We have to stay at home. Indoors. All the time. And that’s hard. But it’s for keeping ourselves and others safe. So, it’s time to stop rebelling and acting like a 12-year-old, and to just make the best of a tough situation. So, what can you do from home?
Get Social
Most people are currently working from home and when work ends they like to socialise. This is where things get complicated. But the means to socialise might be very much the same as the means to continue working: Online calls. Skype is your friend. Make sure you stay in touch with people. Isolation is a killer when it comes to supporting your mental health.
If just having a chat isn’t your thing, but you do want to be social, go online with friends! On Sunday evening I skyped several friends of mine and we played an online multi-player game (jackbox.tv if you were wondering). You talk via Skype, you play via your phone. We played for two hours until I left, and I’m sure they continued.
There’s also plenty of people who are avid online gamers and are glued to their headsets as we speak. Now is your time to shine! If you’ve never been a gamer, maybe it’s time to pick up a new hobby? You can do this with your friends too. If they weren’t gamers either you can all be bad at gaming together.
Get Creative
Creative hobbies are one of those things that you never seem to have time for. Doesn’t matter if it’s writing, making music, painting, baking etc. It requires time that you never seem to have. Well, you’ve got time now!
Pick one of the above, get the right tools for it (great if you already have (some of) them) and get cracking! Painting is supposed to be very relaxing, so is claying. Maybe even do some home-deco and DIY. Your home is your oyster.
Baking is a great hobby too. A different dish every day, a different cake for every week. The Instagram envy will be legendary.
And on top of doing things you already know, how about picking up some new skills? Sure, you can’t go out to learn them, but there’s plenty of YouTube tutorials out there explaining how to do pretty much anything. If you want to learn how to bake or cook something, YouTube. If you want to learn how to sow, stitch or knit, YouTube. If you want to learn how to play a certain game, YouTube. You can even learn to code and program via YouTube (I swear this is not an ad). Go online, do your research, seek out the right information and let’s get going!
Don’t neglect the Physical
Some people go really stir crazy when locked inside their house. One of the things you’ll be running into is that you won’t get the same amount of physical exercise in that you normally do by just moving from A to B and moving about. And this is likely to affect your sleeping pattern as well. So, make sure to keep on top of this!
To deal with this you can pick yourself a nice challenge. Like a 30-day ab challenge, or a 30-day arm challenge or something similar. Make sure you get something in every day. Other things you could do is subscribe to a YouTube fitness channel. I really like Fitness Blender. Pick a video of theirs to do every day, and you are golden.
Good for both the body and the mind. Again, YouTube has plenty of yoga tutorials and sessions that you can join in on. If you want to make it more social, you can switch on skype again and do it with friends.
Work
You’ll have to anyway, so there’s no reason for me to ignore this one. The struggle with working from home isn’t that we don’t know when to do it, it’s the fact that we’re not used to doing it at home, our place of peace and relaxation. This is clearly causing some issues for people.
My solution? Well, this article here: [insert article on working from home from PhD blog, not yet live]. Here I explain how to best work from home, keeping distractions and limited office space in mind. Give it a read and let me know what you think!
I have to admit that these tips are hardly super original, nor lifesaving, but I hope that they help you manage these times just a bit better!
If you have any tips on what to do when staying at home, tweet us at @ResearchEx, email us at libraryblogs@warwick.ac.uk, or leave a comment below.
by Merle
Merle van den Akker is a PhD student with the Behavioural Science Group at WBS, looking into the effect of contactless payments on how me manage our finances. She tweets at @MoneyMindMerle.
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