7 Tips for Staying in During Social Distancing
With lockdowns and social distancing in place or coming to most major cities, staying indoors for weeks won't be easy for any of us.
To help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), many of us are now being asked to abide by the social distancing guidelines recommended by the WHO. By all accounts, this will last from a number of weeks to potentially months. During this time, we will likely be spending most of our day in our homes, and whether you live in a studio, a small one bedroom, or a large apartment alone, with a spouse, or with roommates, it’s important for all of us to continue to break up our day through time and space shifts. Consider what a day in your life normally looks like. For example:
6:00am – wake up, shower, get dressed, make coffee, prepare lunch, eat breakfast
7:30am – leave for work. 10-minute walk to train, 30-minute commute, 10-minute walk to office
8:30am – start workday. Do you work without breaks? Do you get up from your desk, talk to people, or go out for lunch?
5:00pm – leave the office
5:30pm – gym workout or exercise class
7:00pm – commute home
During these weeks of self isolation and social distancing, it’s important to try to recreate that routine to the best of your ability.
First, take some time and write out what a typical weekday looks like for you. Use this schedule grid if that helps. From there, try to recreate these different spaces in creative ways.
1. Maintain your sleep schedule
Make sure you are going to sleep and waking around the same time that you do normally. If you don’t usually take naps, don’t start now. Make your bed and try to stay out of it. I know some of you may be in small apartments and have limited space, but if it’s not possible to stay out of your bed, do whatever you can to make it less like a bed. Take your pillows off, make it look like a workspace or a couch, don’t go under the covers.
2. “Leave” for Work
This can involve going outside for a short walk before coming back to start your day. Even briefly leaving your house or apartment to walk down the stairs (or to the end of the driveway) and back can make a huge difference and provide a helpful mental "reset". Try this same routine at the end of the day. Leave “work,” and “come home.”
3. Change Your Space
Rearrange the furniture in your apartment throughout the day to create different visual spaces for different activities. I know this might sound annoying and time consuming, but as visual people, we break up our days by the space we occupy. Additionally, the ability to change our space helps us exercise some control over our environments during a time when so much is outside of our control. Making your space as different as possible from your home during the day to create the experience of leaving and going to the gym, having coffee with friends, sitting in therapy, and so on, allows you to switch back to "home base" at the end of your day. For many of us “coming home” is associated with a relaxing experience, and the biggest struggle most of us face during extended periods in our homes is losing the return to home.
The effort and time spent moving furniture is actually less effort than it usually takes to get from one place to another. Every time you switch your space, completely put away the previous activity. Put away all of your work when you’re done, even if its just for your “lunch break.” If you usually keep things out, putting things away when you're done, and setting them back up will help to create visual and spatial changes.
4. Set Some Workplace Rules
If you wouldn’t do it at work, don’t do it while you work from home. If you don’t eat candy, watch TV, or have wine during your workday, reserve that for after work. Yes, I know all of these are tempting when you’re teleworking. Instead of having the TV on for background noise, put on a podcast you’ve listened to already, or make a work playlist and put on music that is different from your workout or relaxation playlists.
5. Be Intentional
Instead of just calling people and hoping they’re available, text your friends and set up actual times to talk or have virtual meetups and activities. If you’ve been seeing someone, consider going on e-dates like using Facetime or Facebook Messenger to watch Netflix together.
Idea – use a streaming syncing app like Netflix Party to watch Netflix with your friends online. Netflix Party synchronizes playback and adds a group chat function alongside the video screen.
6. Move
If you don’t usually exercise, that’s okay! However, look in your phone’s fitness tracking data. Pick a day in January or February that’s usually your least active day, for a lot of people it’s Sunday. How many steps did you take that day? Now look at the least active day you had this week. There’s probably a big difference. We need to keep moving, even if we can’t be outside in quite the same way. There are really good walking workouts you can do in your home. Daily Burn has a 60-day trial right now; you can give yoga a try, or even a beginner-level workout.
If you do have an exercise schedule, try to maintain it. Do you work out 5 days a week at 6 pm? Try to maintain that schedule. Do you have friends you go to the gym with? Try to link up and do some virtual workouts together, or, check in with each other for accountability.
7. Eat Well
We are moving less and stocking up on snacks. Have your snacks, but also keep moderation in mind. Too many heavy snacks or sugar can impact our moods, motivation and digestion. We are trying to protect our immune systems and one of the best ways we can do that is mindful, healthful eating with snacks in moderation.
by Nicole Borger, M.A., LMHC
Nicole is a licensed mental health counselor specializing in the treatment of anxiety and depression, and in professional development. A former adjunct professor of group dynamics and human service management at CUNY New York with BA and master’s degrees in psychology and counseling, she provides individual and group psychotherapy to a diverse population using cognitive behavioral case formulation and related techniques.