“Lockdown” joined our everyday vocabulary in 2020 and for many of us Covid-19 restrictions continue to be part of our lives. With new lockdowns in place and others extending, it’s well and truly time to start building lives that work *around* those restrictions, rather than waiting for life to return to the old version of normal.
If you’re stuck at home and wondering how to use your planner to build a lockdown routine then this is the post for you.
Here are 5 ways your planner can help you survive lockdown and stay healthy and happy!
1. Build a Lockdown Routine
Having a solid routine both in and out of lockdown isn’t just a good idea - it’s a proven boost to your mental health and wellness and something that is especially important when your normal habits are quashed by Covid restrictions.
Most humans not only enjoy, but *thrive* on structure and routine. Routines help us to prioritise activities that are good for us, and give us that all-important feeling of achievement when we tick things off our lists.
Our brains enjoy the “punctuation marks” of regular activities - from our daily commute on the train to our exposure to different environments, sights, and sounds - these places and experiences are all signposts that help to segment our days and to give us that feeling of forward momentum.
A lack of routine can lead to listlessness, boredom, depression, and bad habits like drinking too much, eating too much, and failing to properly stimulate our brains!
Keeping a daily planner is the best way to start (and keep) a good lockdown routine. If you’re looking for a good one, try this digital planner or this paper one!
2. Keep the Whole Family Busy
Having to stay home with your loved ones for weeks on end can be both a blessing and a curse! The extra time we spend with our significant others and our children is wonderful and a silver lining to this whole, terrible pandemic. But being stuck under the same roof much more often, especially during the wintertime, can be a recipe for family drama and a whole lot of cabin fever!
Using your planner to run a tight ship and keep activities rolling right throughout your lockdown is a good way of making sure everyone stays sane - and more than that, stays stimulated.
Use your daily planner to organize a daily family activity that breaks you all out of the bedroom-kitchen-tv room circuit. It will go a long way toward making life feel normal again, and the activity will do wonders for the mental and physical health of your whole family.
3. Schedule in (Socially-distanced) Social Time
We’ve all seen a lot less of our friends and family this year and being apart over the holidays has been a particularly tough blow to take. In 2021, make a point of being organized and scheduling in calls and Skype sessions to your nearest and dearest. Chatting ‘now and then’ is fine, but it’s too easy to forget to make it happen and see weeks slip by before you next have a good belly laugh with those you love.
Use your planner to schedule frequent catch ups - from cocktails over Zoom on a Friday night to a regular Sunday afternoon phone call to parents or grandparents, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel in lockdown when you make the effort to keep your most important relationships front and center and help them to survive lockdown.
4. Stay Healthy During Lockdown
I don’t know about you, but 2020 has *not* been kind to my waistline. And that’s cool. A bit of lockdown chonk is totally understandable in the madness of this year and comfort food beats Covid any day of the week.
But staying healthy is more than just going up or down a size in your athleisure. It’s about getting your body to a state where it’s working well, supporting you and your desired lifestyle, and looking set to keep you going for many years into the future. It’s also about protecting your mental health in a year that has been really, really *hard*. And it’s about feeling the best you possibly can, when you’re up against persistent restrictions and adversity.
The BOSS Fitness Planner is a great way to achieve that whole-of-self health that so many of us have craved during our various lockdowns. From physical fitness to diet and nutrition, it will do you wonders to get organized, plan a path to health, and stick to it.
5. Keeping a Lockdown Gratitude Journal
Gratitude journals were all the rage in 2020 and for good reason. In a year when everything seems to be going wrong, taking the time to reflect on what you *do* have has never been so important.
A gratitude journal isn’t a planner per se, but it is something you should plan for when organizing your daily lockdown routine!
Planning time for some gratitude journaling is the perfect way to train your brain to see the silver linings in life and to flip the switch on negative thinking patterns, catastrophizing, and a low mood.
If you feel like this could help you but you want to wrap a framework around it, check out our 30 day gratitude challenge that you can use in your personal planner!
How a Lockdown Planner Helps Your Mental Health
Disorganization, uncertainty, lack of routine and goals can all eat away at your mental wellbeing, and lockdown is a period when all of these factors can come into play. Planning and organization is scientifically proven to help people eat better, move more, reduce depression and anxiety, sleep better, and boost productivity. If you’re faced with the prospect of more Covid restrictions or another lockdown, consider turning to your planner for help. Simply by putting some time into developing a lockdown routine and scheduling social plans into your “new normal” you can help make lockdown less stressful, less frustrating, and less lonely than it could otherwise be.