, it feels awkward because I am not getting in my car to drive home. I am home. Keeping work and home life separate from one another is a challenge, especially being in a 650 square foot apartment with my workstation in my living room staring at me while I am watching the latest Netflix binge (I am one of few who has yet to see Tiger King).

Being intentional with getting outside and working out is critical. It’s more challenging since we are asked to remain inside. I guess walks are okay, as long as we stay 6 feet from all other humans! It’s a good excuse to hop on my bike more.

Owning a town home or a condo would be nice right about now. Or better yet, just give me a backyard with some bird feeders. Grandpa, do you have any extra bird feeders?

It’s only week one, how will this feel after a month, or even several months.

I miss having access to a printer. It’s forced me to use OneNote more as I always loved printing and highlighting key facts or phrases to use from articles during my client interactions. No, I am not getting a printer for the time I am working from home. I don’t need more junk around.

I try to wear semi formal work attire as I am a believer in the old saying. “When you look good, you feel good. When you feel good, you play good (or in this case perform good). And when you play good, you get paid. . .” You get the idea. I think I stole that from Deion Sanders, a famous football player. I’ve gone back to the Arizona golf shirt look for the most part.

With less face to face human and business interaction, I have decided to test out my ability to grow a beard. The last time I did this was in college. Here’s to hoping 6 years of aging has given my facial hair the ability to look less patchy and less red.

My buddy Brian and I had set up weekly walks, so now we are going to try to set up work dates to get together. We’re currently reading The Impossible Now by Colin O’Brady, which is a biography on Colin’s adventure as the first individual to cross Antarctica with no resupply or human support.

No matter how confined it might feel in here some days, I think to myself, could you imagine what prison is like? The only way I would take prison over this is if you gave me a group of buddies like Andy Dufresne had in Shawshank.

I’ll conclude by saying that I am grateful that my job can be performed at home. A majority of individuals in this country cannot do their jobs from inside their own home. Our situations can always be better, but they certainly can always be worse. No matter how tough the next several weeks and months are, that statement will continue to drive my attitude. We are forced to adapt and adapt we will.

I’ve been meaning to write about this current time in our lives for over a week now. To say things have been crazy would be the greatest understatement of my life. Just last Wednesday, March 18, we were meeting with Senior Manager, Daniel Sharpe, as he shared that Vanguard was currently investigating all avenues for Vanguard personnel to continue working and to remain healthy during the rapidly evolving impact of the Coronavirus, COVID-19.

Just an hour later, the team next to me was packing boxes up, moving their desktops home, something us Vanguard advisors never thought would be possible. The execution was flawless over the next 48 hours. We got everyone home safe and sound to continent supporting our clientele when they needed us most. Sure, we had a few technology glitches, but to move over 10,000 employees home who have never worked out of their homes before in less than 48 hours was remarkable. More on work from home later.

I constantly carry a glass half full attitude, but recently, I found myself carrying a level of concern that was foreign to my nature. A concern for family, friends and society. What happens if my beloved grandfather or parents get sick? When will I see family next? Don’t we need human interaction to thrive? Then I regained my exposure and my hard wiring kicked in. We will get through this. It will be hard. But we will get through this. We are all going to be asked to make sacrifices that we have never made before. This event will shape us into better people and give us perspective that we will hopefully carry for the rest of our lives. We will grow closer to loved ones and depend on people we’ve never depended on in the past.

It’s currently 11 p.m. on Friday, March 27. My work computers are on, but I am typing on my IPad with a Wild Turkey 101 in hand. Pandora is playing Tyler Childers in the background. My goal is to create short recaps of what life will be like during what may be a once in a generation event. Comparisons to the Great Depression, World War II and many other frightening events have been made. The impact on our society and culture will be significant. We have been resilient in the past, why wouldn’t we be resilient here?

It’s time to embrace isolation and to understand ourselves in a way that we have never been challenged to before. It’s time to lean on family and friends when times get tough. If we focus on what we can control and let our worries lie in the hands of those beyond our power, we will be just fine. The human spirit is the most powerful force in the world. It’s time to understand and learn about life in the unknown.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton