Five things that have made living in quarantine easier

Lockdown, as a whole, has been a bit of a blur. Days and weeks are ticking by, restrictions are slowly coming to an end, and we are making our way back to a certain sense of normality.

Since leaving university back in March, I feel as though I have handled the situation better than I thought I would. Of course, there have been difficult days and times where I have mourned for the independence I lost by moving back to my childhood home, but these have generally been few and far between.

Here are five things that have been a great help in keeping me sane during the quarantine period:

1. Keeping myself busy

I would say that keeping myself busy has been my main crutch during isolation. If I hadn’t have filled my days with university work, writing articles for Platform and doing other bits and bobs, I don’t think my sanity would have survived the first couple of weeks. Yes, it is all too easy to stay in bed all day and watch Netflix, and this might be the perfect coping mechanism for some people. However, for me, being productive is the best thing I can do for my mental health.

For anyone that is looking to improve their productivity, I would highly recommend writing to-do lists. Whether those be daily, weekly or as and when you need them, writing out a to-do list will do wonders for your motivation, particularly if you’re like me and enjoy the satisfaction of ticking something off.

Start with your main tasks and write them in bold – these could be things that need to get done on that specific day (deadlines, household chores etc.) Then, work smaller tasks into your day that you would like to get done but do not necessarily need to be done at a specific time. This way, you will give your brain a break while still being productive.

2. Routine

Following on from my last point, sticking to a routine is something I have found to be extremely beneficial to my mental health during quarantine. For example, I have tried (and often failed) to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Personally, I find my mood is lower if I wake up later in the day, so I try and avoid this by setting my alarm for 9 am Sometimes I wake up at this time, and sometimes I don’t, but my alarm is always a rude reminder that at some point, I will need to get out of bed.

For other people, the thought of doing the same thing at the same time every single day would be nightmarish. Still, I have strangely thrived off it, and I hope to continue doing something similar into the summer. I know that this will all go out of the window when we hopefully return to university in September though.

3. Exercise

Ah, the dreaded eight-letter word. Exercise has been a big part of my quarantine experience in quite a few different ways, which is something I wouldn’t have predicted a few months ago.

Going on daily walks and for a run several times a week has not only improved my fitness levels, but it also has given me an excuse to get out of the house and explore areas I didn’t even know were there. Having lived in my childhood home for the entirety of my life, myself and my family thought that we had seen everything there was to see. We soon discovered that we were wrong.

These daily walks have also enabled myself and my parents to spend some quality time together, away from the television. Although we may not always see eye to eye, this time is something that I will cherish in years to come.

4. Getting back into reading

As a child, I loved to read. In primary school, I would win reading competitions for the most books read in an allotted time; I’m not sure whether this was because I wanted to win or whether I actually enjoyed reading the books, but it was probably a mixture of the two. As I’ve got older, other things in the form of a hand-sized black box with an apple logo on the back have sadly taken priority in my interests.

However, it seems that I have used lockdown as an opportunity to get back into reading. There is nothing I enjoy more at the moment than sitting in the sun in the garden with a good book. Books are a great form of escapism, and can often make you forget about the menial trials and tribulations of everyday life. At the moment, I am living vicariously through the characters of Marianne and Connel in the book, ‘Normal People’, whose lives are definitely much more exciting than mine right now.

5. Appreciating the little things in life

This is something that I hadn’t really found myself doing until now. The coronavirus has forced my life to slow down to an almost halt, and although I am missing my previous freedoms, I am grateful to now have a much more appreciating mindset. I often find myself admiring flowers and trees on a walk, enjoying social interactions with other people much more than before and appreciating quality time with my family, which is time I will probably never have again at this quantity. I am grateful for my health, my parent’s health and the health of my family and friends, whom I will hopefully be able to see again properly at some point soon.

Although I long for an end to this mess of a situation, I will also be sad to see it leave. This is not because I don’t want to see the back of the horrible virus, but because I know that there will be little time to appreciate the small things again once our busy lives return. However, I hope that my increased positivity, productivity and healthy(ish) routine will continue into the foreseeable future.

Written by Jessica Goddard

Feature image credit: Unsplash