It’s probably getting old, this stay at home thing. You eat there, sleep there, relax there and now, if you are lucky, you are working there too. And the joy of it all compounds with each child, each one no doubt less than thrilled about their own need to “shelter in place.”
We have some advice from some experts on how to survive the quarantine.
As someone who has worked from home in the frozen tundra for the past 8 years, I have learned a few key lessons. Here are my tips to staying home for long periods of time.
1) Put on pants. Dress like you do in public. Wear makeup. Comb your hair. Shower. Believe me, you’ll be sooo depressed after 5 days of sweatpants and bed head.
2) Don’t sit on the couch in front of the TV with your laptop and think you’ll get any real work done. Use all the rooms in your house. Try TV in the basement to make it an event, or at least something different from the rest of your life.
3) Schedule meals 3-a-day like any normal person. Because eating only when bored or hungry will result into extra weight gain.
4) Stay engaged. Texting friends/co-workers is ok but not social. Call them. FaceTime them. Sometimes you need support. I recall someone replying ‘ok’ in a text and it sent me off the rails after a week of not talking to anyone. It was all in my head, but also my fault for not just picking up the phone.
5) Be nice. To your spouse. Your kids. Your dog. It seems like a no brainer, but it seriously takes effort. Remember the last day of your last vacation when everyone was yelling at each other and couldn’t wait to go their separate ways? Yeah, unless you make a conscious effort to be nice, that is going to be your life from now on.
6) Most importantly, be human. Exercise. Cook dinner. Do a renovation project, a puzzle. You must keep sane. Fight the depression. It seeps in unawares if you just allow yourself to ‘exist’.
I’m totally serious. All these things keep you grounded and help you avoid turning into Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Stay safe in there!
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