Since we are all working from home / all cooped indoors for the next couple of weeks, I thought I’d share the things I’ve been doing to keep myself sane. Today is Day 21 of my not having left the house (that’s 3 full weeks of the #QuarantineLife y’all), so I have compiled a few pointers here.
These are the things I’m doing that are helping me stay sane & productive:
1. Sticking to my full daily schedule M-F
I have kept my daily schedule from pre-quarantine days. I continue to get up, have a shower & get dressed, get my breakfast, check emails. Get on with the projects for the day, do my daily exercise, and wind up as usual.
This has majorly helped me retain a sense of normalcy. My husband is also working from home now, so I’ve got his workstation set up in my office as well. So now I have a co-worker! It’s good to see the other person working, which motivates me to get back to my own work when feeling distracted.
Separately, I have also started accepting limited custom orders. It’s grounding to interact with clients and keep on top of time bound projects. This has also been very helpful for my sanity (and also a great creative challenge). If you have been wanting something custom from me, then this is the right time to check if its possible!
2. Working out every day M-F
I have been working out consistently for the past few weeks and this has been a MAJOR stress reliever.
I do an evening workout daily M-F and oh my gosh, it is a LIFE SAVER.
I am addicted to Dancebody – a FUN and effective dance cardio + sculpting workout. If you ever liked to dance, you will love this. They also have a promo going on right now.
3. Following a separate routine for Saturday & Sunday
This one has been critical for me. The first weekend into Home Isolation, didn’t really feel like a “weekend” because I went through the day without any plan, and ended up spending 5 hours on Instagram (yep).
Obviously, that was TERRIBLE for my state of being, so by the time Monday rolled in, I started keeping a list of chores and fun stuff to do on the next weekend.
The last couple of weekends were SO MUCH BETTER, because I’ve been following a good routine and making sure I’m ticking things off of my list – so also feeling productive (even if the “task” is to “read for 1 hour”).
I have been scheduling special activities like online classes, group video calls (they feel like social outings), cooking something special to eat, extra chores (!!)
I have taken Intro to Procreate by Brooke Glaser and Intro to Digital Painting by Mimi Chao so far. Both were great and I learnt something useful from them.
Skillshare is giving 2 months of Premium access for free in case you want to hop on.
4. Staying away from social media & news overdose
This one’s not new for me; every now and then I pledge to stay away from the infinite scroll (I still post intentional posts & stories to my account and use the messaging feature).
Every time I am able to stay away from The Scroll, I’ve felt so. much. better. So I’m doing it again now, and honestly, I feel better when I am not chewing on allll the data that social media scrolling provides.
However, if you don’t want to take this semi-extreme step, I totally understand. In fact, there are many lovely things happening on Instagram right now such as Color Alongs and Draw Alongs with artists!
5. NOT binge watching Netflix, and reading instead
This is a bit of a continuation of the last point.
Basically, anything that makes my brain switch off and passively consume content for large amounts of time has been mostly bad.
But, anything that requires my brain to be actively engaged and focused on it has been GOOD! It’s really helped me stay calm.
So I’ve substituted anything more than 1-1.5 hours of Netflix time with reading time.
Another thing that I’m looking forward to doing in place of Netflix and Insta-scrolling is designing my annual photo album (and getting it printed!).
Concluding remarks
I hope this blog post helps you in some way, or at least makes you feel that you’re not alone! We WILL come out of this on the other side… lets hang in here!
Also…
This is still on!
(limited time only)
