Life In Lockdown - A Daily Routine

We’re all adjusting to an unprecedented global situation, some countries further along this path than others. The one thing that we can say for certain is that we’re entering a prolonged period where life will be different to anything any of us have known in our lifetime. We are all in this together even though we all have slightly different circumstances and different ways of coping. In the interest of hopefully providing something useful (maybe - you’ll be the judge of that), here are some ways I’ve come up with of coping with a very new living and working situation.

I’ve always been a creature who likes a routine, something to help me structure my day. Not everyone is like that but I think that, in times like these, having some routines (whatever they may be) can help to create some sense of normality and continuity when you’ve got a situation that is changing on a day by day basis. Here some of the things that have been helping me to get a bit of structure to my day.

Working
I appreciate that there are a huge number of people who are in very uncertain employment positions and I also appreciate that I’m fortunate enough to still be employed. Like many others, I’ve now made the shift to permanent homeworking which is an adjustment. Here’s how I’m getting used to a new way of working.

- Get up at the same time. I know what I’m like. If I start having a bit of a lie in, it’ll creep later and later. Plus when we do go get released back into the outside world, it’ll then be a struggle getting back into a routine. The bonus to this approach is that I now log on earlier and finish earlier (meetings permitting).

- Have a set lunch break. I’ve started putting it in my diary. I’m also closing down the laptop and not looking at it during lunch. 

Exercise
I’m in a house with “at risk” people at the mo so am completely confined.

- Use exercise to break the transition at the end of the day. I used to walk to the train station for half na hour as part of my commute. Now I run round the garden (a little like an animal in captivity doing something repetitive, yes). It marks the end of the working day and the start of the bit that that’s not the working day albeit it still in the same room.

- Lunchtime exercise. Only just started this but it seems to work. A bit of a go on the exercise bike at lunchtime to make me not sit at the desk and also aid hunger.

Writing
Yeah, I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I’ve seen a few places advise keeping a diary at the moment (particularly for kids). If nothing else, this is a unique time in history and, when it all does return to some semblance of normal, you may want to remember what you were thinking and feeling during this time. You’ll be surprised how quickly what we’re all feeling right now will fade once we’re no longer in this situation.

Anyway, that’s helping me at the mo. Some of it might help you, some of it might not. As with everything on here, offered freely with no obligation to take the slightest bit of notice of it.