Three weeks at home!?!?!
Expectation: I am going to get SO MUCH DONE! I’m going to clean and organize my whole house, write two novels, catch up on all of the blog posts I want to write, read 3 books, exercise and drink smoothies EVERYDAY…
Reality: Three weeks have gone by, and WHAT HAVE I REALLY DONE?!?!!
Do you feel like you’re losing your mind a little bit?
Do you feel like your mental and physical health are suffering?
Do you feel like you’re not getting as much done as you wanted to accomplish?
Well, two things…
1. Blame it on Carole F___ing Baskin!
(Ok, I kid…but not really. Have you seen Tiger King yet!?!)
2. This is not a vacation. We’re in crisis mode. Nothing is normal. Everyone is struggling. Please give yourself (and everyone else) some grace. We are all doing our best.
We all just want to stay safe and healthy, and we want to keep our families safe and healthy too.
I know that I have been sleeping A LOT, which happens to be a coping mechanism of mine. Whenever I am stressed or overwhelmed, I shutdown.
I have been beating myself up for not being as “productive” as I think I should be.
(“It’s been three weeks already. What have you actually accomplished!?!” says my inner dialogue.)
I am a perfectionist (does not mean I am perfect by any means lol). Just means that I set unrealistic expectations for myself, and I am super hard on myself when I don’t meet them. Which in turn, makes meeting them even harder.
It’s a vicious cycle. Being a perfectionist also means that I get stuck in an all-or-nothing mindset. I take on too many new things (or too many things from my To-D0 list at once). Then when I’m not perfect at completing them, I get overwhelmed and stressed, I shutdown, and I don’t do any of it.
If you’re interesting in mindset stuff, I recommend this book.) Once you realize that you’re in an all-or-nothing mindset, you can start taking steps to get out of it and into a growth mindset 🙂
I have been using a planner, and I have been keeping track of the things I DO manage to accomplish everyday too.
But I’m finding that I’m still trying to take on too much at once. I’m still over complicating things.
So I thought, what would this look like if it were easy?
I came up with a simplified version…a little freebie for me and for everyone…to help us take care of our mental health, physical health, and to still feel productive every day.
Why a simplified version?
Well before we can go all out and do all this fancy time blocking in our planners or google calendars, we need to build some trust with ourselves.
Every time we say we are going to do x, y, and z, but then don’t follow through, we erode that trust with ourselves.
We need to build up the follow through muscle.
What this means is that you need to pick one thing (and only one thing) per category. Whatever you write down, you gotta stick to it and get it done. That’s the deal.
I’m into a lot of personal development stuff. The number one thing that so many people say is that we (as humans) tend to overestimate what we can get done in a day, but we underestimate what we can get done in a year.
If we just show up for ourselves consistently, we WILL get it done. In a years time, we’ll be able to look back and see how much we truly accomplished.
For someone (like me) who tends to get into an all-or-nothing mindset, it becomes really difficult at times to stay consistent and to keep showing up for yourself.
So what we’re working on here is taking care of your sanity during this weird time, AND building up your follow through. You’ll feel better about yourself all around.
And I’ll be working on it right there with you too.
Set the intention, and then follow through.
The freebie (the quarantine sanity sheet) is broken down into three sections…
Section 1: Is For Your To-Do List
We all have one.
Lists are great, but do you ever notice how your list keeps growing and growing and you never seem to accomplish as much as you’d like?
We beat ourselves up for not being productive enough, which only makes us less productive.
In order to DO MORE, we actually need to DO LESS. (At least just humor me, and try it.)
The amount of time it takes you to complete something will expand into the amount of time you allow yourself. So many of us (me!) are finding that we have “all day” and “all month,” but really you need to limit the amount of time you give yourself for the task so that you get it done faster.
If I give myself one month to write a blog post, you better believe that it’ll take me a whole month.
If there is a special project you’re working on, then create a list of the needle moving tasks that you need to accomplish and put those onto the quarantine sanity sheet. Try to avoid picking the busy work stuff.
If you don’t have something special you’re working on (an it is OK if you don’t), a lot of my ideas in my Things To Do During Your Quarantine Post would be great for my quarantine schedule freebie.
I have seen a lot of people struggling (heck I think we’re all struggling) with stress, anxiety, not being able to sleep…
So write out that nice big long To Do List. Then look at your week and schedule one thing per day.
It’s better than sitting around indulging in worry and fear. I know how tempting that is to do. It’s a constant battle with my anxiety, so I get it.
I also know you that it’s tempting to want to schedule more than one To-Do item per day, but please resist the urge. If you end up having extra time (after completing everything else) then pick something else from your list and follow through.
It will help your sanity if you are slowly but surely knocking things off your list.
Section 2: Is For Your Mental Health…Your Mind, Spirit, & Soul
Ok, so I realize that many people consider mind, spirit, and soul to be different.
I’m trying to keep things simple for us here. (No need to over complicate in an already over complicated time!)
One idea for preserving your mental health during this time is to do what I like to call a “Brain Dump” first thing in the morning.
Journal. Get it all out. Do it again at night before bed if the doom and gloom of the evening news is weighing you down.
I have talked about this before, but our brains like to loop thoughts. After you start doing a daily brain dump, you might get an interesting insight into what you’re really thinking about and how often your thoughts are recycling/looping.
If you want to get out of old thought patterns and create new ones, then it helps to know what those patterns are! To know what those patterns are, you gotta write your thoughts down!
I also suggest practicing gratitude every single day! It can really help to change your mindset. Think about three things you’re grateful for and why. You can write those out if you choose to journal at night.
Other ideas for your mental health:
Meditate
Pray
Read
Do a puzzle
Make FaceTime, Houseparty, or Zoom dates. (Watch out for creepers on Zoom though. Apparently meetings are getting hacked!)
Make time to do things you love. Work on your passion project or a craft.
Listen to a podcast.
Again, make sure you pick one thing per day! If you find you have more time, THEN pick something additional.
Section 3: Is For Your Physical Health…Your Body
Remember to get up and stretch and MOVE. If you’re staring at a screen all day, consider investing in some blue light blocking glasses (they’re not expensive by any means!). You might sleep better at night too.
Exercise. Dance. Yoga. Go for a walk in nature. Do something for your body.
Learning a new dance from YouTube is good for your body and mind at the same time!
Clean out your fridge, your garage, your office, your basement, your car. (I realize these could also fall under to do list items, so it’s a gray area.)
It is interesting because when I am doing the rote activities (like driving, showering, vacuuming, cooking, etc.), that is when my best ideas usually come to me.
So if you’re trying to work on something and you’re getting frustrated, the best thing to do might actually be to take a break and do something active. Do your chore or to-do item for the day. Get up and get moving. It might just help you get unstuck. You’ll make more progress than you will if you force yourself to keep sitting in front of the computer (in my case) staring at the screen.
Do Less to Do More 🙂
Now you’re ready! Grab the Quarantine Sanity Sheet and be on your merry way. Let me know how the it works for you.
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