How to stay motivated and disciplined while being quarantined!

We have been hearing many phrases over the past few weeks like, “unprecedented times”, “self-quarantine” and “social distancing”.  I know there are many more out there, but those are some of the ones I hear the most.  During this time, I think most people are staying at home, limiting their time going outside and spending quality time with their family.  So how do you stay motivated to keep pushing through these next few weeks?  Below are some of my thoughts on how to stay motivated and disciplined. 

But first, before we get into ways of staying motivated, I also want to be sure you take some time to rejuvenate yourself and your family.  We are constantly running and going from one place to another. If you need to recharge, take a few days to do just that!  Recharge!!!  But after that, even though it seems the world is coming to a stand still, you will need to keep living, working and keeping the house going.

So here are some of my thoughts on how to stay motivated during these times.

1. Morning Routine!  Keep a routine!  If you have moved to working remotely, you should continue to go through your morning routine. Having breakfast, showering, getting dressed and ready for work even though you might not be leaving your house.  Instead of sleeping in, stay on a schedule before you go to sit down at your desk to begin your work day.  If you are anything like me and you decide to get online prior to doing a morning routine, you will get caught up in working and before you know it it’s already 11am and I’m still in my PJ’s because I never kept my routine.  Plus, if you have a last minute Skype call with the boss, you will feel more confident and not as self conscious during your meeting. 
2. Exercise!  Now I know that most gyms around the country are closed, but this doesn’t mean you can’t still exercise.  If you typically exercise in the morning like I do, get up and do some sort of exercise.  Similarly, if you exercise at lunch, go take a break at lunch and workout!  If you typically exercise at night, be sure to do that right when you are done working for the day.  Whether it’s going out for a walk, yoga or using your home gym, it doesn’t matter, just stay in a routine of moving.  Movement is key right now.  
3. Take this extra time to sit down and take a deep dive into your budget.  We are coming up on the end of the first quarter of the year and there is no better time to review your spending so far this year.  Did you have any financial savings goals for this year?  How are those looking?  Did you want to cut back spending in a certain category?  Take a look at where you are with that and make the changes that are necessary while you have the time now.
4. Get a jump start on your spring cleaning.  Go through your closets, take inventory of what you have and what you need to replace once things start to get back to normal.  How is your spring and summer wardrobe looking?  Do you need to replace some tee-shirts, dresses or pants?  Go through your closet where you keep all of your extra household supplies.  Do you need to restock on toothpaste, shampoo or soaps?  Start to make a list! This will also help you get back to and stick to your budget and not buy things you don’t need at this time.  Let’s be honest, I think most people will have plenty of toilet paper for a while.
5. Even though they are calling it “social distancing”, I’m not sure if I like that term, I prefer saying “physical distancing”.  We can still be social.  Being social right now is highly encouraged, but we just have to get creative.  The technology we have today is amazing!  If you have a movie night or a standing date for a gathering with some friends, keep those on the calendar.  Just change how you will be communicating!  You can FaceTime with people.    Yes, have dinner or happy hour via FaceTime!  I believe they will allow you to FaceTime with up to 20 or 30 people!  So make your own happy hour at home and FaceTime your friends in that way.  Or if you have a standing date for movie night, I saw where Netflix has this thing called “Netflix Party”.  Netflix Party has a group chat feature and it will synchronize your playbacks and be sure you are all watching the same thing at the same time.  This is so cool, because now I can watch movies and don’t have to leave my home!!  This is AMAZING!  Check it out here.  
6. Along the same lines as number 5 above, if you and your spouse typically have a date night away from the house and kids, I say keep it.  But be creative and involve everyone!  Have the dining room set up like a restaurant. Have the kids make and serve you dinner for mommy and daddy date night!  Let them even make dinner, of course depending on their cooking abilities, it might be a bowl of cereal or it could be chicken nuggets or pizza in the oven.  Then after dinner, if you typically go listen to live music and dancing, have the kids be the DJ and let them play the music.  Just be creative and spend more time together being a family and having fun.
7. Start a new habit!  This is the perfect time to begin a new habit.  You don’t have as many distractions as you typically do when life is back to normal.  So why not take the time now and start a habit.  Maybe it could be that you start an exercise routine or yoga.  Side note: so many yoga teachers and personal trainers have put out so many free videos during this time.  Please support those who are not able to work and participate virtually with their workouts.  Maybe it is getting back into a nightly routine of having dinner together as a family and talking about the day.  Just because you are most likely spending more time with everyone during, doesn’t mean you can’t ask how their day went!  Figure out what the best part of the day was and why was it the best part?  Figure out why someone is so grumpy.  Communication is key!
8. Read a new book!  I know so many people who are excited about taking this time to catch up on some reading!  If you have kids, carve out sometime each day and have reading time and everyone in the house spends 30 minutes reading a book of choice.  You can get just about anything delivered from Amazon or get the books on your kindle or your iBooks.  Below are a few good ones out there right now:

• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewel; this one is part of the Barnes and Noble Book Club and some friends an I just got finished reading this book.
• Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner; this one is next on my list of books to read this year.
• Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok; this one is on the “Read with Jenna” list and Jenna always has great picks for books!  
• Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman; this one is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick.  It took me a while to get into this one, but it was so worth it!

I know we are all going through some difficult times right now, but let’s figure out how to make the best of it.  It might mean we have to get creative in some areas, but it doesn’t mean we have to stop living. We just have to change the way we live our life.  Just because the kids aren’t going to school or doing school work for hours doesn’t mean this time isn’t useful learning time for them.  Learning is more than just keeping your head in the books, it’s life lessons and knowledge.  Teach them how to be adaptable and how to handle challenging situations and problem solve.

I would love to hear how you are making it through these times.  Tag me in your instagram post and follow me on instagram so you can see what I’m up to as well!