How did you get through quarantine?

As the world gears towards returning to their respective workplaces, it is important that we identify the routines & habits we developed during our time working from home, that benefited us and those which did not. In this article I intend to focus more on the positive habits which I will carry forward into my daily routine and would like to hear from my connections some of their habits and routines which kept them mentally and physically well.

Communications & Social Media:

We live in an age of constant bombardment from multiple social media and communication platforms but I find there is a distinct difference in how said platforms affect you during your workday, especially when used more than needs be.

Video call apps such as House Party, WhatsApp Video Call, Zoom and Microsoft teams become the go to meeting place for work and social gatherings, I found all of those to be useful and positive tools, for many reasons, mostly the benefit of being face to face with your colleagues and friends during extended periods of lock down was a slice of heaven, we are social beings at heart and hate the feeling of being alone, this made things seem… not that bad. On the negative side, I found Instagram purely time wasting and will seriously consider limiting my time this app to about 5 min a day in future.

Routine:

I bet a few months ago most of us said how we would be so much better rested with that extra hour sleep if we didn’t have to commute to work and back, look at you now, are you well rested?

Having a routine in place with goals and timelines is very important, I have always been a goal orientated person and developed a habit years ago where I write down my goals for the next day in the last 30 min of my workday and also reflect on the parts of my day that didn’t go so well which I may be able to improve. I fully understand how at the end of a long day all you want to do is sit down with your favorite snack and turn on some possibly mind-numbing content on Netflix, The Tiger King perhaps? But starting your day with your objectives already set definitely puts a spring in your step and a gift in your gab. Limiting power naps and catching up with friends is an essential skill to keep your routine in place.

Mental health:

It’s amazing this topic has only become popular recently in the work place, what were we all doing before, screaming into our pillows?

 I’ll focus more on those of us, like myself who are bachelors or bachelorettes and had to enter quarantine on our own. My two methods when feeling down were either speaking to a friend or colleague about how I feel and getting at least an hour of exercise per day, I’m sure some of us have become endorphin junkies over the last few weeks. The moment you realize while speaking to a friend or colleague that they are experiencing similar feelings and going through similar problems then you cease to feel so isolated and down, a sense of camaraderie goes a long way. As for physical exercise, I’ll dive into that in the paragraph below, but it is essential to keep our bodies functioning well both mentally and physically. I did miss socializing and catching up with friends over the weekends, after a while, the video chats became somewhat mundane.

Diet and Physical Exercise: (OR lack thereof ??)

Immediately this topic will divide the crowd into two distinct groups, those of us who took this as a time to focus on refining what we put into our bodies plus design a workout routine which we could fit in our work from home schedule AND those of us who did not...

Personally, I decided to cook all of my meals and add in more progressive home workouts in the hopes of improving my physical shape and what I found is that it kept me so motivated and energized for work, I cannot see myself going back to ordering in to the office again. I would be interested to hear the creative ways that you exercised with a lack of gym of equipment and space to run?

For those of us who gave in to temptation, the gyms are reopening soon and I’m sure your tailor will appreciate the influx of business ??

In summary I have learnt a lot about self-motivation, physical health, diet and productivity which I will be passing on to my colleagues and anyone who would like to share information between fellow humans, I strongly advise us all to do the same.

Please do comment and share if you found this article stimulating or if it made you think and reflect about your time in quarantine, I look forward to interacting with you all!