How To Stay Sane When You Have to Stay Home: Things You Can Do To Keep Busy During Quarantine (“Social-Distancing”)

Lockdown

We are in the midst of a global pandemic.

It's not clear how long it will take for things to go back to normal, or what normal will look like once this is all over. All we know for certain is that for the time being, in order to keep ourselves and others safe, we must stay at home.

For some, it has been days, and for others, weeks since state and national governments around the world set new directives instructing the general public and non-essential workers to stay at home. This includes working from home during the week and staying indoors at the weekends. This is completely new to most of us, and unsurprisingly, people are struggling - that's right, you're not alone.

As long as you're part of the privileged groups of people who still have access to food, water, shelter, electricity and a steady internet connection, your main concern right now is probably how to stay busy, or at the very least, how to prevent yourself from dissolving into a puddle on your couch or bed.

Evenings and Weekends

You probably have a lot more time in the evenings and at weekends than you're used to. You might find yourself wondering what to do with that time. Rest and sleep are perfectly fine answers, by the way, but there's a limit to how much of that you can do, and to the benefits of doing nothing.

If you're tired of sleeping and watching TV here are some other suggestions:

• Find a fun home workout - Yoga, pilates and aerobics can all be done with little to no additional equipment and will ensure you stay, fit, strong and flexible. Youtube is a great resource and it's free.

• Start or join a virtual book club. If you've been saying you want to read more, then this current is a perfect time. The books don't need to be too long, serious or heavy. If books feel like too much of a commitment, then you could try articles instead. Pocket is an excellent resource if you are in the habit of bookmarking and losing or forgetting about saved online articles you want to read.

• Learn a new cooking recipe or perfect one you already use. With restrictions on movement in place, it's likely that you're eating out a lot less. What's in your fridge and cupboard? Check online for quick and easy recipes. This is a great way to use up random food items and to reduce waste.

• Start or join a virtual film club. Since most of us are watching a lot more TV and film, why not turn this into a social activity and brush up on your film-critiquing skills? It'll force you to pay more attention and help you find new ways to process and analyse visual information.

• Play Games: Boards games, card games, trivia and puzzles are great ways to pass the time, and connect with others. Keep your brain active and have some fun.

Work on Professional Skills and Personal Development

• Pick up a new language or resume learning an old one. Learning a new language can be done from the comfort of your home. Rosetta Stone, Duolingo and Babbel are available online and via mobile apps. My personal favourite is Duolingo. I refreshing my French and learning Brazilian Portuguese.

• Update your CV and LinkedIn. I've seen plenty of people complain about this advice, but this really is the perfect time to do it. This pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty, job insecurity, and in some cases, a spike in unemployment. Now that you no longer have to commute to and from work, you may have some extra time on your hands, and figuring out how best to market your skills and abilities is a huge plus. Take advantage of this time - it could be a great distraction.

• Learn something new. This could be a topic, skill or acquiring a certification. If the thought of having to submit work to follow an academic timetable feels a bit much there are self-paced options for online learning; Coursera, EDX, Udemy, HBS Online and others offer an array of free online courses. You can also use books, podcasts, or live online learning events.

Get Your House in Order

Focus on putting things in place at home, both literally and figuratively. If ever there were a time when you should have a clear view of your finances cash inflows, outflows and investments, it's now.

Money

• Create a budget. If you're not usually one for budgeting, you might want to consider it now.

• Track and analyse spending: Going out less, should mean spending less, but that might not be the case if you're not properly tracking your spending. Cancel all non-essential spending, and hold onto your cash.

• Do some financial planning: Hopefully, your job isn't impacted by current global events, but act and plan as if it might be. What might change if you lost your job next month?

Home

• Tidy up: You have time to tidy - that's not as easy when you're stuck in your normal routine. Now you can tackle it little by little, and if you're home with family or friends everyone can get involved.

• Clean: Our homes need to be cleaner than ever. It's an ongoing effort, and you will need to be more conscious and deliberate about keeping surfaces clean.

• Clear out: consider getting rid of old possessions such as toys, books, shoes and clothes. Bag them up and put them aside for charity donations (lots of churches and other organisations collect clothes and shoe donations).

• DIY: Your home may need minor superficial repairs. If there are things that you can learn or do yourself, do some research online and see if you can solve the problem. If you have a garden, you could learn how to take care of it and save some costs there too.

Get Creative: Start that Passion Project

If you've always wanted to learn how to:

• Write

• Dance

• Paint

• Draw

• Take pictures

• Cook or bake

Whatever it is, now is the time!

