Things To Do During the Coronavirus Quarantine

Welcome back to life during coronavirus where everything is made up and the points don’t matter! What day is it? What time is it? What is happening?!?!

 

Texas is straight up delivering margaritas…so it kinda feels like there aren’t any rules these days…well except to sit your ass at home.

 

We’re all about to shelter in place for the next three weeks, so get ready to hunker down people.

 

We are all mentally, physically, and emotionally drained right now. The past week+ has been a whirlwind.

 

Borders closing, schools shutting down, panic buying, no toilet paper…

 

Personally, my stress and anxiety has been manifesting in clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth at night (to the point where it wakes me up and I’m afraid I am going to chip a tooth or worse…) along with some lovely heartburn. (I’m keeping an eye on it don’t worry.)

 

I think we’re all in agreement now (finally) that WE NEED TO STAY THE F HOME. I’m still working on my lovely poem about that if you’re interested, so stay tuned.

 

In the meantime, we have to find some ways to de-stress and take care of our mental health too.

 

Stress hurts your immune system, and we all need to be in tip top shape at the moment!

 

I have been brainstorming (per usual), about all of the things we can do with this time. Of course, this is assuming that you have time and you are not one of the people fighting this pandemic on the front lines.

 

If you are on the front lines, I have the deepest respect for you. I salute you.

 

Everyone else needs to STAY THE F HOME to make lessen the strain on our doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, truck drivers, grocery store workers, etc.

 

Just like I said in my letter to the parents, we all have been given a great opportunity here IF we can see the silver lining.

 

This time to SLOW DOWN is a blessing in disguise…for you, for your loved ones, for society, for our planet…

 

If Shakespeare wrote King Lear when he was quarantined during the plague, IMAGINE WHAT WE CAN DO NOW. He didn’t have TV and Netflix to distract him, but, then again, he didn’t have TP either.

 

No pressure though! haha

 

Slowing down is going to be uncomfortable for most of us because we are so used to the constant hustle/grind.

 

We’re all going to have to stop and ask, who am I without all of those things?

 

 

You might not be ready to dive deep just yet, and that’s ok too. I think we all need to take some time to decompress.

 

We are living through an unprecedented time in history, so don’t beat yourself up for sleeping in too much or watching too much Netflix or not knocking enough off of your to do list.

 

 

This list is for everyone no matter where you’re at on your journey.

 

 

Social Distancing/Quarantine Activities/Silver Linings

 

You are now allowed to watch Netflix GUILT FREE my friends. I am in the group of people that feels like I need to be constantly busy to be productive. In the past, I would feel guilty for taking time out to chill and watch Netflix. You can take time, zone out, and binge all of the shows. Maybe don’t go too fast though because you might run out of things to watch. Also, you might want to ration your snacks out too…

You can watch Netflix with your friends if you go to NetflixParty.com (if you have Google Chrome). It’s broken right now, but there should be a fix out by 3/24/20. You can watch the same movie/show, pause it at the same time, etc.

 

Love Is Blind – So bad that it’s good

Virgin River – Don’t let the name turn you off. I almost binged this one in an entire night.

Dead To Me – One of my absolute favorites!

Shitt’s Creek – On my list

Grace & Frankie – Funny for all ages

The Crown – So good!

Stranger Things – Have you been living under a rock?

YOU – Have you been living under a rock?

The Office – Were you born yesterday? (Ok, I haven’t made it all the way through yet, but c’mon people!)

 

Take a bath. I’m not just talking about any old bath. I mean A BATH like you’ve never made time for before with all of the bubbles and the wine and a candle and a good book and the Dr. Teal’s bath salts to draw out the toxins.

 

Start a Virtual Book Club! If you can’t get your hands on a hard copy of a book, then sign up for Audible or Scribd. Scribd is offering free 30 day memberships. You don’t even have to put any credit card info in to create an account. I am starting a book club on Facebook right now. Here’s the link if you want to join us!

 

For some Personal Development books I love, click HERE.

 

Start a Blog/Website/Online Business – Read my quick start guide here. There really has never been a better time. Ok, I take that back. The best time to start was 10 years ago. The second best time to start is now. The times we are living in right now will go down in the history books in a big way. Be a part of it. Put your thoughts out there. Connect with people online. Create a community. Every single person in this world is unique. We all have a contribution to make. Don’t be afraid to put yours out there! Nobody can say it or do it like you, and there is somebody out there who needs to hear it from you 🙂 Please know though, that a blog is not a *get rich quick* strategy. If you’re gonna start one, then you really need to be passionate about it.

 

Learn a new skill with ebooks & online courses! I am not talking about taking courses through a university. There is this whole other world online of content creators and regular people just sharing their own expertise and skills through courses they have created. Take some time to explore that. Heck, maybe you’ll even end up starting your own online course or ebook!

Some popular sites with courses are Udemy & Skillshare. HOWEVER, I prefer to take courses through individuals rather than on those platforms, BUT those platforms are a good place to start.

 

It wouldn’t hurt to learn some new skills that might apply to remote work/working online…

 

Some of the courses I have taken:

Bucketlist Bombshells: Tech Skills, Design Skills, & Work Online & Travel The World (Taking these courses led me down the path of going to Portugal, living in Lisbon for a month, exploring the world of digital nomads, making countless friends around the world…so you never know where you’ll end up.)

