We say “coronavirus” – we understand “self-isolation” and “remote work”… No matter how we feel about the news about the global misfortune, quarantine has already become a new reality for many (or is about to become). Being forced to stay at home can be annoying, or it can be a great opportunity. The whole question is how to look at the situation and organize your life in a confined space. About this – columnist Elena Sivkova.
In November 2018, I quit my job at an advertising agency and found myself at home, practically on my own. And suddenly I was completely stunned by the amount of free time that fell on me and which at first I was in no way ready to accept as an amazing and wonderful gift.
Having run through most of my life in the rhythm of a squirrel in a wheel and having absorbed at the DNA level the idea that this is how one should live and that this is how my relevance, usefulness and self-realization are manifested, at first I felt guilty for breaking out of this circle. For having free time, that I no longer spend three hours a day on the road, I don’t do what I don’t want to do anymore, and I sleep until 10 in the morning, and then I slowly make tea.
Over time, I learned to slow down. She arrogated to herself the right to sacrifice financial stability for the sake of free time. And I realized that at home there are an infinite number of interesting things to do – those that fill my day and help to live interesting, pleasant and even useful for the family and society.
What will help you survive within four walls and have fun?
Everyone has their own circumstances, children of different ages and in different numbers, certain features of communication in the family. But unplanned time at home can both please with new opportunities and unsettle. How can we help ourselves organize and enjoy ourselves?
1. Slow down
Once at home, and even as a result of such force majeure circumstances on a planetary scale, you can safely get rid of the feeling of guilt for doing nothing. Moreover, remote work or freelancing is not idleness, and sometimes even heavy workloads, because now colleagues do not waste time on the road.
As a friend noted on the second day of work in this mode: “We used to all gather in the office, drink coffee, swing and start working around eleven. And now it’s not even ten yet, and everything is already at the laptops in full readiness. ”
However, the opportunity to at least get out of the transport race and sit down to work in pajamas and with a sandwich in hand – is it not possible to find pleasure in this?
2. “Sticking” in the window
Strange as it may sound, but out of habit, sitting at home for a long time, you can get lost in the routine if you forget to look out the window. You can notice the weather, enjoy the sun, look at the sky, pay attention to the appearance of the first buds and then the leaves on the trees. The season, fortunately, provides a variety of pictures.
3. Save mode
Working remotely, I realized that the “owl” shift in the daily routine does not benefit either health or time management. And the rest of the world still lives in the usual mode. Getting enough sleep is wonderful and useful in every way, but it is better to keep the time of going to bed within more or less reasonable habitual boundaries.
4. Physical activity
Having prepared a dozen articles on the importance of physical activity, at first in this paragraph I wrote that yoga classes or a regular warm-up at home are really necessary for the body, especially if sitting at home sharply deprives it of its usual load.
Now I admit that this is difficult: for me, activity is still associated with movements in space, and for someone with classes in the gym, and then very good self-organization is needed for home exercises. Applications and videos with fitness programs to help.
5. Variety of cases
Planning your days and filling them with different things is really important so that the monotony does not consume you and turn two weeks or a month into one big groundhog day.
6. Change of location
It is clear that much is determined by the dimensions of the apartment or house, but if possible, it is still worth choosing where to do something, and moving at least from the room to the kitchen.
7. Planning for the future
Changes are inevitable: the quarantine period will pass sooner or later, life will get better one way or another, new opportunities will appear for movement, meetings, communication, concerts and other interesting events. It will be possible to travel again, and thinking about where we want to go or what kind of music to listen to can be pleasant and give optimism today.
8. Communication with family
For those parents who had to check their “homework” in the evenings on the run and leave communication with their children for the weekend, it was a great time. It can be used to establish contact with them.
- Home schooling? Wonderful! You can come up with a quest around the apartment on a topic that children go through in history, or put on a puppet show based on a work from the school literature curriculum.
- You can have a pajama party and watch movies together, since online cinemas do not stop working.
- Why not go through their childhood photos together with the grown-up schoolchildren, together remembering the fun moments?
- Perhaps someone will finally have enough time to do joint creativity: cook pizza together, build something incredible from the pillows in the house, sew a soft toy or compose a fairy tale.
- It’s time for culinary experiments – you can cook a cake or cookies together or teach the children how to fry scrambled eggs.
- The whole family can also take a virtual trip. There are many sites on the Internet with tours and excellent views that give the impression that we have visited a distant island, climbed an icy peak, or looked at Paris from the Eiffel Tower.
9. Vacation from family
This point does not contradict the previous one. If the whole family will be in the same space for a long time, everyone may need privacy and time for themselves so as not to get tired of each other. For this period, you can set rules: enter code words, for example, “I need time,” or allocate places where a child or adult can be alone.
10. Return to yourself
Maybe in childhood we dreamed of drawing, but we were sent to the sports section. Or have you always wanted to try knitting? Or maybe it’s time to re-read your favorite books of your youth and compare the impressions then and now, or watch that series that everyone was talking about last year.
If the situation gave time, then let it bring joy and help to take a break from the constant race, which sooner or later will surely continue.
11. Telephone conversations
I don’t remember when I talked so much on the phone, including using various online communication tools, as in recent days. Being turned off from the ordinary life of a working or educational team, people still want to communicate. We are social beings and need to communicate, so why not make time for it and call an old friend or aunt whom you haven’t seen for a long time and not talk in a lively voice instead of the usual quick messages?
Perhaps a grandmother from another city will gladly read a fairy tale to the children via Skype, and a grandfather will tell a funny story.
12. Home Ecotherapy
So you can call simple and enjoyable activities for many: fussing with pets, caring for indoor plants and growing seedlings. Green sprouts breaking through day after day in a pot can become a symbol of renewal and resilience for those who are especially worried and worried about forced quarantine. Life goes on, buds open, sprouts push their way into the light.
13. Spring update
Sowing at home, you can do spring general cleaning. Or even so – General Cleaning. Dismantle cabinets and mezzanines, throw away rubbish and metaphorically make room in life for something new and good. By myself, I can say that such cleaning has a positive effect on the mood.
All these ideas are not universal, someone is closer to one thing, someone else. Perhaps this list will give you new ideas on how to spend your quarantine time at home with the most pleasant emotions.