This current time is a difficult one – we’re stuck at home, battling the feelings of uncertainty, lack of motivation, and anxiety. It may be hard to manage your time and be inspired by everything going on in the world, but remember that you’re not alone, and everyone is facing these problems. Here is the ultimate guide to help you stay productive and healthy during this quarantine, day planner printable included.

Here are some simple ideas on how to add healthy acts into your day.

Stretch in the morning

Right when you wake up, put on your favorite music and just take a moment to wake your body by stretching. Be gentle with yourself, and slowly ease into the day. Some of my go-to morning stretches are the toe touch, the downward dog, and opening up the hip flexors. In particular, I love this stretching tutorial with Blogilates.

A glass of water first thing

Before breakfast, and especially before coffee, make sure you have a glass of water to wake up your systems. You’re most likely dehydrated from the lack of liquids all night long, so this will get your system up and going. 

Bonus tip: Throughout the day, keep a water bottle by your workspace so you’re constantly reminded to hydrate!

Short At-Home Workouts

Perhaps the local gym you usually go to has closed down, but that doesn’t mean an end to your workouts! There are amazing ways to workout at home, from apps to yoga classes to tutorials for targeted areas. Here are some of my favorite resources, they’re all free:

  • Seven App – this app gives you 12 moves in seven minutes for a full-body workout. There’s a figure on the screen working out so you can follow along, and you can even choose the voice of your trainer (cheerleader, military sergeant, classic). It’s a fun and efficient way to get your daily dose of exercise in!
  • Blogilates – she has this great 5 minute series, where she targets one spot on the body (arms, abs, back) in a workout. She also has longer workouts, stretching videos, and is a certified pilates coach. 
  • Cambria Joy – she has such an amazing, positive attitude, just watching her gets me motivated! Cambria has workout videos, lifestyle videos (such as goal setting and forming habits), and more!

How To Stay Productive:

Here are some ways you can manage your time well through this quarantine.

Start developing productive habits

In a time like this, an upside is that every day can be more consistent and predictable than usual. Since it only takes three weeks for a habit to stick, this is a perfect time to develop them! Some healthy habits include:

  • Starting the day’s work at a certain time, for example, 10:00 am every morning.
  • Read for 20 minutes before bed every night to learn something new

Create a distinct work/rest balance

This method will allow you to avoid burnouts. During the week, put in hard work every single day, and during the weekend, take time to yourself. Try to decrease screen time on the weekends, and really recharge on self-care and feeding your mind. By doing this, it’ll help you find the motivation to face next week head on! 

Take short breaks to meditate

Mental health is just as important as physical health during this difficult time. Between your tasks or when you feel overwhelmed, just take a step back and breathe. I love this 3-minute short meditation from YouTube. For more tips on what to do when you feel overwhelmed, check out my post here.

Move through tasks by categories

Did you know that your brain slows down when you switch from one task to another one that’s completely unrelated? Doing tasks by categories is an efficient way to power through the day. 

For example, do everything work-related first, then move into personal projects, such as a side hustle or a fitness plan. Make sure to take breaks in between, but don’t stray from the task category!

End each night right 

To maintain motivation, you have to first seek inspiration. Before you fall asleep each night, seek out or plan something that you’ll be excited to wake up to the next morning. This could be something small, like a call with a friend, or something huge, like planning out your next project launch!

Time blocking 

Think of this as a to-do list, but with a loose time frame. Scheduling your tasks into hours of the day will add more structure and order into your day. A big tip is to schedule loosely. Don’t schedule tasks back to back, and remember, if you miss one thing, it’s not the end of the world. Just carry on with the next.

Here’s a day planner with hours for you to start time blocking: 

To learn more about scheduling, check out this post

I hope these tips provide some comfort and clarity in these difficult times. Remember, it’s okay to not be as productive as you usually are, prioritize your physical and mental health first. Best of luck!


This is a guest post by Karen Chen from Rosethorns and Honeydew. Karen is an aspiring author from British Columbia, and her aim is to help her readers achieve success in their academics, self-love, and creating a productive lifestyle. She just released a 3-day free productivity course on her blog, you can check it out here

You can find Karen here:

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10 Comments

  1. Thanks for these helpful tips. I think setting a schedule really helps. I’ve found that I’m more productive when I do so. 🙂

  2. I’ve finally started drinking more water. I add lemon to it and that really helps. I’ve also been getting about 25 min of exercise a day and I think that helps too. Hopefully I can stick with it!

  3. Thank you for this guest post opportunity, Sandra! Such fun to write and I hope it’ll help out some of the readers x

  4. Great article and tips. I know I have to make more of a schedule for my daily to-do’s otherwise it’s super hard to get anything done.

  5. I like the idea of using a physical planner as I’ve been doing most of my planning mentally. Very helpful tips.

  6. These are great tips. I always down water first thing to make sure I get a good amount of water in before coffee.

  7. These are great tips on how to incorporate health into your new daily routine. I am going to check out some of the workout from home that you wrote about. I need it!

  8. Thank you, I’m really glad you think so! Let me know if you need more recommendations for online workout sources, I would be happy to provide more x

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