Avoid these mistakes | Life Series

This past week has been a roller-coaster ride for many, forcing us to live differently than usual. We have been shaken up of our regular routine. Our mind and body, used to a set of routines or habits, now seem a bit muddled.

Read time: about 1 min 17 sec.

All of a sudden, where commodities appear to be depleting, we now have surplus hours on our hands. All the time spent commuting to work, the line-up for coffee or lunch, the drop-off and pick-up for kid’s activities, and many such routines have now disappeared.

This sudden vacuum can easily distract our mind from slipping into creating non-essential habits that will be harder to recover from when everything comes back to normalcy.

If you are healthy and fortunate to work remotely, then not having to beat the traffic or catch that train could mean late-night streaming and extra hours of sleep. All-day snacking could be tempting being a few steps away from the kitchen (or working from the kitchen). No workout with gyms being closed could mean more binge-watching and snacking. For smokers or steamers, with no constraints to step away from the public could make those habits more accessible. And more.

Avoid these mistakes. Those are some of the easy traps to get into if we don’t watch out.

How can I make the most of this?

Now is the best time to reflect and create new routines (and break some old ineffective ones).

Here are some suggestions.

First, make a broad list of all your pre-Covid 19 routines and identify those that you are not currently doing – commuting, for instance. Then,

Mark the time you spent on those activities – 2 hours for commuting as an example.

Once you have made a list of those activities and the hours you have saved each day, make a list of things that you wanted to work on but hardly ever had any time for.

Some ideas to get you thinking:

• Reading
• Writing
• Creating
• Spending quality time with the family
• Decluttering and organizing
• Exercising
• Resurrecting dormant hobbies
• Mindfulness
• Planning, and many more.

You probably never had so much time on hand before, so, instead of splurging on non-essential routines, make use of it to form new better ones. And to those who have had a disciplined structure, stick to your old habits. You will find many creative ways to keep them up, even in these situations.

The reality is everyone is forming new behaviour in these changing times. It’s best if we build better ones.

In the meantime, please be nice to each other. Be patient with each other. We’ll get through this together.

Thank you for sharing some of your precious time with me each week. Leave a comment if you liked it.

Until next week.

Razak
CommonInterest