Live Like An Astronaut Who Knows Something About Isolation: Design Your Day!
Please don’t underestimate the challenge to your mental health that COVID-19 represents. A University of Toronto study of people under quarantine during the SARS epidemic found 31 percent experienced depression and 29 percent symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. It's not unreasonable to expect a much greater mental health impact from the current crisis, but we can mitigate the psychological risk by learning to live like an astronaut.
Scott Kelly spent a year living on the International Space Station, a total lockdown in zero gravity where going outside required days of preparation and quitting was not an option. Scott Kelly knows something about how to thrive in isolation, and at the top of his list of advice is to structure your day.
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”– William Blake describes his romantic routine
For many of you, recent events have resulted in a toxic cocktail of isolation, uncertainty and disruption. The openendedness of the viral crisis can leave you feeling out of control. When you design your day you give your day structure and the ability to be intentional about incorporating wellness practices into your life that set you up for the better days ahead.
Do it now: set up a daily design, incorporating as many wellness—sleep, step, sweat, reflect, and connect—breaks as possible. Sleep should be at the top of the priority list: setting a bedtime and wake-up time at least seven hours apart will not only give your body the consistency it craves, but also the time it needs to maximize your immunity. Opportunities for connecting via technology with others is next important, followed by ample time devoted to movement throughout the day. Reflection that can take the form of meditation, journaling or becoming immersed in the meditative state of flow that naturally happens when you lose yourself in learning, creating art or a pursuing a favourite hobby.
Here’s an example to inspire you:
I love allowing the first of hour of the morning after breakfast--my "commute time"--to read or listen to one of my favourite podcasts while enjoying a cup of coffee. Seth Godin says I should consume only five minutes of news per day, but I devote no more than ten minutes to a review of the headlines. When the hour is up, it's time to dive into work. I do some deep work for a couple of hours with a five-minute break every half-hour or so to walk around or do a small chore (during one such break I actually washed a single window!). After a deep work session, it's off for an hour-long walk with the dogs (I'm checking the movement, reflection, and nature boxes.) Upon returning, it's lunchtime. The afternoon is for administrative tasks and connection--things like email and meetings and catching up with people at a virtual coffee machine. Again, I try to break it up with short restorative breaks. I bookend my day with an online workout--either yoga or cardio. It's tempting to turn the evening into an extended Netflix binge, but I try to mix it up with knitting, planning a painting, working on the 2,000 piece puzzle I have on the go, learning some more Italian with Duolingo, or connecting via video with friends and family, the choice dependent on how I am feeling. Before I know it, it's time for bed. If there's one thing on my schedule that's non-negotiable, it's the eight hours I devote to sleep that I ease into with a warm bath, a good physical book and a few moments of gratitude.
The idea isn't to design your day like a boot camp (unless you like that kind of thing) but to give your day some architecture, bookending the workday so that it doesn't take over your home life, and scheduling an assortment of wellness activities that you enjoy. Don't leave the day to chance and the possibility you may find yourself slipping jammie-clad into a rabbit hole, burrowing deeper and deeper into bad news, then flop on the couch for a triple Netflix feature of Contagion, Outbreak and Pandemic, washed down with shots of tequila. Be kind to yourself. Don't expect you will be as productive as you usually are, and forgive yourself if your drift off-schedule and into that rabbit hole.
“You will find maintaining a plan will help you and your family adjust to a different work and home life environment. When I returned to Earth, I missed the structure it provided and found it hard to live without.” ― Scott Kelly
Please share your design secrets in the comments so that others can benefit from the way you spend your day.