With the world still in lockdown and no end date in site, it can feel a bit bleak and hopeless at the moment. Normal life is on pause and we are all having to change our lives to make this situation work. Today, I thought I'd share with you how I've been adapting my life to living in lockdown and my plan going forward.
I wanted to take a moment to just say that wherever you are in the world, I hope you are staying safe and well. I know that it seems a bit dreary at the moment, but things will get better and we're all in this together.
Monthly Plans
One of the first things I did once it was announced we were going into lockdown in the UK, was sit down and make a series of monthly plans. For me, up until mid-May, my life is all about completing my deadlines and continuing with my uni work. So, like I said, I sat down and made some plans. I drew out handmade calendars for the remaining months I had in uni (the remainder of March and all of April and May). I wrote down when my deadlines were and worked backwards for what work needed to be done.
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| My monthly plan for April |
I've found doing this has given my days some structure as it means I have a set task for each day. One thing I will say about my approach is that I feel I have spread myself too thin and not given myself enough to do each day. I often only have one uni related task to complete a day and that can be done in anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hours. When there are so many hours free in a day, it can feel as though I have an excuse not to do work and wait until the last minute to do this.
My tip for you would be to try and find multiple tasks to complete in a day. Even if they are only a series of small tasks, it will feel that you have achieved more in a day than just having one big task. Going forward, once my deadlines are over, I am going to continue to make these monthly calendars. It has brought structure to my day and once I've made them, I write the tasks in my planner so I can physically tick them off.
Building a Routine
Something I have been missing is having a routine and one day when I was having an exceptionally bad day, I decided I would make myself a routine for while I still have uni commitments. At the time of publishing this post, I haven't started it, but my plan is to gradually introduce it to my life and see if it actually works for me.
When I was in university, I was actually pretty good at getting up, getting on with my day and using my time wisely. Since coming home, that has completely gone out of the window. I haven't been going to sleep until anywhere between 10:45 and 12, which is late for me and has been having knock on effects with my days. I've been struggling to wake up, meaning I don't start my day until the afternoon and then I feel that I don't want to do work. I am fully aware this is a bad habit and one I need to break, so I have decided to start having a stricter routine.
My routine is hopefully going to look something like this:
- 8am- wake up
- 8-9am- wake up, breakfast, reading
- 9am-12pm- work (mostly university, but some creative projects)
- 12-1pm- lunch with my family
- 1-4pm- work
- 4-5pm- stop work for the day
- 5-7pm- chill, go for a walk, make tea
- 7-10pm- TV, chill with my family
- 10-11pm- reading and bed
Good vs Bad
Something I feel is very important at the moment is to discuss openly when we're having bad days. I think it's very easy to say that we're going to make the most of this time and do so many amazing things, when in reality we're all struggling and living through a fairly traumatic event.
Being totally honest, I would say that I have more bad days than I do good. When this first started and I had just moved home, I was so sure that I was going to make the most of my days and get all my work done. I thought I was going to still live my normal life, just in a different building with different people. For the first full week I was home, I was happily getting everything done. However, since then, I have been struggling a lot. I feel exhausted all the time and I just don't want to do my university work, no matter how important it is. I haven't been starting work until the afternoon and even then, I only do it because I told myself I would. I love my uni course, but I am struggling to find a reason why I should continue.
Each night before I go to bed, I write in my journal and allow all my feelings to pour onto the page. 90% of what I write is just me whinging and being selfish, but it is cathartic to get it all out of my system. I wake up and although I don't feel quite like my old self, I don't feel as miserable as I did the previous day. I'm trying to have more good days, but it's hard and I think acknowledging that is an important step to feeling better.
So that was a quick overview of how I've been adapting to my life in lockdown. I feel that is important to share our experiences so that others can see how we're doing and we can all help each other to feel better during this difficult time.
Carenza :) x
