Quarantine habits? What’s a quarantine habit, you ask? Let me explain. It’s been an entire year since my company sent us all home to work remotely “for three weeks.” Of course, we now know that less than a month would actually be more than a year. In fact, we still don’t know when it will be safe to gather together in our downtown Cincinnati office.
It’s been a year of heartbreak, stress, and some of the lowest lows our society has ever had to face. I haven’t seen my mom since Christmas of 2019. We had to cancel the 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee. More than 500,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19. Like World War II or September 11th, this epidemic will be a defining moment in history for generations to come.
On the anniversary of a year spent working from home, I challenged myself to take a moment and consider all the positive things that have occurred. My coworker had a baby, who we all now get to see regularly over Zoom. I attended two virtual weddings and have a virtual baby shower to attend next month. I had the opportunity to be involved in more regional spelling bees than I ever have before, thanks to virtual competitions.
I’ve also kept up with a number of what I’m calling “quarantine habits.” They’re the little things that I’ve started doing over the past year that I want to keep in my life for years to come. You’ve probably also developed some quarantine habits. Maybe they involved writing more snail mail, taking online classes, or getting creative with your meal planning each week. Whatever they are, they’re the things that bring you joy, no matter what the world looks like or how serious your lockdown restrictions. I’ll share my quarantine habits, and you might find a place for them in your own routine!
Create a morning routine I love
This quarantine habit was one of the very first that I implemented. (I even wrote a blog post to help you develop the best morning routine for you!) Before I started working from home and my commute took more than 30 seconds, my mornings looked a little something like this:
6:00 a.m. Hit the snooze button
7:00 a.m. Realize I’ve spent an hour snoozing my alarm
7:05 a.m. Drag myself out of bed and wash my face
7:10 a.m. Frantically pull on whatever clothes I see first
7:15 a.m. Race to the bus stop and pray that I don’t miss my bus
To say it was stressful would be an understatement. I would leave for work in a terrible mindset and rush out the door without taking the time to center myself for the day ahead.
Now that I have extra time in the mornings, I’ve created a morning routine that prepares me for work while allowing me to do some of my favorite things right at the beginning of the day. Currently, that means reading a book, doing a quick meditation on the Balance app (get a free year in 2021), and making coffee. It’s a little indulgent, a little reflective, and a lot better than the mess I woke up to before.
Plan virtual events with my extended family
Before quarantine, every family event I attended would inevitably end with someone saying, “Why do we only get together for weddings and funerals?” To which we’d all respond, “Yeah, let’s do this again real soon.” And then we wouldn’t see each other until the next wedding or funeral.
Once the world shut down, though, I started seeing my dad’s side of the family every single week for Friday night happy hour. We spent Mother’s Day brunch virtually celebrating my mom and mother-in-law, something we never would’ve considered doing in the past. Instead of a normal call, I Facetimed my dad on his birthday. My cousins and I regularly get together to plan Among Us.
WHY DID IT TAKE A PANDEMIC FOR US TO REALIZE WE COULD DO THESE THINGS?!
If I could only keep up with one quarantine habit on this list, it would probably be this one. My family is spread all across the country at this point, and I’d hate to lose track of what’s going on in their lives when there are virtual ways to feel connected to each other.
Chat regularly with friends
When I began working from home, I decided to make an effort to reach out to people I hadn’t heard from in a while. Full disclosure, I have this inexplicable fear that I’ll bother people by reaching out, even the ones who I know are my friends. So I started with the person who I knew in my heart wouldn’t mind hearing from me: my college roommate.
(TikTok has convinced me that this weird quirk might be a millennial thing, so if you’d like to be added to my “call your friends” list, please reach out!)
Leigh and I hadn’t spoken regularly in years, partly because she’d been in Cameroon with the Peace Corps and partly because I am terrible at keeping up with friends. When I first reached out, we spoke nonstop for an hour before having to leave for work (me) and law school class (her). So then we scheduled another one. And another.
Now, we chat during my lunch break every other Friday, and it’s one of my favorite things on my calendar to look forward to. I don’t know why it took a pandemic for me to realize that I could reach out to the people I want to keep in touch with, but I’m grateful that she and I have both made time for each other. Our chats are a bright light during the sometimes slog of life, one of my favorite quarantine habits.
Take a lunchtime walk
When I worked in an office, I was terrible about actually taking a lunchbreak. I would either work straight through it or eat at my desk while mindlessly scrolling through the internet. Guess who was absolutely exhausted by 3 p.m. every day? And also had wicked dry eyes and regular headaches?
If you guessed me, you are so right! Since the weather is nice again, I’m back on my lunchtime walks, and I can’t express how much it improves my entire day.
- It’s a much-needed mental break.
- It cuts the day in two pieces and gives me motivation to finish strong.
- A walk physically removes me from screens for at least 30 minutes, which my eyes appreciate.
- It helps me get to my step goal each day.
And you don’t have to wait for lunchtime to take a walk. Sometimes I’ll walk during important meetings or webinars because it helps me pay attention. (AKA it keeps me from the temptation of “just doing a little work” and missing all the good stuff from the meeting!) I’ll also step away from my computer and get outdoors if I’m feeling stuck creatively or if my brain just isn’t working the way I need it to for whatever task I’m trying to accomplish. Basically, taking a walk is my favorite quarantine habit for whenever life gets to be too much!
Make self care a priority
Self care means something different to each of us, but we could all use a self care quarantine habit. Back when I began working from home, I compiled a list of all the ways I could practice self care. Learning a new skill, taking a bubble bath, baking bread.
That list became so long that I turned it into my self care challenge, an entire month of guided prompts to help you prioritize yourself. Since completing the challenge, I’ve found little ways to incorporate self care into my work-from-home life. In fact, some of these quarantine habits — daily meditation, reading books, taking lunchtime walks — all count as self care, too.
It’s been a stressful time for everyone over an extended period of time, which means we need to work even harder to be kind to ourselves. I do this every day through self care practices, which I’ll carry over into my back-to-normal life.
Wear a mask when I’m feeling sick
Why weren’t we all doing this before? Did it really take a global pandemic to make us realize how gross we were? I shudder to think of all the times I inadvertently spread my germs because I had to go to the grocery store or present in a meeting while battling a cold. Now that we’ve seen just how effective it is to wear a mask, I plan to keep mine handy whenever I have to be around people while feeling under the weather. Or better yet, I’ll make a point of staying home from work whenever I’m sick!
I know you have some great quarantine habits of your own! Share them with our community of heroines in the comments.
P.S. If you’ve finished all your puzzles and don’t know what to do, I put together an entire list of free ways to keep your brain engaged when you start feeling stir-crazy.
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