Plan your wake up and sleep times in 90-minute increments every night.Ensuring you have a systematic wake up time gives you control over your day.
A day plan
Don’t try planning your entire week or month right now.
Take it one day at a time
A simple template you can use :
a.Schedule for the day
b.Goals to accomplish
C. Assignments due
d.Work /study to catch up on
Use cues
What are cues and why are they so important for your routine?
Lemme explain…
When I wake up every morning, the school bus arriving is my cue to get up on time and get dressed.
Tests and assignments by school are my cues to study every day.
Small things like that act as your cues. So now its time to make new ones for during the lockdown.
like for example :Breakfast could be your cue to get some exercise
Use reminders.
Every day now is a Sunday. Keeping track of the day and time becomes quite tedious and difficult. Using reminders or alarms to keep you on track is a good alternative so you don’t lose track of time.
Get a fresh perspective.
Put the days gone behind you. Try to look at things from a new perspective. What did work out? What didn’t?
What can you do differently.Wipe down the drawing board and start afresh.New goals, New routine, new habits.
Deadlines
Setting deadlines for each one of your projects or goals keeps you on track. You know where your finish line is and you can work accordingly
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You are motivated to stay on top of your work, homework, school, projects and online courses while simultaneously accomplishing your goals like meditation,yoga, exercise, books to read etc
You are motivated to make the best possible productive use of this time.
STAGE 2: DETERMINED
You were motivated for 2 weeks or so and then you realized that you tried to do too much and so you begin cutting corners.
Is yoga really that important for me to wake up at 6 in the morning?
Nah
Do I really have to get up and take a jog today?
Nah.I’ll just do it tomorrow
STAGE 3: SATISFIED
You tried waking up early. You really did. But somehow you alarm magically forgot to go off. Every single day
.You also believe that it is not in your best interest to workout today so you sink into your couch to binge-watching.
Yet by the end of the day – after a lot of complaining and pushing you somehow manage to tick off a few things from your to-do list .
And maybe read 3 pages of your novel.
STAGE 4 : FRUSTRATION
You want to get things done. You wanna accomplish something today but everything around you seems to be stopping you
The TV distracts you. You somehow managed to waste 4 hours shopping for shoes online.You just have to finish that next episode.
By the time you know it the sun is down and the day is gone
Things out of your control prevent you from getting something done.
You just aren’t able to perform well today.
You can’t succeed no matter how hard you try.
When you have done one wrong thing, you throw yourself into a shame cycle.
In short you are bored, annoyed, irritable, tired and crave for a change.
STAGE 5: ANGRY
The smallest things set you off. You cannot, absolutely cannot spend another second in that same room
You are sick and tired of the same environment. Same wall.Same space.
This brings me to my last stage
STAGE 6: LOST AND CONFUSED
The days go by when suddenly – with a strike of lightning you are jolted upright with a stark realization:
What in the world am I doing?
You feel lost because you don’t know what to do.
You don’t even know what you are supposed to be doing.
You don’t know what the future holds for you.
You just need that small push to make it through. A small push to get you into the groove
You have lost your path and that’s okay. You just need to get back onto your feet and keep walking
I’m kinda starting to understand why pets try to run out of the house when the front door is open.
DAY 19 OF LOCK DOWN
The lockdown has taken a toll on every single one of us.Being told to stay within the four walls of our home for another 20 days doesn’t make it easier.
Wherever you are in the world ,since you and I are stuck in the same boat (quite literally) why not start or revive or revisit that list of goals we had.
Where are your goals at?
Just because the lockdown confines you to your apartment doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish them. What happened to that book you were gonna finish reading? What happened to the skills you were going to work on?
Here are the goals I have for this quarantine period
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ART AND DOODLES
Painting, sketches, pen work, doodles,zentangles, mandalas, crafts, embroidery are just some ideas over the top of my head
Get working on some DIYs for your room. Or how about you finish that canvas painting you never got to?
Try relaxing by making some beautiful mandalas
MY GOAL: At least another few paintings and a doodle a day
What better way to release all the pent up anger, stress and worry inside you that by penning down your thoughts.
Try your hand at writing a song, a poem or even a brain dump.
This is my third post in the Quarantine diaries series and I hope to write some more soon.
MY GOAL: 30 mins of writing a day
MOVIES TO WATCH
Remember that list of must-watch movies you made 3 summers ago hoping you would get to them- instead of randomly scrolling through Netflix and watching whatever rom-com you found?
Yah. It’s time to dig up that old box.
Start looking for movies that actually interest you.
Thrillers, historical drama and movies based on real-life events are in my box.
Inside out and Onward are a few favorites.
MY GOAL:Disney and Pixar movies with a few documentaries
FITNESS
Do I need to stress the importance of this? I know it’s very tempting to just stay in your couch the whole day with your fuzzy blanket and maybe some refreshing lemonade.
