A daily routine can transform a mundane, stuck-at-home for three months situation into an exciting, productive, and good old time. If you’re like most people, home can sometimes be a place of calm and other times a storm. Going to work every day and getting some space from loved ones is essential for mental health. But right now, you might find yourself growing frustrated from a lack of sunshine, freedom, and space. So, in this article, I’m going to share some examples of habits you can inject into your daily routine to keep yourself calm, keep your family happy, and improve your situation at home.
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21 Daily Routine Examples To Prevent Going Stir Crazy At Home
Morning Daily Routine
1. Stretch
Working from home can cause you to sit in front of a screen for more hours than you would at an office. At an office, you might walk to a meeting or take the stairs to your workspace. And let’s face it after you’ve snoozed your alarm a few times in the morning, your body is likely stiff from your deep sleep. Now, more than ever, you need a good stretch included in your daily routine. The best time to stretch is immediately after getting out of bed when your muscles are still warm. And the great benefit of adding this in your morning routine is that stretching improves your posture. And that’s essential when working in front of a laptop all day long.
2. Meditate
Meditation can be a healthy way to prepare your mind for the day ahead of you. Being in self-isolation is a stressful time for many people. You may find yourself more irritated or frustrated than usual. A meditation practice allows you to notice when these feelings arise. Otherwise, you may find yourself taking your frustrations out on those closest to you. The practice simply prepares you for situations of high stress.
3. Exercise
Exercising in the morning of your daily routine has numerous benefits. You’ll find you have more energy, a better mood, lower blood pressure, and less stress in your busy day. However, let’s be clear about something: performance peaks in the evening for you. So, if you find yourself unable to endure the workout or lift a heavier weight, don’t stress too much. That’s normal. Do a light exercise in the morning to get your body moving. Just don’t add pressure to yourself to perform at your day’s best.
4. Make Breakfast
Having breakfast helps kickstart your metabolism for the day. People who eat breakfast each morning have better memory, lower bad cholesterol, decreased risk of diabetes and heart disease, and more. They’re also less likely to be overweight as people who eat breakfast eat fewer calories for the rest of their day. So, if you’re looking to live a healthier lifestyle, you’ll want to make sure to add this to your daily routine.
5. Write In Your Journal
The COVID-19 era is one of the most unusual periods we’ve ever lived through. Not only is journaling a healthy way to relieve stress, set goals, and writing down your thoughts, it’s also going to be an insightful thing to look back on. Maybe one day, you’ll turn your journal into a memoir about your life. You can also use it to share with your future children or grandchildren what it’s like living through a pandemic.
Work From Home Daily Routine
1. Set Daily Goals
Some people choose to do this the night before, but you may prefer doing this in the morning. A lot can change overnight. So, if you’ve just read your emails or chat messages in the morning, you might now have a better idea of what you need to accomplish for the day. Aim to pick two to three things you want to set out to do today. If you add too many things, you’ll feel overwhelmed and accomplish less. Keep your work goals for your daily routine simple by limiting how many you have.
2. Work
If you’re working from home, obviously you need to work so that’ll be part of your daily routine too. If you’re a freelancer, you might have flexible hours. However, if you work a full-time job, you’ll likely be expected to work eight hours a day. The biggest challenge of working from home, especially if you’re quarantined at home, is that you get restless. Thus, limiting your daily routine to the confines of your home. But just as you’d take bathroom breaks or talk to a coworker in the office, the next few points for a work from home daily routine are simple break ideas that you can do in less than ten minutes.
3. Do Household Chores
Cleaning dishes, dusting shelves, getting the mail, and sweeping floors take less than ten minutes to do. Schedule activities like this throughout the day to give you breaks. Plus, it helps prevent you from sitting and staring at a screen all day. People are meant to be active. And if you’re working from home, you’ll likely be less physically active than if you were at your office or manual labor job. Plus, it helps keep your home nice and tidy while everyone is safely at home in self-isolation.
4. Walk Up and Down Your Stairs
In an office, you might find that you climb stairs regularly to attend meetings, head to the cafeteria, or speak with someone on a different floor. During your workday, you should set some time during one of your scheduled 10 minute breaks to climb stairs. It helps build muscle, increases your heart rate, and reduces cholesterol levels. Plus, doing this for ten minutes is challenging and will likely leave you out of breath because it’s an intensive exercise. It’ll make up for all the walking around you do during the workday, even if you have a sedentary job.
5. Make Lunch
Making a nutritious lunch doesn’t need to be a lot of work. You can batch your meal prep on Sundays and Wednesdays so that all you need to do is heat your food and eat it. Avoid skipping your lunch break while working from home, as it’s always a good idea to get some time away from your work screen during the day. If you’d rather cook your lunch every day, this can be a suitable break in your day as well – adding variety to your daily routine.
Unemployed Daily Routine
1. Apply for Work
Whether you’ve been temporarily laid off due to COVID-19 or have been laid off permanently, you’ll want to include applying for work as part of your daily routine. While this may not be the best time to find a job because millions of people all over the world have been laid off, there is a way to continue making money. You might choose to look for freelance work in the short-term. The benefit of doing freelance work is that you can work for any company around the world rather than your exact location. Remote jobs such as writing, designing, or programming are still in high demand. But if you prefer a job outside of the home, food and grocery delivery programs are busy at their all-time highs. You can help people who can’t leave their home by doing a no-contact delivery. Right now, these jobs are in high demand which will make it easier for you to start doing it.
