A Simple System to Help You Make An Impact On COVID

Hi Superorganizers readers! Dan here. We’re all looking for ways to cope with the coronavirus crisis. On Wednesday, we talked about how adopting an experimental attitude can help us deal with the overwhelming boredom and sameness we’re all feeling in quarantine. The response to that piece indicated that many of you want to help others and support your communities, but you’re not sure what to do or how to get started.

That’s why I asked Chris Yeh, co-author, with Reid Hoffman, of Blitzscaling, and Dr. Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, to give us a framework for what to do. Jennifer and Chris explain how we can figure out the best way to help, and how doing even small things can make a big difference in the lives of those who are affected by this crisis. I hope you love it. Thanks, as always, for being a reader.

By Chris Yeh and Dr. Jennifer Aaker

COVID-19 changed everything.

A pandemic that started as alarming reports on cable news and online, became real for each of us more quickly than anyone imagined. 

For Chris, it hit home when he developed a fever on March 13, and had to frantically contact everyone he had seen in the past few days to warn them to self-isolate. (Luckily, he’s had no further symptoms and is OK.) For Jennifer, it became real when a friend and her husband got a double diagnosis of the virus, and had to quarantine with their two young children while enduring nightly nightmares about infecting others.

All of us are affected right now. So, the question is, how do we deal with the reality of the crisis at hand?

Studies have found that when people experience disruption in their lives, they seek out meaning by bonding with others and re-embracing their own values. And, they incorporate the disruption into the story they tell themselves about their lives. In other words, often negative experiences, while unasked for and traumatic, can play an important role in finding meaning in our lives.

But the coronavirus is a double-whammy: It has forced us into physical isolation at a time when we would normally seek meaning and comfort in the company of others. Social isolation is associated with reduced meaning, lower well-being, and higher rates of morbidity. We need to fight this isolation by finding new ways to connect and contribute, not just for others, but also for ourselves. 

We all need to find ways — the right ways — to help

Everyone wants to do something about the coronavirus, but without the right guidelines, that energy might be wasted.