How do you stay productive and focused during a lockdown and pandemic?

Usually, before the coronavirus outbreak, we were so busy that we dreamed of spending more time at home with our family, our loved ones or just, if we live alone – to relax.

The world situation took us by surprise and suddenly we not only can stay home, we just have to.

The current world situation is quite new for us, and for most of us it is also very distressing and frustrating, for many reasons. Among the causes of frustration are uncertainty about the near future, limitations in contacts, health concerns, fear of losing one’s job, fatigue, lack of freedom of movement (because even after the lifting of restrictions, we are still afraid of getting infected). Stress lowers our productivity; we are more tired, without mobilization to act.

COVID-19 vs mental health

Fortunately, there are strategies to reduce our anxiety that can benefit our bodies. Using some of these will likely keep coronavirus and home closure anxiety at optimal levels and thus remain focused on our tasks

1. Limit social media to reduce anxiety – if you feel anxious about current situation try to limit viewing news about COVID-19 to no more than twice a day (e.g., checking the news in the morning and before dinner). Don’t forward, that’s is, don’t spread disturbing headlines to friends and family. On internet choose scientifically proved articles. Especially during these difficult times you can find a lot misleading/false information.
2. Bring routine into your life – try to implement a schedule into your current life to regain some sense of control. These include: consistent bedtimes (don’t sleep too long), consistent meal times, healthy eating, exercise during the day, designated time for rest, hobbies, trying new activities. Don’t forget about taking regular breaks. It is a must to keep productivity on high level. Take your mind off your work by doing something different for a bit, like chatting with family or reading a book, to give yourself a rest.
3. Maintain a social life – it is very important and even essential to take time to share your feelings and to listen and support others. Spending time together, even online, greatly improves our mood. You can organize a online movie night or a party through skype.
4. Don’t forget about the pleasures – try to turn your bathroom into a spa. A bath with essential oil or scented candles will make you feel more at home in your space.
5. Do something new – find new hobby. Each of us usually complains that we don’t have time. It’s a good time to cook something good, something that takes time, or a new skill to try.
6. Frequently ventilate the rooms you are in or go for a short walk – fresh air is good for our mood, it makes us think better, we are more efficient mentally. We should ventilate our rooms for half an hour every day, and if the temperature is high it is recommended to have open windows all day.

We hope you find our advice useful. We wish you a lot of motivation to take action!

Stay healthy