It’s time to Beat Lockdown Fatigue (And Make Most Of The Stay At Home Situation)

*This is the third blog in our Coronavirus miniseries. Check out our other blogs in the series as we discuss how to stay healthy during the lockdown.

Despite any personal inconveniences the lockdown may have caused, most people would agree that there is a rationale behind the restrictions, and any disruptions to one’s lifestyle is ultimately for the greater good. But that doesn’t mean being trapped in your apartment for months at a time without the ability to be with friends and family is any fun. Indeed, there is a not insignificant chance that the tedium of the process can lead to mental health issues, or at the very least, result in moments of complete frustration with the situation. Lockdowns may be lifting around the world but this probably isn’t the last time we will see lockdowns happen - in fact you should probably prepare for lockdowns happening more and more in the future. Here are some tips to avoid lockdown fatigue whenever you find yourself trapped at home.

HAVE A ROUTINE

During a lockdown it’s easy for hours and days to merge together. The monotony can be disorienting if you lose yourself in the continuity of time as it passes by. Create a morning routine to maintain some structure to your day. Wake up at a set time, do the same things you would normally do if you had to get up to go to work. Brush teeth? Shower? Shave? Get into ‘work’ clothes? Whatever you would normally do, do it, and don’t leave it until later in the day even if you can just because you are now working remotely. It also helps to have meals at a similar time each day and to stay disciplined about stopping work at a set time.

REMOVE THE CLUTTER

The lockdown is the perfect time to tune into your inner Marie Kondo and declutter your life. When there is a wider backdrop of uncertainty and stress in the world around you, it is not the time to have irrelevant things busying your mind or leading to a lack of calm. Take the time you have in your home to look around and see if there is anything that doesn’t need to be there - anything that doesn’t give you joy. Go through your clothes and see if there is anything that you can give to charity or remove from your wardrobe. There may be things that you don’t like or need that have found their way into a lonely corner of your apartment out of laziness when it really should have been left in your hotel room before coming home from that holiday.

SEPARATE WORK AND PLAY

Working from home has its challenges for a company that needs to ensure that its workforce is working hard and staying focused across many different locations. But for the individual who is stuck at home and working remotely, there is a completely different kind of challenge. When your home space and workspace become the same it is all too easy to confuse the two and blur the distinction between work and play. After all, who’s checking? While it sounds like a great set up to be able to have your work in front of you and a Netflix program going at the same time, there are some serious psychological repercussions to deal with if you’re not able to get the balance right. A good place to start is to designate a physical place inside your home that is identified as your workplace. It doesn’t matter if this place is a spare bedroom, one end of your dining table, or even just a few square feet of floor in the corner of your living space. The point is that when you are in there you are working, and when you want to do something recreational you do it outside of that space. To do this effectively, you should also allow yourself regular breaks and the chance to walk around, stretch and go hang out at your imaginary water cooler so that your brain can reset and refresh.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

It’s all too easy when you are stuck at home to assume that those months of sweating at the gym and eating carefully are all lost and there is nothing left to do but eat comfort food and curl up on the sofa until it’s all over. How wrong you are. A lockdown more than ever is the right time to focus on your physical health and take conscious steps to improve your diet. Find some time to get about 30 mins of exercise at least a few times each week, even if it means doing jumping jacks and press-ups in front of your bed. While some food items may not always be available throughout the lockdown, you will often find that it is the healthy stuff that people tend to ignore when it comes to panic buying, when the emphasis is on survival rather than refining your lifestyle. Take advantage of this and stock up on the good stuff. If you haven’t done this already, check out our earlier blog in this series about how to eat healthy during the lockdown.

TURN IT INTO A STRENGTH

The lockdown may come with all kinds of problems but it also presents you with a rare opportunity. When was the last time you spent so long at home without distractions? How many hours a week are you saving without having to commute everyday? How much are you saving by not eating out and drinking in bars? Depending on what you want to improve, you may be able to turn the lockdown into a great opportunity to improve an aspect of your life that you didn’t have time to focus on before. If you own your own place this may also give you a chance to get things done that you have been putting off for a while. Are there pictures that have been sitting on the floor for 2 years that should really be hanging nicely over your table? Is there a wall that needs repainting? A bike that needs mending? Luckily, this lockdown has happened at a time when most things can be delivered to your door in a matter of days in most countries around the world. You may not have that exact color of paint sitting there ready to use, but you can order it online along with some over-sized overalls and a couple of brushes and repaint that bathroom that you’ve been discussing for so long.