Use Your Self-Quarantine Period To Establish These 6 Habits

With the entire world going on an indefinite lockdown, and a universal mandate to restrict social interactions, one of the inevitable outcomes of the COVID-19 outbreak will be a sudden barrage of alone time. You always dreamt of this, talked incessantly about needing alone time, but now that you finally have the opportunity, you have no idea how to use it. 

 

 

Well, two things can happen here. You can either occupy most of your newfound alone time with entertaining reality TV shows and bowls of popcorn, drowning out every need and responsibility in your life, because "come on! there's a pandemic out there!"

 

Or....you can use this time wisely to improve your life in such a way, that when things finally get going again, and you step back out into the world, you do so as a transformed person ready to live his/her best life from here on. Okay so maybe a life transformation is slightly far-fetched. But just using your self-quarantine period to establish these essential habits, will improve things to a tremendous extent. 

Image Courtesy - Pinterest

 

1. Reading 

Reading is one of those habits that everybody talks about and includes in their NYE resolution, but one that inevitably ends up taking a backseat in terms of priority. Well, guess what? You can no longer say "not as much as I'd like to" the next time someone asks whether you read. Because, really, what's stopping you now? Broaden your horizon, know cool things, or simply get lost in someone else's imagination, but use your self-quarantine period to read, read, and read. 

 

2. A Fixed Sleeping Schedule 

With most of the working population across the world now working from home, the definition of your working hours is about to get real blurry. Cause when you're at home, you can no longer say "Hey, can we do this tomorrow? I already left work for the day!" So, managing your time and communicating boundaries becomes ever important. And so does the need to sleep at a specific time. You don't want to spend your self-quarantine period, perpetually jet-lagged, do you? 

 

3. A Morning Ritual 

Yep, chances are you've already heard about this enough. How you spend the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. And we are sure that regardless of whether you're a morning person or not, you know deep down that this statement is indeed accurate. So, now that your day isn't as sharply demarcated, or you might even have the luxury of not setting an alarm at an ungodly hour, take this time to establish a morning ritual, however simple it might be. The drastic difference in your mindset will soon become apparent. 

 

4. Regular Exercise (But The Kind You Enjoy) 

Before you scroll onto the next one, hear us out, kay? We aren't asking you to invest in weights, and begin strength-training from your bedroom. Or even start jogging early in the morning to get some workout and avoid people at the same time. We are just asking you to do some, any, physical activity that you enjoy, and make it a habit to do it at least for a while, every day. It could be dancing to 90s Bollywood numbers, yoga with your mother, or skipping rope with your partner. As long as your body gets some regular movement in, we'd call it a success. 

 

 

5. De-Cluttering 

Tying into the same point of having fewer boundaries at home, keeping things organised and chaos-free is now especially important, as your productivity on WFH days will be directly impacted by whether your room is a mess. So, establish some quick habits that will ensure whatever space you're in, remains clutter-free. Like, clear out your used mugs as soon as there are more than 2, use notes to put important reminders, assigning categories to files and folders, etc. 

 

6. Discovering Cool Stuff By Yourself

Bait your curiosity. If something interesting comes up, research and read about it. A new genre of movies catching your attention? Try watching a film. Always wanted to give Hindi hip-hop a shot? Look for popular artists on Spotify. Basically, use your self-quarantine period to become more self-sufficient, and self-reliant. 

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Still here? Get to it, now! See you on the other side.