The strain and stress of current events, as well as the constant bombardment of bad and scary news, can have a draining effect, so it's up to you to push yourself. We don't yet know how long it will take for this to all be over, but however long that is, it's important to remember that life hasn't stopped, and neither should you. By no means am I advocating that you do everything in these lists? Why not pick 1-2 activities to keep yourself busy? The more you can find to do at home, the less likely you are to step out and risk getting yourself or others sick.

Should You LOVE Your Job?

February is traditionally the month of love, so we’re talking about love and work, and how we feel about it.

Do you Love your job?

If your answer is yes, congratulations - you’re in the minority. Take some time to think about what specifically you love about your job; the challenge, your clients, colleagues, the actual work or tasks, exposure, benefits, or maybe it’s just the pay. Whatever it is, you should feel good that you have found something fulfilling that hopefully meets your financial needs. That’s a good use of your time.

If, like most people, your answer is no, then the good new is you’re not alone. But is not loving your job a bad thing?

Does your job have to be your ‘purpose’ or passion?

In my opinion, no. But it should be an enabler. By this, I mean, getting up every day and going to work, to do a job that you don’t love, should be moving you closer to or directly enabling you to do what you do love.

For those who don’t love their day jobs, it’s a means to an end, and should support the pursuit of whatever gives you purpose or makes you feel fulfilled. This might mean the money you earn is saved towards a personal project, passion or venture, or it could mean you’re using the skills and experience you’re getting from your job to prepare you for the next thing you have your mind set on. Perhaps your job helps you keep the lights on at home, so that you can work on the book you’ve been writing for a year each day after work. Perhaps you’re saving enough to start your own business. Perhaps you’re the bottom of the food chain, working with the boss from hell, but you know this bad gig will increase your exposure and get you a better one.

What should your job give you?

Your job should give you the time/money/other resources required to work towards fulfilling your ‘purpose’ or passion. Work for most of us is a transaction. That’s what it boils down to; someone pays you for your time, labour and skills in cash and/or benefits.

At the very least, here are a few things you should get from your job:

1. Money. To live. To pay for housing/accommodation (unless, you don’t need this because, for example, you live at home), food, transportation, etc. Sometimes you just need to make a living. Sometimes a job is just about survival.

2. Skills, development opportunities, and experience

3. Both.

If your job isn’t giving you one, two, or ideally 3, it may be time to re-think your current employment situation. Survival is ok as a short-term plan, but most of us want to do more than survive. I know I do.

Should you HATE your job?

The short and long answer to this is no - you shouldn’t hate your job, and if you do, and it’s at all possible for you to leave, then start planning your exit strategy (we can cover this in another blog post). If leaving isn’t an option just yet, then here are some tips:

• Find joy: identify specific tasks, activities or interactions you genuinely enjoy, figure out what you like about them, and try to spend more time doing them.

• Job-Shadow: observe someone in a position you admire, and see how they approach their work. Make note of what you like, and don’t like, and the behaviours or mindset it might be useful for you to adopt in the workplace.

• Learn something new: pick up a task or responsibility that you think might be useful later, e.g. being the minute-taker in a meeting isn’t exactly fun, but it gives you an opportunity to develop and improve your communication and writing skills - it also teaches you to be accountable for something. There are also thousands of online courses you could take to up-skill yourself, making you more competitive for other jobs out there.

• Talk to someone: A problem shared really is a problem halved. Find someone you trust and talk to them about work - get their perspective and see if they can share any coping mechanisms they have found helpful with you. If all else fails, talk to us!

• Plot your escape: maybe you can’t leave right now, but at some point in the future, that could change, and you need to be ready. Make a list of things you need to do in preparation for your departure, and work your way through that list.

Conclusion

I’ve had roles I’ve loved, and roles I have hated, and the great thing about both, is that they steered me towards the people and things I like. A terrible job makes it easier to identify tasks, activities and work environments that you do not like, and a great job teaches you the opposite. Either way, you are learning, growing, and will become a more intuitive professional if you take the time to reflect on your feelings about your job or business. Even in cases where they might be limited, you do have some choices. You can move, and potentially miss out on something; earn less, or compromise on benefits, job security, proximity to your home, the field or sector, the people you work with, etc. But there’s also the possibility that you could make a career move, and find yourself in a far better position. Experience is a valuable, tradable commodity, as long as you know how to market and sell it. What are you currently doing with yours?

We can’t all love our jobs, unfortunately. Most jobs aren’t lifelong, thankfully. Make a change if you can, if you must, and if you can’t, make a way for yourself that leads you to better working conditions and better quality of life.

You don’t have to love every moment of your career, but you should have a vision of where you want to go, and you should love that!