What Quarantine Has Taught Me

As we press play on the rest of 2020, I want to take the time to discuss what quarantine has taught me.

I have been in quarantine and “isolating” for months. I went out for exercise purposes and went to the grocery (at least every 4 weeks). So I was rarely mixing with people and I spent every single day in bed.

However,

Being in quarantine has been a blessing and a curse. It has showed me my flaws and what I need to work on.

Let me break it down.

I need to take more breaks
Even though I’d rather not work, I am a workaholic. When I am in the mood to work, i.e. working on my dissertation, I will work for hours at a time without a break. I know it’s not good. I put too much pressure on myself to get things done.

Every day I have a list of things that I need to do. I try to time block as well and I tend to accomplish what I set out to do for the day. I need to be a bit more flexible with my type-A personality.

Talking to my tutor from university, he said he uses the 40/20 minute rule. He said he works for 40 minutes straight with little to no distractions and then he has a 20-minute break and he refrains from looking at his laptop for that 20 minute period. What I need to do is to switch it up and not punish myself.

I push things under the rug- I need to deal with things head-on
My defence mechanism is sweeping things under the rug. IF I have a problem, instead of dealing with it head-on, I would just put it to the side in order to deal with it later or not at all.

Due to university being closed, lost my job, volunteering and placement postponed, I had nothing but time on my hands. It was time to lift up the rug and do a proper clean up.

I finally plucked up the courage to get the help that I’ve been putting off for years. Fast forward, now I’m doing weekly guided telephone cbt starting on Monday! I had 6 weeks of online CBT and now I’m receiving telephone appointments.

My experience of Online CBT

I am so grateful! And it’s safe to say that it has been useful so far. I have definitely learnt new techniques to cope with my mood.

I need to be more flexible
Routine and planning are things I stand by. Having to change my future plans took a while for me to do because I am not one for change. I’d rather stick to what I know. Sounds a bit eh I know.

In the UK, Lockdown first started in March, although the university was closed, we were informed that we will still be having our face to face examination in May (…ok).

In the meantime, I made up a 5-week revision timetable which took a couple of hours but I complete. I bet you can guess what happened next. The exam was cancelled and we were left in limbo as to when or IF we would have our exam at all.

So during that time, I had no structure. I was not working at the time and neither was my car so I was literally stuck and I didn’t have much structure to my day except for working out.

What have I learned
It is ok to stray from the structure and not be so caught up about ticking off items on my to-do list. I love being productive but I need to take more breaks so I don’t stress too much which leads me on to my next point.

I need to reflect more often
When I was a busy bee with 2 jobs, volunteering, placement and university closed, I had little time for myself and therefore little self-care. I was on the go all the time. Like I mentioned prior, things did not get dealt with until I had the time to do so which was not often.

Now I am able to start yoga again and take more time on myself self-care routine without rushing it. Next, I will master how to execute them when I go back to work.

What has quarantine taught you?

Do let me know in the comments below.

Take care and stay safe.

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