Become a Pinterest VA: A VA is a Virtual Assistant. We might need a lot more of those soon depending on how this all plays out. I worked online doing freelance Pinterest Management for a few months before I decided to focus solely on my blog. The course has gone up in price since I took it, but it’s worth a look!

Pitch It Perfect: A course on pitching and working with different brands. Jules Solomon is the creator.

Any of Helene Sula’s Courses: Finding Helene and following her on Instagram and through her blog was one of the best decisions of my life to date. I am not exaggerating. I joined her group trip to Italy in May where I connected with a group of amazing women who also blog and run online businesses and who are just truly wonderful people and friends. My blog was also featured in Blogosphere Magazine thanks to Helene! <3

Food Photography: I did not take the Foodtography course, but I did take a smaller course on iPhone photography. If you’re interested in this, there has never been a better time!

 

These are all courses geared toward what I do online, but it’s just to give you an example of what is out there. With these specific courses I purchased, I have lifetime access to them and all of the updates as well. Make sure you read the fine print before you make any purchases though.

 

You can find courses on ANYTHING!

 

I might have a slight addiction to taking courses online, and I’m embarrassed to admit the true number of courses I have taken…lol.

 

You can definitely go down an “online courses rabbit hole.” My advice is to just get started, and then seek out the info you need along the way.

 

Ebooks:

Ana of The She Approach: She has a multitude of excellent blogging resources. She is also a good friend. I met her last year while traveling in Italy on a group trip with Helene Sula. I also traveled to London with Ana because both of our blogs were featured in Blogosphere Magazine. Check her out HERE. Ebooks are her specialty, and she even has a course on how to create one and market it!

Personal Finance: A friend recommended this to me, and I went through it in about a day. Totally worth a couple of bucks!

SEO: If you’re looking to learn more about SEO for your website, this is another great resource.

 

 

Cook: Learn how to cook. Try new recipes. Get creative with the ingredients you have on hand. Get the kids involved (if you have kids). It’s a good math lesson without them even knowing it! 😉

 

Focus on your physical health: You know how you said you were going to workout more this year? Eat better? Get outside more? Well, now is your chance. You don’t want to binge on all of your snacks up front anyway. Do some workout videos at home. Everybody and their brother are providing videos for free right now (Beach Body?). Start doing yoga. Take the dog for a walk. Get on the treadmill. Do the abs and buns work out on YouTube.

 

Learn to sew, knit, crochet, needlepoint…anything!

 

Play Games with Your Family: I don’t care if you have to bust out Pretty Pretty Princess, Candy Land, Dream Phone…hopefully you still have all of your old board games. The more ridiculous the better. We could all use a few laughs right now. This is the perfect time to teach your kids how to play euchre!

 

Push all the furniture aside and have a dance party: Learn how to line dance. It is seriously so much fun. This is one of my favorites right now…

 

Get out the old puzzles

 

Learn how to play chess

 

Journal: The best way to know the thoughts going on in your brain is to get them down on paper. Your brain does this thing where it just loops the same thoughts over and over again. Spend 5 minutes a day doing a brain dump and see what’s going on in there. You might start to notice a lot of repetitive thoughts and patterns. ALSO, we are living through an unprecedented time in history. We are living through the thing that our kids and future generations will read about in history books. Write down your thoughts. Write down what is going on in the world around you.

 

Draw: There are tons of YouTube videos out there! Which leads me to…

 

YouTube: If there was ever a time to go down the rabbit hole that is YouTube, this is it! Make-up tutorials, drawing, photography, video and photo editing…I don’t have to tell you. Whatever you’re looking for, it’s there.

 

Have virtual meetups with your friends: I cannot stress this enough! Use Zoom, Skype, House Party, Google Hangouts. Have a virtual happy hour. You will feel so good (and connected) after seeing your friends’ faces and hearing their voices.

 

Clean, organize, purge: Get a pile of stuff ready to donate when the time comes.

 

Write letters and make cards for the elderly in nursing homes who can’t have any visitors

 

Call every single one of your friends: Actually call them or FaceTime.

 

Clean out your car

 

Clean out your fridge

 

Clean up your friends list on social media

 

Clean up your life!

 

Spring clean: Wash all the bed sheets and the blankets. Vacuum. Dust.

 

Start a garden (or make plans to start one)

 

Manicures and Pedicures!

 

Change your furnace filter

 

Wash your makeup brushes

 

Ok, those last two are on my own personal to-do list, but I figured someone else might need to do them too!

 

 

Things to NOT do.

1.Play Monopoly (unless you all want to hate each other).

2. Sit around not doing nothing. Don’t let your mind go crazy and wander with all of the possibilities, the worry, and the panic. Easier said than done, I know.

 

 

Hang in there! We’re all in this together. We’re all worried about our health and finances and about the future. We’re all in the same boat.

 

I would love it if you left some suggestions below! (Ideas, activities, Netflix shows, books you love, etc.)

 

For even more FREE ideas, check out my friend Laurel’s post HERE. She is a fellow blogger and friend from the same Italy trip with Helene. I know you’ll love her recommendations too!

 

{This post does contain a few affiliate links meaning that (if you purchase something through my link) I may make a small profit at no extra cost to you. Doing this helps to support my blog because blogging isn’t free. Thank you friends for your continued support!}

 

 

As always, it helps me out tremendously if you take a minute to pin it! 🙂