It’s been a while since we have been living the ‘new normal’. While the world is trying to recover from the pandemic, we are trying to do our bit by practicing social distancing by staying at home. Ever since the lockdown has been imposed upon us, the usual routines have been hit hard and thus having to be confined indoors, it is tricky trying to catch up with work related to office or home. In a nutshell, we have resorted to #WorkFromHome and #WorkForHome to keep our lives going in this extreme situation. Here I share with you my version of how I lead my life in the ‘new normal’ trying my best to recreate and align with the ‘old normal’:

If being confined at home isn’t a challenge enough for me, I decided to impose another #Lockdown on myself! The social media #Lockdown. The rules I put forth for myself were to cut out from all unessential social media where would I normally spend nearly 4-5 hours swiping left/right/up/down indefinitely on a daily basis on perfectly normal days which would hamper my productivity to a great extent without much of a realization. The obvious exceptions were a couple of essential platforms to stay connected with the professional world and those search engines which aid to my much needed official work. I requested my colleagues and loved ones away from me to keep up with me via skype and personal calls along the way. This challenge alone helped me solve most of my problems and served as perks to boost office productivity, spend more time with my family, find a new skill/competency and find ways to improve my physical and mental health. I put this up to help me realize what is it that I really need to keep me going in life and what are the new founded habits I can carry forward after the situation attains normalcy.

LIFE AT HOME OFFICE: I try to keep it simple. I set some ground rules with the place and a clear setup where I want to perch and do my work before starting off, I make sure my home office hours are aligned with my usual office hours.  I make a planner of what I want to do for the entire week and hence breakdown smaller tasks for each day before I fire up for the day! I stay in touch with my colleagues and mentors to make sure I update them with work and stay up to date with what’s happening around to keep it fair. To keep my skill competency up to date, I also equip myself with courses on TrainM and external training websites for 1-2 hours daily and set appreciable deadlines. I make sure I live up to the number of hours and try to finish of the work and complete that checklist made at the start of the day just before I log off!

food!
https://www.instagram.com/delicioustreats4u/

I make sure that I eat well before, during and after the work hours to keep me going. I watch a bit of TV to keep up with what’s going on in the world because I do not want to stay overly isolated as I already am. I do a bit of small walks and exercises around the house to flex myself to prevent myself to drown in any stillness!

LIFE ON WEEKENDS: While I make sure I give my everything for the #WorkFromHome on the weekdays, I do my best to make sure to get out of that zone for the 2 happy days of the week and resort to the #WorkForHome (and #WorkForFam)! I make sure to contribute to the cleaning, cooking and other house work as much as possible. I download some e-books and indulge myself with some great reading which comes on top of my hobby list. Cheat days would mostly fall on weekends with a bit of Netflix and chill and of course I make sure I sleep a lot on these days, a bit more than usual! 😉

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LIVING THE EVERYDAY LIFE: With the limited grocery essentials we collected (since we didn’t get into panic buying or hoarding), we stocked mostly dry ingredients and food which have longer shelf life, we prepped some items like papad and fryums (refer to the instagram link below for the full family recipe and detailed steps) that stay for months and are easy to store and most importantly we ate in moderation. My mom being a pro cook, got some great ideas to make the tastiest food with the most basic and limited ingredients; being in the best hands, my hungers pangs are sorted. Since daily garbage collection has been curbed in the society for the period, we try to limit the waste produced and utilize the wet waste in compost pits and for the indoor plants and trees in the garden.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mho7Inb8-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

To conclude, there is so much I want to take away from all the new tasks I have enforced in this period that was always otherwise overshadowed by hours of being addicted to pointless social media on the phone. There is so much I understood about being ‘me’. A great blessing in disguise, on saying this I hope we get our usual days sooner, to all my amazing readers #StaySafe and #StayAtHome!