At the height of the global pandemic, it has been our innate responsibility to stay home and socially distance ourselves so we don’t acquire the virus or transmit the virus.
Everyone’s been doing their part in combatting coronavirus via self-isolation. This has been the best practice while the world waits for a vaccine.
Social distancing is the next best thing for our current situation, and we know that enduring the homelife for too long can be monotonous and boring. Not having the distraction of enjoying physical activity outside the house can lead to The Shining levels of cabin fever.
We have compiled some of the best ways to break the monotony of our lockdown situation; continue reading to learn more. Quick disclaimer, it’s best to routinely check your local public health advisories for the latest news.
Reorganise Your Home
If you’re working from home, creating a division between work and your personal time is one of the most challenging things to do.
We often mix our work with leisure, giving us the monotonous feeling that we’re always at work or in our workplace. The keywords here should be working hard and playing harder afterwards.
A wise way to fix that is reorganising your home and allocating an area that’s only designated to serve as your home office and nothing else.
The same idea applies to homeschooling for children; let them have an area they could use for their studies exclusively. This could be somewhere near your work-from-home set-up so you can watch their daily routine and schooling progress as well!
Having a dedicated workstation allows every place in your home to reclaim its identity as a place for you to relax and do whatever activity you wish to do.
Likewise, the extra time granted by the COVID-19 lockdown allows you to have some time to do general cleaning around the house – this can also be a fun activity to do with the kids!
Reconnect with Your Loved Ones
When occupied with our careers and busy schedules, we often overlook our relationships with our loved ones.
We tend to spend so much time on our own lives and forget to build relationships with friends and family.
Reconnecting is much easier with the extra time on our plates and with everyone being very active on videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and social media platforms like Facebook.
Phone and video calls aren’t just for work; we’re sure your friends and family would also appreciate one. Current health issues aside, there are ways we can make the most of the time we have!
Since we can’t see new faces in the outside world, might as well see some old ones while you’re home, right?
Practice Self-Care
For a lot of us, this is our first time experiencing a pandemic, and this is everyone’s first time having so much time for ourselves in years.
Not to be insensitive about the world’s current situation, but you also have your mental health and well-being to attend to.
Find things you can do at home that lead to self-improvements, such as exercising or yoga, for instance.
Regular exercise breaks the monotony of being at home and helps you get healthier – we all know how important health is nowadays.
You can also take a lot of the quiet time at home and use it to meditate, relax, and breathe fresh air in your backyard.
If that’s not enough, you can also entertain yourself. Spend the time to have fun and catch up on your favourite TV shows on Netflix, or spend that time with your family. It’s time to give yourself time to watch those trending shows and movies!
Adding up small things to your daily schedule can create a less monotonous day at home, and you won’t even realise that your day has ended sooner than you thought it would.
Learn Something New
If there’s a perfect time to learn something new or to start a new hobby – it’s while you’re bored at home.
You can easily google what you want to learn and try it out for yourself. Plus, there would be nobody to judge you if you mess up!
Ever wanted to try cooking Mediterranean food? Try it now when you’re the only one who can taste it; you never know – you might be good at it.
Have an old piano you’ve never used? Why not learn how to play it? It might not be as difficult as you think.
Use your own time at home to explore new things and learn new things to do that you never thought was possible before.
After this coronavirus pandemic, you can surprise your loved ones with things they never thought you knew how to do. Last year’s version of you might even be surprised with the current you!
Restructure Your Work Schedule
One of the most significant factors that make our life monotonous is how our schedules look the same every single day.
You wake up in the morning, make breakfast, freshen up, begin working, make dinner, watch tv, and then sleep.
Just looking at that string of daily activities already sounds boring.
If your work arrangements permit it, try to break your daily pattern and reallocate your daily activities differently.
Having a less patterned schedule tricks your brain that you’re doing different things every day, even when you aren’t.
A reorganised schedule on its own can do wonders in making sure that you don’t feel or experience monotony in your daily life during the lockdown.
Final Thoughts
We never know whenever we can have this much time with ourselves again at home; following some of the tips mentioned above would ensure that your part in the COVID-19 efforts does not just become a faint memory.
The lockdown is monotonous and boring when you allow it to be monotonous and boring.
Take this time to have fun, reconnect with your loved ones, learn new things, to take care of yourself – years down the road, you’d have a fantastic memory of the time you were quarantined.
