How to cope with being stuck at home
Yesterday we discussed ten ways to be more productive and feel more motivated while working
from home.
But despite any increase in your productivity levels during your working hours you may feel
stuck and lacking the inspiration to do anything else besides sleeping and working.
Adapting to a life at home 24 hours a day, seven days a week, can be hard in the beginning,
especially if you live in an apartment and have very limited access to the outdoors.
I think that one of the best ways to cope with this new reality is allowing yourself
to adapt to a new routine but without changing the old one too much.
Your life has key components that need to be fulfilled, even if you’re not allowed
to go outside.
Exercising, socialising, eating healthy, learning new things and having a healthy sleep schedule
are all parts of a healthy lifestyle that you can still pursue and mimic at home.
Being stuck at home means that your planning skills need to be the best they ever were.
You may be dealing with a major lack of supplies, delayed deliveries of food and medicine or
other goods.
If you have a business, you may be losing clients so your finances need to reorganised
accordingly.
Furthermore, some your plans may have been cancelled - I had to postpone my wedding so
that means a LOT of planning and reorganising to be done in a very short amount of time.
Maybe you have a list of people you need to call ASAP, classes and appointments to cancel,
things to reschedule and supplies to order.
If you still haven’t gotten a planner, a bullet journal or an app that has the same
purpose, now is the time to get it and use it.
So to make life a little bit less hectic, make a list of 1) people you have to call,
2) supplies you need to get delivered and 3) things you need to cancel or postpone.
And you can only cope with being stuck at home if you’re taking care of yourself.
People have different exercise needs but stopping your old workout routine is worse than adapting
it to the limited space in your house.
Stretching, doing yoga or a low impact fitness workout on a mat or, for those who can handle
it, following a HIIT class online are all things that can be done with very limited
space and will grant at least some level of activity, especially if you do it daily.
Technology allows you to call and message your friends and family, as well as video
chatting with them or playing videogames online.
You can create new routines based on these new limitations.
You can buddy read a couple of books and share ideas with a close friend or even take a class
online with someone.
Also, I can’t stress enough that this is the time to take care of your home.
Open the windows, do your laundry, declutter your space, scrub the floors.
You’ll be spending so much time in the same place so make sure it’s clean and you’ll
feel so much better about being stuck home.
And the lack of supplies in your area will force you to be more creative in the kitchen.
You can use this time to get out of your comfort zone and try new things.
Maybe you don’t have access to fresh bread every day like you used to but you can use
some flour, yeast and water to bake your own bread.
You can mix ingredients you’ve never tried before, make your own snacks, cookies and
cakes from scratch and even take the time to take a look at your pantry and reorganise
it.
But even if you are able to stay healthy and keep your home and your family healthy, staying
behind closed doors for too long will probably feel boring and tedious after the first couple
of days.
The thing is, you can always learn new skills from home.
There are dozens of things you can learn from the comfort of your home in a couple of weeks
and here are my top favorite:
1.
You can learn how to speed-read; 2.
You can learn the basics of sewing, stitching and patching
3.
You can learn how to brew the perfect cup of coffee.
4.
You can learn how to Improve your handwriting 5.
You can learn the basics of a new language 6.
You can learn new card games 7.
You can learn learn the basics of coding 8.
You can learn how to bake or cook a dozen of different dishes
9.
You can learn how to edit photos and videos with more complex software
10.
You can learn how to stretch properly or do basic yoga poses
11.
You can learn how to budget as well as the basics of personal finance
12.
You can learn how to write a short story 13.
You can learn how to create a blog or website 14.
And you can pick up any subject of your interest and read about it online.
You can get entertained with endless video subscriptions, video games that you can purchase
online, documentaries and tv shows, podcasts and live music shows.
You can order books from amazon and start tackling that to-read list that you have been
putting off for five years.
You can start personal projects that you never had the time to pursue before, like writing
a book, starting a business, learning a major skill or planning to redecorate your house
when all of this is over.
There are almost unlimited things you can do at home and that will maybe even help the
people around you.
The fact that we are always connected will help us get through this without feeling major
isolation and boredom.
And a tool that also keeps my experience online simple is today's sponsor, Dashlane.
It's an app that allows you to log instantly, fly through forms and quickly checkout in
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Also, you don't need a credit card at signup, you won't have to deal with any ads and it's
basically a way to keep doing everything you already do online but in a faster, safer and
more efficient way.
If you want to try it out for your own digital minimalism resolution, you can go to www.dashlane.com
slash mariana and get your free 30-day trial of Dashlane premium.
And if you enjoy your free-trial you can then use my promo code Mariana during checkout
for 10% off.
I hope you enjoyed today’s video.
Stay safe, and I’ll see you next week.
Bye guys.