But you shouldn’t
Walk. Skip some rope. Jog in place. Stretch every hour.Try some aerobics .
Just do something to get your body moving instead of lazing around the whole day .
MY GOAL:90 minutes of exercise a day split into 45 minute sessions
If you see your closet with clothes stuffing out or if you see your bookcase with books stuffed in all different directions than you know it’s time to declutter your space.
WORK
School has assigned us a boat load of work to do over the next few weeks.
A couple of projects,A 3000 word handwritten essay ,a couple of worksheets and so on.
Start listing down everything you have to work on and spread it throughout the day.
SKILL BUILDING
There must be a couple of things you have always wanted to learn or something you have always been fascinated with.
The lockdown has moved many online skill teaching platforms to open up 30-day free access to courses. So get started and get learning .
MY GOAL: Working on my blog writing
STUDY
You obviously have a few chapters or maybe even a book or two you need to complete before that next exam of yours. Allot only an hour or so a day to hit the books.
MY GOAL: Prepare for the upcoming school exams
ROUTINE AND HABITS
Build a routine, A basic one. Just so you know what you need to get done every day
RESEARCH
It’s time to prop open that laptop and start researching. What’s that one thing that you have always been in awe with. Pick it up and start researching. Who knows where you will end up.
I have decided to revisit my old craze of the Egyptians .
MY GOAL: Revisit the Egyptian and maybe the Harappan civilization
You obviously can’t spend the rest of the lockdown in your pajamas,binge-watching Netflix and refusing to get out of bed all in the name of social distancing.
Now that a lockdown was announced ,you probably ran into your room ,slipped under your covers and propped open your laptop.
5 days in,your hair’s a mess ,you are bored out of your skull,you are already lagging behind on assignments and you are simply frustrated due to the small space you are confined to.
But remember-It’s for your own safety.
So here’s how to get out of a productivity slump,stay on top of things and protect your mental health during this lockdown.
Set your attitude for the day
It’s important to get your game face on.Tell yourself what you want to accomplish today
Wear clothes that give you a work hard play hard attitude.
So first things first,get out of those PJ’s
Schedule, schedule and schedule some more
Just because your life has been thrown into a whirlwind doesn’t mean you should lose control over it.
Plan out your activities i.e your regular routine with modifications to make it suitable for a home environment.
Switch your gym workout to a home workout.Office hours replaced by work from home hours.
Have a long list of goals and books lists that you could never get to ?
Now is your time to tackle all of them.
Have a Lazy day
Today I don’t feel like doing anything
I just wanna lay in my bed
Don’t feel like picking up my phone
Feelin’ the vibe ?
Pick one day in the week where you choose to do nothing at all.
A day where you stay in your PJ’s and eat Nutella out of the jar for lunch.
Studies& Work
With early closure of schools and workplaces,your studies and work shouldn’t take a back seat.
Instead of jumping into your work immediately ,slowly ease yourself in.
Chunk all your work into smaller manageable pieces and spread it out.
Set a time slot everyday and ensure you have no distractions
Designate a particular workspace and stick to it.
Fitness
The gym and running track being shut doesn’t give you an excuse to put your fitness away.
Try out a few home workout vides.You can mix it up by adding a zumba session in between.
Try incorporating a yoga routine into your day ,first thing in the morning and end your day with some easy guided meditation.
Always promised yourself to make time for your health?What better time than now ?
Mental health
There is quite literally only one major solution .
Limit the news you take in.
Stop indulging yourself into news reports and fake forwards.
It’s bad enough as it is out there.So stop trying to make things more difficult for yourself.Instead pursue an activity that relaxes you and help others around you too.
Health
Limit your overall screen time to no more than 2 hours a day.Don’t turn into a couch potato.
Stick to a sleep schedule.Set a designated time for you to go to bed and wake up.
Hobbies
You have a lot of time on your hands now so why not pursue a hobby or two ?
Here are some of my personal favorites.
Take an online skill course
Read a book that’s been on your list forever
Watch a Ted talk or listen to a podcast
Doodle/ Draw /Paint
Research
Write /Journal-Start a daily log or journal your thoughts everyday.
So pick something out and incorporate it into your day.
Your day probably gets tedious and monotonous being stuck at home without much to look forward too.Instead pick a few things out of this bucket list and give it a try.
Take it easy
Take it one day at a time.The stress of the quarantine and the complete shift in social interactions can leave you in distress.So remember to take things easy when you need to.Reach out to friends and family for support.
With the virus scare at an all time high ,work and studies have taken a backseat.Vacations have been preponed and extended ,this means you have a lot of time for yourself,
Here are 80 things on my bucket list to beat cabin fever and have fun this summer !
my take on the world 