2. Work on a Business
If you’re currently unemployed, you might decide to start a business as part of your daily routine. There’s a lot of marketing groundwork you can lay out when you’ve got a blank day ahead of you. You can start building out organic traffic by writing 2,000-word blog posts for various keywords in your niche. You can create social media graphics and videos in bulk so that when you go back to work, you still have a ton of premade content that you can upload. Some products may be in high demand right now, such as freezers, fitness equipment, and kitchen products, which can become your area of focus in the short-term.
3. Invest in Learning
Many companies are currently offering ebooks and online courses for entrepreneurs for free. You can read through our free ebooks about marketing, dropshipping, and everything business. You can also find book summaries of some of the most popular books on our blog. Plus, hundreds of blog posts about marketing, business, and more are on there too. You might also use this time to read books you’ve purchased but never got around to reading. Developing new skills during your unemployment is a great daily routine example to help you level up in your career when you do go back to work.
4. Start Posting on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the social network for job seekers and recruiters. If you’re looking for employment, it might be a good idea to start cleaning up your profile and getting active on the platform. You can reach out to recruiters in your area about any job openings in your field. Creating posts about your industry and sharing your expertise can help you gain the attention of people in your niche. You can become a LinkedIn influencer writing blog posts on the platform, being active in groups, and taking advantage of all of LinkedIn’s features. That way, when the employment situation begins to improve, you’ll have already built up your presence online to become a more enticing applicant.
5. Remote Networking
One of the most important daily routine examples you’ll want to add to your list is taking the time to do remote networking. You can schedule video chat calls with recruiters, industry leaders, friends in your field, and so on to help you stay connected. While we probably won’t be going to any in-person networking events soon, you can connect with people online to continue to reap the benefits of expanding your network.
Evening Daily Routine
1. Exercise
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, exercise performance peaks in the evening. That means you’ll be more flexible, stronger, and can endure a longer workout more efficiently. You might find you enjoy evening workouts more. Adding a second longer workout in the evening is an excellent way to end the workday. So, be sure to add this to your evening routine. Many people commute to and from work each day, and this evening exercise can be a healthy way to stay fit. You can find online workouts for dance, strength training, martial arts, and more. And all in the comfort of your own home.
2. Have Dinner As a Family
These days, most people eat dinner on the couch, watching Netflix. However, using dinner to schedule time with the family can be an enjoyable way to end the day. Families that eat dinner together have higher self-esteem, decreased depression, lower obesity rates, lower rates of substance abuse, and more. And while we know how difficult it may be to be around your family 24-7 while we’re all self-isolating, it’s healthy to schedule some time to be together. You can talk about how your day was. Or tell family members about a funny video you saw. Maybe share something you learned or experimented with today. By scheduling this daily routine example into your day, you can strengthen the bond with your family.
3. Check-In On Friends and Family
While you might be unable to visit friends and family, you can still check in on them. One thing I like to do is call those closest to me and ask them how their day was, what they did, what annoyed them and just listen. I also post check-in questions on Facebook to see how people are doing. You might also use Facebook to notice when people’s birthdays are. Some people may be sad or upset that they can’t have a birthday party this year, so go out of your way to wish people a special day. Also, if you have any friends who have recently gotten divorced, lost a loved one, or given birth, they may need more support than usual. So pick up the phone more often to just let them speak and listen non-judgmentally.
4. Reflect On Accomplishments
One of the daily routine examples you can add to your list is an evening reflection.
- How did your day go today?
- Is there anything you regret saying or doing?
- How was your mood?
- What did you accomplish today?
- Did you do anything you’re proud of?
You may decide to write this all out in a journal or think about it to yourself. Avoid ruminating on your thoughts if any aspect is negative, as that can increase depression quickly. And avoid negative self-talk. If you made a mistake, don’t tell yourself, “I’m so stupid.” You’re human. And sometimes people make mistakes and then they learn from them. And that’s how people grow. So if you make a mistake or did something wrong, think to yourself, “I learned something new today.”
5. Play Video Games
After an eight hour workday, it’s essential to squeeze in some leisure time. The best leisure activity is one that relaxes you and doesn’t turn your brain to mush. Video games are a great way to improve your memory, concentration, problem-solving skills, and other brain functions. Rather than vegging out in front of the television, you keep your brain sharp by completing milestones within the game. It’s a great way to enjoy some downtime too. Some games are designed to reduce anxiety, while others are designed to make you think. Either way, you’ll find playing video games an enjoyable way to unwind after work. So you’ll want to include this in your evening routine.
6. Spend Time with Household Family
Even though you’re at home with them all day, you should still schedule some time in your daily routine where you spend time with your household family. During the workday, you may find your attention is on work instead of your partner or children. In the evening, consider doing activities with them. Maybe your family can go for a long walk with the dog to get some fresh air. Or you can do activities indoors such as playing board games, having long conversations, or watching a movie together.
Daily Routine Final Thoughts
The daily routine examples on this list can help you create a schedule that allows you to stay connected, grow, and remain healthy during this pandemic. You can add variety to your day by incorporating these daily routine habits to help the day fly by faster. While it can be tempting to marathon Netflix shows during this time of pause, it may not be beneficial for your mental or physical health. Aim to incorporate activities that boost your brainpower and help you move around the house to stay in tip-top shape. While this pandemic can be frustrating today, it’s important to remember that it’s temporary. So aim to add enough variety, learning, and exercise to your day to make the most of each moment.