Coming Out Of Lockdown?

Saturday, May 9, 2020

I wasn't sure if I would have a blog post for this weekend as I was struggling to decide what to write about.  There are a couple of ideas that have been floating around my head this week, but they've not formed into a full blog post as of yet.  Here in the UK this weekend, our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is possibly going to announce the start of lifting some of the lockdown restrictions from Monday.  

This is meaning I'm feeling a bit anxious about coming out of the lockdown.  What will happen?  When will I be able to go back to work?  Who will pay me (the Government or the company I work for)?  How much will I get paid, (what I work or the furlough pay if I work fewer hours than pre-lockdown)? As well as when can I visit my mum and give her a hug?  When can I get my hair cut?  When can I have a face-to-face appointment with my therapist instead of a phone call?  When can I go back to church?

During the last few weeks, I have managed to be quite productive, catching up on all the things I don't give proper attention to while working full time and also especially when my mental health dips. I've started weeding the garden, deep cleaned the bathroom, cleared out, cleaned and reorganized my kitchen cupboards, cleared and tidied more of my bedroom; all my laundry is away!

I've cleared the tables of the stuff that gets accumulated on them, washed the living room rug, restarted posting to my blog here, been consistently posting over on my Instagram using Susannah Conway's April Love prompts, and continuing on with the May Moment's one she's created. Begun my CBT via phone calls, taken part in some of my Church's bible connect group zoom calls and a couple of zoom services, I've defrosted the icebox in my fridge and done a lot of journaling.

I think that the reason that I've managed to be so productive is that I'm not allowing myself to watch any YouTube videos until the evening of my week, (Monday to Thursday). So I'm having to find other things to do instead. Through journaling, I noticed I was missing routine and structure, so in preparation for coming out of lockdown, I gave myself a 'week' and a 'weekend' of Friday to Sunday. On my weekdays I shower as soon as I get up which is what I usually do on workdays. This routine has helped me to feel more motivated to complete tasks and helped me to feel better about myself as well.

My week looks roughly as follows; Monday and Tuesday morning I work on my Instagram posts and schedule them for that week, I also work on my blog - if I can think of something to write about.  Thursday and Friday I don't have anything specific to work on but in the afternoons of my week, I do jigsaws.  

I gave myself a three day weekend where things are less rigid so I had time to rest and chill.  

I know the top of this blog is dated Saturday but I had an idea for a post this morning and thought I would see how much of it I wrote and to see if I could complete it in time for posting on Sunday.  Usually, I write the post on Monday and then re-read it Tuesday as well as adding in the photos and then scheduling it for the upcoming Sunday.  

My productivity will obviously go down when we start to come out of lockdown and I am able to go back to work, but hopefully, I will keep up with my posts on here and my Instagram as well.  One organization thing that I've started doing and found that is really helping me during lockdown is in an evening I am writing the next days tasks down in my daily planner so I wake up with a plan of what to do instead of thinking what I feel like doing in the morning when I wake up and getting little to nothing completed.  

I'm hoping that some of my new habits will continue into the next few weeks and months as we start to re-enter society.

How have you been? What are you feeling about coming out of the lockdown?